His lips warmed mine a second later. I closed my eyes and savored the whiskey taste of his mouth.
Why are you doing this?
Call the voice in my head conscience or self-preservation. Call it plain old common sense. Either way, I ignored it. And when my traitorous brain tried to call up Adam’s face in my head, I slammed the door shut and locked the dead bolt.
Something deeper inside—the raw, throbbing, vulnerable part—craved this. The scent, the feel, the taste of Slade soothed the restlessness that had been squirming inside me for weeks. Letting him take the lead felt good. I’d spent so such time fighting, it was a relief to surrender.
He groaned and deepened the kiss. He slid his hands through my hair, yanking painfully against my scalp.
Yes. Punish me.
I nipped his lips with my fangs. The metallic taste of blood bloomed in my mouth. The potency of his vampire blood gave me a small boost of adrenaline. It fueled the small spark waking in my belly—and below.
The introduction of blood play changed the game. Slade pushed me back against the edge of the desk. He pulled off my tank top, exposing the black lace bra underneath. Soon the bra joined the shirt on the floor. And then his hot, wet mouth was on me. The nipple swelled and tightened. The sharp pain of fang to sensitive skin. I clenched my teeth and grabbed a fistful of his auburn hair. The pleasure–pain sensation of him pulling on the wound almost made me come.
Need’s claws dug into me. This would be no sweet reunion of bodies. No earnest search for mutual fulfillment. I was no longer capable of worrying about right or wrong. My nerves felt exposed and raw, and the only thing that could soothe them was release.
Slade took the hint and grabbed my hips, lifting me onto the desk. Fitting himself between my thighs, he pressed himself to my core. Layers of clothes combined with his hardness and my wetness to create delicious friction.
He nuzzled my throat, breathing deeply at the jugular. “I want to eat you alive.”
Not an idle threat from a vampire. I pushed him away roughly. “No veins. Just f**k me already.”
His swollen lips lifted into a smile. “With pleasure.”
His warm palm pushed against my collarbone. Pushing back with my hands, I shoved the papers behind me off the desk and lay back. Overhead, the lights crowned his head like a halo on a fallen angel, casting his face in shadow.
Good.
His hands at my zipper. The scrape of jeans at my hips. Lifting my ass to accommodate their trip south. I spread my knees without shame. Cool air tickled my hot flesh, heightening the anticipation.
He’d taken off my pants but left my panties in place. Not out of any concern for my modesty. But because he wanted to rip them off me. As they fell to the floor, I watched his hot eyes caress me. I should have felt exposed and vulnerable, but instead I felt powerful. Filled with the sacred feminine knowledge I could control this male with my body.
Slade pulled my ass closer to the edge of the table, positioning me for easy entry. Then, thank the gods, the head of his c**k pressed against my opening. He rubbed it there once, twice, coating himself with the slick. The pressure increased, and then, finally, he was inside. I arched my back and wrapped my legs around his waist, urging him on. He complied, his hips pistoning faster, harder, deeper.
His head was thrown back, the muscles in his neck corded with exertion. His jugular throbbed there, begging for my fang. The scent of warm blood and hot sex rose around us like vapor. My fangs throbbed in my mouth. My hunter instincts urged me to drink from him as he pounded inside me. To complete the circle. But I didn’t want that kind of connection with Slade. For a vampire there is no greater intimacy.
To distract myself from the bloodlust, I unwrapped my legs from his hips and perched them on the edge of the table. Coming up on my elbows, I used the newfound traction to give as good as I was getting. We slammed together like tectonic plates. Soon, the seismic shift began, a quaking somewhere deep in my pelvis. It radiated outward, growing in intensity as it spread.
I closed my eyes and surrendered myself to bittersweet oblivion.
30
I woke up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding. It took me a second to remember where I was. I didn’t remember the dream, but the panic I’d woken with told me not to chase the shadowy images hovering on the edges of my mind.
As consciousness slowly rose, I felt a warm body under me. Raising my head, I looked up into Slade’s sleeping face. We must have passed out after our last workout on the couch. I swallowed and laid my head back on his chest.
The clock on his desk was in my line of sight. My heartbeat slowed to match the ticking of the seconds. I closed my eyes, not wanting reality to intrude.
Slade shifted under me. His arms came up around my back, and he sighed contentedly. Soon I felt the pressure of his lips on my hair.
I looked up. His eyes were open, and an intimate smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “Hi,” he whispered.
“Hey.” I accepted the squeeze he gave me before I climbed off him in search of my clothes. He watched me get dressed with his arms behind his head.
“I owe you a pair of panties.”
I zipped my fly before responding. “You can make it up to me by waiving the blood tax so I don’t have to drink cold bagged blood for breakfast.”
As soon as I said it, guilt sparked as I remembered my promise to Maisie, but I tamped it down. I’d only promised I wouldn’t feed from humans as long as I was under the protection of the Hekate Council. That wasn’t an issue anymore. Besides, I didn’t have to kill anyone to feed. There were ways to do it that left the prey disoriented enough not to remember what happened.
He came up on one elbow. “Oh, I see how it is: You seduced me just so you could score a hot meal.”
I laughed out loud. His easy humor broke the lingering tension. “Yes, I’ve often found males can’t resist a hungry female in the midst of an existential crisis.”
He chuckled and rose. His hair stood up in tufts around his head. “Either way, of course I’ll waive the tax. It’s the least I can do after weakening you with my furious lovemaking skills.”
I snorted and sat down to pull on my boots. Of course, he was partially correct. A night of sex always left me famished. But the stress I’d been under was the real reason I needed to feed.
He took his time pulling up his pants before he paused. “I have to say, I never thought we’d be sharing postcoital banter again after all these years.”
I smiled, remembering the flirtation and heated glances he’d sent me since the moment we reconnected. “Liar.”