She stares up at me with those beautiful eyes. How has she come to mean so much to me in such a short amount of time? She’s worked with me for a while now, but until today, we might as well have lived on different planets.

  The slime has seeped into her clothes and imprisoned her in a pseudo mummified case. Chester said to wash her off. I turn the water on.

  “Can you close your eyes at all?” I ask. The encasement has left that part of her body open like she’s wearing a body mask and only her eyes are visible.

  She slowly closes them, and I aim the water spray right at her. It takes far too long for the slime to begin to melt out of her hair and off the sides of her face.

  “This smells terrible,” she says through her teeth.

  I laugh, because of course my Rosebud isn’t even phased by any of this. She’s a survivor. I guess we have that in common.

  “If I could cut this damn fabric off of you, that might ease the paralysis faster.” I don’t keep any knives or scissors in the bathroom though and I’m not about to leave her side. So, I do the only thing I can think of. I lean forward and grab the neckline of her t-shirt with my fangs, then I pull backwards. The shirt rips clean in two.

  “Ermegard. That’s hot!” she says, through her clenched jaw.

  She’s the epitome of hot in her basic white bra which is now soaked through and completely transparent. Her nipples are tight, pressing up against the fabric.

  My cock hardens. Now is not really the time, buddy!

  I lift her body to turn her so I can fully remove the shirt and get the water on her back.

  Her eyes widen in fear, and she makes indecipherable noises of protest.

  “What’s the matter, Rosebud? I’ve got to clean it all off of you. The sooner the better so it doesn’t have lasting effects.”

  “Scars,” she says through her teeth, since her jaw still can’t move.

  “What?”

  “Scars on back. Fire. Ugly.” Then her eyes squeeze closed.

  I turn her and say nothing as I clean off the slime, revealing the angry scars slashed across her back. A fire, she said.

  She’d mentioned having health problems and needing accommodations like the desk, and appreciating good health care. This is obviously why she’s been so demanding that she be more helpful and that I give her more to do. She wants to earn her job so she doesn’t lose it.

  Now I feel like an ass and a bully. I’d been so worried about her seeing my fangs and being afraid, and she has legitimate concerns about her well-being.

  “Does it hurt when I touch them?” I ask, my palm gliding over the raised skin and stretched, shiny parts.

  “No. Just certain positions. Skin gets tight.”

  “They’re not ugly,” I say. “No part of you is ugly.” Then I work in silence to get the rest of her clothes off, trying my best not to ogle her beautiful round body. I want to tell her how perfect she is, how desirable. But it’s not my place. I’m already crossing so many damn lines, putting my hands on her bare skin.

  I couldn’t risk it though. I don’t know if that fucker’s slime would eat through her skin or what.

  “I think I can move my mouth now,” she says, her words sounding more clear. “Can’t believe some lunatic brought weaponized slime to your con. Do you think that’s a new kind of roofie?”

  “He’s been removed from the property.”

  “Thank goodness. I guess you can’t scan people for that with metal detectors.”

  “Not so much.” Her destroyed shirt and the rest of her discarded clothes lay in a wet pile on the tub floor. “I think I’ve got it all off you now. Can you move?”

  “Barely. Hope it wears off soon.”

  I grab one of my bath sheets, wrap it around her and lift her from the tub. She’s still stiff, but far more malleable than she was when we first came in here. I pull back my covers and lay her in my bed.

  “Hudson,” Chester’s voice comes from just outside my bedroom.

  “I gotta go talk to him. You just try to get some rest. I’m sure when you wake up, your movement will be back to normal.” I sure as fuck hope I’m not lying to her.

  I close the door as I step outside, confused, conflicted, and aroused that she’s naked in my bed.

  Chester waits until we’re back in the living room before he speaks. “I did some research, and the paralysis should be temporary. Now that you’ve gotten it all off of her, she should be back to normal in an hour or so.”

  “I doubt she will ever be back to normal since I introduced this shit show into her life.”

  He rolls his eyes at me. “Don’t be an idiot. That girl in there is crazy about you. When it’s fate, it’s fate. Maybe learning about what you are will be an adjustment for her, but I suspect she’ll take it in stride. She’s got that kind of spirit about her.”

  I agree, but I don’t tell my familiar that.

  Ever had an embarrassment of riches? Just lucky things tend to fall in your lap? That seems to happen to me a lot. Aside from the whole getting turned into a vampire while looking like a chubby Mel Gibson from the first Lethal Weapon movie.

  Foster kids—who are not infants—are not readily adopted by kindly older parents swimming in money. Yet, that was my experience.

  A pang of guilt jabs at me. If Rosie had had my parents, she wouldn’t have been in that fire. She wouldn’t have had to go through those years of painful treatment and therapy.

  It’s never made a damn bit of sense to me why good things happen to some people, but not others. Just the luck of the draw? Then I remember something Rosie wrote in her original thank you letter.

  Luck shouldn’t be measured in good or bad. Initially, it’s just the way your life unfolds, the challenges and gifts you’re given. What truly matters is what you do with those things.

