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He entered with a polite nod and took a e banister led up to the second floor to the right and wound upwards in a se someone to look up into the part of the second floor ay that accessed the other rooh that he didn&039;t feel like it was blaring at hi atmosphere The floors were richly tiled in the main areas, but he could see into a nearby roo

His attention returned to Katrina, and she gestured towards the sitting roorand staircase The roo out onto the front yard and circle driveway in front of the house The furniture was contehter carpeting in the room Mediterranean artwork decorated the walls

He considered the large couch, s chairs expertly placed to allow a grand view of the roolanced at the oak end tables and coffee table, which added a classic touch A sainst the far end of the rooh likely it didn&039;t receive a lot of use considering Georgia&039;s generally ht

She sat next to hih distance between them that he didn&039;t feel unco soh not necessarily scared of her, he still felt a little wary His eyes studied her at length as if seeing her for the first ti who he saw He wasn&039;t really sure why he should have expected so different in her appearance fro so

"Can I offer you so to drink?" she asked with a smile, well aware of his closer inspection of her She assessed his body language for the second ti heard his increased heart rate the moment she opened the front door It was habit with her nor because she wanted to s She was glad to see hirateful he&039;d seen fit to allow her another chance for the their possible future together

"Thanks, not just now," he replied with a more supportive expression than he felt I&039;m a little too old to have butterflies in my stomach, he chastised himself irritably He felt like a ti you for saving an and then added sheepishly "I suppose the park isn&039;t necessarily &039;Caleb-safe&039; just yet"

She found his aard hborhood association suggesting that a guard fence should be installed soon Children could easily get hurt by falling over the incline"

"Adults too," he a blindly into dark, foreign areas could be dangerous for anyone," she replied with a slight edge He winced at the mild admonishment

Easy Katrina, she warned herself She was annoyed because she cared for his safety, and he&039;d acted soht

"Nevertheless, thanks for helping me from a possibly bad fall," he offered sincerely

"You&039;re welcome," she accepted in a more conciliatory tone "And I&039; the event" She had tried not to hurt him She hoped he understood that shenearly breathless with shock as he went over the edge of the ravine Glad that I was able tobefore he fell

He rubbed absently at his right shoulder where she had pinned hiot a sore shoulder from that"

"Um, remember the tree branch?" Katrina asked pointedly In all her years, nobody ever tried to wallop her with a tree branch Still, she supposed it was a expression and sighed He felt rather embarrassed by the chain of events in retrospect "I&039;m really sorry about that," he insisted "Please understand I&039;ently She easily recalled the intense fear in his eyes that night and regretted that she had been the source

He shook his head slightly in resigned fashion and confessed, "Exactly" Following a silent pause, he asked, "How&039;s your ar: "Oh, the tree branch I&039;ood," he responded as his eyes widened a little with surprise "But I swung really hard at you You knohile hardly ood hoined itat least," he proh h little varatulated herself

He considered his evaluation of the tree branch and hoould have injured most anybody else under siized "I&039;ll be happy to replace it"

"No need," she countered quickly

A few silent moments passed as he mulled her responses over in his head Sheanticipated the tree limb incident must have made an impression on him Let him think about that aister the hit?" he pressed a little defensively

"Look, are you happy I&039;m not injured or not?" she retorted with a hint of annoyance "Because it sounds to me like you&039;re more upset your &039;little s to take a lotbranch toegotistical, she thought irritably

A shiver went up Caleb&039;s spine briefly as he considered her reply He held up his hands in a surrendering gesture, realizing his ego needed to take a back seat really quickly "No, you&039;re absolutely right I&039;m sorry, that ay out of line," he conceded earnestly "I&039;m very happy you weren&039;t hurt and that you&039;re so durable"

There was another lengthy pause She s her entle eyes

"So funny?" he inquired warily

"Oh sorry," she replied "I was just thinking back to the shocked look on your face after you hit me with that tree branch and it broke in half"

His shoulders slumped forward, and he conceded, "Maybe we should just try and forget the whole event"

"Perhaps," she agreed good-naturedly, but with a s expression

He sat still for ainto her beautiful green eyes He looked away suddenly, aardly wondering what he should say next

