Page 56 of Thorns from the Fall

“Do we really need one?” he asks against my skin as he positions his cock at my entrance. Slowly, he rubs his tip in a circle over my opening. My head rests against the wall, and I close my eyes. He has a point, doesn’t he? I’m a vampire after all.

“She doesn’t need your cum dripping down her thighs once you’ve finished.”

For a moment, I think I’ve imagined his voice. But then Adam jerks away from me, and I look toward the door we left wide open.

Roman leans against the doorframe, looking like something out of my nightmares. He’s both formidable and beautiful as usual, long hair falling loose around his furious face, and his eyes rake over my body as Adam drops my leg and turns toward him.

My skirt is rucked up around my hips, and though only a part of me is on display, I feel completely naked. My skin heats as Roman’s eyes grow dark. I feel his attention on my center, and I’m more turned on from him looking at me than I was by Adam touching me just a moment ago. Roman’s nostrils flare, his mouth drops open, and I catch sight of his deadly fangs. The moment I notice the threat, I grab Adam’s shirt, stopping his approach.

I spin him to face me, not wanting an innocent man’s death on my hands.

“What the fuck is going on?” Adam asks, but I place a gentle kiss on his lips to quiet him. It’s for show, and I’m certain Roman sees right through it. I lift my leg, wrapping it around Adam’s waist once more.

I wonder if perhaps I’m using him as armor by making him shield my nudity.

“Don’t stop on my account,” Roman says. “Do you need some change for the machine?”

I’m like a moon stuck in orbit around a gravity dense planet, unable to escape. Roman steals my attention, and I can’t deny the pull as I glance toward him. He folds his arms over his chest as he ducks beneath the doorframe, biceps filling out his leather jacket, and I only feel a little smug as his temple throbs. He jerks his chin toward the corner of the bathroom where a vintage condom dispenser sits like a horny time capsule, stocked with brands of condoms I don’t recognize. They probably haven’t been refilled in the last decade, and it’s not like I’m going to use one, so I ignore Roman and kiss Adam again.

But just because I don’t plan on having sex with Adam now that we’ve been interrupted doesn’t mean I can’t fool Roman into thinking I intend to.

“Go away, Roman. Shut the door behind you.”

I meet his gaze as I bite into Adam’s neck once more. Forcefully and possessively, my fangs sink deep into his flesh. Behind Roman’s eyes I find that blazing funeral pyre from before, when I’d come in his lap, and I wonder if he plans to immolate himself beside me. If he lets it, his rage could become an inferno that swallows us both whole. The scorched heat of his hatred blazes up my ankle to the crook of my knee, to my hand resting on Adam’s neck, to the face he once loved before it betrayed him.

Adam groans as I take a deep pull from his neck, and I use my leg to pull him even closer.I could fuck him anyway, I think, and the idea of locking eyes with Roman as someone else slips inside of me is far more enticing than it should be. I shift my hips, searching for the warm skin that I’d found repellant only a moment ago. Adam stumbles, putting his hand up to the wall behind me to catch himself. His dick is decidedly less hard than before Roman interrupted us.

It’s not fair that I brought him into this twisted game with my enemy, but it’s too late now. I don’t dare push him away from me. I don’t dare stop drinking from him as Roman watches.

This is a standoff, and I’d be stupid to treat it as anything else.

As I drink Adam’s blood, I wield my attention as a weapon, allowing it to caress over Roman’s form, taking in the man I can’t seem to escape. Beneath his jacket, he wears a black fitted t-shirt, and I imagine lifting it up, licking a path upward from his hip to his soft stomach. My scrutiny dips lower, undoing his belt buckle in my mind, grazing over his zipper, and he can’t hide what’s fighting against the constraints of his faded denim.

He clears his throat, and I’m pleased when he looks away, knowing I’ve managed to agitate him.

Slowly, I pull free from Adam’s neck. I lick my lips, and Roman’s gaze catches on my tongue, fixated on the movement as I trace the sharp edge of a lengthened fang.

Roman yields first, but I don’t think I’ve won.

“Get out,” he commands, deathly quiet. I don’t bother holding onto Adam as he backs away. Roman ignores the man as he stumbles out of the bathroom, zipping up his pants as blood flows from twin punctures on his neck.

With precise motions, Roman steps into the bathroom. It’s a fairly large one—unisex with a toilet, urinal, sink, and the fucking condom dispenser—but the two of us take up far too much space within the four walls. When Roman shuts the door, twisting the lock, I hold my breath.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, pointedly ignoring the shimmy of my hips as I tug my skirt down.

“What does it look like?” Low and raw, the rasp of my voice leans seductive. He notices, judging by the twitch of his eyebrow.

“It looks like you’re spreading your legs for a stranger like some kind of easy whore. Tell me he paid you in advance at least.”

“You watched me enough to know I don’t get paid for this.” I look down at the ground before catching his stare through lowered lashes, not willing to vocalize what I suspect now to be true.

You enjoyed watching back then, didn’t you?

I roll my eyes as his jaw clenches,crossing my arms. “It’s not very enlightened of you to denigrate the world’s oldest profession.”

“Comparing sex work to whatever this is would likely be considered an insult, I suppose. My apologies,” he says, “to them.” Yet, he appears far from disgusted as he closes thedistance between us. “You reek of desperation, Gwyn. What is it you’re trying not to feel?”

Adam’s blood has dulled my high, and yet the air between us crackles with something potent. Roman seems to be stuck, caught between action and inaction. And aren’t I the same? Because on one hand, every nerve ending in my body is on high-alert, desperate for him to touch me, but on the other, my mind shudders at the thought.

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