Cordelia has no qualms about talking during a television show. Normally, I'd be annoyed, but I like the way she adds her own commentary to things. She overshares, and I can probably guess how things this first season will turn out for Sookie and Vampire Bill. But it's entertaining all the same.

Or perhaps it isn't the show at all that has captured my attention. 

Halfway through the first episode she crawled beneath the blankets. I did my best to hold out on doing the same. We were already walking a fine line on what is appropriate for two people with agendas that had nothing to do with dating. Ten minutes into the second episode, I found myself slipping under the blankets beside her. Since that questionable decision, her foot has rubbed against my calf at least a dozen times. It's an innocent act on her part, but my body doesn't seem to care. The slightest touch from this woman and my cock is aching.

"I can't believe they categorized True Blood as a comedy." 

Her voice startles me from my thoughts.

"It is funny for those who know real vampires." My voice is a low, raspy rumble, and I clear my throat. "It's a bit unrealistic, but it's entertaining." 

She laughs and turns on her side to look at me after pressing the pause button on the remote. "Like what?" 

Her foot grazes my calf again and I have to clench my jaw against the shiver that rolls through me. I mirror her position and face her. "Like the part where he still hasn't fed on her even when they've got this intense attraction going, not even once." I'm teasing her, but I can't help myself. She's the one who chose this incredibly sexual show for us to watch...while we are in bed together. She's going to have to suffer the consequences. 

She shifts on the mattress and chews her bottom lip. "Oh...but they haven't known each other much longer than we have, so..." 

"True. But she is a willing victim. Her attraction to Bill is short circuiting her common sense. If she were smart, she would run."

Cordelia lifts an eyebrow, clearly taking offense to my suggestion for the fictional character. I wish she would run and put some distance between us, because the temptation to have a taste is growing by the second. But much like Sookie, Cordelia has an appetite for the dangerous and forbidden. 

"So what are you saying? You think I should run from you? I thought you wanted me to stay with you. That it was the safest thing to do. Now you're confusing me, sir," she says, her hair sliding over her shoulder and breast.  Somehow, I can still smell her coconut shampoo even after her journey to the bottom of the chlorinated swimming pool. 

"I'm saying that you are playing with fire, Cordelia. And you know it. Don't think for a second that I'm unaware of your innocent flirtations." I glance down to where her fingers are toying with the ends of her hair. "You are safe from whatever has attacked you, but I can't promise you are safe from me. Not when you continue to tempt me."

She chews on the inside of her cheek and appears to consider my words, but I can tell she isn't really considering them at all. She's not going to stop tempting me. She's doing this on purpose. She knows how close I was to kissing her before she was taken underwater, and I don't think she means to stop until she gets what she wants. 

If I didn't know better, I'd say she was just as much a siren as Lorelai. 

Her fingers slip from her hair and travel to my wrist, brushing against my bare skin. "What if I don't want to stop tempting you? What if that's exactly what I want to do? And what you may not know about me yet is that while I am pretty mild-mannered and laidback, and I may not know what the fuck I want to do with my life...when I do know what I want...I get it." 

I intertwine my fingers with hers. Her hand is so small, delicate, each bone beneath her supple skin fragile. The ways I could break her, bend her, drown inside her. "Could you be content with just one taste?" The question is just as much for me as it is for her. 

She swallows, and I watch each movement in her neck, my fangs practically begging to be released, to sink into the ivory flesh. 

"Which kind of taste, Elias? The taste of your lips on mine? Or my blood in your veins? Because while I don't know anything about how the latter is going to feel, I know how the mere brush of your lips against mine affected me earlier tonight, and I don't know if I could just have one taste of your mouth," she says, her voice barely above a whisper, but I hear every word loud and clear. 

My fingers release hers and travel up her arm. The warmth of her skin and the soft give have me closing my eyes. I journey higher, over her shoulder and up her neck, lingering at her pulse point. All that sweet mortal life-force flowing just beneath the surface. The tip of my tongue plays at my canine until I nip the flesh, jarring me from the ache that starts at my teeth and shoots down to the pit of my stomach.

Cordelia's breath hitches as I slide my hand to the back of her neck and pull her close. "Are you sure you want this?" I ask, sliding my lips against hers. 

"Yes," she breathes, gripping the front of my t-shirt in her fist. "Please, Elias." And when she nips my bottom lip with her incisors, desire floods my veins. 

It is that soft-spoken plea that shatters my resolve. My lips claim hers, and my question from earlier is answered. One taste will never be enough. She tastes of sugary hope, rich passion, and the zest of sunshine. One sweep of her tongue along mine and I'm lost to the delicacy that is Cordelia.

I grip her hair, tilting her head back as I deepen the kiss. The mewl that escapes her throat spurs me on, and my body moves closer to hers. I'm desperate to feel her beneath me. I want this woman at my mercy. 

