Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.

This chapter's for everyone who requested some steamy Sydrian. Hope you enjoy!

Ugh. I felt like a cow.

I knew I was being dramatic, but it was how I felt. Amberwood was out of fresh fruit this morning and I'd been forced to eat a bagel for breakfast. Of course, that would have been fine, except I'd felt bold and splurged, spreading cream cheese and a little jelly. I'd even split done bacon with Jill.

I was regretting that decision now. What had I been thinking? I knew I couldn't afford the calories, but lately I was forgetting more and more. I'd eased up on my diet a lot since I started dating Adrian, but still. A girl had to have some boundaries.

I pulled up in front of Adrian's apartment, pushing thoughts of calories and diets—or lack of them—to the back of my mind. No reason to ruin the day together. We didn't get enough days as it was.

Adrian was painting when I walked in, but he immediately stopped what he was doing to kiss me, sending shivers down my spine.

"I wasn't paying attention to the time," he said, cleaning up his art supplies. "I'm starving, so just let me clean up and then we'll go get lunch."

I nodded and placed my purse on the counter, before glancing over to see what he was working on. His canvas was mostly just a bunch of different colors at this point, but I could almost see a pattern starting to form. When I turned to ask him what it was supposed to be, I noticed he had those same bright colors smeared all over his white T-shirt. He followed my look and grimaced.

"I'll go change my shirt and then we're out of here, okay?" He put the last of his supplies away and turned toward the bedroom. "I'm feeling like pie, how about you?"

"Oh, no!" I waved off the suggestion. "Not Pies and Stuff again. I've gained, like, six pounds since we started going there."

He laughed and turned around, his green eyes twinkling. "What's the problem with that?"

He must not have understood the horror of looking at the scale every morning and seeing the number consistently going up instead of down. Scratch that, he definitely didn't understand. He was Moroi. And a guy. He'd never understand.

Except my thoughts must've been written across my forehead because he walked over to me, pulling me up against him.

"Sage, you're gorgeous. Six pounds isn't going to change anything." He pulled away just enough to give my body an appraising glance. "To be honest, I think those six pounds are doing you a favor."

I pushed away from him, grabbing my bag. "Are we going to fight about this?"

"No," Adrian said, but he took my purse from me and placed it back on the counter. "But I want to show you something before we go."

With a roll of my eyes I let him drag me down the hall and into the... bathroom? What could he possibly want to show me in the bathroom?

"Adrian, what are we—"

He pulled me back against his chest, so that I faced his bathroom mirror, and wrapped his arms around me. My heart stuttered in my chest when I saw us together like that. He had to lean down so that his chin could rest on my shoulder, but, even so, we still looked like we fit together.

"I want you to see yourself the way I see you," he murmured into my hair. My breath caught as I watched his fingers slowly make their way up to the first button on my blouse. His nose gently nudged my hair out of the way, so his lips would have better access to my neck.

"A-Adrian," I breathed, feeling too many emotions to pinpoint just one. Part of me wanted to help him take my shirt off faster and the other part wanted to run. To run away from the sight of him pulling my gray blouse down just enough for him to kiss my shoulder. To run away from the feeling of his fingers still working the buttons, finally pulling the shirt all the way off. It was too much.

I couldn't run though. His mouth felt too good, his hands too warm. He pulled away for a moment, gently folding my blouse and placing it on the counter in front of us to avoid wrinkles in the fabric. Then his hands were on me again, his mouth against my ear.

"Don't you see how beautiful you are?" he asked. "Really look at yourself. Don't worry about the numbers on the scale."

His fingers ran up and down my sides, causing goosebumps to erupt all over my skin. Adrian pressed an open mouth kiss to my shoulder, his hands coming up to tease the bra straps down my arms a little. I had to admit, watching the scene in the mirror was very sexy. I looked sexy with my hair flipped to one side, shirtless, my bra close to joining my blouse on the counter.

"You know you look good, Sydney." His arms wrapped around my waist again, pulling me flush against him. Our eyes met in the mirror. "And if you don't then I haven't been doing my job properly." He kissed my neck once before finding my ear. "You are the sexiest woman I have ever laid eyes on and after seeing you like this, half naked while I touch you, I don't think we're going to be able to make lunch."

I laughed, spinning so I could wrap my arms around his neck. "I thought you were hungry?"

A small smirk turned one corner of his lips up. "I am."

Then, without warning, his long fingers curled around my waist and deposited me on the bathroom counter next to my blouse and I knew lunch was absolutely out of the question. In fact, dinner might not be happening either.

Suddenly I was very thankful for the big breakfast I'd had that morning.