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I’m crazy for even going along with this.
But if it meant saving her kids. She had to do it.
“Is it going to hurt?”
He shrugged, unconcerned. “Sorry, that I don’t know. I’ve never fed directly from a source before.”
Miranda pursed her lips. “I guess it was a stupid question anyway. Of course, it’s going to hurt. You’re going to use your...show me your teeth.”
He pulled back his lips for her, revealing teeth sharp teeth.
Yeah, this is going to hurt. “Great. You’re going to chew on me to get to an artery.”
As she watched, his canines elongated to hang over his bottom row. Her heart dropped. “Well, that just freaked me the hell out.”
His lips twitched. “I can hum while I do it. Hopefully, the sound of my voice will help to take away your anxiety. I can’t do anything about the pain, though.”
“Hey, I just noticed that I haven’t been feeling all fuzzy and woo-woo when you talk to me anymore.”
“My voice only helps to calm and relax you. If you’re determined to fight through the effects, I can’t do anything about it.”
She took a deep breath. I can do this. I have to do this.
Miranda pulled down her hood and moved her hair to one side. She touched her ear to her shoulder. “Here.”
As he inched toward her, her heart slammed against her ribs.
“Wait,” she said when he was near. She turned to Adam and pulled one of his picture books from the bag. “Here, honey. Can you read a story to Lexi while I talk to the robot for a few minutes? We need to come up with a plan to make it to Santa’s workshop.”
“He’s on our side now?”
Miranda nodded because she couldn’t open her mouth to tell him another lie.
Adam laid on the sleeping bag on his belly in front of the book. “Do you see this train, Lexi? He needs to help his other friends get their haul to the next town.”
Miranda turned around and took a deep breath. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. “I’m trusting you not to kill me. Okay?”
Fanian’s eyes were glued to her neck. “I promise to stop.”
Was that good enough? It had to be. She gave Fanian access to her neck again and shook both of her hands in front of her. “Hurry up and do it before I lose my nerve.”
He reached over and plucked her from the ground as if she weighed nothing. She let out a surprised cry but didn’t fight him when he sat her on his lap, her back resting against his chest. He swung them around, so they faced the opposite wall giving his back to the children.
“I think this is the best position for you to relax. The more relaxed you are, the less painful it might be.”
Something stirred in the pit of her belly and between her legs. She shouldn’t be feeling tingling and hot sitting on his lap, braced between his powerful thighs. She shouldn’t like the way his arms felt wrapped around her. She shouldn’t be excited that his lips were brushing against her ear.
And she definitely shouldn’t be wondering about the length and thickness of the bulge pressed nicely against her butt.
“Think of something peaceful. You’re breathing too heavy,” he whispered in her ear.
“I’m scared.” Horny too, but she kept that to herself. Why was she having these feelings right before he was going to chew on her?
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
“I know.” With his free hand, he gently tipped her head to the side again.
Miranda closed her eyes, expecting pain at any second. What she hadn’t expected was his nose on her neck and a deep inhalation from him. He nuzzled against her and hummed. Within seconds her shoulders dropped, and her jaw unclenched. She let out a long breath, releasing the pent-up anxiety from her lungs and sagged against him. Oddly she felt safe in his arms.
She told herself it was the effects of his voice, and had nothing to do with the way he smelled or how warm and comforting his embrace felt.
I’m feeling this way because of his alien mojo. She was not getting off on this while she and her kids were in danger. She had to believe that.
When the prick against her neck finally came, she welcomed it. Pleasure swirled around her neck then down her spine. She let out a long-suppressed moan. Fanian’s light slurping sounded a million miles away. Suddenly she wanted to watch him feeding on her. She wanted to see his lips on her skin.
“Oh, God, Fanian,” she breathed out.
Fanian clutched a handful of her shirt, brushing against her nipples. He groaned and tightened his hold. Miranda wiggled against his growing hardness pressed on her back. She reached behind her head and held onto the back of Fanian’s, encouraging him to drink more, to take more.
“Yes,” she moaned.
Her breaths grew shallow. Each one was more painful than the last. Sensing the danger and hearing the warning bells in her head, she still wanted him to take every last drop. She never wanted this feeling to go away. She was about to tell him that when darkness overtook her.
* * *
FANIAN HELD MIRANDA tightly in his arms. Guilt rocked him. He’d taken too much and almost killed her.
“When is she going to wake up?” Adam asked. He was on his knees, hovering over his mother.
“In a little while,” Fanian told him for what he thought was the millionth time. He hadn’t been around any children since he’d left Naahrex but didn’t remember them asking the same question over and over again.
“I want her to wake up now.”
“So do I.”
He stared at Miranda’s face again. She looked so peaceful, rested...and dead. Anxiety coursed through him.
She’s not dead. He told himself over and over again.
She was breathing. It was soft, but there. Her heartbeat was also there, faint though. He’d stopped the blood seeping from the bite. That wasn’t the hard part. The hardest part had been forcing himself from her neck.
