“Xavier,” she whispered.

She touched his face. Not once did it occur to her to be afraid. This amazing creature had quoted poetry to her. This amazing creature inside of her was Xavier.

He closed those feral-looking eyes and kissed her fingers.

She tightened her embrace, while she tilted her hips to let him thrust deeper. He bowed over her, moving faster, fucking harder, until he gasped out something incomprehensible—she really needed to learn some Spanish—and stiffened.

Deep inside, she felt his cock pulse. He rocked against her gently.

Closing her eyes, she kissed his cheek while she rubbed his back. Oh, she might not understand this strange journey she was on, or how the series of decisions, progression of events, had brought her to this point. She could only be glad she had gotten here.

After a few moments of holding his hips tight against hers, he stirred to caress her lips with his again, gently. When he deepened the kiss, she found that his fangs had retracted. His tongue played with hers, as he stroked her thigh.

“I sense sunrise is near,” he whispered.

She threaded her fingers through his hair. “Since you have that automatic shutter system in your house, can I assume you won’t fall instantly into some kind of creepy, deathlike coma?”

He chuckled. “Yes, you can safely assume that.”

“Good, because otherwise I was going to tell you to get off me quick, before you pinned me down for ten hours.” He laughed out loud, and she grinned. “Just kidding, I think I could roll you over onto the floor.”

“Thankfully you won’t have to.” As he eased away from her, his softening penis slipped out, and she sighed regretfully. It had felt too good to have him inside of her. She already missed the joining, already wanted him again.

He left the bed, and returned with his shirt, which he wadded and used to clean the inside of her thighs. Lingering at the job, he ran his fingers along her sensitive skin, and she stretched languorously under the caress.

He said, “I want you to sleep with me.”

She paused before answering and thought of Diego, asleep in the other room. It would be so easy for Diego to text or email, or even call anyone back at the estate, and then nothing she and Xavier did would be private any longer.

While she had no intention of hiding anything, she wasn’t sure this was how she wanted things to go. Besides, what had just happened was too powerful to her, and she felt raw and shaken.

She might have promised she wouldn’t run away, but that didn’t mean she had to avoid making a strategic retreat. So much had happened, she needed time to process.

Kissing him quickly, she told him, “I would love to sleep with you, but maybe not this time. I have no intention of sneaking around, but I would rather Diego and the others found out about us in a different way.”

He frowned, and she could tell he didn’t like her refusal, but he didn’t disagree. “Very well,” he said. “I will let you go this time. But not next time.”

She smiled. “It’s a deal.”

Moving around the room, he collected her clothes. He was completely nude and entirely confident, and she couldn’t stop staring at him. His back, arms and legs were corded with lean muscle, and watching him was a pure pleasure. As he neared a large walnut wardrobe, he pulled out a black silk robe and offered it to her.

With a quick smile of thanks, she slipped it on. It was too large for her frame, but not unpleasantly so. The hem brushed the top of her bare feet, and the sleeves fell to the tips of her fingers. At his urging, she held out first one arm then the other. He rolled the sleeves up to her wrists while she watched, then handed the bundle of her clothes and shoes to her.

Awkwardness and doubt tried to worm their way into her mind. She shoved them out again.

Slipping his fingers underneath her chin, he coaxed her face up. As usual, his gaze was all too keen. “I will only feel good about letting you leave, if you tell me you are fine with what just happened.”

She took a deep breath. She would not be typical. They had made love, and she had wanted to, and it had been a rare, wonderful experience.

“I’m not sure that ‘fine’ is quite the right word for how I feel,” she told him honestly. “While I’m so . . . glad, I also feel pretty shaken. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not dealing with it, or that I’ll go against my word and leave.” She gave him a small smile. “Will that do?”

The muscle in his jaw ticked, another small tell. “It goes against my instincts to let you out of here, even if you are only going to another room. But I also agree with you—letting Diego stumble upon us together is not the right way to break the news to the others.” He kissed her swiftly. “You’d better leave before I change my mind.”

She nodded, and before she could change her mind too, she kissed him again and walked rapidly to the door. Funny, now that she was actually leaving—even though she needed to—she had to fight the impulse to turn around and stay.

She walked to the short hallway and looked back. He had left his bedroom door halfway open. As she paused, he said telepathically, In case you change your mind.

Warmed, she replied, I won’t, but thank you.

Sweet dreams.

You too.

There were four doors down the short hallway. Two were propped open, one led to the bathroom with an antique claw-foot bathtub and the fourth led to an empty bedroom. Inside that room, her bag sat at the foot of the double bed, and as promised, on the nightstand Diego had left a snack of crackers, fruit and a variety of cheeses wrapped in plastic.

As she readied for bed, exhaustion weighed down her limbs. The day had felt a week long, and she hadn’t yet adjusted to a more nocturnal schedule.

Slipping into the bathroom, she brushed her teeth. Much as she wanted to take a full bath or shower, she could barely stand upright, so she washed quickly at the sink. Back in the bedroom, she closed her door and crawled between the covers.

She didn’t make it to turning out the bedside light. The world went dark as soon as her head hit the pillow.

An undefined amount of time later, she didn’t wake gently or slowly, but all at once in a clench. It took a few moments for her to realize where she was, as she stared around the strange, windowless room.

Memory flooded in. The confrontation with Malphas, and what had come after.

The things she and Xavier had said to each other, the things he had done to her, his mouth moving so knowledgeably as he tongued her until an inescapable fire had flared hot and bright. How he moved on top of her, moved inside of her, the feral changes in his face, and the gentleness of his hands and lips.