Grace shivered when she felt the cold sheets of her bed, but Aiden's heat immediately warmed her as he followed her down, chasing away the chill.
She knew she should stop him before he found out that she had lied to him about the reason she had left. She wasn't on her period. She'd just had it. She wasn't due for another three weeks.
Why won't you trust me, love?
His words echoed in her head as he kissed her throat, unbuttoning her cotton shirt with one hand while he held his weight off of her with the other. Guilt and shame rose within her for what she'd just done, and she opened her mouth to confess right then and there, but he spoke before she had the chance.
"Grace, don't be frightened, love. I'm a bit riled up, and I can't control it. But I swear I won't hurt you, all right?"
He must have sensed her distraction, and mistook it for anxiety.
Then he lifted his head from the curve of her neck, and she saw what he meant.
"I want to look at you, love."
As his burning eyes roamed over her face and down her torso, his hand followed, skimming her breast in her cotton bra to rest lightly on her ribcage beneath.
Goosebumps rose on her skin everywhere he touched.
He opened his mouth on a labored breath, and she could see his fangs were fully extended. A quick stab of fear went through her when he raised his glowing eyes back to hers, but it quickly dissipated. He was nothing like the vampire that had killed her intruder. His gaze was intense, but warm, reverent even, as he slowly lowered his mouth back to hers, giving her time to reject him.
Instead, she welcomed him eagerly, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him close. She didn't think, she just kissed him back with everything she was feeling inside. Running her hands down his back, she slid them under the neckline of his T-shirt to feel the smooth, warm skin beneath.
He moaned in her mouth at her touch, deepening the kiss until she forgot everything but this moment. Reaching down, he slid a hand underneath the back of her knee and bent her leg up, allowing him to settle more fully between her thighs.
She lifted her hips to meet him, rubbing the core of her desire shamelessly against the hard ridge bulging beneath his pants.
He immediately picked up her rhythm, thrusting against her until they were both gasping for air.
"Aiden, please..." she begged breathlessly between kisses, completely beyond caring that he'd know she'd lied. She'd think of some excuse to tell him. Right now, she needed this ravenous vampire inside of her, and she needed it now.
She reached between them, closing her palm around his hardness.
Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze on her bare skin, and she opened her eyes to find him holding his weight on his arms while he glared down at her.
Dark shadows swam through the bright grey of his eyes.
"You're lying to him," he growled.
The British accent she found so endearing was gone again, and the words sounded strange, unpracticed. Like they had the other day. His entire demeanor had changed. Gone was the warm, teasing male she'd come to know.
She was looking at a stranger.
His lips pulled back from his fangs in an enraged snarl, "YOU'RE LYING TO HIM!"
Grace screamed and rolled out from underneath him, falling onto the floor in a heap.
Jumping to her feet, she nearly tripped over Mojo as she ran to the bathroom with her pet close on her heels.
She slammed the door, locking it behind them, then looked around frantically for a weapon as Aiden pounded on the door.
"Grace! Grace, what's wrong? Are you all right, love?" He knocked again. "Poppet, please open the door. I apologize for...whatever I did. I didn't mean to frighten you. Grace!"
He pounded on the door again.
With no weapon at hand, she resorted to backing as far away from the door as she could while Mojo rolled into a ball in the corner. Pressing her back against the wall by the shower stall, she weighed her options.
It was actually a pretty easy decision. She had none. She had no weapons, and she had no magic against a vampire. All she could do was heal herself, and move things around, if they weren't too large. And she had an unusual connection with animals, but she sincerely doubted Mojo would be able to do much against him by himself.
She had nothing. Nothing that would cause any damage to someone such as him.
"Grace!" He shouted. "Open this bloody door and talk to me!"
"No!"
"What do you mean 'No'"?
"No!" she repeated.
"Fine! I'm coming in!"
She shrieked as the door busted off its hinges and slammed into the opposite wall, crumbling the plaster. Aiden stood at the threshold, but didn't come in. He looked her over from head to toe, briefly closing his eyes and sighing when his inspection was finished.
She eyed him warily, pulling her shirt together. "Stay away from me!"
He scratched his head, confusion and hurt fighting for dominance on his face. "Poppet...whatever it was that I did, I didn't mean to frighten you. I told you I'd never hurt you, and I meant it. I can't help the way my body reacts to you, but that doesn't mean I can't control myself."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not afraid of you vamping out. It's the other side of you that I don't like."
His face screwed up in confusion. "The other side?"
"You yelled at me, dude!"
