Page 25 of Blood Submission

And he couldn’t save her from himself.

Ignoring her hand, he took her by the arm again. “Come.” Hurrying down the passageway, he kept up a quick pace, dragging her along when she stumbled in the dark. Anger filled him. Anger at himself for being concerned about her and her feelings. Anger at her for touching the last remnants of humanity left inside ofhim.

She didn’t make a sound the entire trip other than her heavy breathing as she tried to keep up with him. When he reached the room he’d made into his own years before, he shoved her up against the wall. “Stay.”

She reached for him again when he let go of her, and again he felt that vice tighten in his chest. Kneeling down, he found the matches he kept on a makeshift shelf in the wall where one of the bricks had fallen out. Striking one, he lit the candles around the mattress that he slept on—when he slept atall.

Laney blinked in the sudden flare of light, lifting her hand to shield her eyes. He watched her as she lowered it a few seconds later, taking in her reaction. He shouldn’t care what she thought of hishome.

Yet, he found that hedid.

Her eyes went from the brick walls to the wooden planks of the floor, interspersed with areas that had corroded down to the dirt. Then they found the mattress with the thin blanket on top and rested there a moment. They ended on him, where he still kneeled on one knee on the other side of the small room. She didn’t say a word, and he couldn’t read her reaction, which bothered him to no end. He wasn’t sure what he wanted from her. Disgust? Fear?

Pity?

Enough was enough. Dante stood and went to her, planning to take her down the narrow tunnel behind him that led to his feeding room. He’d dug it out himself. There were devices there that had taken him a lifetime to collect. Devices that allowed him to put his victims through a plethora of fun things before he killed them—from rough sex to something a bit bloodier. Or a lot bloodier.

But when he reached her, he stopped. He imagined her chained and beaten, her smart mouth silenced from the pain. Something he’d been looking forward to this entire trip. Or so he thought. Except now, the image made his stomach lurch.

This…hold…she had on him had to stop. And it had to stopnow.

“Laney.”

She wouldn’t look at him, and he found himself focusing on the top of her head. Her scent rose up around him, the sweet fragrance tinged with the sourness of her fear and the saltiness of her tears. His gums burned as his fangs grew impossibly longer, his hunger for her so intense it was making him lightheaded.

He felt disembodied—watching from a distance as a male that looked like him lifted his hand to her ponytail and freed it from the band. Her long hair fell forward around her shoulders to partially cover her face. Instead of dragging her down to the other room as planned, he picked up a handful of the soft strands and brought it to his nose, breathing in the lavender scent. Lifting his other hand, he buried those fingers in her hair also, sliding them back until he was cupping her head with both hands.

She is only a human. One quick twist, and it would be over. For both ofus.

As Dante contemplated that thought, he felt her fingers wrap around his wrists. Her eyes lifted to his—finally!—glassy from her tears, yet the challenge she offered within them was more than clear.

She was daring him to doit.

His hands tightened on her skull until he knew he had to be hurting her, but she didn’t make a sound. Just ground her jaw together and continued to goad him on with her silent defiance. Dante’s breathing quickened. Such fearlessness in the face of certain death was something he’d rarely seen before. Conflicting emotions ran rampant inside of him. Part of him wanted to break her, and part of him wanted to applaudher.

In the end, he kissedher.

It wasn’t a tender kiss. It was too full of thirst, of hunger, of need. Her tongue met his with a tentative touch, and Dante groaned deep in his throat. One hand stayed gripped in her hair while the other fell to her ass and pulled her up and into his aching body. He wanted her to feel what she was doing tohim.

She rubbed herself against his erection. It was nearly his undoing.

Enough!

He needed to take control. Breaking off the kiss, Dante put his hands on her shoulders and shoved her to her knees on the floor. Her eyes went immediately to the bulge in his pants, and when they flicked back up to his face they were hungry.

Dante’s breath caught in his throat. “Do you want this, little mouse?” He palmed the hard length through his pants, rubbing the heel of his hand over his manhood until the zipper cut intohim.

She shook her head. “No.” But her eyes were glued to what he was doing. And as he watched, her little pink tongue flicked out to wet herlips.

“You’re lying.” Releasing her hair, he undid his pants and pulled out his sex. It was thick and long, filling his palm and then some. He guided the head to her sweet mouth. “Take it,” he demanded. Her eyes were on his swollen head. Her nostrils flared and her tongue wet her lips. Dante gritted his teeth. He had to calm down. He was too excited, having imagined this very scenario so many times over the last hours, he didn’t know if he was going to last long enough to actually feel her lips close around him. When she shook her head again, he cupped the back of her head and forced her to him. “Put your mouth on me, Laney.”

He probed her lips with the wide head, and with a moan of defeat, she opened her mouth and took in just the head. Her mouth was hot and wet, and as he pulled out, she ran her tongue around the tip. He pulled her to him again, and this time she opened her mouth wide, sucking hard as he slid inside.

Dante’s hips jerked forward as a shout was torn from his throat. Much as he tried to control it, to contain it, the pressure to come continued to build. Exposing his fangs, he hissed in pleasure. Laney’s hands went to his hips, and he thought she was going to push him away, but as always, she surprised him. Twisting her fingers into the sagging waistband of his pants, she pulled his hips closer, taking the length of him as far as she could. In and out. Faster and faster. The scent of her desire rose in the air, and he knew that if he touched her now, she’d be wet and ready for him. He was almost tempted, but the pleasure of what she was doing was too good tostop.

Low growls ripped from his chest as he watched his manhood sliding in and out from between her soft lips. The experience wasn’t anything like he’d imagined. His plan had been to shame her, to show her how worthless she was, that she was beneath him. A human. There for him to use or abuse as he saw fit. Good for nothing except sex andfood.

Instead, she was bringing him to his knees.

Keeping his hold on her head with one hand, he moved the other to his balls and forced her to squeeze. She made sounds of protest in her throat, but he wouldn’t let her stop. Pumping in and out of her mouth, he forced her to cause himpain.

His orgasm hit him sudden and hard. Releasing her hair, he jerked out of her mouth and twisted away just in time. Sinking his fangs into his own arm to stifle his shouts of pleasure, he ejaculated all over the wall next toher.

When it was over, he licked at the self-inflicted wound and tried to catch his breath. He could feel the female’s eyes on him, but couldn’t bring himself to look at her. He was too shaken. Too raw. This place that had been his safe haven for so many years suddenly felt stifling, the walls closing in on him. He had to get the fuckout.

Storming past her, he hit the passageway andran.

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