He must have known I was thinking it, because he wasn’t surprised by my words. “So, I’m allowed to be more than a friend now, am I?”

“Yes. Now that you’re not leaving me.”

He stopped buttoning his shirt and watched me in the mirror; I tilted my head against my shoulder and twisted my hair around my finger—a really poor attempt at sexy.

“Even if I was willing, we don’t have time tonight.”

“We can make time.” I offered my brightest smile, the one I knew made my eyes sparkle—the one I knew he couldn’t resist.

He took a long breath through his nose, then quickly let it out, his better judgement stepping back in to ruin my night. “Finish getting dressed. Your parents will be here any minute.”

“So?” I rolled onto my knees and crawled to the end of the bed, watching his secret smile sneak across his lips while he obviously read my thoughts. “They can talk to Emily and Mike while we—”

“Stop it.” I saw only a shift of his weight from one foot to the other, his hands falling away from his buttons before I squealed, falling backward on the bed under his weight—his fingers digging into my ribs, forcing me in to fits of giggles.

“David!” I squealed, wriggling underneath him. “Please? Stop it!”

“Stop being so sexy, and I’ll stop tickling.”

“No!” I took a breath and squealed again, jerking like an eel out of water. “Stop it, or I’ll wet myself.”

“No you won’t—liar.” He laughed, but stopped anyway, pinning my hands to the bed beside my face, his breath heavy through smiling lips.

I felt the warmth that laughing brought simmer over me, and looked up into those knowing eyes. “You don’t play fair. You’re stronger than me.”

“Ha!” he scoffed. “And how is it that you are playing fair, laying on the bed, looking at me like that, then asking me to do less than honourable things to you?”

“I didn’t ask you to do those things, David.” I smiled, pushing up on one elbow as he backed slightly away. “I only thought of them.”

“Precisely. And right now, your thoughts are as clear as day, Miss Ara-Rose, and I fear I am not strong enough to endure them.”

With a wry smile, I flipped him onto his back; he crashed down with a jolt, and I landed on top of him, my hair in his face, my legs on either side of his hips. “Clearly, David, since you resist my charms every time, you are stronger than me.”

He shook his head, sweeping my hair back over my arm, out of his face. “I’m not, my love.”

“Then, let’s—”

“Not tonight.”

“Er!” I grumbled. “See, you are stronger than me, and faster and so damn sexy it’s making it hard to breathe.”

“All the better to subdue you with, my prey.”

“Ha-ha. Funny.” Not. But I felt like his prey, being left without a choice and all.

He smiled. “You’d make a lovely meal.”

I slapped his hand away from my throat. “Don’t even think about it. I’ve spent all day making that damn turkey. Vampire or not, you’re eating it!”

“I plan to eat the turkey—just not the one in the oven.”

A small smile moved my lip. “Are saying I’m a ridiculous-looking bird?”

“No, merely ridiculous.”

“Oh, bring out the niceties. Merry Christmas to you, too.”

“You know I’m kidding.” He wrapped firm fingers on my hips and shifted me up an inch so my hip join no longer dug into his zipper.

“That wasn’t my zipper.”

Hu! My mouth fell open. “So how come you can read my mind so easily today?”

He smiled, his sharp fangs showing. “When you get hot like this—” he nodded at my unusual position, “—I can read them like they’re written in bold print.”

“Really.” I leaned down, brushing my lips past his before whispering in his ear, “How do you know I’m all hot?”

“Because—” he smiled playfully, “—I can...sense it.”

“Sense it?” I sat back a little.

David shifted his hips under me again, moving me so I sat a little further down—right on top of his....zipper this time. “Yes, and it’s very hard for me to refuse you when you get hot like this. I can taste your…warmth when I breathe you in.”

Gulp. “Is that—a good thing?”

He laughed, his face breaking into a wide grin. “Not really. Not when I’m trying not to do naughty things to you. But I like it.” His shoulders lifted with his breath. “You smell good. You taste good.”

“How can you taste it?”

“It’s like—” David rolled me onto my back and laid his body alongside mine, his head propped up by his hand; “It’s like when there’s a bunch of frangipanis sitting on a table in a vase; when you walk past, there’s a sweet layer of perfume over your tongue. Don’t you ever get that?”

“Actually, I do, now you mention it. Kind of like the rain, too—how it has a sugary taste when you breathe it in.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“So? What do I taste like then?” I said as the breath rose up hot in my throat from my stomach.

“Creamy vanilla.” David slid his finger down my black satin dress and lifted it at the front, revealing my thighs. “See? You’re getting hotter—the taste is getting sweeter.”

My chest sunk with each breath I drew, everything in my room fading to white fog around me as he moved his finger to the side of my cotton underwear, lifting them slightly, cooling my skin where he’d never touched before.

Oh, my God! I wrung my fingers into my hair and parted my legs at the knees, unable to look at the smug grin I knew he was wearing.

Do it—please, you’re driving me crazy, just do it.

“Do what, Ara?” he spoke in a low, hypnotic voice.

“Touch me.” I closed my eyes tighter as his finger drew a slow, curved line, further under the cover of my delicates, staying safely on the outskirts of the forbidden.

“Touch you where?”

“Inside,” I whispered so low it was almost nothing.

“Ara?” He leaned close, his breath in my ear, so warm.