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СКАЧАТЬ Tessa looked at him and shook her head. “You might be a vampire, but you’re not a monster. Trust me on this. I’ve seen a real monster. Up close and personal. You’re nothing like him.”

      His gaze narrowed on her. “I’m not a man, either. The man I once was, died a hundred and fifty years ago.”

      She opened the first-aid kit. “How?”

      “What?”

      “How did you die?” She picked up the tube of antiseptic lotion and unscrewed the lid.

      “Doesn’t matter.” He shook his head and glanced around the tiny, windowless space.

      “Okay. How’d you become a vampire?”

      He glanced at her.

      “Same question,” she said with a shrug. “Sorry.”

      “You’re not reacting the way I would have expected you to.” He looked at her and while he watched her, his eyes softened, becoming again the dark brown they’d been when she first found him.

      “More screaming, fewer questions?”

      “Frankly, yeah.”

      “Well, here’s another one for you,” she said. “How’d you know this room was here? I didn’t and I’ve lived here for six months.”

      “I built this room. Hell,” he added on a short, humorless laugh, “built this house.”

      “Really?” She picked up one of his hands and tenderly smoothed some of the lotion onto the reddened, already healing skin. Apparently, he didn’t need her help.

      As if reading her mind, he said, “We heal fast.”

      She put the lotion away and closed the kit with a snap. From the other room, she heard a door open and a man’s voice call out, “Ms. Franklin?”

      Grayson snapped a look toward the sound.

      Tessa grabbed the first-aid kit. “It’s my guest, Joe Baston.”

      “He can’t know I’m here.”

      “Yeah. I figured that out on my own.”

      But in a few seconds, Joe would be entering the living room and he’d see the bookcase pulled away from the wall. Quickly, Tessa spun to leave the hidden room. She paused at the opening to look back at Grayson. “You’ll be safe here.”

      She stared into his eyes as she swung the bookcase closed, sealing her vampire in, and she wondered if she could say the same thing about herself.

       Chapter 4

      Grayson woke up in the dark. Nothing new there, but for a second he couldn’t figure out why he was awake. He sensed that it was still daylight because his body hadn’t recharged itself yet. The lethargy bore him down into the flattened, hundred-and-fifty-year-old mattress on the narrow bed he’d constructed so long ago.

      His burns were mostly healed, but his hands still tingled with the reminder of the close call he’d had. Hell. He hadn’t been caught in daylight since he’d been newly changed. One day with Tessa Franklin and he’d almost become a torch.

      Twice.

      When the cell phone in his pocket rang again, he realized what had pulled him out of sleep. Grabbing the damn thing, he checked caller ID, then answered—only because he knew this caller wouldn’t give up until he’d gotten through. “What is it, Damon?”

      “Where the hell are you?”

      Damon St. John, the Vampire King, wasn’t known for his patience in the best of times. With his new reign already threatened by lesser vampires looking to take over, this was clearly not the best of times.

      “None of your business,” Grayson told him. “I’m out of this and you know it.”

      It was a long-running argument. Damon and he had been friends until Damon had decided to take an active part in governing the vampire “community.” Now, he’d been named king, but there were factions that weren’t happy about Damon being in charge.

      Grayson didn’t care. He stayed out of politics, and instead kept to himself, along the way earning a reputation as being a rogue. Which was fine by him. He’d spent the last hundred years keeping a low profile. He’d amassed a fortune out of hard work, luck and, hell, boredom. And the king was counting on Grayson to back him in the fight to keep his throne.

      “You’re in Wyoming, aren’t you?” Damon’s disgust came clearly across the phone. “Still punishing yourself for surviving?”

      “Back off.” Grayson sat up, bracing his elbows on his knees. This was an old argument, too. Damon had never been able to understand why Grayson hadn’t simply accepted being a vampire. The freedom. The immortality.

      Maybe it was because his immortality had come at too high a price.

      “I need you back here.”

      “You’ve got plenty of support,” Grayson reminded him.

      “The other side is counting on you,” Damon said tightly. “They figure if you’re not supporting me, you’ll be on their side. Are they right?”

      Pushing himself off the cot, Grayson stalked around the small, dark room. Outside, there was a world going about its business. Here, there were only shadows. And memories. He shoved one hand through his hair. “No,” he said. “They’re not right. I’m out of this.”

      “That’s where you’re wrong,” Damon told him. “You can’t be out. You’re a vampire. And it doesn’t matter how often you go to that damned house of yours. You’ll never be a man again. So why don’t you just let it go? Move on?”

      “Stay out of this, Damon.” Anger simmered inside.

      “Fine. Torture yourself some more. Just keep your eyes open. Seems my enemies are looking for you.”

      When they hung up, Grayson tossed the phone onto the old table. Hell, maybe Damon was right. What was the point of coming back here year after year? Maybe his business manager had done the right thing in selling off the house. Maybe it was time he accepted who and what he was.

      He threw a glance at the back of the bookcase as if he could see beyond that doorway into the house where Tessa was. She’d surprised him. Intrigued him. And he wanted her. Wanted the taste of her in his mouth and the feel of his body inside hers.

      Everything in him itched to find her, toss her onto that damned cot and have her. Instincts he’d been at war with since his change rose to the surface and shook him to the bone. Tessa Franklin had thrown him. Hard.

      Then he remembered what Damon had said. Other vampires knew about his habit of coming to this house at Christmas. If they followed him here, Tessa wasn’t safe. He’d brought the vampire war directly to her door.

      His chest tightened. If another vampire showed up on her door, she wouldn’t СКАЧАТЬ