Chapter 6

"I see you're not covered in blood tonight," he said, turning to face me again as he stood next to Eddie. "Easy night slaying?"

Eddie stared at me through his glasses, likely reading every thought on my face before I blanked it.

"Yeah, not too bad. And I knocked off a little early to do more research." Of the Eddie and Jacek variety, but also the demon variety. I only had a few nights left before my birthday, after all, so I needed to get cracking on how not to become the devil's bride.

"Research. Right." Jacek nodded as if he didn't believe me, probably because he'd heard me eyeball fucking Eddie upstairs last night.

"Looks like I caught you in the middle of..." I shook my head at the mats on the floor. "Gymnastics?"

Jacek flashed that panty-dropping grin and crossed his arms. "Judo, actually. I teach a variety of martial arts to vampires a couple nights a week, sometimes here and sometimes not. A family of four just left before you came here."

"You..." My eyes bugged out of my head. "You teach martial arts to vampires?"

"Yeah. It helps pay the bills. Eddie here works as an online law librarian."

A teacher and a librarian. That was so unexpected for some reason, even though it made total sense. It was also hot as hell. Men who used their brains were rare in Podunk City, but it had always been an instant turn-on of mine.

"Eddie's the brains of the operation." Jacek looked at Eddie and rubbed his mouth like he wanted Eddie to do the same and get rid of some stray blood or something. Eddie took the bait and brought his hand to his jaw, but then realized it was all a joke when Jacek burst out laughing.

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Jacek's not that good at martial arts. He knows I could take him out if he gets too territorial."

Jacek threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, is that right? How many years do I have on you again? A hundred and sixty?"

"Doesn't matter, old man," Eddie said. "I know ways I could take you out without breaking a sweat."

An image of the two of them sparring leaped into my head, shirtless obviously, the smell of testosterone thick in the air. I honestly didn't know who would win in that fight since I'd never seen either one in action, but it would be quite a sight to see as long as no one really got hurt. An arm-wrestling match would work too. Or just standing around shirtless.

Jacek crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Eddie. "I'll bet you fifty dollars that you can't even hit me."

Eddie shook his head, a pitying look on his face. "Do you not remember the last time you bet me and lost?"

"That was to see who could bite into a waterbed filled with blood and drain it the fastest." Jacek chuckled. "I don't think anyone really won that bet."

I grinned at the playfulness between the two of them. I never knew vampires could be so lovable and...real. It kind of made me feel guilty about being a slayer, but I'd never met any quite like these two. I mean three...

"Where's Sawyer?" I asked. "Is he here?"

"Yeah, he's here." Jacek walked barefoot over the blue mat, angling his back away from me. "He keeps to himself mostly."

Yet I'd felt him mentally undressing me from behind last night on the way here. Did he not want to see me or talk to me like these two? It made no sense, but I couldn't help the twinge of hurt that gave me. I didn't even know him. Not like I knew Jacek and Eddie, but still. I was getting to know them, and I liked them. It would be nice to get to know Sawyer too.

"Ready?" Eddie jerked his head for me to follow him up the stairs, his citrine gaze like a hot caress against my skin.

"Yep."

We started for the library upstairs again and seated ourselves at the table where a fresh stack of books waited, along with a steaming cup of coffee and another slice of pie. I was going to gain so many pounds with this devil proposal research, but I was strangely okay with that. Because pie.

I laid my books down, scanning the titles of the new ones. "The Power of Dreams," I read. "You think my dreams are important?"

"Depends on what you dream about," he said, pulling that one off the stack.

I sealed my lips on a smile, my cheeks flaming. My dreams last night had been off the charts, starring three vampires in vibrant detail, but I didn't think he needed to know about that.

"Sunshine," Eddie purred, and it sounded as though he was repeating it.

"Huh?"

"Your dreams. What are they about?"

I licked my lips, and Eddie tracked the movement as if my mouth were his prey. Flashes of my dreams sparked in my head, lowering a powerful heat between my thighs. Skin, naked and hot, and biting with fangs, marking me as theirs, all three of them, and round after round of satisfying sex, so much that I thought I would burn up from the inside out. I gripped the armrests of the chair, trying to control my increasingly erratic breaths.

"Just...you know..." I swallowed. "Normal stuff."

Eddie's chest heaved against his suit jacket. A red preternatural glow ignited around his irises, and the twin points of fangs peeked from behind his full lips. "Sunshine," he growled, "your desire smell is through the roof."

"Would you like to do something about that?" I blinked hard as soon as the words had flown out of my mouth, stunned at my own brazenness, but I meant every word. I shoved my chair back and around, then looped my foot around the leg of his chair, and just like he'd done last night, I scooted him out to face me.

"Yes," he said, his voice as sinful as any demon's. "Yes, I would." He dropped to his knees in front of me and nudged my thighs open as he drew closer, his gaze alight with fiery hunger. His fingertips curled over the waistband of my yoga pants and underwear. "Can you promise me something?"

Raw need coursed through my body. I lifted my hips slightly and shifted toward him so my panties rubbed against my suddenly very wet folds. I pushed my lips together to stifle a moan while slick heat gathered at my center until it throbbed. "Anything."

"I need you to keep your hands on the armrests. No touching me. Can you do that for me, Sunshine?" He rolled the fabric of my yoga pants and panties down my thighs, my aching pussy now on full display, and I didn't even care.

"I promise."