Page 113 of The Vampire’s Temptation

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She was wet.

Soaking, actually. He called for Mary to get a towel as Alessandra stepped into the entranceway, one thankfully void of brochures. They’d transformed the inn into a home.

Their home.

“Good God, woman, what do you have against rain jackets?”

Mary returned forthwith, handing him two fluffy white towels. He leaned toward her, whispered a quick directive, and then gave his full attention to Alessandra. Kenton draped one of the towels over his fiancée’s shoulders and then spun her around. Taking out the tie that held her hair in a ponytail, he used the second towel to dry her hair.

“Mmm, that feels good.”

“How was your run, aside from the downpour?”

He’d wanted to go along, but despite the teasing he endured from Alessandra, Kenton did actually work at times. The wealth he’d accumulated throughout the years was more than sufficient for him, for them, for an eternity. But he still enjoyed growing it with investments. Influencing the human world, especially companies that may otherwise struggle, was something he truly believed in.

“I ran with Lawrence,” she said as he dropped the wet towel and took the other one from around her shoulders. Alessandra tried to turn toward him, but Kenton stopped her.

Lifting her loose tank top and tossing the wet garment to the floor, he pushed her hair to the side.

“And what did he say?”

Placing the softest of kisses on the space between her neck and shoulders, Kenton smiled against Alessandra’s skin as she shivered.

“Cold?”

Moving to her sports bra, thankfully the kind with clasps, he unsnapped them both and discarded it.

“Hot, actually,” she murmured as his hands found their mark. Pressing against her backside, Kenton circled her nipples with his thumbs. “But Mary—”

“Is gone for the day.”

Abruptly letting go, he spun Alessandra toward him.

“Not fair,” she said, looking down. “You’re fully clothed.”

Remedying that, he quickly discarded every item that offended her while Alessandra peeled her wet leggings from her body.

Would he ever get used to the sight of her completely nude? Hair still wet, she stood tall and proud. Rightly so.

This could not wait.

Lifting her easily, her legs wrapping around his waist, Kenton carried Alessandra to the very couch where he’d first kissed her.

“I’m sure we’ll turn something up,” he said, distracted, caring more about the here and now than the distant future and the matter of Alessandra being safely turned. One today is worth two tomorrows. He couldn’t recall who’d said it, but Kenton wholeheartedly agreed. And right now, the woman he loved lay distractingly naked beneath him. Lowering his head first to her breasts and then lower, assuring himself she was, indeed, ready for him, Kenton did not drag out their foreplay.

That was for tonight.

“It doesn’t matter either way,” she murmured as he positioned himself above her. So innocently spoken, and yet she was deadly serious.

Entering her in one swift movement, Kenton gripped the sides of the couch to keep from crushing her. No longer keen on conversation, Alessandra tossed her head back, closed her eyes, and then promptly whipped them back open.

She knew he loved to look at her, to peer into the depths of her soul as their bodies moved together. He told her with his eyes, every time, that he was here to stay. They hadn’t spoken of her greatest fear, the one wrought by her father’s disappearance from her life, but Kenton understood it nonetheless. Which made this discussion so very difficult.

Choose between spending an eternity with her, and the possibility that he could kill her if he tried turning her?

He refused to make that choice. He would only take the chance if he could be assured it would work. That was final.