Page 22 of Blood Submission

The flow of blood was letting up, and Laney bit down again to keep it going. He cried out, his hips jerking forward as he gripped her to him. The sound startled her and she tried to stop, but as soon as he felt her mouth leaving him, he pushed her head back down. With a moan, she latched on again. The pressure built in her womb, waves of pleasure shooting through her as he pushed her down harder against his leg and ground her body against him, squeezing her ass as he encouraged heron.

Laney knew that what she was doing was sick, disgusting, but she couldn’t seem to control herself. Her body demanded release, jolts of pleasure surging through her with every drink she took. She rocked her hips back and forth on his thigh, reaching for that elusive peak of pleasure. Faster and faster until she was beyond reason, beyond rational thought. All she knew were the sensations she was feeling, the strength and virility of the male holding her, the connection between them as he shared his essence withher.

The pressure in her womb escalated, climbing higher and higher until, with a muffled cry, she crashed over the edge. Her body convulsed, her head flying back even though she tried to keep her hold on him. Her cries of pleasure mixed with his deep growls as he held her to him and helped her ride out her orgasm.

When she sagged back into the mattress, breathing hard, her muscles still pulsing from the powerful orgasm she’d just had, he pulled his arm out from underneath her and rolled away. The cool air chilled her body where his heat had been just a moment before, causing goose bumps to break out all over. Shame suffused her cheeks and chest as the reality of what had just happened sunk in to her pleasure-soaked brain.

Horrified at what she had done, she jerked upright with a sob. But then he was back, pulling her down with him into the warm bed, and tucking the blankets up aroundher.

“Sleep, Laney.”

She felt his strong arms catch her as blackness descended oncemore.

* * *

When she woke,she again found herself curled up against the front of the vampire. Only this time his breathing was slow and steady. He was sleeping. Laney studied his face. With his eyes shut, the icy remoteness was gone from his features, and in its place was a man like any other man. The small creases around his mouth and eyes made her guess his age to be around thirty or thirty-five years old. Maybe a little older. At least that was about how old he must have been when he’d become a vampire.

That thought led her to wondering how it had happened, and what his life had been like before. Had he been a husband? A father? He must have laughed a lot, before this happened to him, for those lines to be engraved so permanently into hisskin.

As if he sensed her rapt attention, his eyes suddenly popped open. Laney was startled to find herself staring into clear brown eyes that were filled with warmth as they gazed upon her, just before they narrowed with suspicion. The light faded as if it had never been there, the color darkened, and they again became cold and bleak. But in that one moment, Laney’s breath had caught in her throat.

Untangling himself from her, Dante pushed the blankets back and rolled away. Getting up from the bed, he strode into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly behindhim.

While he was in there, Laney freed herself from the blankets and got up to start getting her things together. It took her all of five seconds; everything was already in her pack. So she pulled her hair back again, put her shoes on, and then gathered Fraidy’s stuff and piled everything up near the door. She stood there undecided, shifting from foot to foot as she thought about making a break for it, but when she pulled back the curtain to peek outside, she saw that it was already past dusk and well on its way to full darkness. Not enough time for her to get far enough away before he would findher.

Laney had just dropped the curtain back into place and turned away from the window when he opened the door and cameout.

She glanced at his neck. The cut was washed clean and nearly healed already. Laney dropped her eyes when he walked past her, not wanting him to catch her staring. But he seemed to be paying her no attention at all as he lifted one side of the curtain just enough to see out, just as she had. She heard a satisfied grunt, and then he dropped it again and turned to give her a onceover.

“Take it down,” he toldher.

“What?” she asked, confused.

He waved a hand in the general direction of her head. “Your hair. Leave itdown.”

She scowled at him. “No. I like itup.”

He growled deep in his throat, a feral sound that made the small hairs all over her body rise up in alarm, but she refused to back down. He might hold her life in his hands, but he wasn’t about to start dictating what she did with herhair.

“Are we leaving?” she asked him. “I need to use the bathroom first.”

He cocked his head at her, his face emotionless as he studied her exposed throat then her breasts before he spun on his heel and started pacing the length of the room. But he hadn’t been quick enough. She had seen the flare of heat in his eyes. “Go on.” His voice floated to her as if from everywhere atonce.

Laney quickly took care of business, emptying her bladder and brushing her teeth again. When she came out, he was still pacing.

She tried to track him, but the vampire moved so fast that he would only appear for a fraction of a second at each end of the room. He would then turn and disappear, to reappear again twenty feet away less than a second later.

Laney gave up trying to gauge his mood and decided she would do well just to wait, as she was unsure of what else to do. In spite of his earlier eagerness, he seemed to be in no hurry to leave now. But when a few more minutes passed, and he was still wearing out a path in the floor, she spoke up. “Dante?”

The sound of his name snapped him out of whatever deep thoughts he was having and he stopped mid-pace, suddenly appearing directly in front ofher.

Laney had to take a step back from his overpowering presence. Clearing her throat to hide her nervousness, she asked again, “Are we leaving?”

His head lifted to look at her, the weight of his stare travelling at a leisurely pace up the length of her body. “Yes,” he finally said. Yet he made no move to doso.

Disconcerted, Laney walked over and picked up her bag and Fraidy’s food, and then waited for him by thedoor.

He joined her after a moment, and when Laney looked up, she caught a flash of…something…as the emotion flitted across his features just before they closed off to her again. Laney hesitated, torn as to whether to be eager to leave or not. The sooner she got him where he was going, the sooner she’d be rid of him, one way or the other. He wouldn’t want to risk her telling anyone about him. She knew that instinctively. So he would either wash her mind clear of any memory of him, if he could do that, or he would take her out of the equation as he’d threatened. Either way, she would befree.

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