Jonas’s right eye ticked. Twice. “Christ.”
The next thing Ginny knew, she was being settled onto the edge of the bed with Jonas kneeling in front of her. He started to roll up her pant leg, but paused, his gaze ticking to hers. “No blood anywhere?”
“No.” She rolled her lips inward. “Wouldn’t you…smell it?”
Briefly, his grip tightened on her calf. “I smell your blood at all times, but seeing it…”
Ginny’s mouth went dry at the way Jonas stared up at her, as if it took all his inner strength to keep from pressing her backward onto the bed. Oh my.
“Farewell, lovebirds. I hereby resign my post,” Roksana announced dramatically from her position at the window. “I apologize for failing you tonight, Ginny. You could have been a pancake and all because some parasite got the drop on me.”
“Roksana, no.” Ginny reached a hand in her friend’s direction. “If this vampire is as powerful as you say, what could you have done to—”
“Let her go,” Jonas cut in, never taking his attention off of Ginny. “Roksana is right. She didn’t do her job.”
“I will take some time to train and once again become unstoppable.” Roksana turned and gave them a final, anguished look. “Dasvidaniya.”
With that, the slayer’s blonde head ducked out of view, leaving Ginny and Jonas alone in the bedroom. Shaken at the sudden loss of her friend after everything she’d already been through that night, Ginny smacked Jonas’s hand off her leg. “Why didn’t you make her stay?”
“Tonight you could have…” He broke off, nostrils flaring. “Hell, two weeks ago, you could have been gone and I never would have met you.”
“That wouldn’t have been her fault, either.”
His hand landed back on her knee and smoothed down, around to the swell of her calf, massaging there. “I’m quite aware I’m not being rational about anything concerning you, Ginny.”
Lord, it was hard to argue when he was touching her. She never had this manner of skin to skin contact with a man and could only liken it to being hugged in a towel fresh from the dryer. Or sinking into a hot bath. The cool temperature of his skin did nothing to stop the goosebumps from rising on her arms or the tiny wrench to twist beneath her belly button.
Fight the distraction. She had to. Jonas knew there was a vampire purposefully putting her in dangerous situations and she had no information left to withhold. This could be the last time she looked into his eyes and knew him.
But then, his thumb found her Achilles, pressing and sweeping along the sore tendon—and Ginny moaned.
Jonas’s open mouth dragged up her bare thigh, searing her skin, stopping just short of her dress’s hem. “This is madness. How do you pull me under like this?”
“You do the same to me,” she managed, breathily, sliding her fingers into his hair. “Don’t make this go away. Please.”
His hand tightened on her leg. “The longer I let you keep your memories of me, Ginny, the harder it will be once they’re gone.” He pressed his face to her stomach, using his grip on her calf to tug her closer. Until she could feel the outline of his features against her belly. “You’ll lose days, weeks, as opposed to hours.”
“And once I’ve forgotten you exist, you’ll stay away, just like that?”
Jonas’s shoulders tensed, his fingers on her skin. “We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out,” he said hoarsely. “Knowing it’s a vampire trying to bring you harm, and not some easily overcome human, changes everything. I need you alert and I need you to trust me implicitly. Without Roksana to watch you during the day, I have to bring you somewhere without sunlight. To protect you until this is over.”
Oxygen trapped itself in her lungs. “Meaning?”
Jonas leaned away, the green sparks shooting off in his eyes telling Ginny how much their closeness was affecting him.
“Pack,” he said, doom lacing his tone. “You’re coming with me.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“You’re coming with me.” Jonas gave Ginny’s legs one last, longing look and stood. “I can’t and won’t leave you here alone while your safety is in jeopardy—and I can’t stay.”
“There are no windows in the basement. You could stay there.”
“With the other corpses, you mean?” he drawled. “I suppose I could stay down there during the day, but you’ll have to remain there with me where I can protect you.”
“The daytime is Larissa’s shift.”
“Can you swap?”
“No, she’ll refuse. She thinks the morgue is scarier at night, which doesn’t really track, because there are no windows. It could be noon or midnight and you’d never be able to tell.”
“Then we have our answer.” He strode to the window, clenching and unclenching his hands while scanning the street below. “Please get packing.”
