When Jax knelt down on the pallet beside me, I couldn’t help myself. I wrapped my arms around him. He fell back, knocked off balance. Quickly, his arm caught us, kept us from truly toppling over. “Did you mean it?” I pulled back and stared into his eyes.

“Mean what?” His eyes danced in mischief.

That jerk was totally gonna make me ask, totally make me go all girl on him. I turned away, refusing to play. This wasn’t me. Okay, it wasn’t past me. Maybe new me was so desperate for love and acceptance, she’d fall for the enemy because at the moment, it sure looked that way. “Nothing,” I mumbled as I laid down on my side facing away from him.

Jax flopped onto his side, his body wrapping around mine. The comfort his cold dead body brought me never ceased to amaze me. Yet how could I want this? This…had no future. I closed my eyes as he began to kiss my neck tenderly, his lips and tongue scraping seductively against my skin, his breath making me all fluttery in places that had never fluttered before.

“I meant every word, Ash. I don’t say these words lightly. I don’t even say them to my mother.” He huffed slightly and I could sense his pain in the way he wrapped more tightly around me. “I stopped loving her long ago.”

Jax held me in silence for a moment as if lost deeply in thought. I wanted to know more, know everything. Something told me if I was patient long enough, I’d find out all I wanted to know and more.

Finally, he murmured, “In fact, in all these years as a vampire, I’ve never said those words to anyone.” He groaned. “Okay. Once, but it totally didn’t count.”

I rolled to stare up into his eyes. “How can love not count?”

He cupped my face and gently pressed his lips to mine, then his eyes flashed and he nipped at me playfully. Slowly, his hand moved down my throat, over my shoulder, and down my arm until his fingers circled my wrist. Jax eyed my skin for a moment.

“Finally ready to feed?” I bit my lower lip. I wasn’t ready yet. I wanted to know more. I wanted to hear about this other woman he might have loved.

He shook his head. “Nope. Just wishing I could give you my blood and you could see everything, my life in a single drop.” He pressed his lips against my pulsing vein. “Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. It’s a vampire thing.” Then he looked at me sideways and I knew there was this unspoken question.

“No.” I frowned. “I can’t be like you. I don’t want to live so many lifetimes. I don’t want to have to hide in the shadows.”

“But you already do,” he whispered.

I nodded, knowing the truth of his words, but still refusing to accept them. “Yes, but it’s a choice. And if I become a vampire, the choice is gone.”

Jax shrugged. “You could see it that way, or you could choose another path.” He grinned. “I chose to be a hunter.”

I rolled my eyes. “Your mother put you up to it and your motives weren’t exactly altruistic. What was that rhyme?”

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Have one for dinner. Make one a sinner.”

“Nice,” I grumbled. “So, for you, people fall into two neat little boxes. I’m dinner or a vampire in waiting.” I sat up and wrapped my arms around my knees, hugging them close. “I don’t even know why I’m talking to you. I don’t know why we’re together.” I froze and met his curious gaze. “Not that I think we’re together. I meant…proximity, sharing the same cave, all that jazz.”

“Right. I knew what you meant.” His eyes flashed once more and he’d clearly recovered, back to his often-arrogant self. He prowled over to me on his hands and knees, but I refused to cower or back down.

“I’m not afraid of you, Jax.” I glared at him.

“You’re not supposed to be. By now, you should have the tinglies in all the right places. By now, you should be opening yourself up to me, begging me to claim you.” He stared deeply into my eyes, but I was unmoved. His brow furrowed. He sat down hard. “Nothing, huh?”

“I told you. I can’t be compelled.” I shrugged. “This is what saved me when your mother turned my mother.”

“Well, it’s hurting me now,” he grumbled.

“Damn, dude. If you really wanted me, you had over a hundred years to work on your charm.” I laughed.

“I didn’t need charm. I had compulsion.” He frowned.

With a grin, I murmured, “You should totally try harder. I’m absolutely worth it.” I could actually see the hair on the back of his neck stand up angrily. I rather enjoyed how powerful it made me feel.

He ever so deliberately cracked his knuckles one by one. “And just how many guys have found out you’re worth it?”

I pursed my lips. This was rather embarrassing. Now he’d just call me out for my inexperience. My brow arched. “None. And that’s what makes me worth it.” My chin jutted out proudly. Let him say what he wanted. At least I wasn’t a whore.

Jax sighed and slowly his lips turned up at the corners enough for me to read a smile on his face. “You’re a virgin?”

“Don’t say it like that.” I glared.

“Like what?” He positively glowed and I couldn’t help but think he was holding back.

“Like you’re laughing at me. Like you think it’s so funny no one ever wanted me before.” I crossed my arms over my chest angrily.

Jax was on hands and knees once more, crawling over to me. This time, he laid me back, a hand behind my head, all knotted up in my hair as he tried to protect me from the hard stone. He moved until he was positioned in between my legs. All the while, I simply played along, let him move me at will. I wanted to see where this would go, how far he would take it. For one night, I wanted this.

Lowering his pelvis onto mine, he pressed into me and I could feel his glorious erection. Even through all of our layers of clothes, he knew how to rub against me in all the right places. I moaned and turned my head away.

He pressed his lips to my neck and for a moment, I held my breath, waiting to feel the razor-sharp prick of his teeth piercing my skin. Instead, he growled and pulled back. “Not now. Not like this.”

“But why?” This was almost too much emotion, too much rejection for me to handle for one night.

“This is wrong…to claim you like this…to claim you at all, really.” He sat back on his heels and reached out to haul me up to a sitting position. “You’re special, Ash. And if and when I claim you, it’s not going to be in some damn freezing cave. We aren’t going to have to be looking over our shoulder. We’ll be in a bed. It will be deep and meaningful, romantic, warm and fluffy.” He threw his hands up. “It will be everything you deserve. You deserve it all. I mean it. Not like this.”

I blinked back tears. This wasn’t a no. As far as I could tell, this was a not now. And I didn’t even know if I wanted to be claimed yet. I didn’t even know Jax. He was right. I shrugged and sniffled. “Okay. I give. You’re right.” I struggled to smile.

“Did you mean it?” His eyes sparkled in the way that made me want to either kiss him or kill him. There was no in between.

“Mean what?” I quickly realized he was using my words against me.

“Nothing.” He sighed playfully.

“Just feed, asshole. And don’t get too used to it.” I held out my wrist. “In my experience, you aren’t right very often.”

He opened his mouth as if he intended to argue, then he shook his head. “You are correct, madam.” Jax bowed, never taking his eyes from mine, as he brought my wrist to his lips. Then I watched as he opened his mouth, with suddenly elongated incisors, and slowly sank his fangs into my skin.