“Savanah?”
“I don’t know what I want.” Her gaze slid away from his. “This is all so new…. Sometimes I want to grab a stake and a bottle of holy water and conquer the world, and other times I just want to crawl into a hole and hide. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do! How could my parents keep such a secret from me?”
Rane swore softly. She was so young, so damn young. And remarkably innocent for this day and age. She worked at a newspaper, she had covered stories of rape and murder and incest, and yet she seemed strangely untouched by the ugliness in the world around her. Or she had been, until he came along.
Beside him, Savanah squared her shoulders, lifted her head, and met his gaze. “Yes, I want to try and work things out between us.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
He cocked his head to the side. “What changed your mind?”
“My mom and dad were nothing alike, and yet they were happy together. If they could get along, why can’t we?”
“Your father wasn’t a Vampire.”
“Well, everyone has a quirk of some kind….”
“A quirk?” He almost choked on the word. A quirk was a funny habit, an odd trait. There was nothing remotely funny about being a Vampire.
“We’ll just have to work around it,” Savanah said. “There’s just one thing. You have to stop reading my mind. It isn’t fair, since I can’t read yours. And you can’t take my blood without telling me.”
“That’s two things,” he mused, stifling the urge to laugh.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Don’t quibble. Do we have a deal or not?”
Rane grunted thoughtfully. She hadn’t said he couldn’t take her blood, just that he had to tell her. Before or after, he wondered. “We have a deal. Shall we seal it with a kiss?”
“Yes,” she said, a slow smile spreading over her face. “I think we should.”
Rane drew Savanah into his arms and kissed her. She was sweet, so sweet. There was no doubt that they were well-suited in at least one area of their lives; still, as much as he wanted her in his life, he couldn’t shake off his doubts. How long would Savanah be content to stay with him now that she knew what he was? He was certain that the only reason Rafe’s marriage had survived so long, as well as those of his parents and grandparents, was due to the fact that the women in his family had all chosen to cross the gulf between mortal and Vampire. Would Savanah eventually agree to accept the Dark Gift? If not, he doubted their relationship would last. And if she wanted children…He felt a sharp stab of regret that he could not give her a child. He wondered if Rafe’s wife ever regretted marrying a Vampire. Did she secretly long for children her husband could not give her?
He grunted softly as Savanah poked him in the ribs.
“You’re awfully quiet all of a sudden,” she said. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” His gaze moved over her. What would he do if she decided to leave him? Even before the thought was fully formed, he knew he would not want to go on existing without her. He had known many women in his lifetime. He had cared deeply for one or two but had loved none of them.
“So, do you want to go for a swim?” she asked.
His gaze moved over her, hot and slow. “Anxious to try on that new bathing suit, are you?”
“Maybe.” She had been thinking of him when she bought it.
Rising from the sofa, Rane took both of her hands in his and pulled her to her feet. “Show it to me some other time,” he said.
“You don’t want to swim?”
“I don’t want you to feel overdressed,” he said with a roguish grin, “since I’ll be swimming sans trunks.”
She felt a blush warm her cheeks as Rane tugged off his shirt.
Head canted to one side, he winked at her, his eyes glinting with merriment. “What are you waiting for?”
With laughter bubbling up inside her, she kicked off her sandals. The walls rang with their shared laughter as they raced to see who could undress and make it into the pool first.
Rane won.
“You cheated!” Savanah accused, diving into the pool a few moments later.
“What do you mean?”
“You used your Supernatural hocus-pocus. That’s not fair.”
“I just wanted to warm the pool up for you.”
She frowned as she realized that the water was, indeed, deliciously warm. “How did you do that?”
He shrugged. “I don’t really know.”
“Well, since you’re Superman,” she remarked, smiling, “it must be X-ray vision.”
Grinning, he swam toward her with long, even strokes that barely made a ripple on the surface of the water.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured. “More beautiful than any woman I’ve ever known.”
“I guess there have been quite a few.” She tried not to let her jealousy show, but she couldn’t hide it completely. He had been a Vampire for over ninety years. The number of women he had known, intimately and otherwise, was probably staggering.
He drew her into his arms and held her close. “But none quite like you.”
His words wrapped around her heart. Pressing herself against him, she lifted her face for his kiss. His skin sliding wetly over her own was remarkably erotic. She twined her arms around his neck, her eyelids fluttering down as his mouth closed over hers. The heat of his kiss, the stroke of his tongue, warmed her from the inside out. She smiled inwardly, thinking she wouldn’t have been surprised if the water around her began to boil.
His hands slid up and down her back, pressing her closer. “Have you ever made love in the water?” he asked, licking a stray drop from the tip of her nose.
She looked up at him, a hint of a smile on her lips. “No, have you?”
“Not yet.”
She felt a thrill of anticipation as he backed her up against the edge of the pool, foolishly pleased that they were doing something he had never done before. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she closed her eyes, and surrendered to his touch, every fiber of her being consumed with need as he kissed her again and yet again, his hands caressing her, arousing her past all thought or reason.
When his body joined hers, she thought that, water or no water, she might go up in flames. One thrust, two, and she shuddered in his arms as pleasure and release swept through her.
She was still trembling when he whispered, “A taste, love. Will you grant me one taste?”