Claiming the Vampire by Chloe Hart

Evan. I’ll sleep in flannel pajamas and a parka if you want, but I need to feel your arms around me.”
    She laid her hand over his, and a sense of rightness settled over him—the feeling he only got when he and Celia were touching.
    “All right,” he heard himself say, even though he knew it wouldn’t be easy to restrain himself if he held her in his arms. But he couldn’t deny her this when he wanted it so much, too.
    And when she smiled at him like that, he couldn’t be sorry he’d caved in.
    * * *
    She couldn’t believe he’d caved in.
    As they walked up the stairs that led to Evan’s apartment, Celia’s heart was pounding. She knew Evan could sense it, and she hoped he didn’t suspect any part of her plan for tonight.
    But if he did, he wouldn’t have agreed to share a bed with her.
    “Your room or mine?” he asked, when they’d reached the upstairs landing.
    “Mine. I just need a few minutes to get ready.”
    “Flannel pajamas, right?”
    “If that’s what you want.”
    She was wearing a black silk blouse over a pencil skirt tonight, an outfit deliberately chosen for its subtle sex appeal—as all of her date outfits had been. Evan gave her a long, slow look that went from her toes to the top of her head. Then he grinned. “It’s not what I want, but it’ll definitely be for the best. I’ll knock on your door in ten minutes, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    When Evan’s knock came, Celia was sitting cross-legged on her bed in her green and blue plaid pajamas. He was wearing sweatpants and a black tee shirt, which she supposed was the closest thing to pajamas he owned.
    “Hi,” he said, hesitating in the doorway. He looked almost uncomfortable, and Celia felt a sudden qualm.
    “You look like you’re in a dentist’s waiting room. If you…I mean…damn. If you don’t want to be here, Evan, I don’t want to force you.”
    Evan crossed the room in a few long strides and sat down beside her, taking both her hands in his. “Believe me when I tell you that’s not the problem. The problem is that I want to be here too much. I was just thinking about the last time I was in this room. Remember?”
    Oh, yes, she remembered.
    The first and only time she and Evan had made love. It had been the single most incredible night of her life, even though she’d believed while it was happening that it was a dream.
    “I’d like to repeat that experience sometime when I haven’t taken absinthe,” she said, smiling into Evan’s mahogany brown eyes.
    “Someday,” he said softly, smiling back. “But, sweetheart—if we want this night to work we’d better change the subject.”
    “Let’s go to bed, then. To sleep, I mean,” she added quickly.
    She got under the covers and held them up for Evan to crawl in beside her, but he shook his head.
    “I’ll stay on this side,” he said, lying down on top of the blankets and pulling her towards him. “Is that all right?”
    It would actually make her job a little easier. “Yes, that’s fine.”
    She lay in the circle of his strong arms for several minutes, reveling in his closeness and the scent of him, and hoping he wasn’t picking up on her tension. She tried to make her breathing deep and even, like she really was falling asleep.
    And then, when silence and stillness had settled around them like a cocoon, she moved.
    His reflexes were much faster than hers, but she was counting on the element of surprise.
    And it worked. It took only seconds to pull the first chain from its hiding place behind the headboard and lock the cuff around his wrist, and although she fumbled a little with the second one she got that locked, too, before Evan growled out, “What the fuck?”
    She scooted down the bed a little, towards his feet, and met his glare with a grin. “Not too tight, I hope?”
    “Celia—”
    She no longer had the element of surprise, but she was counting on his reluctance to actually kick her in the face when she moved again, yanking up the chains at the