Page 12 of Sleepless Beauties
“You have no choice,” Royale echoes absently before turning his back on me and walking away.
“I’m a fucking human!” I screech.
In the blink of an eye he’s on me. His hand presses forcefully against my mouth as I’m slammed into the wall.
“Do not,” his pretty grey eyes blaze into a darker, more ominous color before he finishes, “make me turn you.”
His breath fans over me in a rush of heat that seems to burn my cheeks as his words sink in.
They truly could. They like to preach that they’re all about consent, that the euphoria of feeding is enough to convince any human. But my sister is —was— walking proof that consent isn’t really their style.
I stare at the monster who is pressed against me so hard that I can feel every part of him.
He really could turn me right now, and his life would be all the easier for it.
He owns me now.
The force of his hand lowers slowly, but he keeps his forearm pressed into my chest for so long the squeal of hinges turning revives a real fear within my heart. My attention darts to the door across from mine.
Fuck. My old neighbor, Miss Croot.
The vampire doesn’t even look her way but I know, I just know she’ll ask and prod and berate me with her endless questions if she’s given the chance.
So I don’t give her that chance.
I shove against his strength and with the little space I do gain, I lunge into it. I slam my lips to his so hard that my teeth sink into my lips with the taste of copper filling my mouth.
And his.
The groan that leaves him is barely released as he sucks hard against my lower lip, swirling his tongue across my blood, my mouth… and my tongue. He kisses me deeper, it’s a wanting caress that edges on violent seduction. My lashes flutter and I fall heart and soul into the calming and all-consuming sensation he provides with just a press of his lips to mine.
It’s like floating. Like flying. Like dying. It’s like all three rolled into one.
I faintly hear a mumble from an old woman, but I’ve forgotten her name. I’ve forgotten my own existence.
A claiming hand pushes through my hair and when it twists through my locks, my entire head flings to one side with an audible crack that might have just killed me.
Maybe it did.
But the pleasure that’s surging through my mind and body is still pulsing deeper and deeper. A slickness glides across the side of my throat. Warm breath tingles across my flesh. One inhale. Two. Three...
And then he releases me.
He steps back one foot after the other until far too much space separates me from the intoxicating man I want to give myself entirely to.
“Why’d you stop?” I blink through a haze of confusion as his hooded gaze slices into me.
He assesses me from my toes and leggings, he pauses on the mystery stain at boob level on my jersey and then tops it off with the slight tilt at the bun that’s tied messily atop my head. There’s a lost look in his gaze.
I don’t know what it is. Maybe he’s seeing the train wreck in all its glory and is currently second guessing the identical part of ‘identical twins’.
“Listen to Prey. Do your fooking job. And maybe, just maybe you won’t die.” His shining black shoes swivel and he storms away from me. He vanishes with speed in a matter of half a second.
My throat is painfully dry as I swallow and continue to stare into the emptiness of the hall. I lean there for so long a prodding of footsteps steals my thoughts, and there’s the oblivious culprit now.
“New boyfriend, Kira? He’s a handsome one, that one. And such a fine, fine suit! You know, I’ve heard of sugar daddies, I’m not completely out of the loop. You could tell me if you needed someone to talk to. I know you so rarely get visitors, I’m a friend if you need me.” Miss Croot’s big brown eyes look up at me as she holds her mail in her left hand and the pink leash of her old dingy white poodle in the other.
The poodle looks up at me in pity, as if to say she gets this shit all the time.
