Page 13 of Taken By the Blood God

“Talant, I seem to recall telling you to keep your hands to yourself last night and?—”

“You proceeded to crawl on top of me as soon as you fell asleep? I know, I was there.”

My scowl became a glare. But I had no comeback. What in the hell could I even say?

“I took that to mean we were changing the touching rules,” he murmured, his eyelids lowering as his hand moved back up my ribcage.

I held my breath as his thumb brushed the very edge of my breast. I could feel the flush building in my chest and neck as my nipple immediately hardened beneath the silk of my nightgown.

No. I would ignore it and focus on the ridiculous things he’d just said.

“I apologize if I bothered you last night. Obviously, it would have been better if you’d gone to your own bed.”

I expected him to smirk at me, to keep gloating over the fact that he’d kept his word and I’d been the one to break the rules.

But he surprised me once again.

The smirk on his face disappeared as he stared down at me. Tiny scarlet threads swirled into existence in the deep amber of his eyes. Then, the sight of them vanished all together as his pupils expanded until they nearly eclipsed his irises.

He looked…desperate.

“You could never bother me,” he murmured. “At least not like that.”

My mouth opened but not a single sound came out. It seemed to be his morning to befuddle me.

“Then again, there are a lot of things about you that do bother me,” he continued, lowering his face toward mine. “But I think I like every single one of them.”

My mouth was dry, but there was a lump in my throat that threatened to choke me. I tried to swallow, but it came out as more of a gulp.

Just when I expected his lips to touch mine, Talant nudged the tip of my nose with his, skimming it across my cheek to my ear. His lips trailed the lightest line from my earlobe down to my clavicle. It was barely a touch, but it burned through me like wildfire.

Goosebumps erupted on my arms and legs. Even though my skin suddenly felt hot, I shivered violently. A tingling sensation began in my lower abdomen before it slid lower—right between my legs, settling in my clit.

“Talant—” I began, unsure of what my next words would be.

Was I going to tell him to go to hell or kiss me?

My mind was utterly blank, unable to form coherent thoughts. All I could do was feel the havoc he wreaked on my body with nothing but a single touch of his mouth to my throat.

What in the hell was he doing to me?

I gave thanks to the goddess when my cell phone rang on the nightstand. We both looked over, and I saw Ally’s name on the screen.

Before I could tell him that I needed to get the call, Talant had already rolled off me and was out of the bed, bending over to pick something up off the floor. I pushed myself up onto my elbows, watching as he wadded his shirt up in his hand and headed toward the door.

It was nearly impossible to ignore the outline of his hard cock behind the loose shorts he wore, but I managed. Almost.

When the door swung shut behind him, I collapsed back onto my pillow and groaned. Then I reached out my hand for my phone, feeling blindly along the top of the nightstand until I snagged it.

Bringing it to my ear, I said, “You have perfect timing, darling niece.”

Silence greeted me before Ally asked, “Is everything okay, Aunt Minnie?”

Sighing, I sat up and leaned back against the headboard, bringing the blankets up to my chest as I did. “Yes, honey. Everything is fine. I was just waking up when you called, and I had the strangest dream, so it has me feeling out of whack.”

“What were you dreaming about?” she asked.

That’s what I got for lying to a witch who was a dreamwalker. She was learning the significance of dreams and their meanings. Especially since I had the power of precognition. My visions of the future often came to me in my sleep when my body was the most relaxed and my mind was wide open to the magic of the universe.

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