And she is completely submissive to my needs. She shifts to her back, allowing me to move over her, and I can hardly believe I'm actually doing this. The very thing I said I was not going to do—kiss, date, or otherwise attempt to charm anyone, let alone a human. 

But nothing short of Cordelia herself could stop me right now. 

She wraps one leg around my waist, pulling me closer, her arousal evident through the satin material of her tiny pajama shorts. The feel of her pressing into me and rolling her hips drives me wild. I grip her thigh, matching the pace she sets. The friction isn't exactly what I need, but it is enough to sedate the thrumming in my cock. 

"Fuck," I breathe when she grinds against me in just the right way. My lips leave her mouth and find the delicate patch of skin below her ear. It takes everything in me not to slide down further and graze my teeth against her throat.

"Elias," she gasps, and I still completely, taking my mouth from her skin.

I back off, lifting myself off her on both palms. "I'm sorry, Cordelia," I say, my chest rising and falling with the intensity of the emotions running through me. 

She shakes her head, pulling me back down to her by the collar. "No. What are you doing?" When our bodies collide, she lifts her pelvis to my still rock-hard cock and rolls against me, eliciting a groan from deep in my chest. 

"I thought you were going to tell me to stop," I say, leaning back down and kissing the spot below her ear again. 

She laughs, and the sound is starlight in my veins. "Not hardly. I was going to tell you I need more." 

More.

I have no clue what that means. Does she need more kissing? More dry-humping like horny teenagers? Does she need me thrusting balls-deep inside her? I'm not sure, but I do know one thing. She is desperate to come.

I slide my hand across her stomach and dance my fingers along the waist of her shorts. "Can I touch you?" I ask.

She arches her back and stretches her neck, her face to the ceiling. "Fuck, yes, please." 

She just doesn't think...what exposing her neck like that does to me. A vampire who hasn't drunk human blood from the source in...decades. 

I struggle past that need as my fingers slip into her shorts and meet slick skin. I've barely started touching her and I already want to dive deep inside. Instead, I settle for pressing down on her clit. 

"Is this all for me, Cordelia?" I ask, slowing the circles I'm drawing over the most sensitive part of her.

She whimpers, but then she smirks up at me. "It depends. Is all this for me?" she asks, slipping her hand between us and palming my hard-on. 

I groan and answer her by slipping two fingers inside of her. Her body grips me, and I imagine what it would feel like if she was holding me with more than her hand. I want to fill her up, for her to think of nothing but me and what I'm doing to her. But that is a line I will not cross tonight. 

With pure regret, I drag her hand away from me and say, "I want to focus on you. And your hand is...too good on me."

She narrows her eyes and says, "Fine, but don't think I'll forget...I want my mouth on you, Elias. Because yes, this," she lifts her hips against my hand, my fingers sliding deeper inside her, "is all for you." 

This woman has no clue what she is saying to me. It is too gentle...too safe. The things I want to do to her are far from either of those things. But those are lines we can cross another night. For now, I want to hear her say my name when she falls apart by my hand. 

My thumb moves over her clit as I pump in and out of her. Her muscles tighten around me, and her breaths quicken. "Come for me, Cordelia."

As if my command is all she needed to let go, a high-pitched whimper escapes her throat and her pussy contracts around my fingers. She is even more beautiful when she's unraveling underneath me—her lips parted and eyelashes fluttering. And damn don't I love the pretty pink flush of her skin.

"Fuck, Elias," she gasps, reaching for me and pulling my face to hers. "Kiss me." It's both a plea and a command, one that I can't ignore. 

I capture her whimpers and swallow them like they are life-giving. Each tiny sound just for me to consume. 

When her body goes slack under mine, I roll away and pull her into the crook of my arm. Just as I expected, she curls into me, snuggling her cheek against my chest. 

"Curiosity cured?" I ask. 

She turns her face in toward me, and instead of seeing her smile, this time I feel it. "No. You just opened up a door that will be near impossible to close." 

I take a deep breath and run my fingers through her silver hair. I fully understand where she is coming from, but there is so much she doesn't know about me and my kind—the bonds we can create when we are open to it. I felt it the moment she walked into the dining room; she is the type of woman that could make me drop my defenses. The ramifications of doing so are a topic for another night. For now, I want her to bask in pleasure I coaxed from her and sleep without a care in the world.

I place a kiss to the top of her head and tighten my hold on her. "That is a door we can talk about walking through again in the morning. For now, just sleep and know you are protected."

She nods and murmurs a goodnight, and I know she is exhausted from everything she's been through today, both physically and emotionally. And looking down at her right now, I know one thing: all I want to do is keep anything from ever harming her again. No matter what I have to do.

Or who I have to kill.