Page 24 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood
Wait. Would he bite her during sex? The idea made Aury go all warm between her legs, and that seemed wrong, but—
* * * *
Axel didn’t want Aury dwelling on the idea of being bitten — not yet. Better to steer the conversation back to her friend.
“Whom have you been feeding, young Ruby?” Axel asked.
There’d been nothing in her social media feeds or private messages to hint at her being a shifter, or having a dalliance with a vampire. However, her early precociousness — the confidence, the appetite — and her unapologetic enjoyment of sex as an adult, tracked perfectly now. In hindsight, it was textbook predatory shifter behavior.
She shook her head. “Someone who can help me politically, once I’m ready to run for office. It’s nothing romantic, and he’s aware of that. I’m a feed-and-fuck, and he knows what the payment for that will eventually be.”
Ruby looked back to Aury, her expression serious. “You won’t be able to feed him often. He’ll have to feed from others, and that often includes fucking them.”
How often she could feed him remained to be seen, but he needed to ease concerns about him being sexually active with others while he courted his Aurélie.
“The young leopard I brought to feed from is only here as a blood source and a daytime guard,” he told Ruby, and then turned to Aurélie.
“While feeding and sex is often closely intertwined for my kind, it doesn’t have to be, for me. I don’t gain power from sex,as some vampires do. Tariq, the young man I brought with me, is not a fan of sex with men. There were men and women I could’ve paid to come with me who’d have gladly offered sex while I fed from them, but I opted for Tariq.”
Tariq was also freshly out of the military, making him an excellent guard. He’d be going to work for the police in a few months, but he was free to travel now, so it had worked out to hire him for the trip.
Aury’s mind was spinning from too much rapid-fire input — her best friend an eagle shifter, the prospects of being penetrated by vampire fangs during sex, and now the disturbing imagery of Axel fucking both men and women like some boring-ass, fake-moans porn with harsh lighting, sad élan, and zero panache that he wished he hadn’t seen in her brain.
She’d been given too much information in the space of a few hours, and even her brilliant mind needed time to process it.
“Aury is tired,” he told Ruby. “A soak in a tub, possibly with wine, followed by sleep, will do her a world of good. She’s eaten, and she took some aspirin with her meal.”
Ruby nodded. “I’ll see to it. I assume she won’t see you again until sundown tomorrow?”
“Only if she wishes to. I’ve waited for her to initiate another rendezvous, and she has yet to do so. It should be her choice, whether she wants to see me again. Or not.”
And if she chosenotto, he’d promised not to lie to her, not to tamper with her mind, and he wouldn’t risk another suggestion.
But that didn’t mean he’d accept her decision.
He’d find another way to make her want him. His honor wouldn’t let him break his word, but a vampire without morals had endless options.
“I don’t know what to suggest, since you don’t eat,” his Aurélie told him. “I’d love to sit and talk, somewhere.”
A wave of relief swept through him. She’d absorbed a dozen reality-shattering truths tonight: rewritten memories and the validity of a nightmare, telepathing and an oath to make magic undeniably real, andmore, topped off by a vampire who might bite during sex — a dark, tempting cherry capping off a provocative denouement.
He and Ruby had ripped holes in the fabric of Aurélie’s world. Most mortals would’ve broken under the weight of what she’d learned tonight, and she wanted to talk.
But reminding her of all that would be a bad call, so he merely told her, “A quiet bar would work, since I can drink socially. If you don’t have one in mind, tell me where and when to pick you up. You can let me know where we’re going at that time.” He wanted her to be comfortable, so she should pick the place.
Aurélie looked to Ruby. “Are you okay with him picking me up here? I’m not ready to introduce him to Maman and Papa yet.”
“Yes.” Ruby looked back to Axel. “That’s assuming you’re here with Marco’s permission.”
No way in hell was she going to knowingly defy the Master Vampire’s edicts. Smart girl.
“I am.”
She nodded, crossed her arms, and then let them drop to her sides. “I’ll open some wine and take the cover off the hot tub, so ya’ll can say your goodbyes.”
When she was gone, Aury noted, “You’re so scary, my best friend, who’s an eagle shifter, has heard of you from across the ocean?”
He didn’t want to put terrifying images in her head again, but it was the simplest explanation. “It’s the spider thing.”
