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I was lying on top of the bed, blindfolded—Arie was kissing me, possessive and demanding. I kissed him back but kept my hands behind my head. Arie wanted it that way, and I loved giving him the gift of my submission. Being blindfolded made me excruciatingly aware of all my senses and set every nerve ending on fire. Every touch, every taste was scintillating. His tongue tangled with mine as I moaned into his mouth. I wanted more. Greedy? Yes. Except he’d never kissed me like this. It almost felt like I was kissing a stranger. The thought brought me back to when he’d cuffed me to the pole and fucked me in front of everyone. I tried to capture his lower lip with the tip of my fang.
But Arie’s mouth dipped to my neck, his stubble scraping against my skin. Something about the abrasive texture always turned me on. My pussy clenched as his mouth moved to that hollow dip in my neck while his hand slid up my inner thigh. But he stopped when he reached my mound, and his hand moved to grip my hip instead. His fingers dug into its curve. I shifted, squirming, needing him to touch me.
-Please.- I begged telepathically.
It was cheating, of course, but he always let me get away with it anyway. After saving Luna and losing Victoria, we both needed this. And I wanted to feel him inside of me. His mouth met mine again with a fierce tangle of tongues, teeth clashing. He bit my lower lip, gently tugging on it. Pulling off the maneuver that I’d failed to execute.
Whenever Arie bit my lower lip it drove me absolutely insane. He took my mouth just as his hands claimed my body. His breath was cool on my face before he pulled away. Arie’s hands were gripping my hips, pulling them toward his. My sex brushed the taut denim fabric, and I moaned. I needed him now. I couldn’t take it anymore; I had to have him inside of me right then and there. I bit my lower lip to hold back another moan.
-If you don’t take me soon I swear I’m going to rip this blindfold off and make you fuck me.-
He groaned. Then he kissed me again. His kiss left me breathless and reminded me of the intoxicating sensation that you feel the first time you kiss someone new. Then again, I loved kissing Arie. I’d never had anyone turn me on the way that he did. Hell, I’d never had anyone make me come before I’d met Arie. The Sight always got in the way. I ground my sex into the stiff fabric and moaned as it brushed against my clit. Arie would have a wet mess on those jeans, but I didn’t care.
“God, Katarina. You fucking kill me.”
I stiffened.
Oh. My. God.
I shoved him off of me and scrambled toward the headboard. Off went the blindfold, and I sent it sailing across the room. The vampire from the bar crouched on the bed. Christ, I was kissing a stranger. And I was naked. Kissing a complete stranger while I was completely naked. I shot off the bed, grabbed a towel from the floor, and wrapped it around me. He looked almost as shocked as I did — almost, but not quite. His vivid green eyes widened infinitesimally before narrowing like a cat’s. He had brown wavy hair, but was way more rugged in appearance than Arie. I had to admit he was definitely hot. That made me even more aware of my current state of undress.
He got off the bed, at least, but even with him standing about ten feet away heat spread across my body. It wasn’t nearly far enough. Hell, no. Not when my skin still prickled where his mouth had been. My clit throbbed, wanting the contact of denim, and my gaze dropped to his jeans. I was mortified. If I could’ve sunk into the bedroom floor or somehow disappeared right at that moment I would have. His eyes swept over me from head to foot, but when his eyes met mine, realization lit his.
“You’re not Katarina,” he said.
It wasn’t a question.
“No, I’m not. But who the hell are you?”
Clutching the towel around me, I knew my face must be the color of the silk blindfold I’d thrown, or worse. My embarrassment seemed to amuse the hell out of him. That only infuriated the hell out of me.
He grinned. “I’m Toren.”
T. He’s T. Katarina’s lover. Oh, hell.
“Well Toren, mind telling me what you’re doing in our apartment? I locked the door.”
Lying naked and blindfolded like Arie had told me to, I never imagined someone other than him would come in here and kiss me. My lips were swollen, and I could still taste him. No, I didn’t want to think about him kissing me. So I glared at him instead.
He grinned. “You think a lock is going to keep an Ancient vampire out? Please. Give me at least a little credit. Picking locks is an easy skill to pick up over the years.”
I narrowed my eyes. He was enjoying this. My clothes and my cell phone were in the bathroom where I had left them after my bath.
“So you think that makes it okay to just go around picking locks and breaking into someone’s home?” My voice rose several octaves.
