I woke with a start and the distinct sensation of being watched. My eyes popped open and I found myself staring up from the couch at a massive male hunched over me.

And it wasn’t the male I'd been trying to lure.

Panic rolled through me like a wave as my hand flew to my mouth.

I had left the door unlocked, the windows open, and now I was going to get murdered for it. I tried to bite back the fear rising from my stomach and its tentacles wrapping around my heart, and also tried not to think about the fact that this guy had seen me drooling.

For the third time in as many days, I gulped, said my prayers, and wondered if there would be any point in trying to fight. I didn't think that there was, since he was as tall, if not taller, than my rescuer from last night and just as built.

What the hell had happened to my normal, boring life? It was absolutely ridiculous that I found myself in this position.

Again.

And it was my own damned fault this time.

I bolted upright, my eyes desperately searching out the knife I’d used to cut my hand. Cursing to myself, I realized that I'd set it down on my dining room table when I'd walked to the window earlier. It would be no use to me now.

Swallowing a lump in my throat, my gaze lifted to the guy who was standing over me. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I thought that they were playing tricks on me.

They had to be. The eyes I was staring up into couldn’t be real. They were an electric indigo color, lighter around his pupil with the color bleeding darker from there, surrounded by a ring around the edges that was almost navy.

Short golden hair was tousled, looking like he'd either just rolled out of bed or had spent hours getting it styled, although I’d have guessed the latter. Despite the cold, he was wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt without a jacket, the sleeves pushed up to his elbows.

Jet-black tattoos contrasted with the pale skin of his forearms and hands and another tattoo peeked out from under his neckline. Black wings stretched out over his collarbones and neck, while the dark whorls of ink on his arms and hands were a variety of intricately designed and shaded Celtic and other unfamiliar symbols.

Studying me as intensely as I was studying him, a light eyebrow raised and his head tilted as he held up his palms.

"Jaeger said to tell you that I wasn't here to hurt you and to look as unthreatening as possible, is it working?"

"What’s a Jaeger?" I blurted out. But as soon as the words left my lips, excitement started to take the place of fear, because I was pretty sure I knew.

Amusement danced in his one-of-a-kind eyes. "Male, about my height, you might remember him as the guy who did the world a favor by ridding it of that abominable excuse for a man last night."

"Are you a vampire, too?" I managed to croak. Damn it, why couldn't I have sounded as cool and calm as he did?

Smirking, he nodded and ran his eyes over my body in a way that immediately grabbed its attention but didn’t instill fear, just like his friend. He wasn't going to hurt me. I don’t know how I knew it, but I did.

"Was it the welcome sign or the blood that drew you here?" I asked, unable to keep the bubbling excitement from my voice.

Mel was going to freak the eff out.

“What?” He frowned a little, confusion crossing his features as he shook his head. "Neither. Jaeger sent me. You dropped your change purse with your ID in it in the woods last night. He found it on his way back and asked me to bring it to you." He tugged my little purse from his back pocket and set it on the coffee table beside me.

My cheeks heated as I rose to my feet, beyond embarrassed when it dawned on me how silly I must've sounded to him and then my face became an inferno when I remembered what I was wearing.

My hands flew out to try and cover my chest, fully aware of the fact that it was nearly bare. The dried little cut on my hand scraped my skin as I covered myself up and made me feel even more stupid.

Since I didn't have a smooth bone in my body, the guy noticed what I was feeling and at once the amusement that lit his eyes burned brighter. But when our gazes locked, something else sparked in those electric eyes.

Something that looked a lot like lust.

For a moment, we both stood there, simply staring at one another in silence, and it became clear that I wasn't the only one who was feeling a touch of want. The air seemed to spark between us with attraction and I couldn't look away from him suddenly.

He was breathtaking, mesmerizing and unlike any man I'd seen before, with the exception of the guy from last night.

Jaeger, apparently. It was a strange and sexy name, and damn if it didn’t fit him.

These guys were in a league all of their own. Heck, I wasn’t sure they were even playing the same sport as the guys I’d met.

My lips parted on an involuntary gasp as his tongue darted out to sweep across his lower lip. Goose bumps spread on my arms and my nipples formed hard little rocks as our eyes held true, unwavering.

I didn't know what it was that he was doing to me, but the kind of attraction I felt to him was unparalleled. Again, except for maybe what I'd felt with Jaeger last night. It was entirely unnatural.

And that’s when it hit me.

Outrage shot through me and I glared up at him. "Ohh, I know what you’re up to, mister. Stop making me want you with your vampire magic," I snapped, as irritated with him and his buddy as I was with myself for not realizing it sooner. They were clearly using their powers to make me feel this way. What an idiot I’d been not to see it sooner.

