Smoldering Nights by Lisa Carlisle

do,” he said. “He has your number, right, in case he has to reach you?”
    Stifling a groan, I answered yes. The last person I wanted to field questions from right now was the chief.
    “Hey, did you hear about the nightclub fire last night?”
    One subject I didn’t want to talk about switched to another. I made some excuse saying I had to go.
     
    “Everything okay?” Michel asked when I hung up the phone.
    “Yes. Just a few people hospitalized for observation, but nobody was injured.”
    “Yes, I checked at the club while you were making calls. A lot of damage, but it can be fixed. My priority right now is keeping us safe.”
    His words reminded me of the danger we were in, being hunted by some creatures when I didn’t exactly know what they were or what they were capable of. “I’m going to take a quick shower and clean up.”
    “And maybe come back to bed after?” he said with a naughty grin.
    “We’ll see,” I said, turning my head over my shoulder with a flirty smile. How did he snap me from being worried about my safety to thinking about more primal desires?
    Although there was nothing I’d rather do at the moment than hop back into bed with Michel for a torrid morning, I needed to clear my head. Too much had happened since last night and I still didn’t know if I’d processed any of it.
    I turned the water up as hot as I could stand and just stood there under the water trying to make sense of it all.
    First, I had spent the night with the man I’d wanted for months. It was even more spectacular than what I had ever imagined.
    Second, he wasn’t human. How or when I could process that fact would probably be a while.
    Three, two creatures tried to kill us last night and managed to hurt many people in the process. Since they chose last night—the night I finally had my moment with Michel—to attack, now they were after me as well.
    That was a lot of shit to deal with. If Michel were any other guy, I’d probably run far away and try to put it all behind me. But, it was Michel. And my feelings for him were already far too strong just to walk away from.
    I found some fruity shampoo and vanilla body wash to clean up the mess from last night. When the dirt washed off, I noticed a few nasty scrapes on my legs and arms. Attractive.
    Great, so my first night with Michel I must have really looked like a dirty ho, literally covered in dirt. Luckily, it was dark.
    After rinsing off, I wrapped myself in a white fluffy towel and walked back into the bedroom.
    “You look ravishing,” he said.
    “Like this?” I said. “Without makeup—ugh. I don’t even want to look.”
    Michel climbed out of bed. “Even more beautiful than last night. And I thought you looked amazing then.”
    He maneuvered my shoulders to point me toward the mirror. “Look at yourself. Stunning.”
    I looked in the mirror and saw me standing there clad only in a towel with wet hair hanging down to my shoulders. That, and the hottest guy I had ever seen standing behind me.
    Wait, not a guy, really.
    “I can see you,” I said.
    He looked at me oddly. “I see you too.”
    “No, in the mirror, I mean. You cast a reflection.”
    When he laughed, I didn’t see any signs of the fangs I saw last night.
    “And your fangs. Where are they?”
    “Don’t worry about all that now. We have plenty of time to separate fact from myth, or understand my physiology.”
    Michel ran one hand along my right side, light enough that I could barely feel his touch through the fabric.
    “Right now, I want to understand your physiology.”
    He bent down and kissed my neck. My body instantly responded; my neck tilted to the side to allow him greater access and I could feel a tingling between my legs.
    “Beautiful,” he repeated.
    As I watched him in the mirror, I grew more excited. Not only from watching him kiss me, but also seeing a lustful look appear on my face. I’d never seen myself like that before, never had sex in front of a mirror or on