“It’s just not in the best of neighborhoods, and I worry about you. Who else knows where you live? Your parents, I assume?”

  Arwen stuffed the daffodil into the same vase with the rest of the flowers and said, “Yes, of course. Plus, Zara. My employer has my home address. Why are you asking weird questions?”

  “You’re an attorney, and you go up against rich people with agendas. I know a lot of rich people with agendas, and they like to keep their agendas on schedule, if you know what I mean. I don’t want any of them stopping by. That’s all.”

  “It’s never happened before. I’ll be fine.”

  “How would you feel if I maybe paid someone to stop by and make it a little safer for you? An alarm system, door camera, that kind of thing.”

  “On my apartment?”

  “Yeah. It would make me feel better. There’s not even a lock on that door downstairs. I know having a buzzer system probably seems less secure because people can just buzz anyone up, but at least you wouldn’t have to go downstairs at night to let someone in.”

  “I don’t have many late-night visitors, Iro.”

  “Can I still possibly do a few things for you?” she insisted as she wrapped her arms around Arwen’s waist. “It may sound ridiculous, but I do worry about you, and since I don’t envision you just agreeing to move somewhere else or move in with me after a singular date, this is probably the best I can do.”

  “What is your obsession with my apartment?” Arwen asked through her laughter and pressed her face to Iro’s chest. “You smell good, by the way. What cologne are you wearing?”

  “None.”

  “None? God, this is just how good you smell?”

  Iro held her close and looked around at the two windows she could see. They were old and standard. Yes, they had locks, but they were easy enough to get through, and if Cassia wanted to kill Arwen, she’d get in and do it.

  “We should go. We have a reservation.”

  “Can we be five minutes late? I haven’t seen you since lunch yesterday. I just want you to hold me for a while.”

  “If we’re five minutes late, they’ll take off without us, I think.”

  Arwen pulled back and looked up at her.

  “What?”

  “I asked you how you felt about heights… Ready?”

  ◆◆◆

  Iro stared at Arwen, not caring about how the city looked from the helicopter she’d booked for them. A private ride in the night sky, overlooking DC, was something she had been certain Arwen had never experienced, and as she watched Arwen’s surprised, shocked, and excited eyes take everything in, she knew for certain that she would never go back to Cassia. Cassia hadn’t ever made her feel like this, like Iro was seeing the world through new eyes. Cassia had been bored with everything, so she had refused to do anything. She loved sex. She loved blood. She tolerated everything else. Staring at Arwen, though, Iro understood that most of her life as a vampire had been a lie.

  For centuries, she had thought that she was in love with a woman because that woman seemed to be in love with her, and, in the beginning, there had been nothing Cassia wouldn’t give her, including time apart with the promise of Iro’s return. As their relationship had progressed throughout the decades, though, Iro would crave modernity and making her own way. Cassia had still only craved sex and blood. Iro hadn’t wanted to be a vampire, and she hardly remembered the night Cassia turned her, even right after it had happened. All she had remembered back then was seeing the faces of Mary’s parents and finding out that she’d lost the only person she had ever loved.

  Yes, she had enjoyed some of the advantages that came with immortal life, but there were drawbacks, too. In fact, one of them was staring her in the face right now. Well, Arwen was still staring out the side window, but Iro was still staring at her, and Arwen had no idea that Iro had been born at the end of 1666, that she had only lived thirty-one years, turning thirty-one a few weeks before Mary died, or that she had died as well. She had been reborn, as Cassia called it, and she had spent a hundred years with Cassia, not caring about anyone they fed from. People could have lived or died, and it hadn’t mattered to them. They’d spent all that time moving around Europe, having sex, making love, and feeding and enjoying their time together, but Arwen knew none of that.

  Arwen didn’t know about her second refrigerator filled with animal blood or the secret rooms in her new house. She also didn’t know that Iro was exhausted from spending too much time in the sun recently and that even a night high in the sky, nearer to the Moon, wouldn’t be enough to sustain her. She’d need time out of the light for at least the next full day to recover from this kind of exhaustion, but in this moment, staring at Arwen, she knew it was worth it.