Nothing had prepared him for the experience. There hadn’t been a need to drink from a source in the past, not when blood was easily manufactured and had all the nutrients his kind needed. He’d always been taught feeding from the source was an archaic and barbaric practice, and it wasn’t beneficial for either participant. Either his ancestors had lied, or they’d never known the bliss he’d just experienced.
And bliss it had been.
It was like a million orgasms at once. Although he couldn’t ask Miranda how the experience had been for her, if her body language was any indication, she’d felt the same. Her moans were like the softest waves against his ears. A language he wanted her to only speak to him.
She’d gyrated against his cock, making it swell painfully hard. When she’d scraped her nails across his scalp, he’d wanted to turn her over, strip her, and thrust inside of her, giving her his full length over and over again.
If she hadn’t passed out, Fanian wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have done just that. He’d forgotten about the kids until Miranda had slumped against him. If that hadn’t been enough to snap him out of his blissful stupor, Adam’s screaming had.
Fanian had made up a story about how it was his robot blood leaking from his mouth, and Miranda had decided to take a nap. Though she apparently never took naps, that fact provided by Adam. Then he’d held her, refusing to put her down for fear if he did, she would never wake up again. He couldn’t let her go.
He wished he knew how long it would take for her to recover. Human anatomies were so much different than his.
An hour into her sleep, she began to stir. Her eyes fluttered open and she focused on him. Fanian knew the minute she realized who held her. The look in her eyes went from confusion to panic in a blink. She pushed from him and scrambled back, knocking over Adam in the process.
“Where’s Lexi?” she rushed out as she fumbled to steady Adam.
“She’s sleeping. She was tired after her bottle,” Adam said.
Miranda maneuvered on her knees to find Lexi in the sleeping bag while simultaneously dragging Adam close to her.
“The children are fine,” Fanian said.
It pained him to find Miranda repulsed by what he’d done. He’d thought they’d shared something. He was wrong. He hadn’t known what he expected when she woke up. She surely wasn’t the type to profess she’d enjoyed him feeding on her or let him know if she’d had an orgasm as he had. He would have settled for something more than what he’d seen in her eyes.
He stood and retrieved the weapons he’d taken from her from the back of his waistband. She clutched her kids as she always did and watched him with a fearful gaze.
“Well, are you going to sit there, or are you going to prepare for our escape?” His voice came out harsher than he’d intended.
“You’re strong enough now?” she asked.
He nodded. In fact, his vision was better, his hearing was spectacular, and his smell was more acute. All of his senses were heightened. “Who am I taking up first? You or the kids?”
She chewed on her lip and frowned. “If you take me first, you might decide that you don’t need them. They’ll be left to die here.”
He glared at her. “Do you really think I would do that?”
She studied him. “You’ve come to this planet to hunt a woman to give to someone to use as a breeding mare. You’ve already told me that you want me. The kids are just a bonus.” She lifted her chin. “Yes.”
Ouch.
“Do you have anything to say about that?” she asked when he didn’t respond.
“What’s to say? You have me all figured out,” he ground out.
She humphed. “Take the kids up first, then come back for me. At least that way, if you do decide to run off with me, they won’t be trapped anymore.”
Fanian stormed over to her, and without saying a word picked up the diaper bag and plucked Lexi from her arms. He opened the bag to maneuver Lexi, feet first, into it. He swung the strap across his neck and shoulders then lifted Adam to his back.
“Put your arms around my neck and legs around my waist.” When he did as told, Fanian added, “Squeeze tight. Don’t worry about hurting me. I’m stronger than I look. I’m just a robot, remember?”
Fanian stalked to the wall and, one at a time dug the weapons into the ice. Relying only on his upper body strength, he climbed by stabbing through the ice, pulling up and repeating the action. It wasn’t hard. He was up and over in record time. Miranda’s blood had restored him. He’d never felt this physically fit in his life.
At the top, he sat Adam and Lexi down in the snow, where they immediately shivered. He should’ve brought the sleeping bag to wrap them in.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He sat on the edge of the hole and slid down to where Miranda waited.
He turned and gave her his back and crouched. “Get on.”
Fanian didn’t know who he was mad at—himself for being the person she thought he was or her for recognizing it.
Miranda climbed on his back, and he straightened. He thought he would have a more challenging time because she was heavier than the kids, but he didn’t. With all the extra energy he had, he could’ve scaled a million walls, and wasn’t sure that he would’ve tired him out.
When they made it to the processing center, he would have the medics run a diagnostic on her blood. He had to know what was in it and make sure the substance could be added to the synthetic blood.
At the top, Miranda ran to her shivering kids. “Fanian, they’re freezing!”
“I didn’t have the sleeping bag. We can get the children warmed in the processing center.”
“No, they need the blanket now.” She pressed Lexi’s comlink.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Miranda turned to look at him. A smile slid across her face. The ground opened, and they fell into a pod and disappeared.