Page 59 of Trapped for Her Blood
“That’s not the very worst part.” I look to the side.
She reaches up and softly strokes my clenched jaw, loosening it. “You don’t need to say more, if you don’t want to.”
I nod against her hand, and stay looking away. “Each time I woke with her blood in my throat I was…stiff. Ready and wanting to fuck—to fuckher.” I shake my head vigorously wanting to deny the memory or banish it forever.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she says softly. “You couldn’t help it.”
I turn back to face her and my heart nearly explodes when I see her eyes. She’s not disgusted with me. She understands and forgives me. She makes me want to forgive myself for what I felt when that vampire witch fed me.
“Is that how vampires are made?” she asks softly. “They do it by feeding humans their blood? Is that why I looked like a vampire after drinking from Zuben and now from you?” She shakes her head. “Never mind. Finish your story. This isn’t about me.”
Unable to resist any longer, I cup her face in my hands. “I don’t know why you have the power to give the illusion of a vampire. You are very mysterious. And I don’t have the full knowledge about how vampires are made, either.
“But I saw her try and fail on the others. And so I assume she followed the same process with me. She drank from me multiple times, drank until I had no blood left, long after I was unconscious.
“Then she fed me. She repeated this over and over until I no longer fell asleep when she fed, until I waseagerto take her vein, until I could no longer resist her.” My eyes feel the pinch of tears although I know none will come. Not while I am in this form.
But it’s Ember’s tears that spill over, small trails escaping to soak her soft skin. I brush them off with my thumbs, both of my hands cradling her head; I’m fighting to hold myself back.
“It’s okay to cry,” she says softly through her tears. “Let yourself go.”
“I am crying,” I tell her while looking deep into her eyes. “I can’t shed physical tears, but still feel them.”
She nods, and then, as I still hold her face in my hands, she shifts, moving slowly from her cross-legged position to kneel, and she reaches up to cup my cheek in her tiny hand.
In her eyes, I can see my past, but also my future. In her eyes I see the possibility of happiness in my life again. This must be magic. Nothing else could explain the feelings rising inside me. Deep feelings. Desire yes, but so, so much more.
Her face tips up toward mine, and moving at what feels like the speed of a glacier, I bend my neck, slowly letting our lips drift closer together.
Our mouths finally touch, and a spectacular shock traces through me—one that steals all my senses at once, roaring through me with the power of a mountain waterfall in spring.
We still have not yet really kissed, our lips have barely met, but pleasure and joy overtake me—combined with something else I can’t name.
No, I can name it. It’s hope.
Cupping the back of her head, I kiss her, trying to be gentle, trying not to take from her all that I want—and so badly need.
Her fingers thread through my hair, still damp from our swim, and tingling tendrils of pleasure race out from every tiny place on my scalp her small fingers touch.
As our kiss deepens, one of her hands drifts lower onto my chest, her fingers tracing the brand of my clan yet again, and reality sinks in, reminding me who I am and bringing deep regret to invade the bubble of happiness we created.
I know where this gentle kissing and touching is headed. And it’s somewhere I cannot go.
I pull back. “Sorry.”
Disappointment washes over her face, but she smiles and nods. “You still miss her too much.”
I shake my head. “I miss her. Yes. I will always miss her and love her, but that isn’t why… That’s not why I stopped.”
Her head tips to the side, and I can see in her eyes that I’ve hurt her feelings.
“Little one,” I say, stroking her cheek. “Please know that my desire for you is as powerful as a river in springtime, as intoxicating as the strongest liquor, as violent as a lightening strike.”
She drags in a ragged breath. “Then why?”
Avoiding the real reason, I offer one that she might accept. “Because I’m too big for you.” My cock throbs at the thought. “Because if we took this to it’s inevitable conclusion, I’d hurt you.”
Chapter Eighteen
