Mia stared at his hand until the fear subsided. She moved her gaze slowly to his. “You… you almost bit me. Jesus. How are we ever going to make this work?” The intensity of his stare became too much. She looked away before it consumed her. “It’s not going to work. Is it?”
Ignoring her words, Cole kept his hand extended. “I think we should talk, Mia. I have something I want to tell you.”
The urge to run surfaced, her eyes darted around the room for an escape route. Jumping off the balcony was an option. A one story fall shouldn’t kill her. Shit. He’d catch her. She needed to end this now—end the torture for both their sakes.
The words to save them both were on the verge of spilling from her lips until her gaze flicked to his perfect mouth. She stared at his lips, making her own tingle. The heat from his kiss still lingering on her skin made her body crave one thing, while her mind wanted, needed, to run from the dangerously handsome man. Mia slid her hand into his and took a deep breath. He needed to tell her something and she hoped to say it before he did. “Cole, sex with me could never be fulfilling for you. I felt you holding back—you bit yourself.” She looked down at their hands as his thumb stroked the top of her skin, sending a shallow current of energy through her. “You said you could have sex without feeding.”
Cole leaned forward and kissed her forehead, her nose, then lingered over her lips before brushing them back and forth. Electric bites shifted between them. “That’s not what I wanted to tell you.” His eyes darkened with a troubled look before he lowered his head. “I know you despise what I’m about to tell you, but I never want anything between us. I fed tonight, on death row.” When she did nothing but stare at him, Cole continued. “And you’re wrong, Mia. Just to have you would be satisfying enough. I’ve never bitten myself before. I’m sorry I couldn’t control it.”
Cole was wrong, and his words just proved her point. He bit himself, so just having her wasn’t enough. “Cole, this is what I’m trying to tell you. It’s not fair to you, and you will never be completely satisfied.” She recalled the hunger in his eyes as they blackened, and how the glow intensified just before he slammed his fangs into his arm. “What if you hadn’t fed on death row? And I don’t know how to feel about that either. Did you feed on the same guy we saw?”
“No. I fed on all of them. I wanted to come to you, but I was too lost in my rage.”
His phone rang as her jaw dropped from his admission. All of them? She was beginning to hate the constant interruption of his phone.
Cole slid his hands under the bends of her knees, then lifted and deposited her back into the chair. He searched his discarded clothes on the floor, pulling his phone off the clip of his belt.
Mia stared at his backside as he walked away from her, already engaged in conversation. The moonlight coming in from the window made his skin glow. He was a vision of masculinity and looked like a model ripped from the page of a magazine.
Her gaze roamed his figure, from the strong chiseled features of his back, down past his muscular ass, to his hard thighs. He looked like a sculpted god, and now she knew why Michelangelo took such pride in every inch he carved.
Cole closed the phone and walked back to her.
“Is this when you tell me you have to leave after conveniently getting a phone call? And I’m supposed to feel okay about it, because you have to go help somebody?” She tugged her knees to her chest, shielding her body from him, and emptied her face of all emotion.
He stared down at her with sadness in his eyes and shook his head. “I want to kill every man—boy —that has made you feel like this. No, Mia. This is when I take you to your bed and make our vision come true. You know… the one you wouldn’t tell Al about”—he scooped her into his arms—“shame on you, lying to poor Al.” Their eyes locked as he walked toward the bed. Heat rolled through her body.
“You. Are. Bad, Cole. I knew it! I knew the images weren’t coming from me, which means you made me see your thoughts. So, I can—”
His lips silenced her before he laid her on the bed. She gazed at Cole, standing like a Greek god next to the bed. Her eyes trailed down to his erection and shot back up to his eyes. Cole was ready.
Mia tensed when he crawled onto the bed. She didn’t move an inch as Cole maneuvered his body behind hers. Sliding his arm around her stomach, he pulled Mia to him, pressing her into his lap. His hardness jabbed into her skin making her breath catch. He held her so tight she felt like a baby in a security blanket.
Cole swept the hair from her neck, “Mm, this is the spot I yearn to bite.” He stroked an across the vein on her neck then kissed it. “Sleep, my love. I have plenty of time to make you mine.” His breath rolled in the shell of her ear as he spoke.
Mia felt protected in his arms and surrendered herself to sleep. Beautiful, sexual visions danced in her dreams. No death, no drum, no Indians. Just peace.
* * *
Cole awoke for the fourth time to Mia’s warm backside. His cock, hard and throbbing, lay against her skin. He should have forced his blood to fill his shaft and stroked himself off earlier. His hand slid down and pinched the head of his cock—just the feel of Mia’s skin had his seed threatening to spill. When his hand drifted over her thigh, wetness poured from her warmth. Her response to his touch pushed him closer to the edge. Cole brushed his lips over her ear. “Spread your legs for me.” His voice husky with need.
Goosebumps blanketed her skin, sending her body into a quiver. Mia seemed to stay in a state of sleep, and the fact her mind was trying to fight even in this state made him grin. She stayed silent and still.
The throbbing pressure below made Cole painfully hard. “I have to have release, Miakoda. And you’re the only one I want to touch.” He lifted her thigh, pulling it over his, and then slid his engorged flesh through her wetness. A deep growl rumbled in his chest as he waited at her entrance.
