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Luc
Aleah finally climbs out of bed and pulls on a fresh pair of socks and shoes. Something has shifted in her these past few minutes. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but she has a gleam in her eyes that wasn’t there earlier, and a determined set to her shoulders that concerns me.
“Don’t do anything stupid, little banshee,” I say, as she laces up the white sports trainers.
“I don’t know what you mean.” When she speaks, she doesn’t look at me. Instead, she keeps her focus on her task, hair falling down to cover her face. “Of course, I won’t.”
She stands and meets my gaze with a clear expression and a faint smile that I don’t trust one little bit.
“I mean it, Aleah.” I understand that people dear to her heart were killed last night, but that doesn’t mean she should do anything reckless in order to exact revenge. “The rogue, or potentially rogues, are not operating under any set of rules I’ve ever observed. I can’t protect you if you go off half-cocked.”
Her soft laughter fills the room and my heart squeezes painfully at the sound. I may not have a heartbeat, but my body knows the sound of perfection when it arrives. She should laugh all the time.
I want to make her laugh.
“First off, I have no cock,” she says. “Being half-cocked would be your area of expertise, I believe, and I’m very sorry for you if that is the case.”
I open my mouth and snap it shut again. I’m not sure what to say to that. It’s as though she’s trying to be humorous but she’s also determined to do whatever she has set in her pretty little head. I’m not sure whether to laugh or be cautious.
“Second,” she continues, raising her fingers and ticking her reasons off. “You arrived in my world exactly two nights ago. I’ve been managing perfectly fine on my own for many years now, and I don’t need you to start ‘protecting’ me. In fact, I seem to recall that if it wasn’t for my intervention, you’d be a little pile of dust and ashes right about now.”
She raises her brows, daring me to contradict her. She’s looking for a fight, I realize. She wants to let her aggression out. What can I say? She’s correct, except for one thing.
“I’m never half-cocked,” I say firmly.
Her glance down at my groin is brief but it’s enough. My organ wants to reach permanently skyward whenever I’m anywhere near this woman, and one look from her sends the damn thing soaring once again. Perhaps she can be persuaded to fight me in this way, with our bodies battling for dominance. The flesh strains against my zippered jeans and for once I welcome the rush of desire, encouraging my cock to full expansion rather than trying to tamp it down. My fangs follow suit and I grin, ensuring the now-unsheathed incisors are clearly visible.
Her breath catches and pink stains her cheeks. I step forward and put one finger firmly under her chin until she has no choice but to tilt her face up to meet mine.
“Half-cocked is not in my vocabulary.”
She swallows. I watch her throat bob and my groin twitches involuntarily. I lean in, intending to take her mouth in a punishing kiss, but change tack at the last moment and nip lightly at her full bottom lip with my teeth. One of my fangs accidentally nicks her plump flesh. Blood seeps out, just enough for me to taste her. My eyes roll back. I nearly collapse. Need flashes through me at the taste and a huge shudder wracks my body. Jesus, fuck, but she tastes like fucking heaven.
I want more. I want to drink her dry. I want...
I let out a breath. I need to control myself around her. And she makes it almost impossible.
I lick at a tiny droplet of blood that hovers on her lip, unable to resist its call. The accompanying wave of desire is so intense a groan ratchets up out of my throat. “Sorry.” I start to twist away but her slender hands grip the side of my head and hold me in place. I freeze, slowly opening my eyes. Her gaze is no longer clear and innocent. Instead, I read lust and confusion in equal parts. She craves me, and yet she doesn’t understand why.
“I want you to kiss me,” she admits. “And yet...” She frowns briefly, jutting out her bottom lip.
“It goes against everything you thought you wanted?” I rip my eyes away from her lip. It’s torture to do something so simple.
“Yes.” She nods once, not realizing the effect every movement has on me.
“Your blood is like a drug to me, Aleah,” I admit. Perhaps I shouldn’t. Perhaps I should keep these thoughts to myself due to the fact that she could very well force me out of her home once again. I don’t want to scare her into sending me away, and yet, I can’t stop talking. There’s a fierce need inside of me to be honest. “Even the one droplet I coaxed from your lips a moment ago is enough. It sings to my blood, and when that happens, it will be the same in reverse for you.”
I want her to know. I need her to know just how pleasurable it will be for her. I want her to want this too. I want her to be open to trying sex with a vampire. With me. I want her to let me prove myself worthy of her. She won’t regret it.
Her eyelids half close and her mouth parts slightly. “It is the same,” she says. “That’s exactly how it feels. As if your body is singing to mine...calling me...seducing me...I didn’t think I wanted it. And yet, somehow, I can’t stay away.”
She sounds helpless. I like it. It’s wrong; it’s twisted in so many ways, but I love her being so vulnerable.
