With morning came reality. Even with Ryan's soft breathing behind her and the nearly overwhelming longing to stay, it was time to get back to the real world.

The Hollows whispers she'd heard in her dreams still echoed in her ears, carrying over from her nightmare. Between that and Burr, who would be furious when he found out she sent him on a wild goose chase, especially if he found out why, she couldn't stay. Not without putting innocent people in harms way.

Even with Ryan's soft breathing behind her and the nearly overwhelming longing to stay, it was time to get back to the real world. But she didn't want to leave. For the first time since she'd been thrown into the darkness, she felt whole, accepted, cared about. Even that place in her heart that never seemed to stop aching was soothed for the moment.

Ryan seemed to sense her stirring because he kissed her shoulder as he drew his hand up her belly to cup her breast so he could twist her nipple lightly between his thumb and forefinger. Her body came alive beneath his touch and heat flared in her core. God, she needed him.

"Good morning." Hope sighed, arching into his touch.

He brushed his cheek against her shoulder and pressed a soft kiss to her skin.

"That feels nice."

"It'll feel even better in a second."

With that, he thrust his hips, taking her, and Hope sighed at the sweet relief of being filled. Bringing his hand from her breast, he slid his fingers between her legs, stroking her, and Hope bit her lip to try to stifle the wail as she rocked against him.

"Harder, Ryan, please."

Shifting them so that she was on her stomach, he drove into her as hard as he could and Hope keened into the pillow in response.

"Oh, no you don't." Wrapping her hair around his hand, he tugged just enough so that she had to lift her head. "If you're gonna scream, I wanna hear you."

The combination of him pulling on her hair while driving into her from behind had Hope gripping the sheets as hard as she dared without tearing them. God, but this man was going to ruin her for the rest of her life if she didn't come back to him.

"I wanna make your throat go raw from screaming," Ryan growled.

He pinched her lightly between her legs and Hope couldn't stop the ragged whimper that tore from her throat if she tried.

"God, sweetheart. That's it. Let me hear you," he groaned against as he kissed a trail across her back from shoulder blade to shoulder blade.

As he continued to move within her, the coil tightened and Hope no longer cared who might overhear them. All that mattered was Ryan and the pleasure he brought her. Every time he plunged into her, it ripped another moan from her and when he withdrew, she whimpered with her need to have the emptiness within her filled.

All too soon, that tightening coil in her belly snapped and she cried out something that may very well have been his name, her entire body shuddering beneath him. Her climax triggered his and Ryan swore as he found his own release.

For a long moment, they lay together, bodies still joined, as they caught their breath.

"You have to go now, don't you?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper as he withdrew from her.

"Yeah." She twisted in his arms so that she could face him and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"You'll be leaving town soon, too, once you've done whatever it is you came here to do." He studied her face, his dark eyes sad and serious.

"The longer I put off dealing with things, the worse it's going to be. So, I'm going to finish this hunt and get the clown off my case. Then, if you're interested, I'll see what I can do about coming back and we'll go from there."

"What if you find something out about me that makes you want to leave me?"

"Considering I've got my own secrets that would scare the crap out of most people, I've got no business running from someone else's." Hope ran her fingertips along his stubble covered jaw.

"If you come back, we'll talk."

"When I come back."

"You're sure you'll come back?"

"It'd take more than you being afraid I'll leave and the assholes I work for to keep me from coming back."

Ryan's lips curled up just a little and he said, "I know it might sound like I'm just saying this, but I've honestly never felt so connected to another person before."

"I know the feeling." Hope laid her head on his upper arm and pressed her forehead against his neck. "Can we just stay here, like this, forever?"

"I wouldn't mind that at all, but I think we might have to leave the bed at some point," he chuckled as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"I don't want to." She draped her leg over his side as if to prove that she wanted to stay where she was.

"I wouldn't mind if we could spend most of our time like this though."

Downstairs, someone turned on the TV and just like that, the moment was broken.

With a glance at the clock on his nightstand, she threw off the covers.

"It really is time to get back to the real world, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yeah. I have to get going. I wouldn't put it past that guy to have installed some sort of tracking device on my phone and come barging in any second."

"Sounds like a real winner."

"Oh, he's the best." Hope climbed out of the bed.

"Bathroom's through that door if you want to clean up."

"Thanks."