Mia arched her body, pressing her backside deeper into his lap. When she stiffened, he knew the sleepy fog had lifted, and awareness took its place.
Cole rocked back and forth through her silkiness. Each time he slid through her wet folds the head of his cock massaged her clitoris. He slid his arm between her breasts, then clamped down on her shoulder as he pulled her closer to him.
The air thinned. Mia parted her lips to draw in more oxygen. With no willpower, or the energy to delay her orgasm, she would come quickly for him. She had been so close before, and for the first time in her life, she waited at the edge of ecstasy.
Cole moaned against her shoulder as her body melted into his, and she felt his lips pull into a sexy grin, hidden in the darkness. “Miakoda.” His voice stroked her nipples, and they hardened to painful points.
Mia wrapped her arm around his, digging her nails into his shoulder. She was there—just seconds away from blissful pleasure.
“Mia, come for me.” He gripped her tighter. His erection jumped wildly against her wetness as he inhaled deeply.
Her body stiffened. Lost it. “I can’t, Cole.”
He moved through her folds. “Your body and scent tell me differently.” He groaned with a painful need and his movements became more urgent. “You’re so close. I can feel it. Just let go.” His breath on her skin sent waves of electricity through her, and a shallow moan escaped her lips. “Fuck. You unravel me, Mia.” Grabbing her hand resting on his arm, he forced it to his throbbing cock. “Hold me tightly to you,” his ragged voice urged.
She sucked in a breath and pressed his shaft between her folds. Cole’s was larger than anything she had ever touched. The girth alone had her stomach knotted into a ball of nerves.
Earlier, she almost sat down on his mass, but now she gulped at his size, and questioned if she could fit her fingers completely around it.
As he slipped his length through her folds, she felt his pleasure rising with every sound he made—manly sounds, tiny moans and grunts of pleasure. Sounds for her. New emotions formed within her. She wanted to please him, wanted to give him the release he desperately needed. And oh, God, she wanted to come.
Cole moved with rapid thrusts between her warm, wet flesh. Cupping his girth with her hand, Mia held him tighter to her. Her breaths became rapid gasps, and Cole matched her breath for breath. When sweat beaded on her neck, Cole’s tongue touched the salty liquid, licking and tasting her. Mia flinched in response. Her involuntary nerves attacked her libido, a familiar action embedded deep inside the dark chambers of her mind. This is Cole touching me. She reminded herself and tried hard to fight the demons swirling inside her.
“Trust me, Mia.”
Her body stiffened further at the sound of his fangs jutting out. The fear of being bitten, combined with excitement, and the constant rubbing against her sensitive flesh pushed her to the edge where she teetered in agony between pleasure and fear.
Cole tightened his arm around her and rested the tips of his fangs on her neck. A low growl rolled slowly up from his throat as he gently pressed his fangs into her neck, careful not to break the skin.
Mia began to convulse in his arms. Cole gripped her tighter, holding on to every movement she made. He didn’t know why his breaths mimicked hers—he had no need to breathe, but it was as if they were melting into each other. Her beautiful screams tingled through his body all the way to his cock, pushing him over the edge. His hips lunged forward as he spilled his seed onto her delicate stomach, bucking forward with each pump.
When Mia’s body jerked with the aftershocks of pleasure, Cole’s fangs nicked her skin. Unable to resist the scent of her blood, he leaned down and licked the bead of crimson. The tiniest taste of her blood set him on fire, his cock painfully hardened again. He wanted to bury himself inside her. The need to claim her—to slam his fangs into her—burned inside of him.
He questioned the control he’d mastered over the years, questioned if he could control himself if Mia pushed him too far. He quickly took her leg from his hip and rested it back on top of her other leg. Cole continued to slide between her legs savoring the aftermath of his pleasure, wanting desperately to be inside her.
Mia trembled in his arms, and he sensed the struggle within her. She wanted to enjoy what they shared, but conflict fought her pleasure. He gently kissed her shoulder. With her back still to him, she latched onto his arms, snuggling deeper into his body and tucked his hand underneath her side.
Cole opened his mouth to speak, but paused when hot tears seared his skin.
He stroked her arm and sighed. “Mia?”
“I’ve gone too far. It’s not your fault. I’m angry with myself. You’re just so… overwhelming. Here I lay with a magnificent man who just gave me an orgasm for the first time, and all I feel is shame.”
“Mia, tell me what torments you.”
“I can’t open that door, Cole, it’s too dark. It stays deep inside me, locked in the basement.”
Although she was wrong, it came out of the basement every time he tried to touch her, he’d have to wait for her to tell him. “There is no shame in what we shared.” He kissed her temple.
“This is going to hurt.”
“What, my love? Tell me.”
“I’ve fallen hard, and you’re a highly sexual being. I’ll never live up to your standards. Ever.”
“Baby steps, Mia. Don’t over think it.”
“I can’t let you hurt me. Don’t hurt me, okay?”
Cole didn’t answer, just held her tightly in the silence of his arms until she was asleep. Moving the covers off her body, he stared at her through the darkness, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath. Her perfect breasts moved in a delicate rhythm. She was everything he had ever desired, and his blood had stirred once more after having tasted a tiny drop of her. It has to be her—she is mine. Cole wanted desperately to crawl inside her to slay her demons but knew a woman like Mia needed to fight her own battles. Tonight, Mia trusted him. He smiled to himself. It’s a start.