And where the hell is Arie? Shouldn’t he be back by now?
He laughed. “No, not generally, but I did knock. You didn’t answer.”
“And that gives you no right to break in here. And you groped me.” My arms were crossed over my chest, pressing the towel against me. A flimsy shield against someone who had been on top of me just moments ago driving me wild with those lips, that were now quirked into a smirk.
“Groped? Really?” He laughed again. I wanted to hit him, and if I’d been wearing more than a towel I would have. “Well you seemed to enjoy me groping you. As evidenced by my pants.”
Toren wore a pair of black jeans that distinctly showed a white smear right where his crotch... dear Lord, he still had an erection. Heat spread across my cheeks.
Toren shrugged. “Hey, I thought you were Katarina. And you were naked. That’s an open invitation if I ever saw one. But no harm, no foul.”
“If I was Katarina I doubt that Arie would be very happy about you kissing me... I mean, her.” I sighed. “Oh, hell.”
Now he really did laugh. Hard.
“It never bothered him before.”
My mouth fell open.
“I sincerely doubt that he’d be okay with you groping his girlfriend. Katarina was his girlfriend.”
His eyes flashed. In anger? I couldn’t be sure, but if he didn’t look menacing before, he sure as hell did now. Uh-oh, I’d said the wrong thing; I just wasn’t sure what. Something about me referring to Katarina as Arie’s ex?
Toren took a step toward me and I took two steps back.
“Yeah, well, she was mine first. And you didn’t seem to mind me kissing you. In fact, I think you rather enjoyed it.”
Toren took another step toward me, and now we were standing only inches from each other. His eyes bored into mine and I had to look away. He was right. I hated to admit it, but I had kissed him back. I stood there in my towel, contemplating what kissing him back meant and wondering how I could have been confused in the first place. I definitely needed to get dressed and put some more space between us. The tiny loft bedroom seemed to be closing in on me, and even though I knew it was just nerves, this room wasn’t big enough for the both of us.
“I thought you were Arie.”
“Your body responded to me, not him.”
Damn. Right again.
I glared at him. “I would have never kissed you back if I’d known you weren’t Arie.”
“Are you sure about that?” he asked.
His voice wasn’t as husky as Arie’s, but I found it unnerving and distracting with him standing so close to me while I was almost naked. At the moment I wasn’t sure about anything. I had to get some distance from him, and it would be better if I had some clothes on.
“Yes,” I hissed.
“Do you want to test that theory?” He reached out and cupped my chin, brushing his thumb over my bottom lip, swollen from him tugging on it with his teeth.
I turned my head and he dropped his hand.
“Arie will be back any minute,” I squeaked out.
God, I hoped that was true, because I was only bluffing. What could be taking him so long?
Toren’s eyes were mesmerizing. “Yes, Arie will be back. But who are you?”
“Holly,” I whispered.
“Just Holly?”
I looked up at him. God, this felt so familiar. I seemed to remember Arie asking me that very same question the first time we’d met back at the Coffee Grind. Except that was practically a lifetime ago.
“I’m Holly Ellis. Arie’s girlfriend.”
Toren snickered. “Why does that not surprise me?”
I had no idea why Toren seemed irritated by that. Worse—I had no idea why my skin still felt flushed and why standing so close to him twisted my stomach into gigantic knots.
I lifted my chin. “Like I said... Arie will be back soon.”
“Good. There’s a few things I’d like to say to him,” Toren said as he crossed his arms.
The gray sweater that he wore did little to hide his well-defined chest. And the way his jeans hung on his hips made me uncomfortable. Warm. Toren was at least three inches shorter than Arie, but the top of my head was level with his lips. It was intimidating to look up at him. Oh, God. Why was I thinking about his lips and how incredible they’d felt?
“Fine. Can I get dressed now?”
Toren grinned but he didn’t move. “If you must; it would be a shame to cover up such a beautiful body. But it would give me something to tear off.”
I was going to ignore that. Except it made me think of the first note he’d written and left with the waitress at the club when he thought I was Katarina. You look good wearing nothing. That night at HFC when Arie had cuffed me to the pole, Toren had been there, seen everything. Arie had fucked me right in front of him, and I’d been wearing the same thing: nothing. I felt exposed, vulnerable. My head spun as I considered the letters he’d written when he thought that I was her.
I gulped. “Why did you ask Katarina to forgive you?”
“Because I thought I was wrong.”
