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“You know it's not.” The guttural hunger in his voice sent a visceral thrill through me. “I never truly feared my father before you. Gods, I hated him with every fiber of my being, but now, I have something worth protecting, and it terrifies me.Youterrify me.”
“What does your father have to do with drinking blood?” I whispered, wanting to claw through his chest and burrow deep until I discovered all his secrets. Needing my connection to him as everything around me seemed to unravel. “Why won’t you drink from me?”
He shook his head resolutely.
“Do it. I want you to.”
I grasped onto his dark hair, pulling him forward until his face was level with mine. For a moment, he let his lips linger on my skin, but when I released a shuddering breath, he froze and tore away from me.
“No.”
“If you need to feed directly from a source to be stronger, I want you to drink from me,” I persisted, stung by his continued refusal.
Yanking away from me, his eyes burned. “You don’t know what you’re asking of me. You’re not ready.I’mnot.”
“This isn’t just about you, Alexei. It’s about everyone in Salem who will be at risk of your blood-rage unless you drink,” I snarled, stalking closer to Alexei and dropping the thin straps of my slinky dress until it landed on the floor.
Setting my shoulders back, I stood before him in only the pretty red and black rosebud lingerie he had bought me. Letting him look his fill. His fangs tore into his bottom lip, nearly drawing blood, while his unwavering stare felt as heated as his touch.
Feeling immense power and confidence despite my inexperience, I ran my hands through my hair until it fell past my breasts in waves.
“Let me tell you how this will go,” I crooned. “You’re going to drink from me, so you’re no longer a threat, and then you’re going to fuck me like you promised last night. If I’m able to walk in the morning, I’ll be very disappointed, vamp.”
His eyes turned feral, hands clenching at his sides as I slowly unbuttoned his shirt, giving him time to stop me. When I hastily unbuckled his belt, letting my fingers brush the smooth skin below his navel, he purred.
I brought my lips to the center of his chest, where his unbeating heart lay. “Now, I’ve never fed a vampire before. Should I just—?” I trailed off as I bared my neck to him for the second time tonight.
“No.” He shook wildly, wetting his lips with his tongue. “I’ll drain you dry as I am now.”
Undeterred, I lifted my hands to his pocket and pulled loose the dagger within. Before he could stop me, I brought the point to my collarbone, pressing it until I felt the sharp bite of the blade.
Alexei’s reaction was instantaneous. First, there was the glimmer of fear and concern, but as my blood wetted the air between us, thirst transformed him. Through the rigid clench of his jaw, he snarled and his hands became vise grips on my waist.
I froze, unsure, but he merely let his head fall onto my shoulder and his tongue laved a fiery path across my collarbone until he reached the crimson trail. When he tasted me, his eyes rolled back into his head, much like they had last night when he tasted the bead of blood from my lips.
“Yourtaste. Like berries and chocolate.Need more.”
Magick rose to my hands out of instinct, but the sight of it seemed to awaken him from his daze. Pushing me away, he hurried to the window and pushed it open, nearly bending his body in half to purge my scent from his nostrils.
“What are you—” My words died off as he hissed.
He moved in a blur, drawing me into his arms and kissing me as if I held his salvation. Surprise froze my limbs for only a second before I mirrored his need. I tore at his skin with blunt fingernails, scrambling for purchase as he lifted me and wrapped my legs around his waist. He shuddered as one hand squeezed my ass, the other wrapping around my head to pull my face away far enough to smolder a glare at me.
He nipped at my chin before his tongue flicked out to soothe the sting. “Why do you never do as you’re told, witch?”
“In case I haven’t made it abundantly clear this year, I don’t take orders from you. I have what you need, and I will not let you abstain out of some ridiculous notion of chivalry or fear.” I glowered back at him with rising suspicion. “You should have fed long before it came to this!”
His eyes glittered dangerously. “You don’t know the battle I have waged to abstain.”
“Why would you bother if the other party is willing? Are the nymphs you obsess over not offering their pretty necks for you?”
Heat suffused his skin, and a growl emerged from his throat, possessive and wild. “Of course they do, darling. Who wouldn’t offer themselves up to me, knowing the pleasure my bite can give them?”
He walked me back towards the couch and dropped me unceremoniously onto the cushions.
“You think I abstain from lack of options?” He laughed low, slinking to his knees before me. “Options are boundless in my Court. I abstain because I only wantyou. I’ve not looked or touched another since last Samhain when we fought together against the demons. You’re fierce and lovely. Everything I desire most in a female. Jade, you can destroy my very being with one word, which is why you will never offer your blood to me again. Am I understood?”
“You haven’t—“ I broke off, imagining all the females throwing themselves at him this past year, and him… never returning their ardor.