My groan is louder this time. “Why do you think I keep coming back?” I ask. My voice is rough now, low and husky. “I need to taste you, Aleah. I need to see if you’re exactly how I envision you. And yet, I’m sure you’ll exceed my expectations.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Her eyes are hooded but some part of her obviously still clings to her rationality. I want to squander that part of her. I want to make it disappear.
“Because of that tiny drop I’ve already tasted.” I bring my head close to hers, allowing our foreheads to touch. “Let me, Aleah. Let me show you just how good it can be.”
I don’t pull back. Instead I wait, and hold my breath even though I don’t need to breathe at all.
“Okay.” One word uttered in that soft breathy voice. One word only, and yet so powerful. One word, and my cock is already at attention, ready to go. Fuck.
Her eyes snap up to meet mine. “As long as you stop if I say so.”
Oh, Jesus. “I don’t know if—”
I don’t manage to finish the sentence. This time her lips take mine, and I’m lost in a haze of delight as our mouths and tongues dance in rhythm. My fangs pierce her flesh once more, this time with permission. The zing of her hybrid blood infuses my veins with life, calling to the vampire within. The taste is everything I dreamed it might be, and a thousand times better.
My growl turns to a purr and the ache in my groin is both agony and ecstasy.
Her answering moan directly into my mouth is more a vibration than a sound. Desire hits new heights—heights I never imagined I would discover, even in a supposedly close-to-immortal lifetime. The fact that this feels just as good for her—even though I knew it would—only adds to my pleasure. For once, it’s not just about me. It’s about wanting to make her feel as good as I do.
Ripples of sensation traverse my skin, from my scalp right down to my toes.
I break away from her mouth, breathing hard even though I don’t have to, but it feels like the only way to let out some of the emotion squeezing at my chest. She makes me feel almost human.
“What are you doing to me, little witch?”
Her fingers trace a line down my throat and pause at the top button of my shirt.
“Call me fae, if you wish,” she says. Her voice is husky and it’s like she is casting a spell of pleasure. “Or call me human. That’s who I am. I’m not a witch.”
“Oh, I know that, little banshee-human hybrid.” I grin. “If you were, I’d not be trembling so hard with the effort of holding back my need. Witches don’t carry the same allure for a vamp.”
Her smile is slow and seductive, and my whole body responds to its attraction.
“Wow, you really are trembling, Luc,” she says. Her voice drops an octave, and I detect amusement as well as desire. She tilts her head to the side so the column of her throat is exposed and I nearly swear. She must know what she’s doing to me. “Is my blood really that potent, or do you just enjoy the thrill of the chase? What will happen if I give in and let you fuck me?”
The words are a douse of cold water on my lust, and yet there’s a look in her eye that still hints at the promise of something more. She’s giving out mixed messages but... That look. It heats my ardor as effectively as a courtesan’s practised hand. Is she teasing me? Is she serious? I honestly don’t know at this point.
She continues to work at the buttons of my shirt, popping open the first one and continuing lower, one after the next, tracing patterns on my exposed skin as she descends. If I were human, I’d have lost my load already. The wench is clearly experienced at this, despite her previous supposed air of innocence.
My anticipation at what she may do next only grows. However, there’s a small part of me that wishes I had been the one to consume her first, that I snagged her innocence and made her mine in every sense of the word.
This time, my growl is lower, erupting from the depths of my belly.
“Human. Fae. Whatever you are, if you don’t stop right now”—I grab her hand, clasping her wandering fingers tightly within my grip to hold her in place—“there’s no guarantee what might—”
My voice is helpless. Desperate. I’m pleading with her. It’s less than becoming but I don’t care. I can’t. Not when she holds such power.
“Words, vampire.” Her eyes are half slits now, the irises almost an iridescent green behind the shield of her lowered lashes. “Are you going to back them up with action?”
Challenge accepted.
I move so fast she has no time to react. Her delicious body mashes against mine with a perfection that seems as if we’re physically made for one another.
She has already made quick work of my shirt, so I shuck it off the rest of the way and let it fall to the ground. The shapeless top and sweatpants I grabbed from her drawer are anything but sexy. Nothing alluring that I can unbutton in a slow and sensual return dance. And yet, she still looks more beautiful to me than supermodels in silky lingerie walking down a catwalk. All good. Fast suits my current mood just fine.
I rip the top up over her head and toss it to one side. Those lush breasts present themselves once again to my view, the rose-colored nipples instantly peaking. This time, I’m not letting her go until I taste my fill.
I cradle one of the creamy globes in my palm and lift it slightly, then bend my head to suckle at the enticing tip. Her gasp is soft but the moan that follows is not. “Luc, I don’t think this is...oh, fuck!”
