Again Sebastian didn't know quite what to think of Ryder's words. Were they a challenge to or an acceptance of Sebastian's role in all that was happening? Squaring his shoulders, he replied, "She'll deal with us beside her."

"Then it's settled," Ryder said.

Diana kissed Sebastian's cheek then whispered in tones low enough so only he could hear, "Hermanito, be sure of what you're doing."

He knew she was concerned and meant well, but her comment made him wonder. Did his sister worry he was not up for the task? Perhaps she thought he might not be strong enough to face the coming adversity, much as Papi might have doubted him.

Shaking his head to drive away those thoughts, Sebastian waited for his sister and her vampire lover to leave the room. How did she deal with it? With Ryder and what he was? With the risk that went with it?

The answer nagged him as he walked out of the kitchen and back to Ryder's office.

She can deal with it because she's a better man than you.

Chapter 10.

"R est," he said, easing the journal out of Melissa's hands.

"Ryder said-"

Sebastian laid a finger on her lips to silence her. "It makes sense to read the later journals, which you've been so kind as to identify and leave for me to scan. So I'll scan and you rest."

A small smile spread beneath his index finger before Melissa eased back into the cushions of the sofa. "You can be very demanding at times."

It took all his willpower not to lean over and kiss her smile away. Put those luscious lips to better use. Fighting back a groan, he said, "I'll wake you when I'm done."

"You'll wake me in an hour whether or not you're done." She snuggled deeper into the cushions of the sofa and pulled a throw over her legs.

"Now who's being demanding?" he said with a smile.

He liked the way she seemed able to let loose with him. As he had a few nights ago, he turned his attentions to safeguarding the journals while keeping an eye on Melissa. As she had a few nights ago, she fell asleep within minutes.

He wondered if it was some trick they taught you in medical school. After all, residents worked wickedly crazy hours and any free time for sleep was precious and not to be wasted.

Time being a finite thing for most people, unlike it was for Ryder....

Sebastian wondered about Ryder's existence before Diana had come into the picture. Had his life been fulfilling with only the Danvers family as his support? Sebastian didn't doubt Melissa's affection for Ryder. Even if she hadn't made it clear to him, he'd seen firsthand how committed she was to the vampire and how even before the deaths of her parents, she had viewed him as part of her family.

Which made him wonder about the kind of man Frederick Danvers had been. Especially considering he had ignored a daughter as beautiful and intelligent and loving as Melissa. Could he have been as distant and intolerant as his own father, or possibly worse?

As Sebastian looked over at Melissa, he pitied the child who hadn't been loved and the young woman who'd had her life stolen from her. But Melissa wouldn't want his pity, and as for his love...

Despite what had recently happened between them, Melissa had made it clear that her life had no place for love or for a normal man like him.

That was a shame, he told himself as he reached for the journal, eager to be finished with his task. The quicker he was done, the quicker he could get her out of his mind-or find a way to convince her that she was wrong. Maybe there was a place for him.

And if there was, could he be strong enough for her? If not, he had to gracefully extricate himself from her life. He refused to consider that it would be much a much harder job to yank her out of his heart.

The hallway was long and narrow. Dimly lit by bare bulbs in industrial-style sconces on the walls.

She inched along slowly, keeping one hand on the rough concrete surface of the walls as if to keep touch with reality.

The sound of her own breathing was rough, bouncing off the corridor and echoing loudly. Her foot caught on something, and the sound of her slipper was a loud zip that stopped her in her tracks.

Melissa's heart beat so loudly in her head that she couldn't hear anything else. She waited for her father to open the door to the lab at the end of the hallway, but the door remained closed. Taking a deep breath, she moved onward, farther into the main wing of the house.

She crept forward until she was almost to the door, but then paused as something dark and slick slid from beneath the edge of the wood. It looked too much like blood, only there was so much of it. It ran around the edges of her pale pink slippers with the little yellow flowers that Uncle Ryder had bought her.

The door flew open, revealing her father in a bloodied lab coat, his normally precise hair in disarray. He held his hands over something on a table. Something that shifted for a moment before opening and sending a torrent of blood onto the floor toward her.

She began to scream....

