I raised my brows, daring him, a small smirk on my burgundy lips which were seconds from being kissed by Michael. I tilted my head back and just before we kissed, Demetri snatched me out of his hands.

“Excuse us,” he muttered to Michael, anger barely restrained in his voice. He dragged me out of the bar; his grip on my arm bound to leave bruises tomorrow, and pushed me into the alley, my back hitting the rough wall hard enough to leave me winded.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked mildly, though there was nothing mild about his expression as he stalked me. I’d pushed him too far and my heart beat frantically in my ears as fear raced through me. It sobered me up better than anything else could. He tipped my chin up, the other hand closing around my throat. “That’s better. I want you aware not in some drunken stupor.”

His mouth devoured mine and I forgot everything else except the sensation of his cold, hard lips bruising mine, leaving me breathless and it felt so damn right. So familiar. As close to kissing Edward as I was ever going to get. No matter how much I’d enjoyed my time with Dylan, it wasn’t like this. I thought it was because he wasn’t Edward, but it was simply that he wasn’t a vampire. I just got off on the whole danger aspect of being with a vampire. It made my heart race, my blood boil, my breathing ragged just feeling their icy skin against my scalding flesh. Knowing that I could just as easily die as orgasm.

With my arms locked around his neck, he lifted my legs around his waist, his body pressing me against the wall to hold me up and I could feel the throbbing, granite length of him through the leather and wondered how far I was willing to take this. I didn’t even know Demetri, yet here I stood making out in a dark alley contemplating screwing him when I hadn’t even done the deed with Dylan despite our many months together.

But Dylan had been lying to me, using me. It would have been infinitely worse to give him my virginity thinking he loved me than to let Demetri have that honor. At least Demetri and I knew what this was about. There were no strings attached, no hearts to get broken. Just sex.