Page 44 of Bound By Blood

Warmth exploded inside of her. “One last time,” she breathed, her voice husky and inviting.

He pressed his lips together and nodded. He hung his coat up on the hook by the door and then brushed the hair off her shoulder again. His breath tickled her skin as he lowered his head. Goosebumps covered her flesh at his hesitation, and then she shivered when his teeth bit into her neck. She gasped when they sunk further in. She could feel his tongue lap at her skin with every pull of blood into his mouth. She could smell the scent of her blood, too, and hear his heartbeat quicken.

It felt good. Better than she remembered. She forced herself not to grind against him. She wouldn’t complicate the mess she’d made by taking advantage of the moment, even though her body screamed to. Instead, she rested her hands against his biceps and kept her head tilted to the side, bottom lip caught between her teeth.

Seconds, minutes, hours, all seemed to pass before his fangs retracted. He pressed a kiss against the tender spot of her neck, and then lifted his head to meet her eyes. He gave her a soft smile and drug his fingers down her cheek. “I’m going to miss you, you know.”

His words shook her a little, but a sliver of hope blossomed in her chest. It warmed her to her toes, but it also frightened her a little as well. It was a step in the right direction, a direction she wanted them to head, but she had never been this close to any type of confession. The only person who would miss her in this lifetime was Lily.

“I’m going to miss you too,” was all that she whispered. And she meant it. With every fiber of her being, she meant it. She just hoped her tone held the weight of her truth.

“Come on, you need to finish eating. You need your strength for tomorrow.” He headed back to the kitchen and pulled out a pack of Oreos and set it down next to her meal.

“Oreos?” Her voice sounded meek. She hadn’t wanted him to pull away, not after she confessed herself to him, not after he confessed himself to her. But maybe she was reading too much into that. Maybe it was only her blood that he was going to miss.

“The sugar will replenish what I took.”

Carly twisted her fingers. As she walked over to the table, she said, “There was a time when Oreos would have been snatched from my fingers before they could reach my mouth.” She took a seat at the table and slid closer to her food. “My mother would never let me have any.”

“Why?” he asked. “What kind of mother would deprive their child of Oreos?”

She shrugged without looking at him. “I was fat, and she didn’t like it. She’s the main reason why I’ve never had an example of a healthy relationship.”

He snorted and shook his head. “This is why I will never understand you humans. You have a skewed view of what beauty is.”

Carly chuckled a little and then grabbed an Oreo. “Well, she isn’t wrong. I was – am – overweight, but the only difference is, I just don’t care about it anymore. I learned to love my curves and hate her instead.”

He was quiet for a few moments. He leaned against the counter, folding his arms. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that your mother didn’t love and care for you in the way a mother should. And, for what it’s worth, I don’t think you are overweight in the slightest. I think you are healthy, and that’s what matters.”

Carly stopped chewing her Oreo and looked back at him. Swallowing, she grinned broadly. “Did Landon Creed just sympathize with me?”

He rolled his eyes, but his lips tilted up ever so slightly. “Don’t get used to it.”

They held each other’s gaze as something silent passed between them. Carly broke it. “When you asked me if this was a relationship, back in your penthouse, I turned my nose up at it. I shouldn’t have. I was just scared.”

“Of what?”

“That I’d fuck up.”

He sighed and shook his head. “I never should have expected anything else. It was stupid of me to think that anything could come of this. You’re human, and I’m a vampire. We are the definition of enemies.”

“And if we were no longer enemies?” If he turned her, they wouldn’t be. She could be with him if that was the other reason that he didn’t want to give her another try.

“Carly, no. You need to stop. It’s not happening.”

She turned away from him and looked at her food. “I don’t want to be your enemy, Landon. I want to be more.”

“You’re not my enemy, Carly.” The deep rumble of his voice drew her in like a moth to a flame and only served to clench her stomach tighter against the pain settled there. “We are supposed to be, but I could never see you as my enemy. And even if you don’t trust anything else I say, please trust me when I tell you that you do not want to be condemned to this life.”

“You won’t have me because I’m human. You won’t have me as a vampire. Am I wasting my breath, trying to get you to see me as you did the other night?” She was so quiet, unsure. She needed to know if there was anything left between them because, if there wasn’t and she found out later, her heart would break.

Landon pushed off the counter and crouched down next to her. “Carly, I will always see you the way I did that night. Nothing is going to change that. Just like nothing is going to change the fact that I am always going to want you. I just can’t be responsible for you becoming the monster I am. I care about you too much to put you through that. Why can’t you understand that?”

“Because the thought of being without you makes me want to rip open my own chest and yank out my heart.”

He smiled sadly at her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “That’s just the bond making you feel that way. Once it’s broken, it won’t hurt as much.”

She pushed the food away, her appetite lost. “I don’t want to break the bond, Landon. I want to discover more about it, but I don’t want to break it.”