Page 28 of A Bond Beyond Blood

Because, as he stretched out beside me, turning me onto my side so he could pull me against his chest andcuddle, I realized I didn’t really care about hating vampires anymore.A year had passed with no sign of the one who’d betrayed my father.He’d either found another butcher to keep him supplied with animal blood, or he’d been dealt the final blow.

I wish I’d been the one to deliver the final death to Eli, but I could accept the possibility that someone else had been given that opportunity.

And I could let go of my vendetta.

My eyes closed and I began to doze, wrapped up in the arms of a vampire.

“Did I hurt you?”Vinny asked, startling me from sleep.His voice was softer than I’d ever heard it.He pressed his face into my hair and I smiled when he breathed me in.

“No.”I opened my eyes, focusing on my old sticker-covered dresser, then answered honestly, “Well, yes, but I don’t want you to worry about that.”

“I can smell the blood.”

My eyes widened.“Oh.”Well, shit.That changed things, didn’t it?“Are you okay?”I paused, then added, “Do you want to bite me?”

I cringed as the words left my lips.Obviouslyhe did; I’d seen his fangs.He’d bitten into his own lip to keep from biting me.

“Badly.”He chuckled, a mix of dark amusement and pain in the sound.“But I’m okay.It’s not a struggle I can’t handle.”He slipped his hand down my belly until his fingertips teased at my clit and I sucked in a breath.“Though I may have to refrain from burying my face between your thighs until you heal.”

A sound of disappointment slipped past my lips before I could stop it.

He reached further and cupped me, his middle finger pressing against my entrance.I whimpered and he chuckled again, the sound sinking into my skin and warming me from the inside out.“There are other ways to unravel you, sweet girl.”

My eyes widened, but before I could respond, he sank his finger inside me, the roughness of his skin rubbing against my tender flesh deliciously.

He growled, a deep, guttural sound low in his throat and I shivered.“I love your body, Jacqueline, the way it responds to me.”He drove his finger in and out of me slowly, and even after having such an earth-shattering orgasm just moments ago, another one began to build.“The sounds you make...”He added another finger and I groaned.“I feel like a fiend for those sounds.”

I knew exactly what he meant.

In our training sessions, the way he commanded me as he kicked my ass around the mat.

The way he could make my name sound like a prayer—or a reprimand.

And now, when we were naked and wrapped up in each other, his voice was a thick, sensual rumble, and the way my body responded to that tone was carnal.Heat gathered between my legs; my belly tightened with need.I opened my bent and folded legs, propping one up against his hips so he could maneuver his hand with more ease.

“Mm, that’s my girl,” he murmured, his lips brushing against my ear.

And oh, that praise.This man’s approval could undo me.

He added a second finger and I tipped my head back on a moan.

Vinny sucked in a breath and I froze as he leaned down, pressing his open mouth against my neck.His tongue flicked against my pulse and it sped in response.I’d exposed my throat to a vampire and now his mouth wasright there.

“Vinny,” I whispered.

He hummed against my throat, then the press of his fangs disappeared and he followed the line of my pulse with his tongue until he reached my ear.When he sucked my earlobe into his mouth, I shuddered.

“I won’t bite you until you beg for it.”

I gasped, but he silenced me with a kiss.

Then his hand twisted so he could thumb my clit, and he pulled back long enough to say, “Now, be a good girl and come for me again.”

So I did.

“I’ll see you tonight.”Vinny’s lips curved into a sexy smirk.“I’ll be the one waiting under the big tree with a thousand other people.”

I laughed and he chuckled, then disappeared down the hallway.

---