  Do I wish I could erase all the pain she’s experienced? Yes. But then she wouldn’t be the amazing woman she is today. She formed herself out of the good and bad things that happened to her along the way. She doesn’t need my pity or my guilt.

  If I’m completely honest with myself, I’ve felt a connection with her from that very first thank you note. Maybe even before that with her scholarship application.

  I haven’t been keeping her away to protect her. I’ve been doing it because I was afraid.

  If my sweet Rosebud can be brave, I can too. Because my girl is a total badass, and only a badass could handle being loved by a vampire.

  With that thought in mind, I creep back into my bedroom to check on her and figure out how to tell her that monsters are real and I’m one of them.

  I peek into the room and see that she’s rolled over and is facing the door. Her eyes flick open.

  “I know it’s probably inappropriate, but would you stay with me? At least until I fall asleep?” She asks, her tone so earnest, it wounds me.

  I nod and toe off my shoes, climbing onto the other side of the bed. I lay on my side facing her.

  She turns her head on the pillow to face me, but her body remains turned away.

  “I was twelve when it happened,” she says. “My parents, well technically—it was my mom and whatever bonehead she was hooking up with at the time—were cooking meth in this old abandoned fast-food place.”

  “Shit,” I mutter.

  “Yeah. They were obviously stupid. Anyways, something happened one night while we were there, and there was a small explosion and then a fire. My mom got me out, but not before I’d received third and some fourth degree burns on my back. Thankfully nowhere else. They think I must have had something on my clothes or whatever that just lit up. The guy died. My mom was a regular offender, and the judge just pretty much sent her away. I’m not really sure because she never contacted me again.”

  “Thus, the foster parents,” I say.

  “Exactly. I was in the hospital for so long after that. Skin grafts and treatments. Then for the next few years, I had rigorous therapy to help regain movement under the worst of the scars. No one wanted to adopt me. I was too much trouble. I bounced around from one house to the next until I turned eighteen.”

  “I was one of the lucky ones,” I tell her.

  “You?”

  I nod. I was adopted when I was four by this older couple who doted on me. They didn’t have any other family and left me a ridiculous amount of money when they passed. Which is how I built the foundation.”

  “And why your scholarship is awarded to foster kids who age out of the system,” she says.

  “Right. It doesn’t seem fair that one kid gets luck and another one doesn’t. As best I can tell from observing, raising kids is a crapshoot. Nothing prepares people to take care of tiny humans. Some abuse that privilege. I just wanted to give back.”

  “Am I the first to send a thank you note?” she asks, her smile brighter now.

  I chuckle. “Yes.”

  She reaches up and runs a finger across my fang again. “Are these uncomfortable?”

  But before I can answer her, my fang pierces her skin.

  chapter

  eleven

  Rosie

  I pull my hand back, awkwardly realizing that’s the second time I’ve fondled this man’s mouth. I really need to learn some boundaries.

  “Sorry,” I say.

  His eyes close and his nostrils flare as he inhales deeply. A swipe of his tongue cleans the tiny spot of blood on the tip of his prosthetic fang.

  “Don’t be.” When his eyes open, the blue of his irises are practically glowing.

  It’s not scary looking, quite the contrary, they’re mesmerizing. I had intended on asking him earlier if they were contact lenses, but then I got slimed. “Hudson?”

  “I should probably explain a few things to you. About this little town most people now call Screaming Woods, and about me.”

  “Come lay in front of me so I don’t get a cramp in my neck from tilting up so high to look at you. It’s like you’re in another time zone up there.”

  He chuckles and moves to the other side of the bed, but keeps enough space so we’re not touching. “Have you ever heard of Screaming Woods?”

  “It sounds vaguely familiar, but nothing specific springs to mind,” I tell him.

  He pulls his phone out of his pocket and taps on the screen a few times, then he hands it to me.

  I scan the article on the screen. It’s a bizarre tale of some sort of tainted energy drinks and Halloween and a town full of monsters. The more I read, the more little things fall into place in my mind.

  “This makes so much more sense than the uber rich having an exclusive con with ridiculously expensive costumes,” I say.

  “Is that what you thought was happening?”

  I shrug and the sheet shifts on my body, revealing the tops of my breasts.

  “I take it you were here back when that accident happened, and now you’re a vampire?” I ask.

  “We’re gonna have to circle back to why you’re not more freaked out right now. For now, I’ll answer your question. No, I wasn’t here for that. But I am a vampire. Monsters exist outside of Screaming Woods, but there’s a solid group of them here. It’s why I moved here.”

  “So you could blend in more?”

  “Exactly. It’s hard to explain to people why I never age. I mean, forget the damn mullet that I can’t change; my face never changes either. People will only believe ‘it’s good genes’ so many times before they start to get suspicious.”

  “Makes sense. I suppose you partake of the synthetic blood available now. I never realized it then, when it first hit the medical market, that it would not only help with a shortage in blood donations but feed vampires too.”

  “Right. So why are you not running away from me screaming right now?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I’ve always believed in other-kind. When I was in the hospital right after the accident, I was in and out of consciousness. Mostly out because of all the pain. But I swear there was a fairy in my room a few times. I tried to tell the nurses and doctors, but they all blamed the pain meds.”

