Approval flashed in his eyes. “Good.” Then he shelved her chin on his palm and dipped his head to hers. “And I only want you to bite me from now on. You understand?”

Was that jealousy she detected in his gruff tone? The devil made her ask, “Why?”

His jaw clenched. “Because those sexy lips and fangs only belong on my body. If you do this to another man, I’m going to kill him.”

Before she could come back with a retort, he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her hard. She was breathless when he released her. When she smiled at him, Haven raked his hand through her hair and changed the subject.

“You cut your hair again.”

Yvette shrugged. “You don’t like it?”

“I do, I like both ways.” His hand stroked through her hair as if to prove that he spoke the truth. “I’m just wondering why you do it.”

“No particular reason.”

A moment later she found herself flat on her back, Haven pinning her down with his hulky body. “Baby, why do you need to lie to me after what we’ve just experienced together? Don’t I deserve better?”

There was no anger in his voice, just a dose of resignation. Yvette lifted her hand, wiping a strand of hair from his forehead. “I’m sorry. I’m just so used to—”

“—pushing others away?”

For a moment, she closed her eyes, trying to banish the memories, but they didn’t vanish, not this time. “I’m so used to being strong.”

He eased off his weight and rolled to his side, pulling her into his arms in the process. “You’re strong, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Yvette?”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve heard a lot about my past today, and I feel bare in front of you. But you’re still trying to hide behind that wall. Please, let me in.”

“I don’t know how.” Because letting him in meant opening herself up to pain. What if he hurt her? What if he didn’t like the woman who was inside, the one who needed to be loved but was too afraid to admit it?

“You’re safe with me.”

Safe with the big vampire hunter? As strange as it sounded, the more time she spent with him, the more he seeped into her and infused her with a sense of peace. But would her feelings ever be truly safe with him?

“I trusted you not to hurt me with your bite. Now trust me.”

Yvette recognized the sincerity in his eyes and nodded. Then she looked into the distance, pinning her stare at a painting on the far wall so she wouldn’t need to look at Haven while she told him who she was.

“I wasn’t always like this. I was the perfect wife: I cooked, I kept an immaculate house, I had a drink ready when my husband came home from work. I supported him in everything he did. His friends were envious of what they thought was the perfect life. Well, it wasn’t perfect.” She let out a bitter laugh, unable to look at Haven’s reaction.

“I wasn’t perfect. I—”

“Don’t say that!”

“But it’s true. I wasn’t the perfect wife, because I couldn’t give Robert what he wanted. After the first miscarriage, he was disappointed but still supportive. But after the second, he hated me. He hated me for killing his unborn child.”

“Miscarriages happen all the time. That’s not killing.”

“It felt like it. He accused me of not wanting it, because if I’d really wanted the child, I would have done everything to prevent a miscarriage. But my body rejected it. My body was defective … is defective. I’m not a real woman, because I can’t do what real women can do: bear children.”

Haven let out a deep breath. “That’s ridiculous. I hope you divorced that idiot!”

Yvette sighed. “He divorced me.”

“He didn’t deserve you.”

“But he was right. I wasn’t perfect. I’m still not.”

“There are plenty of women who have a healthy child after a couple of miscarriages. If you really want one, it wouldn’t be too late.”

She shook her head. He didn’t understand. “Vampire females are sterile.”

Yvette sensed the surprise in his rigid body.

“But … Samson’s wife … she’s …”

“Delilah is pregnant because she’s human. And vampire males can mate with humans. Vampire males can procreate. Females can’t.”

Haven’s hand stroked over her head. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

She swallowed, knowing that now that he knew this, he would realize that whatever they had couldn’t go any further. Why would he, a healthy human, give up the chance to have children just to be with her? “So, you see, I’m defective.”