Things started to click in his mind, and Etienne could feel his face whiten as he remembered her conditions, which at that time he had considered eccentric but thought nothing more of.
At that time, all he had cared about was discovering for himself if the purported qualities of chemically compatible sangferia were real. So if the woman whose virginity he had bought wanted him to fuck her like some anonymous gigolo who wouldn’t take no for an answer—
It had been nothing to Etienne.
Only this time…he realized too late that all those conditions were proof of just how much—
“That night, I think…we only did it once, and he was good. Extremely good.” Like you, she added silently. “But maybe it was because I was also stressing over things, I ended up passing out, and when I woke up the next morning he was gone. And it was then I realized…” She sucked her breath. “I realized that it didn’t work. I thought having a night of wild sex would change me,” she confessed jerkily, “and I could start dating other guys, but when I saw you again—”
“You were still in love with me.”
She couldn’t help turning towards him at the hoarse way he had uttered the words, but Etienne’s handsome face, despite its sudden pallor, remained terrifyingly unreadable.
Did he see her differently, she wondered painfully, now that he knew the truth?
None of the women Etienne previously dated were virgins, but what if he held different standards for the woman he was thinking of spending the rest of her life with? What if it was a vampire – no, a Caro thing? What if the old bloods had rules about their kind ony being allowed to take virgin brides?
The thought made her feel sick with dread, and she turned to him in unconscious entreaty. “Etienne…”
He heard her voice break, and Etienne instinctively slammed his foot on the brake.
Spencer couldn’t understand why they were suddenly pulling over and Etienne was abruptly unbuckling his seatbelt. “W-Why—”
The rest of her words disappeared under his mouth, and she could only gasp against his lips, unable to pull away even if she wanted to, with his fingers driving through her hair in a forceful grip. His kiss was hard and downright possessive, demanding and impossible to resist. But most of all…
Oh, most of all…
And Spencer found herself squeezing her eyes shut as the kiss gradually gentled and faded.
It was a kiss that said…
Her lips started to tremble the moment Etienne lifted his head and gazed down at her.
“You still love me?” she whispered uncertainly.
“Always will.” And he knew, even if it meant damning his soul to Hell, he had been right to lie, with the way her eyes started to shimmer and turn radiant with joyous tears.
Spencer pressed trembling fingers to her cheek. I’m crying, she realized dazedly. She had been crying a lot lately, but this was the first time that she felt like she was crying for the right reasons, and it scared her to think that none of it might be real. Gazing at Etienne imploringly, she asked, “Tell me I’m not dreaming of this?”
“Alright.” Etienne’s voice was solemn. “If that’s your way of saying I’m your dream come true—”
A choked laugh escaped her. “That would do.” Etienne being his usual cocky self was definitely proof that she really was here next to the man she loved…and he actually happened to love her back.
She loved Etienne, and Etienne loved her back.
Etienne. Loved. Her!
Her heart ached so bad just thinking about this, and before she knew it, the rest of her was aching, too, and all of a sudden, she realized what she wanted – needed – to happen next.
“Etienne…”
He turned to her right away. “What is it?”
The shy smile that curved over Spencer’s lips was a rare beauty, but even the sight of it was nothing compared to her next words, which he had never expected to hear.
“Would you take me to your bed tonight?”
One moment, there was just dead silence, and then the next thing she knew, Etienne’s sportscar was flying down the road, and the speed in which he took off had Spencer falling back against her seat with a breathless laugh. “Slow down, will you?”
“And risk having you change your mind?”
“I won’t,” she promised. “But if you don’t slow down and you’re caught overspeeding…”
Realizing she was right, Etienne cursed under his breath even as he forced himself to play by human rules and shifted gears until the speedometer fell back within the appropriate range. But the moment they made into the basement parking of his building, he wasted no time in shedding all pretenses of suffering from any human frailties, and in mere seconds, he had scooped Spencer out of her seat and up in his arms as he walked swiftly to the lobby reserved for the building’s tenants.