Jenks shrugged. Shifting position, he pulled himself together and watched the pixies with a professional interest. “What was I supposed to do? Walk away?”

I looked at my half-eaten cookie. Nick might have. Nick almost did the first time I had goaded Ivy into trying to bite me. Until I said no to her and she insisted. Then he stepped in to help. Looking back on the incident, it seemed obvious I had been jonesing for a bite.

“Sorry,” I said, thinking of how tenuous I’d made everything. “I wasn’t thinking.”

Making a rude snort, he crossed his legs. “Do tell, Miss witch princess,” he said. “Ivy was handling it, and you go and get curious, tipping her into all but killing you. Bloody hell! When are you going to stop being afraid of yourself?”

I ate a bite of cookie, a big one this time. “I’m scared,” I said after I forced it down, dry.

“We’re fine,” Jenks said loudly, his eyes on the hanging flowers and clearly not knowing where my thoughts were. “We’re all fine. Ivy said she isn’t going to bite you again. We’ll go out for pizza at Piscary’s when we get home, and everything will return to normal. You’re safer now than your first night spent under the same roof.”

I put the last of the cookie in my mouth, nervously folding the crumbs up into the napkin. Jenks was probably right about Ivy never again initiating a bite between us. But she hadn’t initiated the first one either. The thing was, I didn’t want everything to return to normal.

Jenks swiveled to face me. “Ah, you are too scared to let her bite you again, right?”

A slow breath slipped past my lips and adrenaline zinged through me, pushed by fear. It was a feeling I was beginning to understand. I didn’t need fear to feel passion. I didn’t.

“Crap on my daisies,” Jenks breathed. “You aren’t. Rache…”

Frightened, I shifted to put my elbows on my knees, wadding the napkin up and squishing it as if it was my shame. “I’m in trouble,” I whispered. “She didn’t bind me, but she may as well have.”

“Rache…” It was soft and pensive, and it ticked me off.

“Just listen, will you?” I snapped, then slumped back, squinting into the sun as I looked at nothing. My throat was tight, and I shoved the napkin in a pocket. “I…I learned something about myself. And I’m scared it’s going to kill me if I ignore it. It’s just…God! How could I be that blind about myself?”

“It might be the vamp pheromones,” Jenks coaxed. “You aren’t necessarily attracted to women just because you want to sleep with Ivy.”

My eyes widened and I turned to him, shocking myself that he was still wearing that disguise and only his eyes looked like him. “I don’t want to sleep with Ivy!” I said, flustered. “I’m straight. I…” I took a deep breath, afraid to admit it aloud. “I want to try to find a blood balance with her.”