At least, for me, it was.
I didn’t want to taste Thea’s blood. I wanted to taste every inch of her, starting with her smartass mouth and her full lips. I wanted to drag my fangs along her tongue until she couldn’t scrounge up any more combative responses to my demands. I would reward her then and sate myself. I’d start with her breasts. Then, I would move lower and show her what I’d learned after centuries of pleasuring females–vampires and mortals alike.
I shifted in my seat, hoping she couldn’t see my erection in the car’s dim interior. Glancing over, I caught her staring at me with downturned lips. Thankfully, she was looking at my face.
“What?” I asked when she didn’t bother to turn away.
“You said you had a better idea,” she said, fiddling with her seat belt.
“Don’t do that,” I snapped.
She froze, her eyes darting up in confusion. “Do what?”
“It’s there to keep you safe.”
“My seat belt?” she asked. She smoothed it down on her shoulder dutifully, but as I returned my attention to the road, I caught her rolling her eyes.
It was a wonder that humans lived long enough to learn how to walk. Even after a couple of decades on this planet, the fragility of her body seemed a surprise to her. And every moment I spent with Thea suggested she had the survival instincts of a gnat.
“So?” she pressed. “What’s your idea?”
“I’m still working on it.” This time I actually had an idea, but even I knew it was crazy. Was I simply responding to her nearness? That had to be it. It would be rash to make a decision without getting to know her first.
Thea huffed, her breath fogging the window. She stared at the city lights for a few minutes in silence before she swiveled in her seat. “Are you going to compel me to forget?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Why?” she demanded.
“I’m not entirely certain.” I flipped on my signal as the map on the screen told me to turn.
“Why did your mother ask you to do that?” she asked.
I glanced at her, getting the sense that she was trying to help me decide what to do with her. She was a strange, tiny creature. “Vampires are very selective about who they share private matters with. Usually, we know a human for years before we consider telling them the truth.”
“Private matters?” she giggled. “Are you seriously suggesting that vampires have a don’t ask, don’t tell policy?”
“No, I’m suggesting that a human usually finds out about us when we make them our snack,” I growled.
“Oh.”
A low rumble caught my attention, and it took me a moment to realize the sound was coming from the delicate woman in the seat next to me. A second later, her intoxicating floral scent shifted, growing slightly sweeter. I studied her for a moment before I realized what it was. “Are you...hungry?”
“No,” she said too quickly.
“Your stomach is growling,” I pointed out, “and your blood sugar is low.”
“How on earth…?” She stared at me as if that was the strangest thing she’d heard this evening.
“I can smell it,” I explained.
“My hunger?” She shifted closer to me. It seemed like an odd reaction until I realized that she looked absolutely fascinated.
“That’s one way to put it.” My head throbbed a little as I tried to block out her changing scent. “You’re hungry, so your body released glucose. It made your blood smell sweeter.”
“You can smell my blood?”
Finally, something freaked her out.
“That’s amazing,” she said after a moment of thought.
Or not.
“The point,” I said through gritted teeth, “is that you need to eat.”
She shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her. “I could use a coffee.”
“You could use food.”
“Are you sure you don’t need to eat?” she asked pointedly, “because you’re a little hangry.”
“Hangry?”
“Hungry and angry,” she explained. “You really have a lot to catch up on.”
“Yes, I can’t wait to learn all the ways humanity has butchered the English language.” I pulled to a stop in front of a diner and parked. It was shabby, its paint discolored from pollution, but well-lit. Inside, a waitress darted between blue-vinyl booths, smiling warmly. It looked like the sort of place a human might like. “Is this okay?”
“They’ll have coffee.” She reached for her door.
