Sensitive to Victoria’s responses, Vail smiled against her cheek as he noticed the tremor in her movements and the spike in her pheromones. It was the same reaction he coaxed out of all his prey, but he took special pleasure in knowing that he could so easily commandeer the state of mind of the woman he loved. Unlike any other humans, he treated her affectionately and had become fond of far more than just the taste of her blood. Whether he would always be able to feed from her or not was of little concern to him, as was evidenced by his willingness to turn her into one of his own kind. Right now, however, with his primal instincts behind the wheel, he was drawn to indulge himself while the opportunity was still there.

“Good,” he mused, rocking back on his heels to undress the top half of his body. His father believed he had gone hunting in the city, so he didn’t want to return to the manor with water stains on his sleeves. To do so would have been to invite unwanted questions from the paranoid head of the Hygraces, since there were no rainclouds in the sky that eve. So, to avoid that confrontation, he hung his coat over the back of the chair and slipped out of his shirt and vest, placing the rest of the discarded articles in the same spot until he was left in nothing more than the trousers on his lower half.

No longer at risk of soaking his clothes, he leaned forward again to resume what he had been doing. His hands slipped into the warm water on either side of Victoria to stroke the soft skin of her chest and midriff, and he pressed his lips to her neck, inhaling her familiar scent. He had been honest when he’d said that he had missed her. After spending nearly a week apart, the anticipation of seeing her again had built up quite a bit, and even kneeling beside her now felt like a reprieve from withdrawal. He was glad that he had found her in the bath, because while discovering her naked had been a treat, the fragrant water would also mask her scent from Peter when he returned to the Hygrace manor.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you something,” he breathed, wrapping his arms around her in an embrace from behind. As strong as his cravings for her blood had become, there was one other reason why he had been so eager to seek her out that night, and he wanted to address it before he lost himself in the feed. Holding her as close to himself as he could with the edge of the tub in between, Vail touched another kiss to her neck and then whispered in her ear, “I love you, Victoria.”