Sydney turned her head against the pillow. Scents pelted her. Sweat, sex, Kellan’s delectable cologne. Leather. Musk.

“Mmm.” She sighed in pure female satisfaction.

She extended her arms above her head. Her skin was so warm and loose, her body limp. Sunlight heated the backs of her eyelids, but she didn’t want to wake yet. First, she intended to enjoy just being.

Everything seemed so loud. She could hear birds chirping in the trees and her own heartbeat, along with that of another, but the sounds soothed rather than annoyed.

She rubbed her cheek against the silky pillowcase and smiled. Maybe she’d died, and this was her heaven.

If so, no one would ever make her leave. She was home.

“You’re so lovely, Syd.”

Her smile deepened. Kellan. The heartbeat she’d heard, thrumming so close to her own. He was beside her in the bed, his arm draped over her waist and his feet tangled with hers. Comfort in the form of a six-foot, hungry animal of a man who fucked like a stallion.

Her pussy dampened. Maybe even heaven could get a little better.

She opened her eyes to see him stretched out at her side, his head on his arm.

“How long have you been watching me?” she asked.

His mouth curved. “Not nearly long enough.”

Her fingers crept over the tendrils of dark hair on his pecs, scraped lower to trace that meandering trail to where he was already hard. She closed her hand around his cock, noting the purple vein that snaked along his shaft. He was thicker than Lucas. Paler, too. His skin had a sheen like fine marble, save the darker head of his erection.

She pressed her nose against his shoulder and breathed him in. He smelled like her now. As she smelled like him. “Did you turn me?” she whispered.

“No.” He brushed her hair back from her face, staring down into her eyes with such concern that her heart tripped. “I said I wouldn’t without your permission.” His expression turned wary. “How do you feel? Do you hurt?”

“No.” She wet her palm with her tongue. When she clasped his length, he let out a long groan, immediately thickening in her fist. She grinned, loving that he responded to her so quickly. “I feel good. Sore, but in the best way possible. As if I ran a hundred-mile marathon and won. God, I’ve never come so many times in my life.”

“Me, either. Sydney…you asked if I turned you. You remember me drinking your…ah, stop that. I can’t think.”

“That’s the whole point, silly.” She blotted up his pre-cum and lifted her thumb to her mouth. The smell of his essence alone would have weakened her knees had she not been lying down. She smacked her lips at his decadently salty taste and went back for more, this time directly from the source.

“We need to talk. Ah, yes.” His hands knotted in her hair, directing her. “Suck me. Just like that.”

She took him into her throat, hollowing her cheeks for maximum suction. He grazed her throat as she palmed his balls, savoring their silken weight. How she loved giving him pleasure. She flattened her tongue against his hard-on, rubbing slowly, feathering the slit.

“Mmm, you remind me of a margarita.” She hummed the words against him while she smiled into his eyes. They focused on her as if she were the only person in the world. “First thing I do is lick the salt off the rim. Then I pick up the lime and sink my teeth in, letting the tart juice explode in my mouth….”

Teasingly, she razed her teeth over the head of his erection. Her incisors tingled with the need to sink into his flesh. Weird. What was up with that? But oh God, she wanted to learn all of him. Every inch of his skin, what made him shout and beg. Wanted to absorb the flavor of his mouth, his cum.

His blood.

What? She blinked and her hands faltered, losing their rhythm.

“Sydney?”

She jerked her head away. Good God, she was panting and her own moisture trickled down her thighs. Not just because she was turned on by going down on him, either.

She could almost feel his blood dripping down her throat, soaking into her pores as his seed had drenched her pussy. Even imagining it made her clit throb.

What had happened to her? She’d asked him if he’d turned her as if the notion made sense. As if she could be turned, which meant he really was a vampire. And now she craved his blood, just as he’d taken hers.

“Baby, look at me.” He sat up in bed and cradled her close, thumbing her hair away from her face so he could peer into her eyes.

Shame suffused her cheeks with heat. What she’d done in this bed with these two men, what she wanted to do now, hit her with the force of a meteorite. She’d been a good girl once. Seemed so long ago.

She didn’t know who she was anymore. Or what she was becoming.

“Why did you stick your thumb out when I drove by? Why did it have to be me?” She bit the inside of her cheek, hard. The metallic flavor of her own blood coated her tongue, but it wasn’t enough. His was what she longed for.

Only his.

“It had to be you because you’re the only one I want.” He kissed her temple. “You put me under a spell the first night I walked into Pastry ’n’ Joe and saw you wearing that tight pink top.” His grin came and went as his gaze sobered. “I knew you were special, but I never guessed how much.”

“Sure, I’m special.” She huffed out an indignant breath. As angry and upset as she was, her sex still quivered and her nipples were as hard as stones. She didn’t understand any of this, especially her own body’s traitorous reactions. “That’s why you wanted to share me with Lucas.”

“You didn’t act like you had any problem screwing him.” Kellan’s eyes blazed into hers. “I did that for you, because it gave you pleasure.”