  “It’s amazing,” Arwen noted, and her words got to Iro muffled through a headset, of which Iro had on an identical one.

  “Yes, it is,” she replied.

  She then took Arwen’s hand in her own and brought it to her lips to kiss, needing to feel Arwen’s skin to believe it was even real to be this happy. Three hundred plus years ago, she’d been happy with Mary, but only in the privacy of Mary’s home whenever they could get time alone. She could never profess her love, show it in public, or enjoy any other aspect of being a woman in the sixteen-hundreds. Today, she could kiss Arwen’s hand while the pilot looked on if she wanted to. She could kiss her on the street outside of Arwen’s new favorite restaurant. She could own a business, earn money, own property, and not have to allow any man to dictate the terms of her life.

  “Are you okay?” Arwen asked.

  Iro realized that she had zoned out a bit and said, “Yes. I’m perfect. Are you enjoying yourself?” she asked and leaned in to kiss her sweetly on the lips.

  Arwen nodded, smiled, and kissed Iro once more before she returned her attention to the city below them. When they exited the helicopter, Iro took Arwen by the hand and walked her over toward the waiting SUV.

  “You know you don’t have to impress me, right?”

  “Pardon?” she asked as she ushered Arwen into the car.

  “That was amazing and probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I really don’t need fancy helicopter rides or expensive dinners. I would be just as happy ordering Chinese food and watching a movie.”

  “Well, I made no dinner plans, so would you like to compromise and end our night with Chinese food and a movie?”

  “I could really go for some braised kao fu with mushrooms.”

  “I have no idea what that is,” Iro replied, laughing before she told the driver to head toward Arwen’s place. “I assume they deliver?”

  “There’s a vegan Chinese place on my way home. They do deliver, but through one of those apps, and they don’t pay their people fairly, in my opinion. On top of that, the restaurant pays more to be on the app, so I try to go there myself when I’m in the mood for it.”

  Iro took her hand and wondered how she’d managed to find the nicest human on the planet. She certainly knew she didn’t deserve Arwen. The choices she had made while living with Cassia – feeding on humans and worse – meant that Arwen was quite out of her league, but Iro couldn’t stay away from her as much as she knew she should.

  “I don’t like that they lose money,” Arwen added. “Is it okay if we stop by and pick something up? It’s vegan, but there’s a barbecue place a block away if you want something with meat in it.”

  “I’m okay,” she lied.

  She really wasn’t. She needed blood. She hadn’t eaten since before she had spotted Cassia on the street – or, rather, smelled her coming up behind her. She had meant to when she’d finally gotten home, but she had been so worried about Arwen that she’d just started looking at information her own security team had given her before she had hired them. She had wanted to know if she could hire someone to tail Arwen without Arwen knowing, but she knew they wouldn’t be able to do much against Cassia unless she told them to bring silver with them instead of a gun, which would be a little suspicious. Right now, though, she needed to focus on being more careful because a hungry – truly hungry – vampire was not a good thing. It especially wasn’t good because she needed more time to rest out of the sun, and Arwen smelled so sweet.

  Arwen, of course, chose that moment to rest her head against Iro’s shoulder, and Iro breathed in the fresh scent of homemade soap and, yes, blood, still the sweetest she’d ever smelled. She swallowed hard and tried to ignore the pulse in Arwen’s wrist as they held hands, or the feel of Arwen’s heart as Arwen leaned in and pressed herself to Iro’s chest.

  “How many helicopters have you been in?”

  “What?” Iro laughed.

  “You seem either tired or bored, so I’m making conversation.”

  “I’m not bored, Arwen,” she said and kissed the top of Arwen’s head. “I don’t think I could ever be bored with you.”

  “I doubt that. I’m very boring.”

  “How are you boring?”

