His hands bracketed her spine, pul ing her closer until she was pressed flush against him. He groaned softly when her br**sts flattened against his hard chest and she shivered, startled by the fiery sensations of pleasure that spread through her veins.

“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered, his breath caressing her lips.

“I’m not.” And she wasn’t. Not anymore. She was beginning to think any punishment she might face would be worth this. He was worth it. “Kiss me.”

His mouth sealed gently over hers, his lips so soft and warm. Desire surged through her and she leaned into him, her hands pushing into his silky hair to cup his scalp. The sound he made, something raw and lustful, pulsed through her in heated waves. She gasped and his tongue stroked deep into her mouth. The flesh between her legs tingled and grew hot. His hands were everywhere—in her hair, down her back, against the side of her breast. He pushed beneath her sweater, his palm pressed flat to her naked skin. A whimper escaped her as he scorched her with his touch.

“My god,” he breathed hoarsely, pressing her back into the cushions. “I want you, Siobhán. I’m burning up with wanting you.”

Her eyes were squeezed shut against the surfeit of emotions battering her. She couldn’t think, couldn’t remember why they couldn’t be together like this. It felt too good, too right. “Trevor—”

His weight settled over her, his long frame stretching out atop hers. He pushed his forearms beneath her shoulders and anchored her as his mouth slanted over hers. His passion was evident and wild, his kiss demanding and seductive at once. Every thrust of his tongue made her body tighten in anticipation. She kissed him back greedily, catching his tongue and sucking on it with an innate, instinctive rhythm.

With a practiced nudge of his knee, Trevor spread her legs and settled between them. He cupped her buttock in one hand and lifted her into a skil ed rol of his hips, pressing the hardness of his erection directly against the spot between her legs that throbbed for attention. She moaned as her body seized in startled delight, the seam of her jeans adding the perfect amount of pressure.

His lips traveled across her cheek to her ear. His chest lifted and fel rapidly against hers, his breath gusting hotly. “You feel so good. So soft and warm.”

He rocked against her again, murmuring praise as she shuddered with her growing need for him. “Shh,” he soothed. “Don’t fight it. I’m going to make you come like this. Then I’m going to strip your clothes off and make you come with my mouth.”

Her nails dug into his back as his passionate words inflamed her senses. Her body writhed beneath his, confused by the rush of hunger it had never experienced before. She was desperate for more.

She struggled to relax, afraid she’d hurt him if she lost control. “Trevor, please . . .”

“I love the way you say my name.” The tip of his tongue fol owed the outer curve of her ear and made her cry out as her br**sts swel ed and ached. “I’m going to end the night inside you, Siobhán, and start tomorrow the same way.”

His voice was guttural now, his touch growing stronger and more possessive by the moment. “You’re mine,” he growled, lifting his head. “Look at me and say it.”

Siobhán forced her heavy eyes open, her gaze focusing on his face as he rose above her and stroked his hips against her, making her feel every hard inch of him as he slid between the lips of her sex through their clothes.

She froze, her eyes widening with stunned horror. Trevor looked down at her with a hunger she knew all too well , his handsome face tightened by lust and need, his mouth red from her kisses.

“Trevor,” she gasped, her heart breaking as reality penetrated the haze of pleasure. She was instantly taken back to her first horrible days on earth, when she’d watched the bril iant blue of angelic irises turn into the molten copper of vampiric eyes.

His inky hair gleamed in the light of the table lamp, his smile widening into a predatory grin as he licked his fangs and eyed her with the glowing amber gaze of a vampire.

Chapter 11

“What are you going to do with him, Siobhán?” Malachai barked, pacing the length of the hal way outside of her room in the Ontario laboratory. “How the hel did this happen?”

She ran both hands through her hair, her nerves frayed by the last twenty hours of watching the Change sweep through Trevor’s body, stealing his mortality and replacing it with the needs of a vampire.

“I should’ve known,” she said grimly. “I felt the damage to his soul when I found him. He must’ve been Changing even then. They must have accidently taken too much blood from him. I knew they had to be injecting him with smal doses of vampiric blood to keep him alive and disease-free in those conditions, but they wouldn’t have Changed him on purpose. It was his mortal blood they wanted.”

“Why’s it taken so long to kick in?”

“My blood. I transfused him with my blood to heal his injuries. It kept the Change at bay.” She clenched her hair in her fists. “Damn it. After all he’s been through.”

“You didn’t answer my question about what you’re going to do with him.”

Her hands fel to her sides and she inhaled a deep breath. Lifting her chin, she met his gaze directly. “I’m going to nurse him through the Change. Then I’l put him to work around here. He has the experience and the skil , and he’l put the other vamps at ease. I can use him.”

He stopped pacing. “And what about you?”

“What about me? I have feelings, Malachai,” she confessed without shame. “Whether he’s here or not, I still have those feelings, and I’ve come to accept that whatever consequences I may face are worth it to be with him. And don’t worry about tel ing Damien or Adrian. I’l be tel ing them myself, face-to-face, as soon as I possibly can.”

He had the grace to look chagrined. “What can I do to help?”

“Help Aurelia as much as you can. I’ve had to leave the infirmary to her while I deal with Trevor. Once he’s a fledgling, I can begin the experiments on the captures. I’m sure his presence Will help ease the way for that.”

“Okay.” He hesitated a moment, then said, “Siobhán . . .”

She offered him a harried smile. “Trevor believes everything happens for a reason. I think he may be right. Things Will work out the way they’re supposed to.” She caught his hand and squeezed it. “Adrian Will be coming with the angel blood I asked for. I’m not sure when, but it’l be soon. You know how quickly he acts.”

“Yes.”

“Give me a heads-up when he arrives, Will you?”

He squeezed back. “Of course.”

* * *

Trevor woke with a start, jerking upright with a startled gasp. Something hard lodged in his throat and he coughed, sending a gleaming projectile from his mouth to land on the blankets covering his knees. He stared at it even as he felt something else on his tongue.

Spitting it out in his hand, he realized it was one of his canine teeth, as was the one he’d coughed up. He explored the interior of his mouth with his tongue and cursed as a razor-sharp point of a fang cut him and drew blood.

He was drenched in sweat and shivering, his body aching, his mind spinning as memory returned to him. He was back in Siobhán’s room at the Ontario laboratory, once again sleeping on her couch, but she was nowhere to be seen. Extracting the IV line from the back of his hand, he prepared to go find her.