Sebastian grabbed her gently as she bolted upright on the sofa, breathing hard, the remnant of her scream still ringing in the air.

The door to the office flew open.

Ryder stood in the doorway, naked except for a pair of boxers, his hands clenched at his sides. "Melissa, are you okay?"

His question was followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. Diana came to the doorway in a robe that had been hastily tossed on and her Glock drawn for defense. She glanced uneasily at Ryder. "How'd you do that? One second you were there and the next..."

Ryder shrugged. "I don't know. I just heard Melissa and reacted."

"Like The Flash?" Sebastian prompted, but didn't wait for Ryder's reply. He gentled his hold on Melissa, slipping his arms around her shoulders.

Melissa shot him a grateful smile. "Thanks, but I'm okay. It was just a nightmare. A weird one."

Ryder took a step into the room. "Do you need-"

Diana laid a hand on his arm and prevented him from going any farther. "I think things are under control here. On the other hand, you and I need to discuss your little disappearing act."

"But-"

"Now, Ryder. Por favor."

Sebastian could tell Ryder was uneasy about leaving them, but acquiesced to Diana's request. Of course, not before shooting Sebastian a warning glare.

Once the door to the room closed, Sebastian reluctantly released her. "Are you sure you're fine? That was one h.e.l.l of a scream."

Sighing, Melissa dragged her hands through her hair and leaned back. "I'm fine. I guess all this tension led up to the nightmare."

"Want to talk about it?" He sat next to her and draped his arm across the back of the sofa. As Melissa settled into his side, he hesitated before moving his arm down and wrapping it around her.

Melissa took a moment to appreciate so many things: the warmth of his body close to hers; the smell of him, still fresh after a long day; the comfort of his embrace. The last still confused her, and for a moment she pondered whether to tell him about the dream.

Maybe doing so would lessen the fear factor and keep it from coming back.

In soft and sometimes hesitant tones, she gave him the details of the nightmare. He patiently listened, not interrupting her until she got to the end. "I never really had nightmares as a child. After finding out about Ryder..." She hesitated. "Nothing like this one."

"Maybe the business about your parents' deaths and the journals made it happen."

"Maybe," was all she said and snuggled deeper into his side.

He was quiet for a little while, but then he asked, "Do you think it was something real that happened? Something that scared you as a child?"

She tried to remember. Her father had once had a small lab at home. He'd spend long hours down there. Especially when her mother was going through one of her "bad spells," as the household staff used to call them.

As a child, Melissa hadn't understood the toll her mother's anemia took on her family. All she'd known was that during those times she was supposed to play quietly and stay away from her mother so she could rest.

As a doctor, Melissa had learned how anemia could rob a person of strength and cause debilitating pain. But even with that knowledge, it hadn't made it easier to understand her mother's remoteness and absences, which lingered well after her mother was over one of her spells. And as for her father...

"Whenever Mother was really ill, Father would go into his lab. By the time I was older, we'd moved and Father would work in his lab at the college. I don't remember anything out of the ordinary."

Sebastian squeezed her arm rea.s.suringly. "Was your mother always sick?"

"My father met her when he was a resident. She'd come for treatments. The beautiful but dying patient fell in love with the brilliant young doctor, like in one of those grand love stories." The pain in her words was impossible to ignore, Sebastian thought. For Melissa there had been nothing grand, and apparently very little love from two people self-absorbed with each other and with the illness that had brought them together. Sebastian even suspected Ryder had had little to do with the Danvers family except for his obvious involvement with Melissa. "I'm sorry," he said.

She yanked away from him and shifted to the far end of the sofa. "Don't you dare pity me, Sebastian Reyes. That's the last thing I want from you."

Sebastian shook his head and sighed harshly. "Melissa. Querida. I can never figure out what you want from me. First, it's just business. Then, it's just friends. And now-"

She shut him up by kissing him. Her brain at that moment wasn't working very fast and she couldn't think of any other way to counter everything she was feeling right now. Of avoiding that she needed some from-the-soul admission from him. She only knew that if she didn't kiss him at that moment...

And, dear Lord, was she thankful she did.