The curse is released when I bite down, hard. Her blood spills into my mouth. Metallic. Honey-scented. Divine. The delicious aphrodisiac fills my being until I can’t see, hear, or feel anything but the delightful liquor flowing into me from her.
Her hand instantly reaches for the back of my head, cradling me there, holding me in place. Her fingers bury themselves in my hair, curling and tugging at the roots.
Lifeblood. Life force. Everything I want. Everything I need. Everything I can never be again.
I suck, and lick, and tug as I feed, as much like a babe at its mother’s breast as any helpless newborn. Aleah’s blood is my sustenance. Heaven. There is nothing left in my mind or my body but the succulent taste of her. The scent of her blood, so freely offered, has me completely undone.
After what seems like aeons, I become aware of two things. Her hand on my cock, kneading and exploring, and her gentle sobbing, as if her heart is about to break in half.
It takes massive effort, but I wrench up my head from her delectable breast, and lick the bite wound to promote fast healing.
I manage to look her in the eye, noting the tears running down her face.
“I made you cry.” On some level I know that is significant, but I’m still so lost in the haze of desire that I don’t really care at this moment about anything other than taking ownership of this beautiful creature’s body.
I kiss her briefly, the taste of her lips once again filling my senses with light and hope and joy. What she gives out is in complete contrast to the tears still falling from her iridescent eyes.
“Why, Allie? Why are you crying? It’s not supposed to hurt. Do you not enjoy the sensation of my feeding?”
Am I doing something wrong? Am I hurting her in any way? If it’s the case, I will remove myself from her vicinity. And yet, the thought of moving even an inch makes me want to writhe in pain.
Her breathing labors, as if she’s run many miles without pause, and I reach up to swipe at one of the tears with my thumb. She jerks away from my touch and, against every instinct, I let her go. It feels as though someone has reached into my chest cavity, wrapped their fingers around my heart, ripped it out of me, and crushed it. The phantom pain nearly causes me to stagger forward and collapse.
She shifts back out of my embrace and reaches for her top, holding it in front of her bare breasts like protection. My manhood throbs, needing her to stay close. This does not bode well for my intention to claim her as mine.
“It didn’t hurt,” she says, looking down at her hands. “At least, not after the first bite that felt like the lightest pinprick. I enjoyed it. A lot. But I don’t want to.” Her voice is hoarse and she clears her throat as if it’s difficult to get out the words.
What has her so conflicted?
“Surely you’ve been with men before?” I ask, my voice rough and quick. “Desire is as natural as breathing, to a human. More so, for a fae, in my experience. What is your problem? Is it the blood?”
“It’s not the blood.” Her face turns stony. “It’s your kind. What you do. Or at least, what you’ve all done in the past.”
My kind. “Police?”
“Don’t be obtuse.”
I grin, deliberately displaying my unsheathed fangs. “No matter what kind I am...” I fling the word back at her, allowing my hurt to show. “I am working now to find and stop a killer, before more innocent people die. I’m sorry you have a problem with me, Aleah. I damn sure regret that we can’t enjoy each other’s bodies fully before I leave. It would have been...spectacular for you.”
She rolls her eyes. “Arrogant fuck.”
Out of nowhere, she drops the top, stepping forward to clasp my upper arms. What is she doing? The tips of her breasts almost, but not quite, touch my chest. I take a deep breath in, forcing my lungs to capacity, and am rewarded when the expansion allows her nipples to graze my skin. The touch ignites heat where skin touches skin. Thank all that’s holy that I haven’t yet put back on my shirt and stormed out of here in a huff. It just reinforces the fact that my arrogance can be quite charming, whether she wants to admit that or not.
Beyond that one long breath I freeze, not quite sure which way her mood will swing, and not wanting to jinx anything. She taps a thumb against my bicep, as if considering her next move.
“I’m beginning to see that maybe my aunt was wrong in what she taught me,” she says slowly. It’s almost as if she doesn’t quite believe her own words.
Her hands move up over my shoulders to my pecs.
“Hell, maybe I was wrong,” she continues. She’s talking more to herself than to me. As long as she keeps touching me the way she is, I don’t care. I’ll listen until she stops. “Just because bad stuff happened a long time ago in my life, doesn’t mean all vampires are evil.”
If I had a beating heart, it would be working frantically right now. My loins have definitely received an up-and-down workout since meeting Aleah.
“No species is all good or all evil, Allie.” I can barely force the words out. My mouth has gone dry. “Not human, not fae, and certainly not vampire. Does this mean—”
She wriggles her pelvis, teasing my flesh back to full erection and making me forget my train of thought.
“Shut up and kiss me again, Luc,” she commands. There’s a serious glint in her eyes now. “Only this time, don’t stop until we reach the spectacular.”
