Her first thought was that her hunch had been right; the gallery appeared deserted. Her second thought was that it was very uncomfortable to be standing there all by herself with only the feeling of being watched to keep her company.
The feeling of being watched?
Definitely. She definitely could feel eyes on her: dark, hungry, intense eyes. Almost as if he drew her gaze, she turned her head and looked deeper into the shadows of the gallery. Sure enough, Colin was standing there, his gaze locked on her.
“Good afternoon, Summer,” he said.
His voice reminded her of dark chocolate and wine and sex.
“Hi,” she blurted, hating how nervous she sounded. Then she cleared her throat and got control of herself. “I hope you don’t mind me just dropping in like this.”
His lips tilted up slightly. “It’s a gallery. The idea is for people to drop in.”
“Then I’m glad I have the right idea,” she said, tilting her own lips up.
“And I’m glad you came by. I wanted to see you again. Would you like to come back to my office?”
“Yes, yes, I would.”
Summer’s smile increased as she followed Colin, getting another excellent view of his tight butt as he led her through the room with the Romeo and Juliet painting, back to an inconspicuous door that opened to an ornate, fussily decorated office.
“This is definitely not you,” she said, running her finger down the back of a gilded Louis the Something-or-Other chair. Then her gaze flew up to him as she tried to gauge if she’d just offended him.
He simply shrugged and said, “You’re right. This is Barnabas’s office, and it’s definitely him. He likes pomp and circumstance and lots of gold.”
“And what do you like?” Summer heard her voice asking the question that had flitted automatically through her mind. She clamped her mouth shut. She usually had more control than speaking her thoughts aloud, but she found herself being temporarily glad of her lack of control when his gaze went dark and intense as he answered her.
“If you mean what kind of decoration, I like it more masculine, although I don’t think a house is really a home without a woman’s touch.” The vampire blinked, obviously surprised at his response, and then he smiled almost shyly at Summer. “I think that’s the first time I’ve admitted that to myself.”
“Admitted that you like a woman’s touch?” she asked softly.
His gaze trapped hers. “Admitted that I need a woman’s touch,” he said. “But I shouldn’t be surprised. You affect me oddly, Summer.”
“Is that a good or a bad thing?” she asked.
“For me, it is a very good thing,” he said.
They stared at each other until Summer became uncomfortable under the heat of his scrutiny. “Thank you for returning my purse to me,” she said, trying to temper the electricity that was building between them with words. “And I absolutely love the Romeo and Juliet painting. Thank you for it.”
“I’m glad you like it. I wanted to give you something that might make you remember what happened yesterday.”
“It’s been kinda hard for me to forget,” Summer said.
“For me, too.” Colin moved closer to her. “Yesterday meant a lot to me. I haven’t felt the sun on my skin in many decades. It’s not something I want to forget.”
“You know I didn’t do it on purpose. I can’t bring you the sun again.” Summer was finding it hard to think rationally with him so close, but her mind was working enough that she wanted to make it perfectly clear to him that she couldn’t just zap them back into the picture; she couldn’t make the sun shine for him.
Colin touched the side of her face. “You’re wrong about that.”
Summer shivered. His touch was cool, but her skin beneath his fingers came alive with heat.
You are my sunshine.
Summer jumped when his voice sounded inside her head.
“You heard that, didn’t you?” he said.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I also heard you call to me from across the room yesterday.”
That dark intensity was back in his eyes, and he spoke with such emotion, such passion, that Summer’s heartbeat quickened, and she felt her breathing deepen.
“You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but there is something between us that I’ve not experienced until I touched you yesterday. You say you can’t bring me sunshine again, yet to me your skin, your breath, your hair, even the summer-sky color of your eyes—all of you is light and shining to me. It is as if, somehow, magically, you are literally my summer, my sunlight.”
“I—I don’t know how that could be. I’m just me.” Summer couldn’t help leaning her cheek into his hand. His scent and touch were intoxicating, and she wanted nothing more at that instant than to get closer to him.
“I don’t know how it could be either, but you are an unexpected gift that I plan to cherish. If you’ll let me. Will you give me a chance, Summer?” Colin lifted her chin. “I realize I’m not what you’re used to—not the kind of man you would consider a boyfriend.” He ground the word out. “And yesterday you said you were already seeing someone.”
“I’m not,” she said.
“Not?”
“Not seeing anyone.” She stared up into his dark eyes, utterly mesmerized by his closeness.
“But last night . . .”
“Was nothing. There’s nothing between us. Ken isn’t my boyfriend.”
“I saw—” he began.
“You saw him kissing me. It was just, well, basically a test. I wanted to see if he could make me feel what you made me feel.”
“And did he?”
“No,” Summer said, staring into the vampire’s eyes. “Not even maybe. That’s one of the reasons I’m here. I had to see if it was still there,” she said softly.
“It?”
“The sizzle between us.”
Colin smiled. “It’s still there. Let me taste you, sunshine, and I’ll prove it to you.”
“Yes,” she whispered, already leaning into him.
Colin didn’t claim her mouth right away. Instead, he drank in her scent and touch, mingling breath with breath. “I want you more than you can know.” He spoke the words against her skin. “When I touch you I’m alive again. I can feel the sunlight on my face.” He nuzzled her neck and then buried his hand in her thick blond hair and breathed in the scent of sunlight and honey that clung to her.
“Kiss me, Colin,” she murmured.
With a strangled sound, his mouth finally met hers, easily erasing any lingering memory of Ken’s soft, sweet, boring kisses. His skin didn’t have the heat it had the day before, but it didn’t matter. It was still him, and Summer craved his taste and touch like she’d never wanted anyone or anything before in her life.
When they finally broke apart, it was only to stare dazedly at each other. “What is it between us?” Summer said. “It’s crazy. It’s like you’re my human version of catnip.”
His smile took away what was left of her breath. “I’m your catnip; you’re my sunshine. I think we make an excellent pair.”
“But I don’t even know you. You’re practically a stranger.”
Colin took her hand, threading his cool fingers through her warm ones. “Can you say we’re strangers when we’re touching?”
Summer looked down at their linked hands. His was so pale and large and strong, and hers was tan from working in her sister’s flower beds. They seemed direct opposites. He was the opposite of everything she’d believed she wanted for so many years. Yet he was right; when they touched, something was there, and it was something that hadn’t been there with any man before him.
“Colin, we have to slow down. I have to think about—”
The buzzer that signaled the opening of the front door of the gallery made both of them jump. Colin threw a dark look over his shoulder. “I’ll get rid of them and close the gallery; then we can talk.” Like an amazing old-time gentleman, he kissed her hand before he started out of the room, but he stopped in the doorway, glancing back at her. “You were right, Summer. You don’t really know me, and I don’t know you. But what I do know is there is something special between us. I’ve walked this earth longer than you—a couple hundred and some odd years longer.” She gaped at him. Was everyone a zillion years older than her? Colin’s smile was sad and his eyes haunted with loneliness as he continued. “I can promise you that in all the long years of my life I haven’t ever felt what I do when I so much as breathe in the scent of your skin. If you feel even a fraction of what I feel, how can you not give us a chance?”