"It�s a date." Charley dumped the chocolate chips into a bowl, deciding to make the pancakes anyway. Her anxiety about Rudy was already melting away, the thought of a picnic and outdoor movie with her sister bolstering her mood.

Sasha hugged her from behind as she leaned in to steal a chocolate chip. "What did I do to deserve you, Chuck?"

Charley grinned, turning to press a kiss to Sasha�s cheek.

You showed up, she thought. And you stayed.

That fucking closet was going to haunt him for the rest of his immortal life.

Charlotte had awoken something inside him�a hunger that had lain dormant for far too long. Now, Dorian couldn�t even hang up his suit coat in the office this morning without his cock getting hard�a situation that would become problematic if he didn�t do something about it.

Like track that woman down, drag her back to Ravenswood, and show her exactly what she�s been missing out on her whole life�

Dorian sighed. He was the one missing out. Last night he�d sent her home with another man without a fight, and now he�d probably never see her again.

Maybe it was for the best.

Behind those seductive copper eyes, Charlotte was a deep vault of secrets. Nothing about her was innocent, and with everything else going on in his life right now, Dorian didn�t need that kind of trouble.

At least she didn�t walk away with the Whitfield.

It was a small comfort�one that didn�t last long. How had she gotten so thoroughly under his skin? He couldn�t remember the last time he�d felt more than a vague curiosity about a woman, let alone the borderline obsessing he was doing right now.

Sipping coffee as black and bitter as his heart, he stood before his 40th floor office windows and took in the view, a vast sea of skyscrapers that stretched from his building in Tribeca up to the northern edge of Manhattan. In the distance, the top of the Chrysler Building gleamed beneath a gorgeous sapphire-blue sky, making it nearly impossible for his foul mood to linger. Despite the ache behind his eyes, his mind was clear today�a sign that the second round of demon blood had nourished him.

That was something, anyway.

"Rough night, mate?" Aiden Donovan, Dorian�s business partner and best friend, barged into his office with his usual lack of decorum. "You look like hell."

"And you look like someone who thinks he can show up without an appointment."

"So rude, right?" Aiden laughed, and�just as he�d been doing since they were children in West Sussex centuries ago�made himself at home.

Today, it meant kicking back in Dorian�s leather executive chair. Back then, it�d meant accompanying the Redthorne boys on every trip into London for supplies for their father�s medical experiments, or helping Dorian care for his horse, or partaking in the family�s meals. He was the son of a local blacksmith, but his mother had died giving birth to him, and his father pretended Aiden didn�t exist. He spent so much time at the Redthorne residence that eventually Dorian�s mother gave him a room and instructed the staff to set a regular place for him at the table, where he dined with them for hundreds of meals throughout childhood and into adulthood, until the very last.

"Yet you never make good on those threats to fire me," Aiden said now.

Dorian scrubbed a hand over his face. "Bit of a long night, is all."

Long was an understatement. Trouble or not, Charlotte had gotten to him. Badly. No matter how many cold showers and stiff drinks later, he couldn�t get her out of his system. Even a morning run around lower Manhattan before work couldn�t clear his head. The feel of her velvety skin, the sounds she�d made as she writhed in his arms, the taste of her flesh still lingering on his lips, the dangerously addicting scent of her blood, rich and warm beneath her skin�

Every last memory conspired to undo him.

Drink her or fuck her, that�s what he�d said. And though he�d come close to doing both, in the end, he�d walked away.

"What�s her name?" Aiden asked. When Dorian didn�t respond, Aiden laughed. "I�ve known you since your first wank, Redthorne. As a human. You think I don�t recognize your morning-after look? Must�ve been one hell of a row. Vampire?"

"Stop talking," Dorian said, settling into the chair across from him. "Unless you�re looking for a severance package. As in, the kind where I sever your head from your body." JrNovels.com