“I don’t want to go. And I strongly suspect that although you’re telling me to, you don’t really want me to either.”
She couldn’t be more right. “And that’s all the more reason you should.”
“Why?”
I shouldn’t need to explain this. “Because this isn’t right for either of us.”
She strokes her thumb over my cheek. “Nothing has ever felt more right to me.”
I shake my head. “You and I should never be alone behind a closed door.”
“Because you drank from me?”
“Yes.” I squeeze my eyes shut before making the confession that will scare her enough to make her leave. “But mostly because I liked doing it entirely too much.”
She pulls my face toward hers but I can’t open my eyes because I’m too ashamed of what I’ve just confessed. She has to think I’m a monster for enjoying that terrible thing I did to her.
I feel her breath against my lips as she whispers, “It felt so different with you. It was the first time I ever liked it. I’ve never wanted anything so much in my life.” I feel her lips lightly brush against mine as she continues talking. “And I haven’t stopped wanting you to do it again.”
My eyes pop open at the shock of her admission. “Absolutely not. I will never hurt you like that again.”
“You didn’t hurt me at all.” Her hands slide from my face to my shoulders and the tip of her tongue grazes my mouth as she licks her lips. The moisture there doesn’t have to make contact with my tongue for me to remember the way she tastes–sweet and delicious. “Something happened between us that night and it was beautiful. Please tell me you felt it too.”
I encountered something extraordinary but decided I had imagined it because it seemed too good to be true. But even as much as I enjoyed it, I could never put Avery in that kind of danger again. “I felt every moment. I covet every second of what I experienced with you but it can never happen again.”
“You believe that you hurt me but you didn’t.”
She didn’t understand the danger. “Who’s to say I wouldn’t the next time?”
“Me. Because I know you wouldn’t.” She caresses her cheek against mine. “I felt your gentleness then and I feel it now. I’m certain you’d never hurt me.”
She’s wrong. I’d do nothing but hurt her. Or it could possibly be the other way around. Maybe she’d hurt me. “You’re a blood jewel, Avery. None of us knows what that means except vampires that drink your blood become addicted to it.”
“But not you. You’re the only one that hasn’t been effected by it.”
I beg to differ. I’ve been highly impacted but in a much different way–possibly an even more dangerous manner–because my side effects have made me believe I’m in love with this girl. Maybe that’s why the thought of her wanting me simply out of pure curiosity is so painful. “Is that what this is about? You’re mesmerized by my lack of addiction to your blood?”
“No, not at all.” Her scent suddenly engulfs me as she comes up on her tiptoes so her mouth may connect with mine. I haven’t kissed a human woman since Lisette but time doesn’t matter. There’s an instinct lingering within me and it takes over as my tongue joins hers in a seductive dance.
Her hands lock behind my neck while mine find her hips so I can pull her closer. She arches into me and my mouth trails kisses down her neck. She lifts her chin–giving me full access to her neck–and I feel the pulsation beneath my lips. “Make me your blood doll, Sol.”
My blood doll? Is that what she thinks I want her to be? “Do you even know what a blood doll is?” She can’t possibly understand or she wouldn’t ask to become that.
“Yes. And I want to be yours.”
“A blood whore? That’s what you want to be?” It’s true. I used that term to shock her into realizing what it is she’s asking to be.
“You can label it whatever you’d like but I want to be the only one you drink from. I don’t want you to partake of the blood swans anymore.” She lifts her chin again. “Make me your only one.”
“No. I can’t do it.”
“You can.” She strokes the vein I drank from previously. “All you have to do is pierce this and drink.”
I think she sees the battle raging in my head. I don’t have the desire to drink her blood but I want nothing more than to feel the connection we shared when I did because it was so amazing. And this is what she wants too–as much as me or possibly even more.
“Make me yours, Sol. Please. It’s what we both want.”
I feel myself giving into her. “The others can’t know. They’d never understand or accept it.”
Her mouth spreads into a smile as she nods in agreement. “It’ll be our little secret.”
I’m not so sure it’s a little secret. In fact, I’m certain it’s huge–probably the biggest I’ve ever had–and another one to add to the collection I’m keeping from Curry and the others. The thought of hiding something so important from him floods me with guilt but I’ll do it because this is what she wants and I’ll take her any way I can have her.
Chapter Three
“Is there a mirror in here?”
I gesture toward the closed door. “In the bathroom.”
She angles her head to the side and wrinkles her forehead. “You’re a vampire with a bathroom in your office?”
“It’s a selling point should we ever decide to leave.”
She shrugs. “Makes sense.” She takes my hand in hers and leads me into the bathroom. Once inside she stands so she is facing the mirror with me behind her. She reaches for her long blond hair and pulls it over one shoulder as she tilts her head to the side. She rests her back against my front and her eyes watch mine in the mirror.
She’s not wasting any time. “You want me to do it right now?”
I watch her reflection as she releases her hair and straightens her neck. “Only if it’s what you want.”
To please me. That’s what she desires. And I want to please her as well because this isn’t only about me. “Is it what you want?”
“Yes … very much.”
I will do it for her because–the gods help me–I would do anything to make her happy.
I brush her hair away from her neck until it cascades down one shoulder. She leans her head over again and stretches her neck until I have full access. She reclines back until her body is completely supported by mine. I hear and feel her heart pounding as her eyes lock with mine in the mirror just the way they did when I drank from her the night we met.