“About what?”
His eyes hardened. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You were lovers.”
Toren sighed. “We were lovers, but that was a long time ago.”
I shook my head. “Is that really how you feel? I don’t think so. You wouldn’t be looking for forgiveness or writing all that stuff if that’s how you really felt.”
He walked to the window that overlooked the Chicago River. White flakes drifted past, and I wondered when spring would ever get here.
“Where is she? I heard that she was dead.”
My worst nightmare had come true. I closed my eyes. How could I tell him that I’d killed her? I wished that Arie were here now. I took a deep breath, glad that when I opened my eyes I was looking at his back.
“Let me just get dressed. We can go downstairs and wait for Arie. I could get you a drink. Some Puncture?”
He turned and looked at me. I don’t know why, but I knew that I couldn’t lie to him or hold back. Toren should know the truth. Even if it meant that once he found out that I’d been responsible for her death, he’d rip my throat out.
“Is it true? Is she dead?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“How?”
Now was the moment. He would kill me just as soon as I told him that it was my fault.
“I killed her.”
He strode across the room and stopped right in front of me, but he didn’t touch me. I flinched anyway. I couldn’t help it.
“I just need to know one thing,” he said.
“What?”
“Why?”
I looked down.
“Look at me. And tell me why you killed her.”
I met his eyes and told him without breaking eye contact and, surprisingly, without flinching. “She lost her mind and was making headlines in the tabloids that could expose us. She tried to kill me. I had no other choice. It was me or her.”
Everything seemed to slow down as I waited for his response. This would be the end. I fully expected that he’d find the nearest piece of wooden furniture and fashion a stake out of it just so he could drive it straight through my heart.
He sneered, his expression turning cynical. “It really doesn’t matter anymore. I guess I wasn’t wrong.”
I gasped.
What am I supposed to say? And what wasn’t he wrong about?
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said.
Now I did flinch, hoping it didn’t sound nearly as hollow and ridiculous to him as it did to me once the words were out of my mouth.
Toren smirked. “You know, you look like her, but you’re really nothing alike. Not a bit.”
I looked away. For some reason that sounded good to me. He’d figured out within the first five minutes of meeting me that I wasn’t her, but it had taken Arie a lot longer to get a clue. My gut twisted.
“You should get dressed. Come downstairs when you’re done. I think I could use that drink now.” He stepped away from me, turned, and walked down the steps.
It took me a second to get my body to cooperate with my brain. As soon as I was in the bathroom I closed and locked the door behind me. Although I doubted it would make much of a difference, it made me feel better to put a locked door between me and Toren. I could feel the blood rushing through my veins. I grabbed my cell phone off the vanity sink and dialed Arie.
He picked up after two rings.
“Hey, where are you?” I asked.
“I just wanted to stop by Victoria’s on the off chance she decided to go back there, even though I figured that was a long shot. I’m right around the corner. I should be home in five minutes.”
Relief washed over me.
“Holly, are you okay?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“You’re not. What is it?”
“Toren is here.”
Dead silence on the other end.
“Arie?”
“I’ll be right there.”
There was a click. Arie didn’t even wait for me to respond, he’d just hung up, but he was coming. I didn’t want to be alone with Toren for one more minute. He made me uncomfortable, and I didn’t even want to analyze what had just happened between us. I wasn’t ready to think about kissing Toren back or grinding on him. I was such an idiot for not knowing that it wasn’t Arie. Shock jolted through me. My body had been so responsive. No one turned me on the way that Arie did. Except that Toren had turned me on.
God, I didn’t even know whether to tell Arie the truth. I could just imagine the two of them brawling in our living room. Not that I gave a damn about what would happen to Toren, but I didn’t know how strong he was and didn’t want him to rip Arie apart. The two vampires obviously had some sort of history that revolved around Katarina. It pissed me off that she was still a problem, even now that she was dead.
I splashed some water on my face. It was still flushed, and I felt a little like throwing up. I shrugged into my clothes, took a deep breath, and made my way downstairs. Toren sat at the breakfast bar. He turned in my direction as I came down the stairs; I couldn’t stand those penetrating emerald eyes. And then he grinned at me. It was like he was mocking me, but I didn’t have time to think about it.
The door to the loft swung open and then slammed shut. I bit my lower lip. Toren followed my gaze and turned toward the door. Shit. Somehow I knew this wouldn’t be good. Arie was home.
