“Right now, I don’t think she didn’t do it. Right now, I’m thinking that someone stopped her from doing it. She took me down because she drugged me. But she was petite and slim. No way she could drag my ass thirty yards when I was dead weight. That said, the bar I was in was rough. I’m a werewolf vampire, but I’m a biker. That’s the kind of place I hang. Could have been someone walked out, saw her, stopped her, dragged me to safety, but didn’t want to get involved by phoning the police, or maybe they didn’t want to bring trouble to the bar by doing it or having me found in the lot.”

“I’m not liking this, Abel,” I informed him.

“Not likin’ it much either, Delilah, because I can’t die. But with what it did to my face, I know that knife would have been the end of me.”

My head jerked on the pillow. “You can’t die?”

His eyes gentled as they looked into mine. “Bao bei, I’m a werewolf vampire. I’m immortal. Don’t know for certain, but do know since Jian-Li’s great-great-great-grandmother found me, I’ve lived two hundred years.”

Was he serious?

“What?” I cried.

His head tipped to the side. “Thought I made that clear.”

“You…did…not,” I retorted.

“Delilah, I told you I waited three lifetimes for you, and that’s only three because I was at one point a little kid, even being what I am, so I didn’t know I had a hankering for green-eyed temptress, biker bitch pussy for a coupla lifetimes.”

I ignored the biker bitch pussy part and snapped, “I didn’t know you meant literally.”

“Well, I did.”

“That’s also insane,” I hissed.

“Any less insane than anything else you’ve learned the last coupla of days?” he shot back.

I clamped my mouth shut.

He grinned.

I unclamped my mouth. “Don’t you grin at me, Abel. Remember that thread I was hanging by?”

He kept grinning as he answered. “Yeah.”

“Well, you’re supposed to keep it strong, not unravel it.”

He dipped his face closer again and asked, “How do I keep it strong?”

I bucked up against his body in an annoyed way and answered, “I don’t know. You’re supposed to figure that out.”

“Thinkin’ I’m done drawing from you, I won’t numb you with my mouth.”

My head tilted sharply on the pillow again. “What?”

He didn’t answer.

He slanted his head the other way and kissed me.

Our first kiss.

It had tongues. It was slow. It was long. It was sweet. It was gentle. Then it wasn’t. Then it was rough and consuming and fucking unbelievable to the point that when he broke his mouth from mine, I was panting and clutching him to me with arms and legs.