There sure as hell wasn’t anything stopping her from going now. She had plenty of money in the bank, no responsibilities, and no job to worry about. Granted, she’d been saving her money to buy a house when she’d finally had enough of the life of a live-in nurse, but since that was obviously never going to happen…

Why not?

Why shouldn’t she go hide out on a tropical island, lounging on the beach while hot cabana boys served her fruity drinks with umbrellas all day? She’d more than earned it. With every step she took towards God only knew where, the idea of running off to hide on a tropical island and getting over the jerk behind her sounded better and better.

Granted, she didn’t have her ID, credit cards, bankcard, cash or clothes for that matter, but those were all minor problems that could easily be taken care of with a quick call to the agency. They wouldn’t be happy that she was taking a vacation, but she really didn’t care since her career as a home care nurse was probably over now. Since she doubted that there was a high demand for home care nurses that lived off blood and had an army of monsters after her, she was probably going to have to quit.

She hated quitting, but she really didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. She wouldn’t put anyone else at risk, not even the jackass walking next to her, who wasn’t even trying to hide that cocky grin of his.

“So, you’re in love with me, huh?” he suddenly announced, taking her off guard so that she didn’t see the branch lying across her path until it was too late.

Without missing a step, Christofer reached out, caught her elbow and steadied her while she tried to figure out an appropriate response that wouldn’t include the words, “fuck” and “off.” Since she couldn’t seem to make her frustrated brain work, she settled for just pretending that he hadn’t called her out on the stupidest thing that she’d ever done.

“Nope,” she said, lying her frustrated ass off.

“Really?” he asked, still sounding smug.

The bastard.

“Really.”

“I see,” he murmured, sounding thoughtful as she distracted herself with everything that she was going to have to do in order to get some semblance of a life back.

She was going to have to find some clothes, get her hands on a computer and have some money wired to her. Then she was going to have to hole up in a hotel for a few days while she waited for the agency to ship her emergency pack to her. It was something that the agency required of every employee that lived out of a suitcase. The pack held duplicates of her ID, bankcards, credit cards, passport and birth certificate. It was a safeguard just in case things got lost or stolen, or you were assigned to a patient with dementia who liked to set things on fire, which happened to her, twice.

“Where are you headed off to?” Christofer asked conversationally as he reached out and pushed a branch out of her way.

“To find a good travel agent,” she said, storming off.

“Running away from our love?” he asked, making her lips twitch despite the fact that she wanted to kick him in the balls.

“Something like that,” she said, trying to keep a straight face, but that damn boyish grin of his had her heart skipping a beat.

“So, isn’t this the part of the story where you start sobbing hysterically as you profess your undying love for me and start worshipping my body with your mouth?” he asked, sounding so damn hopeful that she couldn’t help but laugh.

Damn him!

She was supposed to be pushing him away for his own good, not finding him irresistibly charming and sweet. Normally she didn’t have a problem getting a guy to split, but with Christofer she couldn’t seem to make the stubborn bastard let her go. Granted, she hadn’t tried the direct route, something that she normally saved as a last resort when a guy just didn’t seem to comprehend that she’d grown bored and moved on.

It wasn’t something that she wanted to do, not with Christofer, but if it meant keeping him safe then-

“Or, maybe this is the part of the story where I confess that I am head over heels in love with you and can’t imagine living a single day of the rest of my life without you,” he confessed, all signs of humor gone from his tone as he took her by surprise, sent her heart skipping and her brain turned to mush, which was probably how she missed the fact that the trail that she was following veered off to the right of a steep incline.

Chapter 45

“You’re an ass**le,” Cloe declared as she shoved away from him and awkwardly climbed to her feet so that she could continue to storm away from him as though they hadn’t just fallen fifty feet down the hill that he hadn’t seen coming until the last second.

“You’re welcome,” he said dryly as he pushed off the ground and sat up.

“I’m welcome?” she repeated in disgust as she whirled around and stormed back over to him so that she could glare down at him through beautiful red eyes. “I wouldn’t have fallen down that hill if it wasn’t for you!”

“How is it my fault that you tripped over your own two feet?” he asked innocently, loving the scent of anger rolling off her. Not because he was a sick bastard, but because beneath the scent of anger was arousal.

God, she smelled f**king fantastic.

Okay, maybe he was a sick bastard, because he couldn’t help but smile as the scent of her anger intensified right along with the scent of her arousal. He shifted back a bit until he felt his back come in contact with the large boulder behind him. He sighed with satisfaction as she glared down at him. He could smell the blood rushing to swell her br**sts and harden her ni**les and wondered if she’d consider letting him feed from her there one day. Probably not, but just the thought of feeding from her as he suckled her nipple had his c**k hardening painfully.

“You bastard!” she hissed, as he relaxed back against the boulder, licking his lips as he smelled her sex swell.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but abruptly shut it, narrowed her eyes on him and then with a snort of disgust, demanded, “Are you f**king kidding me?”

“Hmmm?” he murmured, barely registering her reaction or the fact that she’d moved closer to him so that she could glare down at him.

“You’re getting turned on? Now?” she demanded, the sound of disgust in her voice should have been enough to knock some sense into him, but sadly, it wasn’t.

“Yes,” he answered with absolutely no shame as he ran his eyes over her, devouring every last detail from her hair tangled with tiny sticks and leaves down to her dirt smudged face, the torn blanket covered in dirt and grass stains that she had wrapped around her body all the way down to her beautiful dirt smudged feet.

“Seriously?” she snapped, looking down at herself in disgust. “I look like I was dragged through a tornado and this is turning you on?”

He reached up and grabbed her hand, giving it a gentle pull before she could react. He yanked her down on top of him, giving her the choice to straddle him or fall over. “You always turn me on,” he admitted, reaching up and cupping the back of her neck. He pulled her down for a kiss as she settled on his lap, the blanket bunching up around her h*ps to accommodate the move.

“You are a deeply disturbed individual,” she whispered against his lips as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and threaded her fingers through his hair as she returned his kiss.