The guy didn't say anything, but his chin dropped by a fraction of an inch and his eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, intensifying like a light switch had been flipped behind them.

At the exact same time, I was reduced to a massive pool of aching need. The attraction that I'd felt to him before had been nothing compared to this. I couldn’t speak, couldn't think of anything else, couldn't remember ever thinking about anything else. I wanted him. No, I needed him so bad it hurt. My clit throbbed, my skin felt like it was on fire and my breaths came in ever-quickening pants. I whimpered, if he didn't touch me soon–

Just as abruptly as that intense need had started, it stopped.

Flashing me a slow smile that had nearly the same effect, he tipped his golden head in a clipped nod. "That's what would happen if I was using magic. This…” He gestured between the two of us. "What you've been feeling since you opened your eyes, that's just biology, love."

"What? That's not possible…" I was appalled, how could I have such all-encompassing chemistry with two different men. It just wasn't right.

Was it?

The panty-dropping smile from before changed, morphing into a softer, more understanding one. Even his voice was gentler when he spoke again. "It's okay that you're attracted to both of us. Vampires don't subscribe to the same prudish rules that humans do when it comes to love and sex."

"But I…" I trailed off, not knowing what I actually wanted to protest. Well, knowing what I wanted to protest but not how to voice it without sounding like an idiot. A nonsensical guilt was seeping from my gut to my heart and I had no idea what to do about this feeling or why any of this mattered in the scheme of things.

There were vampires in the world and I had one in my living room.

Focus, Starling.

"We prefer it that way, you know,” he told me, his eyes never leaving mine. There was nothing but sincerity in them, and another uncharacteristic feeling spread through me. It was one of implicit and absolute trust and something told me that was no magic, either.

"What do you mean?" I didn't even know his name, yet I was waiting for his answer like it had the power to change my life. On second thought, it probably did.

His gaze raked over my body again, making me feel more sexy, beautiful and wanted than I ever had before. I was a girl next door type, not the type that turned heads or that made guys like him look at me like he was one false move away from taking me right there on the couch. My face was even-featured and my body was relatively fit and functional, despite the stubborn ten pounds I was always trying to lose. There was nothing all that special about the way I looked, but when he looked at me, I felt like there was.

"I'm Maddox, by the way,” he said, when his eyes finally ventured back to mine. "Starling, right?"

"Yes," I whispered, struggling to find my voice under his hot gaze.

"Look, I'm not only here to return your change purse or for the distinct lack of garlic in your house. I also came to show you something, if you'll come with me?"

Holding out his hand, he waited patiently for my answer. I didn't know what to do. There was a voice in my head and an angel on my shoulder, screaming at me to get this strange man out of my house. Him and his dangerous ability to dominate my body without even touching me. To slam the door behind him, lock it and let go of everything that had happened since the night before. To simply enjoy my vacation time and go back to my normal life.

But I already knew that that voice wasn't going to win, because the devil on my other shoulder and the voice championing it in my head was much louder. So much louder that I could hardly hear the angel before I felt myself nodding.

"I'll have to change before we go anywhere. I can't exactly go anywhere dressed like this."

He sighed, regret over my statement clear in his expression. "Pity, if it were up to me, you would spend the rest of your life wearing either that or nothing at all, but I suppose you're right."

Raising the hand that he was still holding out to me higher, he touched it softly to my shoulder. The tips of his fingers grazed my skin so lightly that I almost thought that I imagined his touch, but I wasn't imagining it. His fingers were warm, sure and gone all too soon.

"There you are, that ought to do it." He smiled, eyes heating as they trailed lazily down my body once more.

I looked down and a small squeak escaped my lips when I saw that I was no longer wearing the white nightdress, but a tight-fitting, long red dress that fit me like it'd been stitched onto my body. "How did you do that?" I managed.

He laughed a little as I gaped at him, then wiggled his fingers and reached for my hand. "Magic. Literally. Come, your carriage awaits."

Looking at me expectantly, he let his eyes drop to his hand and I knew that he was waiting for me to take it. I took a deep breath, wondering what I was getting myself into, but not doubting my decision to go with him for a second. I placed my hand in his and I could have sworn that I saw an actual spark, but he was probably just messing with me with his magic again.

When I looked over at him, though, I saw him staring at our joined hands with a mixture of disbelief, satisfaction and surprise. "See, I told you. Chemistry. There’s really nothing like it."

