“No,” I say, my voice all low and seductive. “You look good. Come on, let’s go somewhere private.” I lean in even closer and wrap my fingers around his bicep. “I’ve missed you.” I give him a long, meaningful look to communicate exactly in what way I’ve missed him.
All of a sudden he’s dragging me out of the kitchen and shoving me into the empty living room. The others are too distracted by whatever Rita is saying to notice us. Ethan pushes me away from him and studies me from top to toe.
I try to get close to him again, but he puts his hand out, warding me off. “Don’t touch me. There’s something not right here.”
He rubs his hand over his forehead, and even though he looks impeccable there’s something about his demeanour that tells me he’s tired. I didn’t think it was possible for vampires to get tired; they just seem so impenetrable.
For a moment my concern for him overrides the strange lust. He may not be treating me very nicely these days, but I still care for him. I’m not the kind of person who can sleep with someone, even if it was only once, and not feel a certain level of affection for them.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
His steely blue eyes pierce me. “Do you understand how difficult it is for me to be around you after what you did? Because of you I have lost my home, my status, my livelihood. These things that I have spent years building were all taken from me. I was outlawed by my people because I let some pretty little piece of skirt fool me.”
I frown. “I’m not a piece of skirt and I wasn’t trying to fool you. I was just trying to do the right thing.”
Even to me my explanation sounds hollow. There’s just no right or wrong in this situation. All this time I’ve been justifying my actions, telling myself that I did good by saving Rebecca, because let’s face it, it had been the moral thing to do. But on the other side of the coin, I hadn’t really been thinking about what Ethan had lost because of me. I always just saw him as this ancient, wealthy vampire who wouldn’t really care about losing a house or a stupid night club, or the respect of his people. How fucking clueless could I be?
“How long had you been living in that house?” I ask in a quiet voice.
Ethan’s eyes, which had been trained on the mantelpiece, come back to me. “Almost sixty years.”
Jesus. That’s practically a whole lifetime for a human.
“I’m sorry,” I let my eyes drop to the floor.
“You are young. You haven’t yet had the need to call a place home, really call it home. When you are my age, having a place that’s yours can be one of the few things that keep you sane.” His face that for a second went soft, now hardens. “I don’t have that anymore thanks to you. And now you come sauntering up to me, thinking that a little seduction will convince me to forgive you. That’s a low move, Tegan.”
“That’s not what I’d been doing. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but my body wants you. Is it maybe because I drank your blood yesterday?”
“No. The sexual attraction wouldn’t come into it at this point, you’d only be feeling a craving for more blood. But after only one feeding that wouldn’t happen. The addiction needs to build over time.”
He steps up close to me and lets his fingertips linger over my pulse, which is pounding in my neck. “God I can smell your need for me so strongly. What is this?” he ponders, eyes roaming my body.
I turn my head so that my lips graze his jaw. He lets out what sounds like a Romanian curse word.
“You are such a fucking temptation,” he tells me, his tone strained.
His low voice makes the lust that I had managed to tamper down over the last few minutes come surging back to life. “You can have me, all of me,” I tell him.
The second I’m finished saying the words, Ethan’s mouth comes crashing down on mine. He shoves the hem of my dress up and runs his hands along both of my inner thighs. I let out a long moan and grab one of his hands, urging it towards my centre where I need his touch the most.
He growls against my mouth, his tongue sliding along mine and his fangs scraping over my bottom lip. I’m in such danger of being nicked by one of them, but I’m too turned on to care. All of a sudden I’m sweating, like I’ve gone into a frenzy. I push Ethan down onto the couch, before jumping on top of him. His hand has found its way inside my underwear and his fingers plunge inside of me.
“Fuck,” he swears, and then lifts me up before throwing me down onto the couch so that I’m beneath him. He begins rambling in Romanian as he trails kisses down my throat and scrapes his fangs against my sensitive skin. I have to admit, it’s one of my favourite “Ethan moves”. It wedges me on the cusp of danger and sets my every pore tingling. He coaxes me to a fast release with his fingers. Unfortunately, I don’t quite get there.
I scramble for his t-shirt to try and pull it over his head, but he grabs my wrists to prevent me. He stops what he’s doing and pulls back, his breath coming out thick and ragged.
“I don’t want this,” he mutters and shakes his head. “This is not what I want.” It’s like he’s thinking out loud, trying to convince himself.
“I want you,” I tell him.
“No you don’t. Something is wrong with you. You’re not wild like this, you surrender sweetly.” He runs a finger down the centre of my chest. “Look at this,” he says, holding it up for me to see. “You’re sweating too much and you don’t smell right. You smell like you’ve been corrupted.”
I get a fright when I take stock of myself and realise that he’s right, I’m positively dripping with sweat. My heart thumps hot and heavy in my chest. It feels like it’s trying to burn its way out of my flesh. I pu
sh down my dress and straighten up, but my body still wants Ethan. It takes so much energy not to jump on him again. I begin to shake as I try to keep my resistance in place.
The door to the living room opens and Rita and Finn step in casually, mid-chat. “Right so we’ve decided we’re going to lock the jar up in the shed for now,” Rita announces, just before her eyes rest on me and Ethan. “Um, is everything okay in here?” she asks.