Fresh Blood by Jennifer Colgan Page A

over her breasts and
watched him while he rooted around her living room gathering his
clothes. A blanket from her linen closet lay over the couch
attesting to where he’d spent the night.
    “You wandered off and left me alone at a
vampire orgy, where I got drugged and groped by another woman
and--”
    “And kissed. Don’t forget kissed.” He leveled
a sardonic gaze at her.
    Erica gaped. That memory came back, too. It
hadn’t been a dream. Vera had been all over her. “And I’m to
blame?”
    “You were supposed to be obedient.”
    “You told me to be disobedient. Didn’t you?
Or did I misinterpret one of your many mixed signals?”
    “What mixed signals?” He spread his arms wide
leaving his towel unattended and hanging precariously.
    “Oh let’s see--every one. I don’t know what
to make of you, Max. Before we left here, you were acting like you
wanted to.…”
    “Like I wanted to what?”
    Erica flushed hot. She couldn’t say the
words. “Then you apparently brought me home, undressed me, and
dumped me in bed ... alone.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Max dropped his gathered clothes and leaned
back, crossing his arms over his chest in a pose similar to
Erica’s. Acutely aware of the fact that she’d already seen what was
under his towel, he wasn’t sure he liked the direction the
conversation was taking. Of course, with the sun up, he was
trapped. Their argument would have to work its way to some type of
conclusion and if they both didn’t get dressed very soon....
    “What would you have preferred? That I took
you in the state you were in? Don’t think I didn’t want to. Don’t
think it was easy for me to peel that dress off you ... to slide
your stockings down over your legs, inch off your underwear and
leave you there, in bed unconscious and completely vulnerable.” Max
paused and watched her reaction to his words. A faint tremor racked
her and her breathing grew shallow. He knew she was contemplating
how easy it would have been for him to do whatever he wanted with
her.
     
    “I’m a vampire, Erica. We come into the world
ready to take what we want. It requires a lot of effort for us to
act human sometimes. We’re governed by certain desires, needs we
can’t ignore. Believe me when I say, it was all I could do to walk
away from you last night because if I hadn’t ...”
    “What?” Her voice was raw. He saw the hard
tips of her nipples through the thin fabric of her robe and he
remembered how badly he’d wanted to taste them last night. He
remembered holding her close to him while he undressed her. The
memory of her stretched on the bed, reaching for him made him hard
all over again.
    He could have taken her so easily then. But
he didn’t want her that way. He wanted her with him--awake and
aware and begging him to do things to her she’d only dreamed about
letting a man do. He wanted to see her eyes go dark with desire and
her lips part as she sighed his name.
    “If I hadn’t ... I’d still be inside you
right now.”
     

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    Erica trembled at Max’s revelation. She
dropped her arms and stared as her anger drained away. Something
inside her began to heat and suddenly she was aware of every
sensation. The cool fabric of her robe rubbed against her breasts
and an ache began to build between her legs. Max’s stare felt like
a lead weight, holding her in place and stealing her breath. Her
knees felt weak.
    Max took a step toward her and she
instinctively bared her neck to him. The memory of his arms around
her, trapping her to his side while he drank from her, made her
shudder with desire she shouldn’t have felt.
    When he put his fingers on the pulse point of
her neck, just above the marks he’d made, her muscles coiled and
she arched against his touch.
    “Do you know how much danger you put yourself
in last night?” he said as he took another step. Now he was right
next to her. She felt the heat of his skin and didn’t question it.
He smelled like steam and male