But she was coming at me, silent and with a deadly intent in her. What in hell had happened? She had been okay, and then…she wasn’t.

My arm came up at the last moment and I knocked aside her hand as it reached for me. Ivy twisted and grabbed my wrist. I had just enough time to gasp before she yanked me forward, leveraging me into losing my balance.

I went down.

She went to drop to a knee, and I rolled. I was just ahead of her move, and I smacked into her feet, knocking her into a front fall. I curled into a ball to avoid her and lurched upright.

I was too slow. Her vampiric speed had her standing, and I rose right up into her grip.

“Ivy, stop!” I exclaimed, and she shoved me backward. My arms flailed and I hit the fridge. Pain hit hard as I tried to keep upright and find my breath at the same time. My eyes watered, and she slowly followed me, carefully placing her boots to just miss the patch of blue-tinted sun glowing through the curtain. She was powerful and lean in her work leathers, walking with grace and a savage, leashed strength. Smiling with her lips closed, she moved, arms swinging as she crossed the few paces between us. She was in no hurry. I was hers.

“Stop,” I gasped when I found my first clean breath. “Ivy, you want to stop. Stop!”

My voice brought her to a halt three feet from me, and my heart pounded. A flicker of distress marred her confidence. “Why?” she sighed, her gray silk voice cutting through me.

Faster than I could follow, she pinned me to the stainless-steel fridge. One hand forced my shoulder back, and the other was twined in my hair. My breath came in a pained sound when she jerked my head to the side, exposing my already bleeding neck. God, no. Not like this.

Her body pressed into the entire length of mine, one of her boots between my feet. My pulse was fast and I was sweating. I was pushing every button she had, but I couldn’t stop. Terrified, I tried to see her, but her grip on my hair wouldn’t let me turn. I was scared out of my mind, and a thought of Kisten surfaced and was gone.

“Ivy,” I rasped, struggling to see her with my neck craned. “You can let go. Just don’t look at me. We can do this. We can do this, damn it!”

“Why?” she repeated in that same calm voice. She pressed harder against me, but her grip on my hair eased, and I turned to her. I felt the blood drain from my face, and Ivy shuddered, drinking my fear in like a blood aphrodisiac.