  “You’ve only really seen me at the bar, or when you’re taking me on extravagant dates, but normally, I’m just working, or I’m at home. Being a lawyer seems really interesting when you’re watching them argue in court on TV, and it’s all dramatic, but it’s not like that at all. It’s much slower, mostly less intense, with fewer dramatic objections.”

  “I bet you’re amazing in court,” she replied, focusing on picturing just that. “May I see you argue someday?”

  “Oh, no way.” Arwen laughed, wrapping an arm around Iro’s waist. “I’m rarely in court for a trial. I’m a litigator, yes, but we typically end up settling. So, it’s mainly arbitration or depositions. Sometimes, we go in front of a judge for a ruling, but not often. Most people I go up against know they’re guilty of something, so they like to avoid a big trial because then, everyone else will know that, too.”

  “I guess I can’t watch you in a deposition, huh?”

  “I’m usually behind the camera while the person we’re questioning is in front of it. I promise you, babe, it is very boring. And when I’m not doing boring things at work, I’m doing boring things at home.”

  “Go on,” Iro said as she squeezed Arwen’s shoulder.

  “You already know I make my own soaps and toothpaste; that kind of thing.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, sometimes, I also make my own paper out of old paper. I recycle it. I have a whole kit thing.”

  “A paper-making kit?”

  “Yeah. You take the stuff you want to recycle, and you kind of pulverize it. Then, you press it, dry it, and eventually, you have a single sheet of paper.” Arwen laughed again. “You can make more than one sheet, obviously. It’s fun, and I end up with my own paper that I can use and remake over and over again, never having to buy new paper. I use legal pads at work, and I kind of hate it, but they work for me and I need them. I’ve tried a smart notebook thing and a tablet, as well as my laptop, but I just work better with those, so to make up for using all that paper, I make my own for home.”

  “Will you teach me?”

  Arwen shifted to look at her and asked, “You want me to show you how I make paper?”

  “Why not? We could do that tonight instead of watching a movie.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like you could fall asleep during that movie. Are you sure you’re even up for dinner?”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Iro replied and cupped Arwen’s cheek. “And I would love to make a single sheet of paper with you tonight, beautiful Arwen.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Arwen

  “Do you like it?” she asked.

  “Yes, it’s good,” Iro said. “I’ve never had vegan Chinese food, and honestly, I haven’t given it much thought in terms of Chinese food being vegan, but it makes sense. There’s a ton of meat alternatives, and they don’t usually use cheese; that kind of thing.”

  Iro set her bowl on the coffee table in front of them.

  “Finally,” Arwen stated.

  “Finally, what?”

  “Finally, I can do this,” she replied, moving to straddle Iro’s hips. “You really liked that food, huh? Took you forever to finish eating.”

  Iro looked up at her adoringly, and that was how Arwen would describe it. She cupped Iro’s cheek and couldn’t not look at her.

  “You’re so beautiful,” she said.

  “Arwen, I want to. You have no idea. But I don’t think we should tonight.”

  “Oh, you thought I wanted sex,” she said, shaking her head. “No, I just wanted to kiss you, and for a while, really.”

  “It’s okay that I want to wait?”

  “Of course, it’s okay. It’s only our second date. And my options to make out with you were to try that awkward kind of sideways thing since we’re both on the couch, to lie down, or to sit on your lap. I went with the lap.”

  “I’m glad you did. But you are hard to resist. I just want you to know that.” Iro finished talking, and her lips were on Arwen’s in seconds.

  They sat like that, with Iro’s hands moving up and down her sides, over her back and her thighs, and over her stomach, but Iro kept everything chaste, including her kisses, until Arwen deepened the kiss with her tongue. Iro moaned into her mouth, and Arwen wished they weren’t waiting because she wanted to hear that moan when they were both naked in bed. Iro’s lips moved to her neck, and Arwen looked skyward. It hadn’t ever felt this good before.

  Kissing someone, just kissing someone, shouldn’t feel this good, but it did with Iro. Her mouth seemed to know just where to go, just what to do, and how hard or soft to do it. One instant, she was sucking on Arwen’s pulse point, making it hurt just a little, and the next, she was licking over it and kissing the flesh to make it feel better.

