Page 55 of Vampire's Choice

“You’re not big enough to eat me yet,” she told him. “Give it a couple years.”

Ruth looked around. Yep. There. Jetana was tucked up into the shadows, not more than a hundred feet away. Unsettlingly hard to see. Her large body was draped over crisscrossed scaffolding, able to hold her weight without much creaking complaint or danger of buckling the tent. The Circus had gifted maintenance workers.

Ruth wouldn’t have thought it a comfortable bed, but the dragon was as motionless as the moon on a cloudless night, her half-closed eyes gleaming and nostrils flaring as she took in Ruth’s scent.

Ruth immediately stood to give her a courteous bow. “I’ll move if you prefer me not to be so close to your child,” she said.

When Jetana lifted a formidable back claw to scratch her ear and yawn, showing teeth capable of eating everyone in the tent, Ruth decided to take that as an all’s good.

As she drank her blood, she noted the meticulous way the workers were resetting things for tomorrow’s performance. They would double check it then as well, to protect the performers and the audience. Despite the familiarity of the routine, they weren’t careless about it. Everyone was fully charged, alert, fully involved.

The complexity, the beauty of all of it, gave her a sense of wonder. She was really part of this.

Now that the briefing was over and Clara was safely under Charlie’s care, Ruth realized she was feeling a little giddy and wild. She wanted to run and play, celebrate, no matter how inappropriate that might seem. They’d dealt with serious shit tonight, but she’d been a part of the team that had dealt with it. She’d protected someone important, and had earned their respect.

“Busy?”

She tilted her head toward her shoulder. Where she sat, there was a seam in the tent, giving her a two-inch wide view of the outside. A familiar presence hovered at eye level with her. She inhaled him the way the mother dragon had. And considered what he would taste like.

“It depends. Is there a better offer than what I’m watching in here?”

“Very few things are better than being a Circus insider after a show. But I can give you a different view. Come to the storage tent, second one on the left outside of this one.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

She left her bench, giving the mother dragon another respectful nod and the disgruntled younger dragon a wave. If he had a cell phone like most teenagers, she expected he’d be using Google Earth to find the nearest flock of Tennessee sheep.

The storage tent flap was closed, and when she lifted it, the interior was dark. Vampires could see in the dark, though. Supply crates were stacked in here, and a couple carts holding folding chairs. As she moved down the aisle they formed, she could sense Merc was here. Was this a familiar hangout for him, in the dark and quiet?

That bothered her, but then her pensiveness over that slipped away. He was behind her.

"Are you afraid of the dark?"

"Not of you, or the dark. But I can see."

“Close your eyes.”

He put his hand over them, fingers caressing her cheekbones. As she complied, lashes brushing his palm, he expanded his exploration of her face, her throat, her sternum. As he trailed fingertips down it, the lack of sight increased her sensitivity to his touch, that lovely tingling sensation that tightened her nipples and made her breasts ache to be cupped, kneaded. Held.

Then she stiffened as he returned his hand to her cheek and pushed her face toward his shoulder, exposing her neck. She fought him, but his other arm curled around her waist, and she couldn’t dislodge him. He was too powerful. It wasn’t even a contest.

This time, he wasn’t tolerating a fight. He demanded her submission. Called it forth from her with his inflexibility. Proving it, he spoke against her neck.

“Remember what I said. You don’t say no to me. Not now, not ever.”

“I won’t just give in to you.”

“That’s different. I like it when you fight me. I like the smell of your hair, your smile. The vulnerable look in your eyes, around your mouth. Your beautiful mouth…”

She paused at the shimmer of energy that came from him. Sexual, but also yearning. Want. Something she hadn’t felt from him before. His voice had roughened, suggesting it wasn’t something he normally projected.

Or it could be a ruse. She hadn’t known him long enough to trust his emotions.

She started to open her eyes, turn her head toward him, but he held her in place. “Keep them closed, Ruth. I won’t tell you again. A vampire can heal from having her eyes put out. Don’t make me be mean to earn your obedience.”

His words were cruel, and yet his touch was tender. The contrast was terrifying. Touch gliding, stroking, undoing things inside her. Letting her draw a deep breath, even as he stole it away.

She rolled her hips against him, playing. Like she was dancing. In answer, he pulled her back against his body and opened her black jeans. He slid his hand into them, under her panties, between her legs, taking over.