Page 40 of Blood and Magic
When we got to my bedroom, he helped me to my bed, and I sat on the edge, taking a deep breath of his clean, masculine scent mixed with something richer and deeper, the same thing I’d smelled during our brief tryst. It soothed the headache, breaking up the tension with its heady notes and calm, steadying force.
“What can I do? Do you need anything?”
Mill knelt in front of me and slipped my house slippers off my feet, setting them to the right before looking up at me with mesmerizing eyes. Staring down at his big body in between my legs unwound the tension in my lower stomach, making me clench my thighs together to alleviate some of the strain. Being close to him evened out my pulse. It steadied the rhythm in my chest with confusing clarity.
“You’re so beautiful,” I said, running my knuckles down his cheek, memorizing the dip in his bone structure.
He stared at me like I was imaginary, like I might disintegrate any second.
“You’re clearly having a fever hallucination.”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve thought that ever since I’ve known you.”
His features softened. He darted his eyes back and forth between mine, perhaps trying to see if I was lying. I wasn’t.
Without thinking about it, I leaned forward and kissed him, chastely at first, simply testing to see if he would accept it. But he moaned and leaned into the touch, and it turned hungry. He opened his mouth, allowing my tongue to press inside, and when it brushed against his, a rush of excitement replaced the trepidation in my bones.
He growled and pushed me on the bed, crawling on top of me, his lips eager for as much as they could get. Like the time at the river, the energy quickly grew untamed, my fingers scraping into his hair as he bit my mouth, yanking and sucking like he wanted to consume as much of me as he could. My cunt clenched, suddenly so insatiable and wanton for more.
I spread my legs so he could settle his pelvis in between them, his body writhing on top of me, mine bucking in response. When I rubbed up against that hard strain in his jeans, I gasped into his mouth, fiery excitement bursting in my blood. I wanted to press myself against him until I came. I wanted him to break me apart and put me back together again, a new woman.
Long forgotten were the aches and pains of whatever sickness this was. He made it better. Being with him, touching him, kissing him made it all disappear. Suddenly, the world ceased to exist, it was just him and me and?—
A sharp pain erupted through my lips and down my spine, a sharp metal taste coating my tongue.
Startled, I pulled away from him and touched my mouth. He’d bit me hard enough to draw blood, and I stared at my fingers when they came away crimson and wet.
Every survival instinct I had blared to life, urging me to get away from him as quickly as possible. The dream came back, the one where his eyes turned pitch and he used pointed fangs to tear my throat out, bleeding me dry.
Vermillion’s wide eyes and stunned expression should have had me pushing him away. Instead, another instinct took over, more primal and inhuman than anything I’d ever experienced. I pushed my bloody fingers in between his lips as I licked the small wound on my mouth. He focused on the movement, wrapping his tongue around my digits to suck them clean.
Hot, needy arousal shot through me in a delicious display of molecular fireworks, straight down to the ache between my legs. I rocked against his pelvis, rubbing the apex of my pussy against the thick length of his cock. He was so perfect, so muscular and glorious, and I moaned at all the ricochets of nerves coursing through my body.
“Yes,” I purred when he lapped at every drop of liquid, and when he went back to my mouth, he sucked the wound, drawing my essence out of me. It stung, but combined with the way he rolled against me, I wanted more. I wanted him to hold me down and?—
“No.” He snarled and shot off the bed, backing away from me until he was pinned up against the far wall. His eyes seemed to have turned that same dark shade of obsidian from my nightmares, but that must have been his dilated pupils.
“What?” I rushed to sit up, a cold void moving in to replace the vibrant warmth of his body. “What’s wrong?”
He clenched his eyes shut, curled his fingers into fists, and shook with the fury of his restraint. He opened his mouth and shut it a few times before ultimately croaking, “I gotta go.”
Then, he hustled out of my room and left me alone—shaking, bothered, and confused.
As soon as he shut the door behind him, my headache returned with a vengeance, and I shivered. But the ache between my legs hadn’t gone away. No, if anything, it had gotten painstakingly worse. I stared at my ceiling and pressed my palms into my eyes, trying to breathe down the pounding behind them. Minutes ticked by like decades, but eventually, I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I grabbed my laptop and vibrator, hoping that buzzing one out might alleviate the body aches. At least it would help me sleep.
CHAPTER 12
Vermillion
The taste of her blood roared in my mouth like the first sip of water after a hard workout. I wanted to tear into her and devour every last drop of it. My wolf howled with delight, egging me on, and if I didn’t get off her when I had, I probably would have slaughtered her right there on the mattress.
I wanted to. The urge to gorge myself on her still lingered on my tongue as I sat in my room next door, cowering in a corner with my knees to my chest and my hands curled into fists on the floor.
Take her, my inner monster growled. Consume her. Mark her. Mine. Mine. Mine.
I grabbed my hair and yanked as hard as I could, using the pain to bring myself back to reality.