“I liked it,” she whispered. “I liked taking both of you. I always dreamed of being filled like that. But he’s not—”

He lifted her chin up to his. “He’s not what?”

“He’s not you.” She swallowed, squeezing her eyes shut as tears threatened. Her emotions were all over the place lately, and she wasn’t used to that. She’d never been the weepy woe-is-me type. “But you picked me up together. You intended to share me with him all along.”

“Yes, I did. The reasons are complicated and flew out the window the first time I kissed you. There’s something between us.”

Sydney glanced down, letting out a sniffly laugh as she eyed his cock. His erection stood up straight from its nest of crisp, dark hair. “Sure looks that way.”

“Not only that. We have a connection. One that’s very rare and can’t be discounted. Some people search their whole lives for this.”

“Now you’re a person.” She scrubbed her cheeks with her hands. “What are you, really? A human? Or a vampire?”

She expected him to dismiss the question. He didn’t. “I was human once, but it was so long ago I scarcely remember. Now, I’m not.”

Part of her wanted to argue. The other part realized resisting what she already knew in her heart was futile. “How long ago?”

“Thirty years ago. A blink of time in vampire years, really, but enough time to forget.”

She wet her lips. As freaky as all this was, maybe if she listened, she’d begin to understand. Hell, she read chakras and tarot cards for a living. Plenty of people believed in the extraordinary, so why shouldn’t she? And right now, with bloodlust still cramping her belly, she wasn’t exactly in a position to deny. “How old were you?”

“Twenty-three. Lucas was twenty-one.”

“No wonder you treat him like your little brother.”

“He is, in many ways. The closest thing to it I’ve ever had, actually.” A fleeting smile softened his mouth. “It was Lucas’s birthday. We were at a frat party. I was a grad student, so I considered myself above fraternities and all that came with them. But there was this girl.”

Sydney sighed. “Isn’t there always?”

“All too often. She was older than both of us, and we were equally interested in her. Not surprising, since we competed with each other as easily as we breathed. Grades, women, how many shots of tequila we could down. Alysia enjoyed the competition and offered a fine prize for winning.”

“Let me guess. The opportunity to have sex with her?”

“Smart, as well as beautiful.” Kellan smoothed his hand absently down her hip, but even that simple touch aroused a firestorm inside her. “Yes.”

“And you won.”

He smiled again, flashing those unnaturally white teeth. Some dental plan the undead life touted. “Why do you say that?”

“Because you seem like someone who always wins.”

His smile deepened. “I both won and lost that night. There was a drinking game, and I could hold my liquor. Then we played pool, and I came out ahead there, too. Lucas was rightly pissed at me and said I should’ve eased off since it was his birthday. Alysia solved the problem by giving herself to us both. At once.” His features hardened. “I never liked sharing. Not that night, not last night. But I encouraged him even though he balked, because I was afraid she’d become annoyed if we refused her. So I forced him into it, much as I forced him into that car with you. He doesn’t understand ulterior motives and likes sex as much as I do, so why not? And last night, he was as eager to prove I didn’t have him pegged as he was to mate with you.”

“Have him pegged how?”

“There’s a woman,” he began, and she laughed at the echo of his earlier statement. “His one true mate. He’s in denial, as is she. Because she says she’s not interested, he refuses to make a move. I wanted to prove to him that no other woman would suffice, and I also wanted you. I just didn’t guess that my plan would explode in my face.”

“She had sex with you. Both of you,” she said gently, diverting him from the topic of last night. She wasn’t quite ready to go there yet. “And she turned you.”

“Yes. She fed from us both but she intended to turn just me, because she said I had more of the dark in me already. His mind would be easily wiped, she claimed, because his will was weak. She was wrong. Every trick she tried to erase the night’s events from his memories failed. Even immediately afterward, he remembered every detail, much as you remembered details last night. He was too strong for her, so she made him into what she was. What I didn’t know then was that by turning two of us, she’d broken the VRC’s laws—”

“VRC?”

He smiled briefly. “Sorry. Vampire Regulation Council.”

She choked back a laugh. “You’re shitting me. Even vampires have cops?”

“Without laws, there is chaos. No one, least of all beings who operate on blood and sex, can be completely trusted to self-govern. Too much leeway means too many chances for anarchy.”

Sydney fingered the pentagram necklace she wore, drawing his attention. “I never really thought about that, I guess.”

“Just like you never thought about vampires.”

“No.”

“And yet, you wear the symbol of the devil.”

“Hardly.” Now she did laugh. “The pentagram represents the four elements, and the force of the spirit. I believe in nature more than I believe in any particular god.”

He kissed her forehead gently. “An open mind often begets an open heart.”

She leaned against him, winding her fingers into his thick, silky hair. Best she not indulge his desire to talk of hearts just yet. “You said Alysia turning two of you broke the law. How?”

“Vampires are strictly prohibited from turning more than one human during their existence. The only exception is if the human they turn later ends up dying through misadventure. Then they are allowed to turn one more. The council’s main goal is to keep vampires from being detected in society. If every vampire willy-nilly turned as many humans as they wanted, our ranks would multiply. We would eventually be outed.”

