Page 98 of Good Vampires Go to Heaven

Needless to say, he was confused.

At least, the world was rid of Lucipires, and he’d escaped just in time. That was no small thing.

And while the world was no longer rid of evil, terrorism seemed to have settled down a bit. Zeb had a television in his room, and he watched the news practically all the time. There was nothing else to do. And no one was permitted to talk to him, not even those who delivered his meals to him. If the network anchors were to be believed, terrorism was on the decline. At least the madness of the past week was gone . . . the extreme examples of depravity. Those that—he knew, though they did not—had been caused by the Lucipire influence.

Now, if only he could settle things with Regina. Make her understand why he’d acted the way he had. Not that he’d had a good excuse, but that there was an explanation other than complete disregard for her feelings.

All his good intentions were for naught when he got a huge whiff of cinnamon and in stormed Regina. With her red hair wild about her head, wearing the black turtleneck and tight black jeans he’d come to favor, and sparks practically flying from her blue eyes, she was a sight to behold.

Thor, who’d become attached to Zeb like a barnacle on a ship, screeched at the sight of his former mistress and darted under the bed. Regina’s upper lip curled with distaste at the traitorous feline. She must think Thor was just like him. Not to be trusted.

“Regina!” he said, and without any forethought, he yanked her into a tight embrace, then fell back on the bed with her atop him.

“Oomph!” was all she managed to get out. He’d apparently knocked the wind right out of her.

No matter! He was kissing her face and neck and hair. She kept swatting him away, but he was not to be deterred. “This will be the first time I’ve seen you in the daylight. Naked, I mean.” He shoved her shirt up to expose her black lace bra. He loved black lace bras. He loved no bras better.

“You’re not going to be looking at me in daylight. Yikes! Stop it! That’s not why I came here.”

He’d managed to undo the center clasp on her bra and separate the fabric, letting her breasts spill out. And spill they did. He smiled, which only enraged her more. He couldn’t help but be pleased, though. Staring back at him were large, round, firm breasts with rose-colored nipples. “Oh, Regina! How you look!”

“Don’t look. I told you, don’t look.”

Was she crazy? He was looking, all right. And thank heavens for female hormones because Regina might be fighting his advances, but at least one part of her body was happy to see him. Her nipples were already distended, and he hadn’t even touched them yet.

Remembering how sensitive her breasts were, he put his lips to her breast and drew the whole areola and nipple into his mouth. He alternately sucked and licked. She tasted like cinnamon and sugar and heaven.

Regina let out one long moan. “I don’t want you,” she said. At the same time, she put her arms around his shoulders and caressed his back, then began to tug his shirt up and over his head.

“I wanted to talk to you. I intended to talk to you. I should explain to you first,” he tried to say, but his hands had other ideas. They were busy doing the same to her, taking off her shirt, admiring the skin exposed. She was soon bare to the waist, just as he was.

“I don’t want any of your explanations. Lie down. On your belly,” she ordered.

“What? But I want to—”

“Do it.”

He complied. Gladly. And shrugged out of his jeans and shoes in the process. It was amazing how flexible and quick a guy could be undressing when the occasion called for it. This occasion did.

“Oh, that is unfair,” she said.

“What’s unfair?” he asked, twisting his head to peer up at her over his shoulder.

She slapped his head back down, face to the pillow. “You have the best, world-class butt in the world, that’s what! How’s a woman to resist that?”

Don’t. That’s how. He smiled into the pillow and relaxed. Things were going his way without any effort. Why interfere with nature?

He felt her straddle his butt then, and, holy crap, when had she gotten naked? Her bare knees were folded at his waist and her bare behind sat on his bare behind. He could swear he felt her soft curls, as well.

His erection grew, painfully, under him.

He started to raise his head again. “Regina, I think—”

“Don’t you dare think,” she said with female illogic. “Thinking is what caused this whole mess.”

He wanted to ask what “whole mess” she referred to. Her rescuing him? Their lifemate business? His seeming ill-use of her for his own purposes? His failure to reciprocate her words of love? His lying to her about his plans for the final battle at Horror? But any questions he might have asked melted under her sweet ministrations to his back.

She didn’t say anything, but she sighed deeply as she traced the scars that crisscrossed so much of his skin. There were many of them, and they were ugly. He knew because he’d been able to view them in the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. But, by the way she touched the welts, and then kissed a path from his shoulders to the small of his back, over and over, he could tell that she didn’t see them as repulsive.