Lily
His hoarse words stirred an immediate heat in her cheeks, prompting her heart into a crazed rhythm.
He stood so close that she could feel his warm breath fanning her forehead. She had considered herself a seemingly tall woman, but he towered above her as a looming frame of impeccable solidness.
She was determined to stand her ground with this fang-baring brute. She couldn't avoid the fact that she was thoroughly rattled and somewhat shocked that 'creatures of the night' were in fact undoubtedly real.
She most certainly couldn't overlook his undeniably striking features.
Even as the thought scampered through her mind, an immediate notion followed. She wasn't about to become a vampire's bride.
His dark eyes glinted in a knowing, amusing way and she detected a hint of a grin.
Her eyes narrowed accusingly, "Are you reading my thoughts?"
His perfectly sculpted mouth pulled into a wickedly charming smirk. "I find your thoughts amusing."
"Stay out of my head." She snapped.
He stepped closer until the thickness of him brushed daringly against her. She felt a breath rush up from her throat in a swift and audible gasp. A deep tingly worked its way up her calves settling in her knees until threatening to buckle beneath his intense dark-sienna stare.
When closer, his eyes betrayed a slight tinge of green, the hue wrapping itself around the iris.
His nose was strong and prominent.
His lips, which occasionally pulled at the corners, were an irresistible distraction.
His hair was as black as the night, falling in a boyishly manner across his forehead. Strangely enough, she had a yearning to push them aside, to run her fingers over the masculine angles that made up his beautifully, dark face.
She couldn't imagine what had triggered such responses in her.
She shrank against the wall as he rested an arm above her head. The proximity of him robbed her of breath and his nearness surprisingly was warm despite him being a supposed creature of cold skin.
"You should stop comparing me to those fictitious characters that you read about." As he said this, his dark-chocolaty stare moved leisurely over the tantalizing display beneath her meager, torn blouse.
So enwrapped with all that had occurred within the last hour, Lily had not given thought to her appearance or the wide expanse of bra and breast openly revealed to a wickedly attractive vampire with an insatiable thirst.
With a disgruntled gasp, she grabbed the edges of her blouse and pulled it tightly closed.
Her spine stiffened when he reached out and smoothed his knuckles down the length of her throat, notably taken aback by the warmth he ignited.
"Am I cold to the touch?" his voice settled to a deep, sensual timbre causing her stomach to flutter madly.
He then reached up and teased her lower lip with his thumb, searing a fire deep in the recesses of her belly. She was almost angry with her body's responses. Was he somehow working a dark charm over her?
"How is your touch warm?" she seemed to breathe the question hoarsely, immensely startled by the way her skin came alive beneath his gentle touch.
She almost laughed at the thought of a vampire capable of being gentle. She had never heard of it and peered questionably at the vampire standing over her. Could he possibly have a shred of gentleness? She had personally witnessed his coldness and wondered thoughtfully if there was a kindness on the other side of it?
"It is your blood that warms my skin." His dark head tilted, as he inclined his head, his eyes traveled her throat, falling precariously to her breasts. "My body is alive with you; your scent, that sweet, delicate combination of lilies and sunlight, that warmth that colors your skin, and every breath that carries from your lungs. It warms my soul."
A distinguishable growl surfaced deep from within his throat and she pressed herself further into the wall. "It would be in your best interest to change." When she made no attempt to move, he quickly added, "Or I could oblige you and see to it myself." His mouth pulled into a teasing grin, "I will find it most enjoyable."
His dark eyes had a way of unraveling her senses as they moved slowly over her, stirring feelings she hadn't felt, even with 'what's his face', as Ruby referred him.
The heated glint that darkened his eyes suddenly flared a menacing feral. Lily froze as a swift and unexpected change overcame him. He went from a man to a dangerous and lethal predator, rushing the space that separated him and the door.
He tore it open, breaking it clear from its hinges to reveal a hunched, eavesdropping shadow. With what sounded like a beastly snarl, her vampire wrenched the man across the threshold to topple simultaneously over the couch.
Lily gasped as the man landed with a thumb and realizing immediately his identity rushed to his side.
"Stop!" she cried, placing herself firmly in his hazardous path as he stalked towards his intended prey.
"Move." He growled, his eyes taking on a fatal sharpness.
Jackson moaned sorely behind her.
"I won't let you hurt him." She nudged her chin upward but felt her bravado slipping as his face took on a sudden harshness.
Her vampire stepped around her as if she were nothing but a mishap toddler and grabbed Jackson by the throat.
Lily could feel her own body cringe at the severity of the grip wrapping around Jackson's throat. "Tell her why you're here." He hissed. "Tell her how you sniff at her door every night like the weasel you are."
Lily froze and peered at Jackson with a disconcerting frown. "What he is talking about?"
Jackson opened his mouth to respond but somehow the words that would have surfaced did not set well with her vampire. Jackson paled considerably beneath the pressure around his throat and meeting Lily's perplexed stare, "Your father hired me."
She stiffened, "What?"
He attempted to situate his body but the insufferable iron grip around his throat prevented even the slightest movement. "He wanted someone to keep tabs on you, to know where you were at all times."
She felt physically ill.
"He paid me to hire you on at the Grill."
Peering at her doorway to her apartment, she asked a bit hesitantly, "How many times have you been at my door?"
He fell silent, as if hesitating on the response, but somehow Lily already knew his answer. "Weekly."
A menacing sound rumbled from her vampire's throat; his lips curled away from his teeth, revealing the same set of sharpened fangs that had earlier ripped into her skin.
His broad set of shoulders stiffened and his dark head tilted in the air. Lily noticed a sudden keenness in his eyes, an awareness that made the hair at the nape of her neck stand on end.
He shoved Jackson aside, tossing him as if he were a sac of potatoes.
Lily had little time to comprehend what would soon unravel as she was swept over a broad, masculine shoulder and carried, kicking and pummeling, from her apartment.
In her feeble attempts at bruising his back, she caught a glint of steel rushing the length of road that divided her apartment from the opposing side.
Her vampire came to an abrupt halt there in the shifting darkness, and as the familiar statuesque frame of Ward, appeared from out of a luxury car, the unthinkable happened.
Strong, masculine arms wrapped around her body, crushing her against his hard, muscled frame and just like vapor, they vanished.
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