Xander's Chance

"You posted it on your site? I shouldn't have come back today." She rubbed her face.

"No one knows your name. They're calling you Girl X."

"Xander, it's a humiliating picture!"

"Why?"

"Look at it. It's way too…" Her gaze lingered on it, and her face felt even hotter.

"Vulnerable. Intimate. Personal."

Exactly. She said nothing out loud.

"You're either lying or not looking closely enough." He reached back to grip her arm.

She tried to shake him free unsuccessfully. Xander dropped his feet from the other chair and hauled her in front of him, then yanked her belt to bring her into his lap. Jessi didn't fight him, suspecting he wanted her to. She sat awkwardly, furious yet turned on at his touch. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him, until her head was resting on one shoulder. He propped up his feet again, comfortable. She shifted to balance herself better, slinging one leg over his and the other foot on the ground, in case she had the chance to propel herself up.

"You are such an ass," she muttered. It was hard not to be affected by the strength and heat of his body or the fact she was way too close to him. The arm around her shoulders dropped to drape loosely around her waist. No part of her wanted to move.

"Look." He held up the iPad in front of them.

Laurencio had perfectly captured the moment when the prey realized it was being stalked. Their profiles were inches apart, her hands pinned at her head. She hadn't realized how big his were; they took up the entire space between her wrists and elbows. The expression on her face was raw enough to make her uncomfortable: a mixture of dazed desire and amazement, her lips parted seductively, her eyes wide with realization and fear. There was single drop of blood on her cheek, a flash of red that clearly had been enhanced and shaded the same hue as the necklace dangling in the space between them. They also Photoshopped away the dark circles that had been under her eyes since meeting Jonny in the hospital.

Xander's cunning amusement was apparent on his heavy features and in the half-smile punctuated by bloodied fangs. His red gaze was piercing. They were night and day, her pale beauty and raw emotion contrasting with his heavy, masculine features and dark satisfaction.

"It's a good pic," she admitted grudgingly. "You're serious about it being online and on the cover?"

"Oh, yeah."

Unable to take her gaze from it, she tried not to notice how her body was relaxing against the vampire that sucked her blood the day before. She was comfortable, cradled in his arms. He didn't scare her the way Jonny did, and she wasn't certain why, beyond the obvious that he healed her.