“There’s only you. And what I told you last night is true.”

“Bullshit. Is that why the redhead dumped you? She found out you were a vampire?”

“First of all, she’s a vampire too, and second, I left her.” He stared at her shocked face. She obviously hadn’t expected to hear that Ilona was a vampire, but she caught herself quickly.

“So what, you ran out of vampire women and had to fuck a human?”

“It wasn’t about sex, at least not after the first night.”

“Liar.”

“You’re repeating yourself.”

“Because you keep dishing up the same stories.”

“Because they are true. I admit, the first night was all about sex, but after that, damn it, it wasn’t. I wanted you, and not just for physical pleasure. You can’t tell me you didn’t feel that when we made love.”

Delilah had felt it, but it had to be an illusion. He’d tricked her. She’d slept with a vampire, she’d let him inside her, not just her body, but her heart. People like him shouldn’t even exist. Something was so wrong in this world.

“You’re a vampire. You’re a vampire.”

As if by saying it, it would go away, but it didn’t. He was a vampire, and he stood in his kitchen looking at her, making her feel like she’d hit her head and was coming out of a daze. But she hadn’t hit her head. He was real.

“I slept with a vampire.” She dropped her arms to her sides and let her shoulders slump.

Samson nodded. “And you liked it just as much as I did.”

“No.”

She had to deny it to keep her sanity. What would happen to her world if she suddenly had to admit that she liked, no, loved sleeping with a vampire? Everything around her would crumble. Creatures like him shouldn’t—couldn’t!—exist. Vampires were myth, folklore—stories to tell around a campfire to scare people. They only lived in the movies, never in real life. Every child knew that! Just as everybody knew there was no Easter Bunny. This couldn’t happen. None of this could be true. Denial was the only way to go.

“I have to go. I have to go back to New York now.”

He slowly shook his head and came closer. “No. You’re not leaving.” With his knuckles, he stroked her cheek softly. “I need you.”

“You’re a vampire.”

“Don’t you think I know that? It doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

“Get away from me.” She used all her strength to reject him, when her body was trying to lean into him. He still had the same power over her he’d had ever since she’d met him. She still wanted him, wanted to lick every bit of his skin with her tongue. She wanted to have his hard body pressed against hers and feel him impale her, when what she should want was to impale him—with a wooden stake right through the heart! If he even had a heart.

“Don’t touch me!” At her outburst, he instantly pulled his hand back as if she’d slapped him. She could see the anger well up in him, his eyes suddenly flickering red. It looked as if it took all his strength to control himself.

“Amaury! Get in here.” Samson’s voice was sharp. She flinched. Would he lash out at her? Hit her? Bite her?

His friend appeared instantly.

“Watch her,” Samson ordered and bolted from the kitchen.

Her eyes followed him before she looked back at Amaury who casually leaned against the kitchen island as if nothing had happened.

“He wanted to kill me, didn’t he?”

Amaury nodded. “Yes, and he will—between the sheets, over and over again.” He grinned devilishly.

She gave him an undignified look.

“Hey, don’t blame me; I’m just reading his emotions.”

Reading his emotions? What the hell was Amaury talking about? Her look must have been utterly confused, because he threw up his hands.

“Special gift. Pain in the butt.” Then he winked. “And don’t worry, I’m not going to tell him what you feel. He’ll have to coax that out of you all by himself.”

She listened to the footsteps above her. Samson was pacing.

“Don’t worry about him. He’ll cool off. So, to get back to our conversation before we were so rudely interrupted. Have you—”

“You want to talk about the audit like nothing has happened?”

“Sure, we still have to solve that issue. Just because you now know that we’re vampires doesn’t change the fact that somebody is messing with Samson’s company and wants to harm you.”