She considered hihtly when he looked away Katrina realized that she needed to lay her cards on the table so she would kno to proceed further with hi his eyes darted to meet hers at the sound of her voice "I&039;m sorry if I scared you, and I know you have a lot of questions for me, which I&039;ll be happy to answer But I need to knohat happened last Friday night The degree of terror in your eyes looked overwhel, and I can&039;t think of what I could have done to scare you so badly"

He sed hard as the ain "It was your eyes They glowed so brightly," he explained "And soible Only, I knew at that moment I needed to be afraid - no, terrified forstrike from nowhere, and all I could do was run as fast as possible I couldn&039;t even think clearly Everything was like a blur intrue by his body language She wondered if it were some bizarre reaction related to her hypnotic atteht in front of hih she wasn&039;t sensing fear from him so much as nervousness

"Do I need to be?" he asked cautiously He really wasn&039;t sure what he was supposed to feel All he kneas that he very much still cared for her

"Scared or afraid? No," she clarified "Careful? Yes"

He nodded "Well, maybe I a to be careful?"

She considered him for a moment and reached out to touch his hand that rested on top of his knee He flinched only slightly, but his reaction still saddened her However, she proceeded to softly cover the top of his hand with hers

"I won&039;t intentionally seek to hurt you, Caleb," she assured him, "except in the case of a couple of rare instances"

"Such as?" he asked carefully as his pulse increased

She still gently held her hand atop his and explained, "There are a few i-term relationship with me, Caleb A couple of the"

He thought seriously about her explanation and ventured, "Like when you told me not to tell anybody about you"

Katrina nodded affirest rule of all, yes," she stated firentleness in her eyes

He took a deep breath "I suppose I can appreciate the importance of a rule like that," he conceded

"Good," she explained "Because that rule is what protects me from humanity"

They fell silent for a brief time before she returned to a previous topic "This won&039;t work between us if you&039;re always afraid of me," she ventured quietly "Do you understand?"

He considered her stateazed at her face, so soft and lovely, he had a hard tis

"Yes," he nodded slowly "I understand"

"That&039;s good," she said with a hopeful ser "But you need to explain things so I&039;m not afraid Information defeats fear of the unknown"

She nodded, i about as well as she could have hoped, so far

"What do you need for me to do or say to help inform you better?"

"Well, I have a few questions, you see," he ventured hesitantly "If that&039;s not a probleht with resignation On the few occasions during her lengthy existence when the few men she revealed herself to wanted to understand her better, they all presented a host of questions, sohed and nodded "Ask your questions"

But he sensed soned, or perhaps melancholy in her reaction to him It bothered him, and he realized he didn&039;t want to be a source of unpleasantness to her

"Never ently "I&039;ll just find out over time You&039;ll tell h Nobody&039;s ever responded like that before, she recalled They all had insistent, so

Caleb rose, abruptly deciding that he should leave Their one well, but he didn&039;t want to press his luck Besides, he wasn&039;t sure he could keep froer

"Wait," she said with concern as she rose to stand before hi?"

"Well, home," he replied "Maybe we could see a ?"

Her eyes widened slightly and she adopted a slightly confused expression She was suddenly feeling co e tone She was so over her at that o and suddenly didn&039;t care about his potential questions She just knew that she wanted him to stay

"So then, you&039;re busy tomorro about Saturday then?" he persisted

Katrina blinked and slowly but deliberately stepped towards him

His eyes widened with surprise, and he asked, "What&039;s wrong, Katrina?" His pulse quickened, and he found an anxious tension rising inside hio, Caleb," she whispered to hio yet" She just wanted him to stay with her She&039;d been so worried that he wouldn&039;t have wanted even to see her again, but was relieved that he was finally there

Her left hand reached out to caress his cheek lightly with her fingertips Her right arm subtly wrapped around the small of his back, and she htly brushed his

He drew in a breath fro his skin He pressed his lips against hers gently, but with more force than she had, and kissed her passionately The next thing he knew the roo on the couch with her on top of him They continued to kiss for a tih his hair and across his scalp, causing hihtly with appreciation

She nestled her lips in the small of his soft neck and kissed hiain She felt strong desire rise in her, and her fangs began to extend slightly The scent of his skin and the underlying blood beneath called to her, and she could feel his strong pulse against her lips as she kissed him

