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jerking me around,” he charged, voice rough. “From the beginning, you were trying to manipulate me.”
    His words hurt. Simone shook her head and took another fast step toward him. “Never, I promise. Ben, I’d
never
do anything to hurt you—”
    He sprang at her then. His fingers closed around her shoulders in a bruising grip. “
What do you think the last ten years did to me?
” 
    She didn’t have an answer. No, she did, but Simone couldn’t say the words to him.
Those years turned you into a monster.
Everyone else saw the monster when they looked at him.  But she still saw the man he’d been.
    The man who’d come into the shelter that day, looking so lost and out of place in his fancy coat.  For so long, she’d been whispering to him that he needed to help others.
Help. Help.
She’d entreated for so long, trying to get him to hear her, and that day…he had.
    He’d given his thousand dollar coat to the woman in the corner. Then Ben had rolled up his sleeves. Simone had taken human form that day because she’d been so happy to see him. So happy for the change that he’d made.
    Ben had seen her. He’d come toward her. He’d helped her make lunch for the people in that shelter.   
    And he’d taken every piece of her heart then. 
    “I was lost without you.”  His hold tightened even more. “I won’t be lost again.” 
    “Ben—”
    He kissed her.  Fury was in the kiss, so was desire. With the touch of his lips against hers, Simone knew the white-hot passion that had surged between them before was still as strong as ever.
    Maybe she should have pulled away. Tried to get him to listen to her story. But…
    I only have an hour.
One precious hour with him. 
    Ben didn’t realize the battle that was raging this night. She did.  And if she could just show him the value he had. Show him that he was loved…
    Her hands pressed to his chest. His heart raced beneath her palm. A fast, wild rhythm.  She parted her lips even more for him.  Kissed him with the desire that had remained within her for ten long years.
    “I need you,” he said, voice rumbling, as he began to kiss his way down her neck. She didn’t tense when his fangs raked over her skin. There was nothing that his bite could do to her now. 
    She slid her hand under his shirt. His skin was warm, almost hot.  In the movies, they said that vampires were cold. The movies were wrong.
    So wrong.
    He was like a furnace, and she loved that heat. It surrounded her. Banished the chill that had clung to her ever since she’d awakened in a morgue and realized that he was gone.
    Her fingers slipped down, down, moving to the snap of his jeans. 
    “Simone?”
    She undid the snap. Slid down the zipper. His cock sprang toward her. Fully erect. Thick. So hard. Simone lowered to her knees before him. He watched her with a gaze she couldn’t read. Once, she’d been able to read him easily, but not anymore.
    She could only hope her emotions were as hidden.  She couldn’t,
wouldn’t
let him see the fear that curled within her. Passion would win this time. Desire would triumph.
    Her fingers curled around his cock.  She stroked him once, from root to tip.  Again.
    Then she put her mouth on him.
    “Baby…”
His fingers sank in her hair, but he didn’t push her away. He urged her closer.
    And she wanted to be close. She wanted to memorize his taste. Wanted to stroke and touch all of him.  She kissed his heavy length.  Loved the way his cock stiffened even more beneath her mouth. She loved—
    In a flash, Simone was on her back. The old bed sagged beneath her, and her vampire stared down at her with his glowing, golden eyes. 
    “If I didn’t know better,” Ben said, his deep voice hard with desire and rage, “I’d think you missed me. But then,
angel,
you wouldn’t have stayed away ten years if you really wanted me that much.”
    If they kept me away, if they didn’t give me a choice…
Simone swallowed back the words. They would only