"What? I didn't ye..."
"Yes, you did! Don't act like you don't know. You growled and you yelled at me! I was about to become your next kill!"
Spotting the hairbrush on the counter just as he took a step towards her, she sent it flying through the air at him. It bounced off of the door jam next to his head and clattered onto the floor.
Now it was his turn to eye her warily. He stopped where he was.
"Grace..."
The glass she used to rinse her mouth soon followed the brush, and would've hit him if he hadn't dodged it. It smashed on the floor behind him, the noise sending Mojo scampering around Aiden's legs and into his house to hide.
"Bloody hell, woman! Stop tossing things at me!" he bellowed.
"Stop pretending you weren't planning on eating me!"
Palms up in a peace making gesture, he gave her a quizzical look. "Define 'eat'."
She looked around for something else to hit him with.
"Grace, I honestly don't recall doing any such thing. Now please, stop this, and come out of the loo and tell me what happened."
Crossing her arms over her breasts, she stared at him with a mulish expression.
He backed away from the door, giving her plenty of space to get by him. "Please, love. This is just silly."
She chewed her lip as she studied him. He seemed so sincere, and honestly confused by her actions. And more importantly, he appeared to be back to his normal self again.
She had a sudden thought: Maybe he had a split personality! He had said she was lying to "him", and not "me". But, even if that were the case, would his other personality know something that the other one didn't?
It was just her luck that the one unequivocally panty-dropping worthy guy she'd met in her life would end up being a complete psycho case. Not to mention the whole not even human thing.
Still. She couldn't hide in the bathroom forever, and she had nowhere else to go.
Buttoning up her shirt, she never took her eyes off of him as she eased past him to go stand by the ladder. If he wacked out on her again, she'd take her chances with the things creeping around their hideout outside.
"All right," he breathed with relief. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he scooted across the mattress until his back was against the wall. Stretching his long, muscular, jean clad legs out in front of him, he crossed his ankles and laced his fingers together on his lap.
She hesitated. He really did appear confused.
"I'm going to sit right here, and I won't move," he promised. "Please, just talk to me so we can get this sorted out."
"You really don't remember?" she asked.
"Yelling at you? No, poppet, I really don't."
"I'm not lying. You did. You yelled at me," she insisted defensively.
"Okay," he acquiesced. "What did I yell at you?"
Well, hell. She hadn't been prepared for that one.
She sighed and rubbed her nose, thinking she may as well fess up. She'd been about to anyway, earlier, when he was kissing her.
"You said, 'You're lying to him'."
One eyebrow lifted. "To whom?"
Now she was confused. "What?"
"You said, that I said, that you were lying to 'him'. Who is 'him'?"
"Um, I think it's you."
Rolling his eyes, he said, "Well that makes no sense at all, poppet. I am 'me'. Not 'him'."
"Yeah. That's kind of why I freaked out." At least he wasn't questioning what it was she was lying about. "And you bared your fangs at me. Not in a good way. And your voice was different."
That caught his attention. "Different how?"
She rubbed her arms as she remembered. "Well, your accent was gone, for one. And the words sounded strange." She thought for a minute. "I can only explain it like, when you talk like that, it always sounds like you're not used to pronouncing the words, or something. Like English is a new language to you."
His eyes locked onto her, his sharp mind not missing a thing. "Always?" he repeated. "What do you mean, always? Has this happened before?"
"Just once," she told him. "Right after we got here."
Comprehension dawned across his features. "And that's why you've been acting so wonky since we arrived here. I had no idea," he said, almost to himself.
He fell silent, but she could see the wheels turning in his head.
"Aiden?" she asked when he didn't seem inclined to explain.
"Hmm?"
"Do you have a split personality or something?"
He gave her a sad smile. "No, love."
"Do you know why this is happening?"
He studied her for a long moment. "Yes. I believe I do."
"Are you going to tell me?
He propped his laced fingers on top of his head, showing off his bulging arm muscles to her hungry gaze. "Yes, because unlike a certain other person in this room, I rarely feel the need to lie."
The blood rushed to her face and she guiltily dropped her eyes from those tantalizing muscles.
Why did it bother her so much that he knew she had lied to him? She lied to people all the time, to protect herself and her family. And sometimes she got caught, and would have to think up some other explanation. She didn't like doing it, but it had never bothered her this much before. And why wasn't he asking her what she'd lied about?
Because he's already figured it out. But how much has he figured out? That's the real question.
She was distracted from her inner dialogue when he said, "I have a bit of a wild tale to tell you, poppet."