Page 109 of Night's Reckoning
He bent down and stared her straight in the face. “You didn’t want me. But you didn’t want to let me go. So you fucking did this.”
* * *
Tenzin shook her head,but Ben could see the guilt in her eyes.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whispered.
“Don’t I?” He put his hand on her cheek, and it didn’t feel cool anymore. She felt warm. How did she feel more human when she was such a monster? And why couldn’t he stop wanting her?
Ben wanted her so much, every cell in his aching, hungry body cried out for her.
He wasn’t an animal. He wasn’t a monster. He refused. Herefused.
But he couldn’t back away. He felt like every sense was on fire. He smelled everything. The smoke from the single candle in the room. The scent of blood on his lips. The scent of jasmine blooming out in the garden. The pine forests and the sea.
Ben bent down and pushed his face into Tenzin’s neck, inhaling the familiar smell of cardamom and honey. He leaned his temple against her cheek, and she tilted her head to the side, giving him room to smell her skin, her hair.
He heard a single low thump. “What was that?”
“My heart.” She swallowed. “Ben—”
“My heart.” He put a hand to his chest.
Silent.
You are not human. You aren’t human anymore. Your heart isn’t beating. Your body is fueled by blood and amnis now.He felt dizzy, but the air licked along his skin, soothing him and igniting him.
“You did this,” he said again, “so I couldn’t leave you. So I could never be free of you.”
She didn’t answer for a long moment. Finally she simply said, “Yes.”
He slammed his hand against the wall again, and she flinched.
“What gave you the right?” He bared his teeth. Why did he do that? “Tell me, what gave you that right, Tenzin?”
Something in her eyes flared, and he recognized anger. In a split second, she rose up and bit his lip, exactly where she had before.
This time Ben bit back.
He reached for her and lifted her by the waist as if she weighed nothing, bringing her mouth to his and slamming their bodies together. It hurt. And it didn’t. The ache of contact was soothed by his intense hunger.
She hooked her arm around his neck and molded her lips to his. He tasted blood on her tongue and he drank it. He bit her lower lip, and Tenzin let out a soft moan. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he pressed his body into hers.
His erection was nearly painful. His body lay in the curve of hers, and she wasn’t pushing him away. She wasn’t draining him. She was holding his shoulders so tightly Ben thought he might bruise. Her lips ran over his skin and her tongue licked the blood from the scrapes her nails left in his shoulders.
His blood only seemed to stoke her hunger. Ben could smell the arousal rising from her body, and he ran a hand up her thigh, sliding his fingers under the robe she wore.
He brushed his thumb between her thighs and it came away wet. Ben put his finger in his mouth, tasting her as she lapped at his blood. Driven by both hungers, he tore the clothing from her body and threw it across the room.
He wanted to feel her. Wanted her bare skin and hard angles. Her nails moved to his neck and she scraped him again. Ben roared and threw his head back, only to have Tenzin bare her teeth and put her mouth to his neck.
Ben didn’t think. He couldn’t. He only knew hunger and the means to sate it. He spread her legs and angled his neck to the side, entering her body as she pierced his throat.
It was so fucking good he couldn’t even describe it.
Take me.
Take me.
