Page 63 of The Vampire’s Temptation

She laughed at his wry comment. The lanterns on Main Street were too far away to afford them any light. Only the moon cast a glow on the landscape beyond, and the faint sound of moving water to their right was the only indication they were near water.

“Two weekends ago, I took a ride on this very train with my friend Charlotte. She’s—”

“An English teacher in your school. Pretty. Long blonde hair.”

He goaded her intentionally, so she refused to take the bait. “How you know that, I have no idea. But yes, she’s an English teacher.”

She would not give him the satisfaction of even a glance.

“I was sad that we’d no longer be working together. We chatted about the job, my transition . . . life stuff. And I remember her asking me if I was proud to have earned my PhD at such a young age.”

That conversation felt a lifetime ago now.

“What did you say?”

“That I was but . . .”

How could she explain out loud what she didn’t understand herself?

“But that I’d never really been able to accept praise. I mean, what is an accomplishment really? Just the successful achievement of a task.”

She did look at Kenton then.

“I know this makes no sense, really. But for some reason, I thought of that conversation you and I had earlier. When I learned”—she looked at his mouth, unable to help herself—“this is all bigger than a degree that sits on my bedroom floor as we speak, waiting for a frame. It’s bigger than the few facts I learned in school or my ability to hear a conversation clear across the room. There’s a world out there I know nothing about. And it just makes everything else feel so much smaller. I’d always felt something was . . . missing. I just never realized what that was before. And still there are so many unanswered questions.”

To his credit, Kenton didn’t laugh at her ramblings.

“You know more than most,” he said.

She licked her lips. “And still it’s not enough. I want to know even more.”

Most of all, she wanted to know how she fit into it all. And how to let go of her preconceived notions about life and death and history to make way for the idea that she had special powers in a world where vampires—immortals—existed.

“In that case, let me show you.”

* * *

He hadn’t plannedon touching her after his revelation, but he could no sooner refrain from doing so than he could survive without blood. He grabbed her by both shoulders and crushed her to him, his mouth slanting over hers. Their tongues tangled in a frenzy of pent-up desire, and he drank in her goodness, her passion.

Moving only as he, or his kind, could do, Kenton pushed her back up against the door of the caboose, covering her body with his. He wanted Alessandra to feel the length of him, to understand the power and need that coursed through him but to know he would never use it against her.

She is Cheld. You are the one in danger. If you show her your power, you risk awakening hers.

Ignoring the thought, Kenton slipped his hands under each side of her dress, skating them up past her hips and toward her waist. When she thrust herself into him, he grabbed her lace thong and tore it off. Taking his cue, Alessandra made quick work of his shirt, ripping it open. Buttons scattered on the deck, clinking in protest for having been so abused.

When she pulled away from his kiss, he laughed.

“You’ve no idea the strength you have now,” he said in response to her stunned expression.

Then she looked down, and oh, how his cock strained to be inside her.

They saw it at the same time, a flashlight in the distance. A guard. Kenton had long since given up caring what humans thought of him. They certainly couldn’t hurt him or punish him if he chose not to allow it. But this was Alessandra’s hometown, and from the way her eyes darted back toward the light, he could tell she felt differently. She began to say something, but Kenton put a finger on her lips to discourage it.

Blood pounded through her body, and he could almost taste the sweetness of it on his tongue. She pulled back just slightly—as if from an instinctive reaction to his thoughts—and he realized it likely was. Her Cheld nature had picked up on the thoughts that might have put her in danger.

They didn’t.

The light became smaller and smaller. He’d wanted to seduce her. Lift her dress so slowly over her hips and breasts that the material teased her soft flesh on its way off. But the interruption had left him impatient. Instead, Kenton pulled off her dress in one swift movement, groaning as he looked down. Only a black lace bra remained, but not for long. He then removed his own clothing, tossing it to the ground in a heap.