  “God, you’re so good at this,” she admitted as she held Iro’s head to her neck.

  “You know I want you, right? It is certainly not a question of want,” Iro said and placed her lips on Arwen’s collarbone.

  “I want you, too.”

  “I want to wait because I don’t want to rush this,” Iro added and licked across Arwen’s chest. “When we do that for the first time, I want it to be perfect for both of us. I want us to both be ready, and I want us to know that it’s only you and me.”

  “Who else would it be?” Arwen asked.

  Iro looked up at her and said, “I mean that it’s only you and me, Arwen. Meaning we’re not dating; we’re together.”

  “Oh,” Arwen said. “You want to wait that long?”

  “That long? How long is that to you?” Iro asked, pulling back to look up at her.

  “I just meant that some people don’t say that they’re together for a while because one or both of them want to date around, or at least have the option to.”

  “Do you want that?”

  “No,” Arwen replied, cupping her cheeks. “I want you. But it’s been two dates, and I have a terrible track record with relationships, Iro. I want to do this right, though, and I don’t want there to be any pressure on either of us, so if you want to… date someone else, I want you to–”

  “I don’t,” Iro stated.

  “Oh, thank God,” she replied. “I was about to say that I want you to feel like you can, but that would’ve been a lie. I don’t want you to date anyone else. I just don’t know that I’m ready to say that we’re together yet. Is that confusing?”

  “No, I understand. You want to make sure we take our time. I want that, too. We’ll get there when we get there.”

  “But you don’t want to have sex until we do get there?”

  “I want to make love, Arwen,” Iro said and kissed her. “I want to know that you and I are both ready; that we’re not acting only on lust but the fact that we both can’t imagine going another minute without sharing that experience together.”

  Arwen leaned down then and kissed her deeply, and they stayed like that for a while before she felt her hips begin to move on their own and decided to get up and off Iro or risk them going too far too fast.

  “How about that paper?” she asked.

  “I’d love to, but can we do it another night?”

  “You are too tired, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. I concede: you were right.”

  “Stay?” Arwen requested softly. “Don’t go home. Just stay. I have clothes you can sleep in. We can hold each other all night, and you can wake up here with me. Say yes, Iro. I want you to stay.”

  “Okay. Yes,” Iro replied. “But I could use a shower.”

  “No problem. I’ve got the bucket and the pitcher all ready.”

  “Sorry?”

  “The bucket. I collect rainwater, boil it, and use that to shower.”

  Iro’s face showed shock, and Arwen laughed wildly.

  “I’m joking,” she revealed. “I just take fast showers. I wanted to see your face, though.”

  “Oh, I see how it is,” Iro replied, stood, and rushed toward her as Arwen ran into her bedroom.

  “No!” she yelled as she laughed, and before she knew it, she was on the bed, with Iro on top of her.

  She pushed at Iro’s suit jacket, unsure of why she even still had it on. Iro removed it and let it fall beside her on the bed. Arwen ran her hands over Iro’s chest, not worrying about touching breasts she shouldn’t be, and she was surprised to feel hard nipples through the shirt.

  “You’re not wearing a bra,” she noted.

  “I usually don’t,” Iro said. “They’re rather small, so I don’t need anything to hold them up.”

  “Well, now I don’t want to stop touching them.”

  “They’re very sensitive, so if you don’t, we’ll end up in trouble.”

  “Really?” she asked, hopeful.

  But Iro slipped out of her grasp and stood in front of her. Arwen leaned up on her elbows and watched in awe as Iro began unbuttoning her shirt.

  “I’m going to take a shower anyway, right?”

  “Right,” Arwen whispered, watching her undo the top button.

  The second one came next, and soon, Arwen saw that shirt parted and removed, and Iro stood there in a pair of her black suit pants and nothing else.

  “My God… You’re perfect,” she said softly.