Ginny shot to her feet and whirled around, wincing inwardly when her Achilles protested. “Who exactly do you think is going to run this place?”
He turned with a regal eyebrow raised. “Are there any bodies downstairs waiting for you?”
“It’s been a slow week,” she responded, feeling kind of defensive. “Fall is upon us. People tend to try and stick it out through the holidays.”
Jonas’s sigh was weary and amused, all at once. “So help me God, Ginny…” His throat worked. “It will forever be one of the universe’s greatest mysteries that you’ve remained here for twenty-four years without turning every male you meet into a lovesick fool who worships at your feet.”
“That sounds horrible,” she whispered, shaken. “I hate clutter.”
His laugh was somehow adoring and sad at the same time.
Ginny looked down at her hands. What was she supposed to be doing again?
Packing. Leaving. To go live with the vampires. Right.
“Um. I can leave a note for Larissa about spending the night with a friend. She won’t believe it. It’s only slightly more plausible than being targeted for death by a formidable vampire. But it will have to do.” She turned in a circle, trying to remember where she kept her overnight bag. Did she even own one? “I will need to come back tomorrow night and work, though. I can’t neglect this place.”
“I know your father’s legacy is important to you, Ginny.”
Knowing he’d listened and committed her worries to memory made wings flap beneath her breastbone. “Yes. It is.” She unearthed a small, dusty suitcase from the back of her closet and piled essentials inside, including a dress for tomorrow, her hairbrush and a bottle of perfume. Before she opened her underwear drawer, she gave Jonas a pointed look and he turned his back like a gentleman.
Satisfied he wasn’t watching her dig through her abundance of sensible, full coverage panties, Ginny began to sift. Instead of taking out a perfectly functional white cotton pair, something rebellious lit inside of her—probably sparked by Roksana—and she opened a pack of midnight blue bikini-cut panties she’d never worn once. Some had glittery stars and moons all over them, others were sunshine and clouds. She’d bought them on sale at Kohl’s after too much coffee and was grateful for them now. Jonas might never set eyes on them, but maybe they’d make her feel more in control, the way her dresses did.
Feeling herself flush, she quickly stuffed them in her bag. “I’ll just get my toothbrush—”
A rumble of air blew hair across her face and then Jonas was standing in front of her with the toothbrush in his hand. “I’d really like to get you somewhere safe,” he said, dropping the item into her bag. “Quickly.”
“How do you know that’s mine and not Larissa’s?”
“The other one was electric. You’d never use one of those.”
“Wouldn’t I?”
“The girl who loves old movies, talks to corpses and doesn’t want me to see her underwear? No, I don’t think so.”
“Does that mean you think I’m boring?”
His lips twisted. “It means I think you’re an original. And that you probably like to daydream while you’re brushing your teeth and the buzzing sound would deter you.”
Pleasure speared her. “You’ve given this some thought.”
“Yes.” He gave her his princely profile while zipping her suitcase and picking it up by the handle. “More than I should have.”
Ginny followed him to the door of her bedroom and out into the hallway. “Where do you live?”
He sighed. “I can’t tell you that, Ginny.”
They stopped side by side on the staircase landing. “How are you going to bring me there without telling me…” She trailed off when he took something out of his pocket. “Is that a blindfold? You can’t be serious.”
“It’s for your own safety. The world I live in is a volatile place. You knowing where three vampires live makes you vulnerable.”
“You’re planning on erasing that information from my head, remember?”
“Remember? I think about it constantly,” he enunciated, stepping closer. “Like I said, the longer I allow you to keep your memories, the harder it’ll be to erase them accurately. I don’t want to take chances.”
Ginny threw back her shoulders and sailed down the stairs, leaving Jonas to follow behind her with the suitcase. For one fantastical moment, she pretended to be Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief. A rich debutante with a handsome manservant, preparing to depart for Paris. She wished desperately for a pair of white, silk gloves so she could whip them out and don them while looking annoyed. “Now then,” she murmured when Jonas stopped beside her at the bottom of the staircase. “Have the driver bring my car around.”
“What was that?” Jonas asked, his tone verging on amusement.