I know.
Startled, I looked at him.
Alec would have mentioned it if you’d been a virgin.
My mouth dropped open in horror. “You talked to Alec about me? About . . . sex with me?”
“He brought it up,” he answered, negotiating an exit into the town, consulting the GPS unit briefly before taking the appropriate turn.
“You talked about me?” Heat washed upward from my chest. I felt perilously close to tears or a nervous breakdown. I just couldn’t decide which.
“He told me about spending the night with you.” He glanced at me, frowning slightly as we came into a street filled with people streaming into a nightclub. “I didn’t ask for specifics, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
I caught the echo in his mind. “You didn’t have to, did you? He told you everything. Everything! Oh, my God, he told you about me insisting on the light being off?”
“He said you were very modest.”
I could feel Kristoff desperately trying to shove thoughts back out of the way so I couldn’t pick through them, but I pounced on a mental image that made my skin burn. “Oh, my God! He told you he didn’t . . . that we didn’t . . . Oh, my God!”
“You’re making too much of this. Alec and I have always discussed women, although I do not go into specifics as he does.”
“Oh, really? And did you tell him all about you and Angelica?” The words were off my tongue before I could stop myself, but I regretted them the instant I heard them.
Kristoff’s jaw tightened. He kept his gaze grimly on the people milling around as he inched through them. “No.”
The familiar stab of anguish I was coming to think of as Angelica pain lanced my chest. Of course he didn’t talk to Alec about her. She was special. She was the woman he’d chosen to spend his life with, not one who had been thrust on him by circumstances and fate.
Unreasonable and unwanted tears pricked the back of my eyes. “Did you tell him about us?”
“No.” He shot me another swift glance. “Would it make you feel any better to know I was pleased when he told me that he had not engaged in anything other than oral sex with you?”
“You were?” I asked, looking at him despite my embarrassment. “Really? Why?”
He nodded, a slightly chagrined expression on his face. “I’ve been told in the past that I can be overly possessive where women are concerned. You had expressed your preference for Alec, and I accepted that, but I could not help but be pleased that he did not possess you completely.”
I didn’t quite know what to say to that, other than to acknowledge my own little kernel of happiness that he, too, could be jealous. “Possessive, hmm?”
His lips turned downward, his eyes steadfastly on the street before us. “It is not unknown for Dark Ones.”
“Given what I’ve seen,” I said, thinking of the vampires I’d met, “I’d say that is a fair statement. I have to admit that I kind of like it.”
One of his lovely sable eyebrows rose. “I thought women did not like possessiveness.”
“A little of it can be nice,” I said with a little smile to myself. “Too much is obnoxious, but a little . . . It makes us feel wanted.”
He said nothing as he pulled into a parking lot next to what looked like a government building, but allowed me to feel the need that always seemed to be simmering within him.
I was a bit surprised to find my body answering his with a little hum of excitement. “Do you need, for lack of a better phrase, topping off?” I asked as we sat together in the warm, intimate darkness of the car.
“Do you really want to have sex here in the parking lot, where anyone could see us?” he asked in return, his eyes glittering like a cat’s in the night.
I considered, for a few seconds, that very thing. “I don’t suppose you could eat without us going at it like bunnies?”
He pursed his lips at me, and before I could stop myself, I leaned into him and licked them. With a low growl he wrapped both arms around me and pulled me onto his lap, claiming my mouth in a way that left me breathless and mindless of everything but him.
Does that answer your question? Reluctantly, he released my lower lip and looked down into my eyes, the teal fire in his bathing me in the warmth of his desire.
I suppose it does. My skin tingled where I was pressed against him. We sat like that for a moment, unwilling to part, but a slight snore from the backseat had me pushing myself off him. “Later?”
“You can count on that,” he said with a look that almost seared my clothes. “I know of a place here you will like. I will feed there.”
“Deal.”
“You think it’s OK to leave him here?” I asked as we got out of the car. Mattias was snoring away happily, hugging my sweater to his chest.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Kristoff said with a sigh.
I poked him in the side, and then took his hand when he offered it. Despite the chilly air of the evening, I fanned myself as we walked toward the building on the other side of the government offices, secretly delighted. It was shameless of me, I knew, but dammit, if I had to spend the rest of my life bound to this man, I was going to enjoy every minute.
My libido had calmed down enough that I could think coherently by the time we stood at the back of the old stone building. “You’re sure that no one will have contacted the vampires here to warn them we’ll be coming for Kristjana?”
“It’s not likely.” Kristoff examined the back of the building, his gaze going from window to window, upward along a permanent fire escape, and he stepped back so he could look at the top of the four-story building. “Andreas will expect that we’ll be taking the sacristan to the nearest group of reapers, and that is in Rome.”
“Why would he think we wanted to get rid of Mattias?” I asked softly, scooting a little closer to him. The alley we were in wasn’t even remotely dirty, but the large trash bin next to me loomed up with a menacing shadow. “He’s docile as a lamb so long as I keep him light-bound.”
“He knows I will have to feed more frequently than normal for the next few days,” he answered, slipping off his long duster and tucking it behind the garbage bin. “Stay here. I’m going to climb up and see if anyone has alerted them that we’ve escaped with the sacristan.”
“Oh, no,” I said, glancing around at the shadows. “If you’re going, I’m going, too.”
“No, you’re not. I just want to reconnoiter. Until I know if they’re watching for us, you stay here.”
“I could go around front and be a distraction while you snatch Kristjana,” I suggested generously.
“Do you seriously believe she will come with me without screaming down the entire town?” he asked.
“I suppose not. I’ll have to do the light thingie with her, too, I guess.”
“Exactly. Stay here while I see what sort of security the Dark Ones have in place.”
I glanced around at the shadows in the alley. “All right, but don’t take too long. I have the feeling we’re not alone here.”
“Stay hidden,” he ordered before he jumped and caught hold of the bottom of the metal ladder, hauling himself upward.
I have a better idea. I’m going to take a look around this area and see if I can find signs of Ulfur.
He didn’t like that idea much, I could tell. Stay in the shadows as much as you can. I don’t know who here will recognize you.
I didn’t let him feel me rolling my eyes at such a silly statement, but I did stick to the shadows as much as possible as I made a quick tour of the blocks surrounding the building.
Everything OK? I asked after about five minutes of silence from him.
Yes. There is an elaborate security system in place. It’s taking time for me to avoid setting it off.
No problem. I’ll just keep looking around. So far I haven’t found any spirit to ask about Ulfur. I thought he said Reykjavik was crawling with ghosties.
I rounded a corner about two blocks away from Kristoff, pausing as I examined a pedestrian zone. Despite the late hour, a brightly lit neon sign and the faint sounds of jazz were proof that the Icelandic nightlife was alive and kicking. A couple passed me on their way into the club. I gave the small clutch of people standing outside a quick once-over, making sure there was no one I recognized. I was just about to move on when a woman across the square on her way into the club glanced my way, did an obvious double take, then waved as she hurried over.