I do when I realize my choices are gone.
Because Sean’s blood tasted just like the human’s, and instead of strengthening her, it had made her feel even weaker.
Now the hunger was ripping through her insides. Hollowing her out.
“I told you not to touch her,” Jamie tossed Sean back against the wall. “I told you.”
It wasn’t the touching that mattered. It was the blood. Blood she couldn’t drink.
“Iona?” Now Jamie was the one calling her name.
She forced her head to lift. Made her body rise. She was still shaking, but those trembles couldn’t be helped because they came from the hunger and the weakness that filled her veins.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. So many would laugh to see her brought so low.
Jamie wasn’t laughing. He was staring at her with eyes that saw far too much. “Get out of here,” he said.
Her lips parted.
“Yank the door back up after you, Sean, and get the hell out,” he said, never looking away from her.
Sean hurried to comply.
Jamie didn’t touch her. Didn’t move another inch. Not until the door was partially up, giving them a bit of privacy, and Sean was gone.
“It didn’t work,” he said flatly.
Of course, he’d known the truth. Maybe she had, too. She’d just been desperate.
“It makes you sick, doesn’t it?” He asked. “When you take blood from others.”
Yes. A vampire who could only bite one man? Talk about falling far from her perch of power. She wasn’t exactly the big terror of the town any longer.
The faint lines deepened near Jamie’s mouth. “I want you to bite me. Take my blood…I don’t care. I can give you what you want, always.”
He didn’t understand. But right then, she just didn’t have the energy or the control to make him understand.
Fifteen years. For all intents, she’d been dead then. Even if her mind had been crying out in agony.
Now that she was free, Iona wanted to live.
She was about to break apart because she just wanted to let go—to lose her control and take the blood that he offered.
But with vampires, when control broke and blood was involved…
There was a reason she’d been trying to push her vampire coven away from taking blood from live sources. She’d seen the carnage that came from centuries of bloodlust and violence.
When you took straight from a source, when your control shattered, the lust wouldn’t just be for blood.
“Blood and sex,” she whispered.
Jamie’s gaze burned into hers. There was no fear or revulsion or even a hint of hesitation in his eyes. There were just answering hunger. “Yes.”
He knew what he was getting with her. No secrets there. And she needed to feel alive again. She’d gone too long in that cold darkness. There would be no holding back for her. More blood.
She reached for him. Sank her teeth into his throat.
His blood was perfect on her tongue. Delicious. Addictive. Like a mix of wine and chocolate.
His body brushed against hers.
Pleasure. Close. So very, very close.
Her ni**les were tight. Her sex already growing moist. Iona’s control was fracturing. She could feel the ripples as they shook through her body.
His hands locked around her wrists. “Don’t worry,” he told her, the words rumbling against her as her tongue licked lightly at his throat. “I’ve got you.”
Maybe he did.
They were about to find out.
In the next instant, he’d lifted her up. Took two fast steps, and then her back shoved against the wall.
“When you bite me,” his words were a dark rumble that had her sex clenching, “I want to f**k.”
Not an unusual reaction. The bite did something to prey. Gave them a boost of pleasure. Made them want more.
The vampire could usually control the bite, especially a vampire as old as she was. Could give pleasure or pain.
Her fangs scored lightly over his flesh. He growled. With this bite, she wanted to give pleasure.
His fingers were on her stomach now, under her shirt. His hands were warm and strong and they were sliding up, up, and cupping her br**sts. Her breath hissed out as her ni**les pebbled beneath his touch. She arched against him, wanting more.
His blood had already made her stronger. So now she wasn’t just drinking from him. She was kissing. Licking. Learning what the werewolf liked.
“My turn,” he muttered as he lifted her even higher. Strong wolf.
Then he yanked away her top and put his mouth on her breast. He used his teeth to lightly rasp over her sensitive flesh. Her sex ached. So long…
Iona wrapped her legs around him even as he kissed and sucked her breast. She pushed her hips against him. He was aroused. No mistaking that hard bulge that shoved back against her.
Pity his jeans were in the way.
Not for long.
This time, she was the one to jerk open his jeans. To pull the zipper down and slid her fingers past the denim. She found him, long, thick, hot, pushing eagerly toward her.
Her tongue slid over the edge of her left fang. She’d had his blood. Now she just wanted him.
His rough breaths filled her ears. Then she heard the sound of a frantic heartbeat. His? Hers? Maybe both. Racing too fast.
“Jamie.” Her demand. “Now.” She didn’t want foreplay that lasted for hours. That could come another time. Right then, she was already clawing at his back. Pushing against him as her control shattered around her. She wanted him inside of her.
Wanted the pleasure to erupt and sweep everything else away.
Then his hands were between their bodies. He had her jeans open, and she had to lower her legs, just long enough to kick out of her heels and jeans. She wasn’t wearing any underwear, so she didn’t have to worry about—
“Fuck.” His hand was between her legs. Pushing into her sex and her head tipped back because she liked the sensation of his fingers sliding in her. Her body was humming, so tuned up that she knew the first climax would hit her soon.
His thumb pushed over her clit.
The climax hit.
She grabbed for his broad shoulders as the release blasted through her. Even as her sex contracted, he was there. Not with those long, broad fingers anymore, but with the heavy length of his cock. Driving into her. Plunging deep.
His neck was inches from her mouth. She had to taste him again. Bloodlust, physical lust, they blurred in her mind and her control fell to the ground. There was no thought. Only need. Hunger that couldn’t be satisfied.
He pushed into her, not easy or gentle, and she wanted him that way. His hands were around her hips, forcing her into the air so that he supported her body and he drove into her, again and again with thrusts that stole her breath and made her body shudder.