Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

shoving one hand through his hair. The movement stretched his shirt so that it molded to the hard muscles of his arms and chest. Now that I wasn’t being surprised or growled at by him, I noticed how good he looked in his light gray button-down shirt that matched his eyes. It was open at the throat, revealing the neck that I had kissed the night before. His dark slacks hinted at strong, powerful legs. The man looked good, really damn good. It took some effort to draw my attention back to his agitated state.
    “There were four,” Stefan bit out.
    “Four what?”
    “There were four nightwalkers watching you when I arrived. And I am sure more noticed you since I’d heard whispers that a woman was sitting in the middle of the piazza flaunting my protection,” he snarled.
    “Whoa! Hold on just a minute.” I stomped into my apartment and loudly dropped my things beside the sofa. “You’re going to have to explain what they hell you’re talking about because none of that last sentence made any sense.”
    Stefan seemed to lose a bit of steam at that comment, dropping his hand back down to his side. He sighed softly and it was only then that I noticed that it was the first time I’d actually seen him draw in a breath and release it. Did vampires truly not need to breathe? Well, I guess if you’re dead, then breathing is a bit superfluous.
    “Please, sit and I will explain.”
    “Sit? This is a sitting conversation? I don’t think we know each other well enough that we should need to have a sitting conversation.”
    Stefan’s eyes narrowed on me and he closed the distance separating us in a heartbeat. I tried to jump backward, but his hands were already firmly on my waist and I wasn’t going anywhere. “After last night, I feel as if I should know you very well,” he said in a low, husky whisper that I could feel down to my toes.
    “Nothing happened last night,” I said, trying to sound unmoved by his tone, but it really didn’t come out that way. I focused on the buttons on his shirt so that he couldn’t see how his words affected me.
    “Do you truly believe that?”
    “It’s like that every time you feed, right?”
    Stefan gently placed a hand under my chin and forced me to look up at him. “No. My prey is usually unconscious the moment I feed. My prey also remembers nothing of me.”
    “Oh,” I whispered. Clearly the understatement of the night. Obviously things were different with me, and that significant difference was potentially causing problems. Exactly who those problems were affecting I still needed to find out, but it was becoming apparent that this was a sitting conversation.
    Stefan released me and stepped back so that I could walk over to the sofa. Kicking off my running shoes under the battered coffee table, I sat down with my legs folded under me. Sure, it wasn’t exactly lady-like, but I had a feeling that I needed to be comfortable for this. The vampire certainly didn’t seem to mind as he resumed his slow pacing in front of the sofa, his expression becoming grim as he focused on the problem at hand … which was potentially me.
    “You said a woman was flaunting your protection,” I said, trying to give him a starting point. “Since I didn’t notice anyone else in the piazza, I’ll take it that you were talking about me.”
    “ Si ,” Stefan said stiffly, drawing his gaze back to me. I was a little surprised that he had slipped into Italian. The only other language he’d used with me besides English was French, but he also seemed more than a little frustrated.
    “Fine,” I said, matching his clipped tone. “Then how is it that I have your protection? Also, how could anyone else know I have it when I wasn’t even aware of it?”
    The vampire’s anger started to fizzle here and I realized this was where he got himself into trouble, though it was highly likely that I made matters worse.
    “I marked you,” he admitted after a lengthy pause.
    My left hand immediately snapped