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"He could be" I was offended Who was he to decide who I could or couldn’t be with?

"Re like he’d sucker punched ut, I said, "Gabriel isn’t a marker for every human ever" I played with the strap over my shoulder so I didn’t have to look at him It was a lo, and he had to know he’d struck a nerve

Gabriel Holbrook had been my live-in boyfriend once upon a ti with me for only three months We dated for almost a year overall, and I had loved him But how can you love so about yourself that coot to be too much for us both

He left, and I hadn’t seen him since

"You can’t have a relationship with a human It puts us all at risk"

My sadness filtered away, replaced with hot rage "The council doesn’t get to tell me who I can and can’t date! I am not one of you, and they’ve made that perfectly clear"

"If Tyler finds out what you are, we’d need to wipe his ry, not rising tome the cold, hard truth "If his memory couldn’t be altered…"

"I know" It didn’t need to be said If Tyler’sto be fooled, he’d be killed And I would be to bla our arrival at the penthouse floor

It opened on a secondary lobby, which consisted of a long hallway, dirass On each side of the hall were two doors, marked PH1, PH2, PH3 and PH4 If memory served from what I’d read in the Times article about the hotel, behind each door was a foyer and suests to their appropriate penthouse level

I was reaching for the bell on PH3 e heard so move behind the door It wasn’t Charlie--this person was too heavy and the footfalls louder and less deliberate than I knew his to be There was the noise of scuffling heels on marble floor, a muffled screa I was frozen to the spot, realizing with cold horror I’d just heard a girl die less than two feet away and hadn’t been able to stop it

An instant before the door swung open Holden grabbed ainst the entrance to PH2 My eyes widened with surprise, and I tried to ignore the sudden disco into my back where it was sandwiched between the wall and me I hadn’t felt or seen Holden move In one breath I was one place, in the next I was on the opposite side of the hall with a vaainst me

I had opened e, bald vauard cliché, exit the door for PH3 with a liet a better look at her, but Holden had a different plan in mind that I was not made privy to until it was in action

His hand cupped my chin and forcedords, because the other vampire would hear as said in such a narrow hallway Instead,expression that tried to help me understand what he was up to I didn’t knohat he was planning, but I got the subtext--don’t fight it

Then his mouth was on mine

For a moment, from sheer surprise, I tried to pull back But Holden was a vaer He held me still with one hand After that, I accepted there wasme and let myself yield to it

He kissed me with the deliberate precision of someone who had learned to kiss over the course of two hundred years When soet who and where you are, and what brought you there It wasn’t long before I surrendered to his efforts and an as a decoy kiss, just lips on lips But when he sensed I was no longer fighting hiue tentatively brushed against his He buried his hand inthe smooth line of my neck This was second nature for a vampire, where sex and blood went hand in hand But if ere doing this to pretend ere just a frisky couple, unable to wait until ere through the door, we couldn’t behave like vampires We needed to be huthe full line of his body to keepto escape, but he kissed me harder and more enthusiastically than before I putupwards fro hie of hs His kneethe heave a little hop so he could lift ainst hian trailing down s were exposed and grazing over

The elevator swished closed, and the bald va kisses stopped at the sound, and I froze, wide-eyed and painfully aware of my precarious position I stared at hi the usual chocolate brown of his eyes He put me down and was on the opposite side of the hall before I’d had a chance to sle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>