"You mean, you didn't do that?" I wasn't sure if I believed him when he shook his head in answer, but it didn't matter. Not really. Not when my hand fit perfectly in his, pops of electricity traveling from my hand, to my heart and settling at the apex of my legs. Wherever we were going, I would follow him to the ends of the earth if it meant holding on to the way that he was making me feel.

Dragging me to the door, he seemed impatient suddenly. I caught my reflection in one of my open windows and came to a stop so fast that he jerked back a little from the force of it, turning to face me with questions in his eyes. "What now? Please don't tell me that you've changed your mind about coming with me."

I shook my head, not believing that the woman in the window could actually be me. The red dress looked even better than I'd thought at first, its scooping neckline brushing the very tops of my breasts. Its bodice clung to my curves, accentuating each in the very best way possible. It hugged my hips and made my ass look great, before flaring out just a tiny bit from my mid-thighs to where it met the floor.

My hair, which should have been in a messy ponytail, tousled from sleep, shone as if I'd just returned from the salon and was swept up from my neck in an elegant updo that I never would have been able to pull off myself.

“You like?” he asked, eyes glittering.

Nodding, I told him honestly, “I do.”

“Let’s go show you off, then.”

I closed the windows quickly before leaving and he led me out, guiding me with a distracting hand on the small of my back.

As it turned out, my carriage--as he'd called it, in reality was a low-slung fancy, sports car. Gleaming in pale moonlight, the ambient lighting from the street lamps, and the one on my porch, it was pitch black and had tinted windows. I wondered if that was because he liked privacy, or so that he could drive around when it was light out.

Those were exactly the kind of answers I was hoping to get from him and Jaeger, and sooner rather than later. Maddox opened one of the two doors for me, still holding my hand with his free one as I lowered myself into his fancy car. A second later, he was sliding in beside me, and the car purred to life at the touch of a button next to the steering wheel. The buttery, soft leather seats were as black as the car and more buttons than I would have known what to do with were scattered around a navigational screen, while rock music flowed from speakers with such clarity that the band themselves might have been serenading us from the almost non-existent backseat.

I was just starting to relax into my luxurious seat when I noticed that he'd turned towards the seedier part of town. "Where are we going?"

The music was soft enough that he heard my mumbled question, glanced at me with a private smile curling his lips, and reached for my hand again. He placed it on the gear lever underneath his then turned his attention back to the road. "You'll see. You're in for a treat. I think you're going to love it."

"Not if it's around here, I'm not." Not after what I'd been through the night before, but then I looked over at Maddox, taking in his angular profile and relaxed posture and I knew I would be fine. Safe with him.

"Trust me, Starling,” he said, his deep baritone soothing away the lingering nerves.

When he pulled up outside of a motel, a face brick building that seemed to have fallen into disrepair at least a century ago, I started to wonder if my trust had been misplaced. "If this is the kind of place that you can rent by the hour, you should know that I'm not that type of girl."

Maddox chuckled, parked and rounded the car to my side once he was out. "It's not that kind of place, I promise."

"If you say so," I whispered, clinging to his offered hand as if it was a lifeline. I should’ve texted Mel, just to let her know before I’d left the house. I should’ve closed my damned windows before I’d fallen asleep and called it a day. But as much as the rational part of my brain sounded the alarms, my gut still felt rock solid. This male meant me no harm.

We reached a door that had a security gate closed in front of it, but it was unlocked and we entered without any further words.

The lobby was abysmal, reeked of ancient tobacco and what I imagined broken dreams to smell like. There was a creepy, sniveling-looking clerk with oily hair who barely lifted his eyes from his girlie magazine before nodding at Maddox and going back to it.

However, at the same time that he did, a panel on the wall behind him started sliding open to reveal a much larger, much fancier lobby with stark white walls and marble floors. I barely had time to marvel at the stark contrast between the two areas before Maddox was leading me into the new lobby.

The panel slid shut behind us, sealing us into this bizarrely, hidden place. Maddox seemed to sense my awe, shock and confusion, giving me a comforting smile as he put his hand protectively to my lower back and led me down a hallway where the music was drifting through an open door.

We came to a stop outside of it, and as unlikely as it seemed, the club it housed was packed with bodies. Dancing, drinking, laughing under strobe lights that flashed red and purple and blue.

It took me a second to realize that the inhabitants of said club weren't all human. In fact, it was completely possible that I was the only human person here.

What the…?

I was frozen in the doorway, not sure if I would be able to move, but then Maddox wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pointed to my rescuer from the night before. Jaegar was standing at the far end of the long bar and Maddox tipped his chin the other male’s direction.

"Come," he said. "You could probably use a drink right about now."

Or maybe ten… because I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.