In the bathroom, Hope dampened a cloth and reluctantly started cleaning herself up. Wiping away the evidence that someone wanted her, even if it was just for a night, it twisted something inside her and she blinked back tears.

Once she was as she was going to get without taking a shower, Hope returned to the bedroom and started putting her clothes back on.

"Wait." Ryan stood up, and in her bare feet, she was acutely aware of just how much taller than her he was. "In case I never see you again, I want you to know that the time I've spent with you has been the happiest I can ever remember being, so thank you for sharing your time with me."

She studied his face for a long moment. Why did she get the feeling he was trying to say something else? What was he afraid of? Did he think he know something about her life? Or was he just being observant and figuring some things out because she didn't have practice at lying to people she let herself get close to?

Instead of asking what was going through his head, she stood on tiptoe as she tugged his head down to hers so she could press a quick kiss to his lips.

"Be safe out there." He cupped her cheek and brushed his thumb beneath her eye.

"As safe as I can be." Hope kissed the palm of his hand.

Unable to look away, she took one step back and then another before she finally found herself able to turn and leave the room.

Why did it hurt so much to walk away? She barely knew the guy and one night stands happened all the time. Hell, she was proof of that! And yet, walking away from the only person who seemed to understand her, it cut far deeper than she had been anticipating.

With a sharp inhale, she pushed her feelings down deep into the vault where everything else unpleasant that she didn't know how to deal with went. Maybe later, when she had a chance to breathe, she would try to process it. But at the moment, she couldn't let herself lose focus on the coming battle.

A boy with dark skin and closely cropped hair raised an eyebrow from his place sprawled across the couch when he saw her and he tapped the arm of a pretty girl sitting on the floor in front of him. The girl looked at her.

"Is that the girl Ryan hooked up with?" the girl whispered.

"I think so."

"He's right. She is pretty."

Then both of them turned their attention back to the TV.

"You just had to rub it in, didn't you?"

Hope glanced over at the speaker to find a young woman in skin tight jeans and a tank top staring at her, hate blazing from her gray eyes.

"What do you mean?"

The girl could have passed for twenty, but something about the way she held herself told Hope she was at least a few years younger than that. Was this the girl that Ryan told her about? Lucy, she thought her name might be. If so, this girl was more than obsessed to corner a woman she didn't even know over him.

"Last night, you were all over him and then this morning, you two screwed when you knew those who stayed over would be waking up, so we'd have to hear you. Like you screaming the house down last night wasn't enough."

Channeling all the confusion and sadness that leaving Ryan evoked, Hope pulled together a convincingly disdainful mask as she looked the girl up and down, one brow raised.

With a dismissive snort, Hope said, "I've got nothing to say to children who don't know when to leave a man alone or who think it's any of their business who a woman sleeps with."

"You think I'm a child."

"If you feel like talking to me the way you are is appropriate, yes, you are very childish."

"Do you have any idea what I can do to you? To your reputation? Does that sound like something a child could do?"

Lucy folded her arms across her chest and attempted to stare Hope down, but the werewolf wouldn't be cowed and Lucy faltered, though she did everything she could to hide that Hope's indifference to her threats frightened her.

"You can do nothing to me that wouldn't help me."

"You have no idea what I'm capable of."

"You're just a child with a big mouth and a vicious mind. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out what you might try to do to 'ruin' me."

"You try making anything of yourself in this town with people thinking you're a whore."

"Slut shaming women is so last century." Hope waved away Lucy's threat as she gave the girl her best fake smile.

Leaving a fuming Lucy behind her, Hope exited the house.

What did she have to worry about when she came back for Ryan? Sex was viewed differently in the supernatural world, accepted as being a part of life. No one batted an eyelash when people had sex, because most in the supernatural world ran hot. So anything this girl might spread around would just make her seem normal, since Hope had no intention of trying to blend into the human world.

She would introduce Ryan to the supernatural, then maybe take him to New Orleans, so she could try to figure out how to get her family back. Once they were settled, she would offer him the choice to become a part of it by her side, whether as a vampire himself, or simply as someone in the know.

Shaking her head to dislodge her unnecessary thoughts, Hope turned her attention to the reason she'd come to this part of the world in the first place. Maybe later, she could dream of a life with him. But for now, she had to get through the next few days.

Game face firmly in place, Hope took off running as fast as she could. If she worked fast, the Hollow could be neutralized before midnight. But only if she hurried.