"What do you suggest?"
She grabbed the blanket and pillow and lay down on the floor beside him. Kyrian flinched as she lay so close to him that he could feel her body heat. Worse, the only way to comfortably sleep would be to drape his arm over her. Like lovers.
The thought tore through him, lancing his heart so deep that for a minute, he couldn't breathe as he remembered the last time he had made the mistake of being with a woman and letting his guard down. Unbidden, the sight of blood, and the memory of grueling, unrelenting pain ripped through him with such ferocity that it made him flinch.
That was the past, he told himself. Ancient history. Still, some things were impossible to forget. And not even a man with super psychic powers could bury them.
Don't think about it. This wasn't the time for memories. It was a time to be practical. Desiderius would be after him tonight and if he was to save her and her sister, he would have to be awake, and fully alert.
Closing his eyes, he made himself relax. Until she shifted, and her buttocks collided with his groin. Kyrian ground his teeth. He was on fire as he inhaled the sweet rosy scent of her. It had been so incredibly long since he had last taken a woman. So long since he had dared close his eyes with one by his side.
Necessity was a bitch. But then he had learned that lesson the hard way when he had fought against the Romans. Swallowing, he forced his mind to blankness. There was nothing in the past worth remembering. Nothing back there except pain so profound that even after two thousand years it could still bring him to his knees.
Focus, he told himself, relying on his staunch military training. Now is the time to rest. Amanda tensed as he moved to spoon up against her spine. And when he put his arm over her, her heart pounded. All that lean, hard strength was pressed against her back in a most distracting way.
She stared at his hand in front of her face. He had long, graceful fingers that looked as though they should belong to an artist or musician. Goodness, but it was hard to remember this man wasn't really a man.
You're lying with a vampire! No, he's a Dark-Hunter. Not that she really understood the difference, yet. But she would. One way or another. Amanda lay for hours listening to Hunter breathe. She could tell when he had finally fallen asleep because his arm relaxed against her and the breath on her neck evened out.
Outside Tate's office, she heard people coming and going, the hospital paging system calling out for different doctors and orders.
A little after noon, Tate brought them lunch, but she wouldn't let him wake Hunter. She ate half of her sandwich and continued to lie there, all the while wondering how she could feel so strangely safe with a vampire she barely knew.
She rolled over slightly to look at him. He really was scrumptious. His hair fell over his eyes as he slept and his relaxed features held a boyish charm to them. As she stared at his perfect lips, she remembered the way they had tasted. The raw, powerful feel of them on her neck.
The remnants of that kiss made her lips burn, her body quiver. She'd been kissed more times than she could count, but no man had ever made her feel the way he did. The touch of his mouth on hers had set her on fire.
How had he done it? What was it about Hunter that made her ache to have him in spite of herself? Was it part of his immortal powers?
She wasn't a nymphomaniac. She had a normal, healthy sex drive that wasn't too low or too high. Yet every time she looked at him, she wanted to touch his skin, his lips, his hair.
What was wrong with her?
Put it out of your mind. Closing her eyes, she started counting backward from one hundred. When she reached negative sixty, she realized it was futile. Sighing, she absently reached out and toyed with the ring on his hand. Before she realized it, she was holding his hand in hers.
Hunter murmured dreamily as he snuggled closer. Amanda's eyes widened as his hot breath fell against her cheek and his erection pressed disturbingly against her hip. His grip tightened on her hand an instant before he gathered her in his arms and cradled her body protectively with his.
He whispered something in a foreign language, then settled again, still fast asleep.
Her heart hammered. No one had ever held her like this. So possessively. So completely. It felt as if she were cocooned by his strength. The weirdest part of all was that deep down she liked the feeling a whole lot more than she ever wanted to admit.
Nestled in his arms, she finally drifted to sleep.
Amanda came awake to a hard thigh wedged between her legs and to a hot hand beneath her sweater, skimming the flesh of her stomach. Hunter's arm held her so close to him that she could barely breathe.