Eternal Hearts by Jennifer Turner Page B

favorite beverage, Drake shook his head. Either way, he’d have to be careful with Toni. She sparked emotions he’d purposely buried a long time ago. And the more he considered the situation, while those emotions certainly felt good, he wasn’t sure they were all that good for him.
    She made him want to be soft and gentle, neither of which topped the list of desired qualities in a contract killer. Soft and gentle would eventually snowball into caring and thoughtful, and caring and thoughtful led directly to re-growing a conscience.
    He shivered at the thought. He didn’t need a conscience again.
    But that one admission was all instinct needed. There’s nothing special about her. You just haven’t gotten laid in a really long time.
    As soon as the thought crossed, Drake pushed it back. That wasn’t the reason, and deep down he knew it. There was something special about her. She didn’t grab at him and beg him to please her like most women. Those women wanted nothing more than a wild screw so they could get off. And, honestly, that’s all he really wanted from them.
    But Toni wasn’t most women. She wanted more; he saw it in her eyes. She wasn’t looking for some guy to give her a few orgasms then walk out the door. She wanted a man who could share the experience with her. She wanted love, acceptance, and someone to care for her.
    Drake leaned forward and set his half empty beer bottle on the coffee table. He wasn’t sure he could be that person. He’d spent so much time killing, so much energy detaching his emotions from the world, he wasn’t sure he knew how to truly care about someone anymore.
    He cast a glance to the bathroom door. Toni almost made him want to try again, but he knew better. His one and only attempt to love someone had failed miserably, leading to the very moment he’d realized that killing was all there’d ever be for him.
    He sighed as he leaned back and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table. If he knew one truth about vampires, male or female, they were nothing if not selfish. They’d do or say anything to get what they wanted, everyone else be damned, which was exactly why he had a job in the first place.
    Was he just not seeing it in Toni? Was she too young for thoughts of selfishness and world domination? Would it eventually show as they spent more time together? Or was there a chance she might be different?
    Only time will tell. Drake ditched the serious thoughts when he heard water rush to life in the bathroom. An ear to ear grin stretched across his face as an image of a wet, naked Toni flashed in his mind. While he couldn’t say she wouldn’t eventually deceive him – he was willing to bet a lot of money that she looked really good in bubbles.
     
    Toni slid deep into the whirlpool tub and let out a long sigh. The warm water felt spectacular against her tired body and the pulsing jets went a long way towards relaxing her aching muscles.
    How she wished someone would make a hot bath for the mind.
    She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, preparing to down the bottle of blood. She cleared her mind and tipped the bottle up, allowing the rich, sweet flavor to overtake her.
    Unfortunately, much like when her emotions swung too far out of her grasp, whenever she fed the beast took complete control of her mind. All she could focus on was the hot liquid sliding down her throat, filling her undead veins with the fuel she needed to live. The ecstasy of feeding wrapped tight around her, pulling her into a dark place where nothing existed aside from her own instincts fueled by hunger, passion and lust.
    When the blood finally ran out, Toni quickly tossed the empty bottle into the trashcan then gave her true feelings a few moments to return. She inhaled a series of deep breaths, slowly blowing each one out as if to make room for her thoughts to come back. And when they finally did, she was surprised by the order.
    Drake took first place. Usually it was her family, followed by the