He brought his arms around her back, reached up and dug one hand into her hair to keep her mouth tight to his as the kiss went on and on. The kiss intensified as she met his mouth over and over again, managing to draw a breath every now and then to counter the dizzying effect.

When he slipped down to lie on the couch, she went with him, settling her body against the length of his. She joined him in the deepest and slowest of kisses until her body was shaking and just kissing him wasn't enough.

She broke away, her breath ragged as she glanced down at him. "Touch me, Sebastian."

Chapter 11.

H e grinned and in his unpredictable and unrepentant way, said, "I'd thought you'd never ask."

He grasped her waist with his hands, tenderly urged her to straddle him, then covered her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with his hands.

There was nothing playful about the way he looked at her. Touched her. He cupped her until her nipples peaked against the soft cotton of her T-shirt. Grasping each hardening tip between his thumb and forefinger, he applied gentle pressure until she moaned and had to move against him to satisfy the ache growing inside.

"Sebastian?" she asked, although she wasn't quite sure what she wanted except more of him. More of his hands and his mouth and...

He must have known what she wanted. He slipped his hands beneath the hem of her shirt, slowly eased it up and even before it hit the ground, he brought his mouth to one breast, suckled it gently while continuing to tease the other with his fingers.

Melissa moaned. She cupped the back of his head and shifted her hips, drawing herself along the hard ridge of his erection. The ache and dampness between her legs intensified as he loved her with his mouth and hands.

Her taste was so sweet in his mouth and the soft cries coming from her only made him want more. But Sebastian knew she was vulnerable right now and it wasn't just because of the nightmare. In the past week, she'd been on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and while he wanted nothing more than to make love to her, Melissa might regret anything they did tonight.

And what about you? he asked himself even as he eased off her sweats and turned their bodies until they were both on their sides, Melissa's back against the cushions of the sofa.

The honorable thing to do would be to stop, but he had to take one more taste of her nipples. It was impossible they were so delicious or that their hardness against his lips was so irresistible.He was still telling himself one more taste when he kissed his way down her body to the juncture of her thighs. As he parted them and she shifted to lie on her back, Sebastian lost what little restraint he had left.

He only knew that he wanted to show her just how special she was. She'd had so little of that in her life.

Bending, he brought his mouth to the center of her and found the nub buried beneath the dark blond curls. With his tongue he caressed her, and as her soft cries grew louder, Sebastian sucked her swollen c.l.i.toris until Melissa raised her hips to his mouth, needing more.

Sebastian gave it to her. He slowly eased his fingers into her.

She was wet and oh so hot. He licked her as he moved his fingers in and out. Her taste was rich. The smell of her musky and enticing.

His erection tightened to the point of pain inside his jeans, and he groaned against her center as his control fled.

"Sebastian." Her insides tightened against his fingers.

"Sshh, querida," he said tenderly, and continued moving inside of her, drawing her closer and closer to the edge.

She moved her hands down to his shoulders and entreated him to join with her, but in soft tones he urged, "Just let go, Melissa.

Enjoy it, amor mio."

He pressed his thumb upward into her c.l.i.toris and as his mouth sucked at her, she lost it. Clutching the hard muscles of his shoulders, she cried out her completion, shaking with the force of it.

While her body slowly relaxed, Sebastian eased up the length of her. With tenderness, he urged her to her side, cupped her breast and rode his thumb over the still hard tip of her.

Even with the remnants of her climax still washing over her, Melissa needed more. She slipped her hands down his body to the fly of his jeans, but he hurriedly stopped her. "Not yet, Melissa. Not until-"

"We know what we want? Besides s.e.x?" she interrupted, a little confused by his sudden streak of virtue. "Then why this? Why- ".

He kissed her and she could taste herself on his mouth. It was both unnerving and satisfying in a way she couldn't quite define.

Just as, intelligent woman that she was, she couldn't quite define him or what was going on between them-or wasn't going on.

As he ended the kiss and eased away from her, she met his gaze. As before, there was a wealth of conflicting emotions there.

They matched her own. "Thank you," she said, grateful that he somehow had a better sense of control than she did.

Funny really, since he was the rebel and she was supposed to be the one able to govern her emotions.