  His blue eyes narrow in on me. “Does me being a vampire change the way you feel about me? The things you said in your voice memo?” He scoots a little closer to me on the bed.

  “Are you asking if I’m afraid of you?”

  He nods.

  “I’m not. Not even a little bit. I feel safer with you than I have at any other time in my life. I think that was part of why I pushed so hard for the video conferences. Without even really knowing you, I craved your nearness.”

  I take a deep breath. “But I did drive here to apologize because it was very unprofessional of me. Maybe not quite as bad as when I offered to peg you. I’m a bit of a disaster in case you haven’t noticed.”

  “You, my sweet Rosebud, are nothing short of a miracle.” He scoots a little closer.

  Hudson is a beast of a man…er, vampire.

  Tall, broad, and impossibly thick with muscles and manliness, he is the most attractive man I’ve ever seen. His heavily lashed, crystal-blue eyes look at me as if I am the most precious thing in the world. Dare I hope he feels the same way about me?

  He’s still clothed, but he’s laying closer. The covers on top of me prevent our chests from touching. His large and warm hand settles against the small of my back.

  Instinctively, I want to pull away, pretend he hasn’t seen how much of a mess my back is. I’m healed, and that’s what matters.

  Of all the things I shouldn’t think about right now, that’s the main one. If I let myself swim around in those thoughts, I’ll drown.

  He shared his truth with me. He’s not hiding anymore. So neither will I.

  His phone buzzes on the bed between us. It’s a message from, I’m guessing, Chester.

  Hudson picks it up and reads it. But he’s so close and not hiding his screen, so I can read the whole thing.

  Pain in my ass: I did research, boss man. You know on that website I told you about.

  Pain in my ass: The one that has self-reports on different creatures.

  Pain in my ass: Anyways, as best I can tell, all it takes is a single bite and she can be yours forever.

  I gasp.

  His eyes widen as he looks at me. “He’s overstepping his bounds like the nosy fucker he is. I’m not going to bite you.”

  “What if I want you to?”

  “We’ll discuss it. Can I kiss you first?”

  I don’t answer, I just wrap my arm around the back of his neck and pull him down to me, locking our lips together. I have no idea what I’m doing because I’ve never done anything with a man before. No hand holding, no awkward first kisses, no fumbling gropes of my boobs over my shirt.

  But vampires go straight to second base. At least this one does.

  chapter

  twelve

  Hudson

  The thought of biting her, of sealing her to me for all eternity, has me so hard, it’s nearly painful.

  Our tongues slide against each other, and I reach up and cup one of her breasts. She moans into my mouth and arches against my palm. That hard tip scrapes against my skin and my dick pulses in my pants.

  She pulls back from our kiss, her breathing labored. “Why aren’t you naked?”

  I laugh, then stand and start undressing. “If I’d have known I was gonna be turned into a vampire, I would have lost some weight,” I pat my belly. “And gotten a haircut.”

  She leans up on her elbow, that sheet falling even lower, revealing the softness of her stomach. “You’re the sexiest man I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t change anything about you.”

  I lean forward, grab her by the chin and press a kiss to her mouth. “Same, Rosebud.” Then I stand back up and kick off my jeans, leaving me in my tight boxers.

  “I’ve never done this before, so I’m not sure about the protocol. Can vampires get STD’s? Do we have to use a condom? Because I’d really rather not have anything between us.”

  My dick leaks against the cotton fabric of my underwear. “Woman, you are gonna make me blow my load before we even get started. You can’t be dropping all that on me like that. Oh, by the way, I’m a virgin. Oh, and also, take me bare.”

  I put a knee on the bed and she rips the covers off her body.

  She parts those thick thighs. “Touch me, Hudson. Please. I’m aching.”

  “Are you asking me to see how wet you are, Rosebud?”

  She nods. “I can feel it dripping down my legs, but I want you to feel it too.”

  “You’re dripping for me?”

  “Jungle gym, remember?” she asks.

  I laugh again. “Yeah, baby, I remember. You’ve got me so damn hard.”

  “I want to see. But I want you to touch me too. So many sensations,” she breathes.

  “You want to see what?”

  “Your.” She doesn’t finish the sentence but merely points at my crotch.

  “Nope. You can’t get shy now. You’re my bold, brave Rosie. Use your words.”

  “Can I please see your penis?”

  “Fuck, you’re adorable. And such nice manners.”

  Her brown eyes look up at me, all innocence and mischief. I am so in love with this woman. I pull my hand out of my boxers, then tug down my waistband so the head of my erection pokes through.

  She grabs onto that waistband though—with both hands—and pulls them straight down to my knees. Then soft, warm hands are on me, exploring. “Wow, you’re really big. Which makes sense because you’re a big guy.” She runs one finger up the underside. “I really like this vein.”

  A strangled noise comes from my throat. “You want to put your mouth on it?”

  She nods eagerly. Then just leans forward and licks me from root to tip.

  “Fuck! That’s it. Lick it. Suck it. Just put it in your mouth.”

  Yes, I know, I’m desperate.