“So why are you allowed to turn any, then?”

“We don’t want our people to become extinct. We also have basic needs like anyone else.” When she only stared at him, he ticked them off on his fingers. “Survival of the species. Companionship. Love.”

She swallowed. “Vampires love like humans, then.”

“Not as easily,” he said softly. “And when we mate, we mate until death, just like many animals in the wild. But we don’t just find our mates through simple selection. Our chemistry has adapted to our circumstances, and our highly altered senses allow us to find our mates through non-traditional means. Blood pheromones,” he explained as her lips pursed. “Just as humans are attracted to each other through scents, so are vampires. Once we’ve found our mate, no other lover will suffice.”

“But Lucas had sex with me.”

“We still feel arousal with others. But the bond created with our mate is something special. Something unique and rare.” Kellan stroked Sydney’s cheek. “I didn’t mean to bite you last night. Once I did, I lost all control. As soon as I smelled and tasted your blood—”

Sydney glanced down at her hand gripping the sheets. She didn’t know if she wanted to argue for or against what he was trying to tell her. The possibility was both thrilling and terrifying. “There can be no mistake?”

“No. We’re meant, Sydney.” He brushed his lips over her temple. “Tell me you can feel it too, sweetheart.”

“What happened with Alysia?” she asked, fighting not to shake. She couldn’t process all of this, not yet.

He let out a long sigh as if he’d expected no less. “Upon seeing what she’d done, she went into hiding. She had no choice. Neither of us were her mates, but she’d turned me for sport and Lucas to cover up her misdeeds. She’d done the same before and gotten away with it, but eventually the clock runs out.”

“They found her.”

“Yes. And they…eliminated her.”

She hissed out a breath. “So much for leniency.”

“The laws exist for a reason. We all know the punishment for breaking them, but that doesn’t stop the lawless amongst us from doing so. The VRC is rarely heard from, and many vampires don’t believe they really exist. They eventually come to see how wrong they are.”

“You sound as if you agree with them.”

“I do.” He shrugged. “To live without rules is dangerous for all involved.”

Sydney laughed quietly. “I’ve always hated rules. Like the unspoken one that women aren’t supposed to be interested in sex. That they aren’t supposed to want or need the attentions of more than one lover.” Because Kellan’s gold gaze sharpened, she swiftly changed the topic. “With Alysia dead, you and Lucas were on your own.”

“Yes, and we were as fumbling and afraid as baby birds that fell out of the nest. We fed like animals for awhile, on everything and anything that crossed our paths. Did whatever we had to to survive.”

“At least you had each other.”

“You’re right. And now I have you.”

Something inside her shifted into place, a piece she hadn’t even realized was missing. “I’m not saying I believe all this.”

“No, but you’re not saying you don’t.” He kissed her with every ounce of the passion she’d longed for in her relationship with Tate. His tongue lashed hers as he changed the angle, driving deep, offering all and taking all in return. Then he glided his lips across her cheek to her neck, his teeth skimming her pulsepoint as delicately as if she were made of spun glass.

Her blood boiled under her skin. Could he feel how excited he made her? Did he hear her heart quickening in her chest?

“Let me make love to you. Just me. Just you.”

As Sydney eased back, an image of him drawing his mouth from her with his fangs stained red flashed in her mind. The memory no longer aroused fear in her. Only passion. But there were new considerations. “I’m not sure we should be…intimate,” she said, hating herself even as she uttered the words.

Was she crazy?

“Why not? Is this moving too fast?”

That he didn’t try to strong-arm her and merely regarded her with a raised brow garnered him major kudos in her book. “No, not sexually. You know how much I’ve enjoyed….” There was no polite way to say it, and her normally ballsy manner of speech no longer seemed appropriate. Not when she felt so unsure of her footing. “It’s not that. It’s me. Something happened a few minutes ago—”

“What happened?”

She stared down at the hands she’d balled loosely in her lap. How to say it? “I wanted to bite you.”

She waited for him to question her. Maybe even to stare at her in wordless shock. But she never expected him to throw back his head and roar with laughter. “Is that a bad thing?”

Maybe she wasn’t being clear enough. She rubbed her fingertips over the freckles on her knee. Funny, they seemed lighter than they had just days ago. Must be some trick of the sunlight slanting over the bed.

And that was another thing. If he was a vampire, why didn’t he shriek and hide from the sun? She’d have to ask him about that, but her brand new bitey-bitey tendencies were a more pressing matter at the moment. “Not your thigh or your shoulder. Your cock. And not some little love nibble, either. I wanted to bite you like you’ve bitten me.”

“You wanted to drink from me.”

Drink. How civilized that sounded, when the act was so primal and raw. “Yes.”

Kellan threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her softly. When his cock jutted between them, she slid down to cushion his shaft between her breasts. His groan flowed like molasses over her skin, warm and sweet. “How can it be possible? How can you want to drink from me, when I haven’t turned you?”

“Easy enough.” Lucas slammed the door shut and glared at them. “For a latent vampire.”