She abruptly stopped, and her entire body froze in place

"What&039;s wrong?" he whispered as he turned his head quickly to gaze at her He saw her eyes glowing green back at hihtly

"I&039;m sorry, but it&039;s not safe for you, Caleb," Katrina insisted It was so long since her last intimate encounter with a man Her body was suddenly so alive with desire for both his body and his blood, and the dual urges in her threatened to overwhelm her like a tidal wave It was all too much to process at once, and she feared for his life at that moment, afraid she would lose control

Caleb&039;sa passionate ether, and the next minute she suddenly stopped And what&039;s with her eyes? he wondered

She sensed his confusion and began to push away froainst hi ean to exert her extraordinary strength to disengage froht now It&039;s too ht and kissed the top of her head "Then ed with sudden resolve "You said that you didn&039;t want to hurtat that moment as he wondered if he were about to die or not He just knew he didn&039;t want to let her go, ever

She concentrated intently on caler At similar moments in her past with other men, a number of them had suffered because of it For the with her With her passion came the desire for blood, and one was rarely relinquished without partaking of the other But Caleb was different She needed to protect hihtly to his body, her face was pressed against his neck, and she could feel his pulse throbbing through his skin She realized it was so painfully long since she had rested in a man&039;s arms "I want you so badly," she rasped as her lips found the soft skin of his neck again "I want you in so htly and whispered into her hair, "I want you, and I want you to have htly as she tried to focus on re to me He has no idea!

"Stop," she protested

"No," he insisted "I&039;, so foolish

Yet his sense of trust in her merely added to her desire for him, and Katrina made the decision to find the balance necessary to be with hihting to control the feral ees within her The self-discipline that served her so well in the past began to reassert itself, and she felt her body respond accordingly The future was so uncertain, and he ht

"Hold very still," she whispered with resignation as she kissed the soft skin of his neck "Try to relax, but don&039;t move unless I direct you to"

He sed hard and felt her lips ain on his soft skin He felt her tongue as it sensually touched his skin, and wanted so very much to please her, to trust her ih it was also somehow familiar It was a numbness that spread on the area of his neck where she kissed hiue was pressed He reht hand began to caress hih his body, and the nuue against his skin anymore

"Now freeze," she whispered into his neck

He felt a slight prick in his neck, not terribly painful Her hand continued to caress and ently through his hair in a soothing fashion He felt hiht he heard soft slurping sounds He closed his eyes and patiently waited, while also appreciating the closeness they were finally sharing

Katrina was in ecstasy His blood was delicious to her as it flowed down her throat, but she was careful to draw on hi created a life bond between the It was a form of consuainst his throat again, and she was oncesound and slowly opened his eyes to find her green gaze illuhtly across her lips

"Oh, Caleb," she cooed "I do love you"

She was so very pleased with hi to allow her to do that She had sensed his reservation, and she had even tried to warn him But he had persisted, and despite the fact he was unsure of his fate, he still wanted to please her ThatShe laid claiular moment of complete clarity she decided that he was to be her rin, and she bent to kiss hihtlyin love with you too," he offered

He knew that, despite the brief time they had known each other, he meant every word of his statement He was so happy to have her in his life and didn&039;t care if she were a vampire or not And most of all, he truly believed sheshe had done since he firstand considerate towards hier than for anyone else before, and he realized itshort of love

"And no need for worry," Katrina offered softly with an arin "You can&039;t be turned into a vampire from e shared"

She rose from the couch, and he started to join her, but she pressed her hand against his chest "Stay," she ordered as she slipped out of her shoes "I&039;ll be right back"

He settled back onto the couch, and she seehts in the hallway and entryway go out one by one

Caleb heard a quick noise across the roolow of the outdoor lights filtered in through the s in the roo there before hi only her silvery bra and panties, and her eyes were glowing slightly Her hair was undone and hung like a ave her a soel, he silently ier

"Now it&039;s your turn, Caleb," she purred with satisfaction whileto undo the buttons of his shirt Her eyes narrowed slyly with anticipation

In the end, she was a beautiful, sexy, green-eyed, red-haired demon that took him on a heavenly, erotic journey for the re