“Really!?” I burst out in shock. Ethan’s old, but I just never pictured him with children. “Where are they now?”
“Three were dhamphirs. They all died as infants. The other was a vampire, but he was killed by slayers before he made his fiftieth birthday.”
“And the mothers?” I ask.
“Long gone. This all happened in my first hundred years. After that I grew weary of trying to create offspring. I have always preferred human women and the chances of the children I could have with them surviving were so little.”
His words make me sad. To lose a child is devastating, but to lose one when it’s only a bab
y is something no one should ever have to suffer. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, standing in front of him, my hands still sifting through his hair.
“Do you know, during the years that you were gone I used to wonder if we could create a dhamphir that would survive. Since you are power blooded, your genes would be stronger than most human females.”
“You’ve thought about having a child with me?” I ask with a small gasp.
I don’t know why he’s opening up to me right now, but I wish he wouldn’t. It makes me want to curl myself around him and kiss away the painful memories.
“I’ve thought about a lot of things pertaining to you, Tegan.” His hands moves up over my hip and around to rest low on my stomach. “I think you would look beautiful, swollen with my child inside of you.”
I stop fingering his hair, frozen in place. “You’re not allowed to say things like that to me,” I tell him softly.
“Why not? It’s the truth.” He leans in to whisper in my ear. “I still think about that night we spent together. Do you know how difficult it was not to drag you to my bed when you had that lust potion in you? I spent the night imagining all the ways I wanted to violate you, but also hating the fact that I had to keep you at a distance.”
Goose-pimples break out all over my skin.
“You didn’t have to. You could have just forgiven me.”
“I wasn’t ready to do that.”
“Are you ready now?”
“I think I just might be.”
Suddenly realising we’re a breath away from our mouths colliding, I pull back and try to cool off. He has this way of making me get all hot deep down in my belly.
“Well, that’s a good thing if our friendship is going to work out,” I say, my voice annoyingly breathy. I step away to get the scissors. He’s grinning again, but this time I ignore it.
I begin trimming the ends of his hair. Ethan tends to have this 30’s style, long on top, short at the sides do. I try my best to recreate the look with the scissors, but I can’t get it very close at the sides without an electric shaver. I’m used to cutting men’s hair, since I did it so often for my dad. I work through it quickly, the muscle memory coming back to me.
I get so lost in the cutting that it takes me a minute to feel something tugging at the shirt I’m wearing. When I look down I find that Ethan has pulled one of the buttons open to expose the upper part of my breast. He drags his knuckles across my skin and my breathing quickens.
“Stop that. I’m trying to concentrate.”
“You’re good with hair,” he says, dropping his hand but leaving the shirt button open.
“I told you I was.”
“You’re good at being under me, too.”
I drop the scissors and stare at him, open-mouthed. Instead of trying to tell him off, I pick up the towel I used to dry his hair and dust off the back of his neck and around his ears. Then I pull the towel that was around his shoulders away, keeping the bits of hair from going on his clothes.
“All done,” I say.
“Thank God,” he mutters, before grabbing my wrist and pulling me onto his lap. I’m suddenly aware that I have absolutely no underwear on beneath the shirt. Ethan drops his face to my neck and licks me right over the spot where I’ve got the bite marks from Eliza. I go limp in his arms.
“We can’t do this,” I protest, gasping when his hand slips inside the shirt and cups my breast.
“Yes we can,” he argues, pushing my thighs further apart. He’s so calm and collected and I’m a heaving, breathless mess.