Page 32 of Bitten By Mr. Darcy
She sighed, her eyes closed.
His hands slid down her face to her neck, and then to her shoulders, and then over her arms, and then she was in his arms and they were kissing again, deep and sweet kisses that made her feel as if she were soaring. It was so nice to be this close to him.
“Have you bitten anyone else recently?” she asked.
He brushed at her neck with his fingertips. “Of course not. Only you, Elizabeth.”
“But you’ll have to, will you not? How often do you need blood?”
“I can go some time without it,” he said. “And I have been gorging myself on you, truly, taking much more than I need. I have little need to feed for maybe a month now.”
“So, then you won’t? Bite anyone else, I mean?”
“I won’t,” he said. “But you should know it isn’t always the way it is with us. Sometimes, there is no attraction involved, no romance. Sometimes, it is just to quench my thirst. You needn’t be jealous in those cases, hmm?”
“I’m not jealous,” she whispered. But she was.
“I wish to bite you now, Elizabeth,” he said in a gravelly voice.
“Oh, yes, please,” she moaned. “I do want you to, even though you said you wouldn’t.”
“Ihavesaid that I would not,” he muttered. He kissed her again, a searing kiss. “But I…” He looked into her eyes. “No, no. I would not risk you.”
“No,” she said, breathless. “I do not wish to be risked.” She did not want to die, of course.
They only searched each other’s expressions for the next few moments.
Finally, she said, “Could you not only take a small taste, then?”
“The bond should protect you,” he said in a guttural voice. “I must believe that I shall not harm you. I must believe it.”
And then he ducked his mouth down to her neck and bit her, and she cried out.
It was bliss.
It made her warm all over, but also cool all over. It made her swell and undulate, and it made sensitive parts of her more sensitive. But the best of all was thebond. When he had bitten her before, she had not been bonded to him, and now, she could feel him, and she felt how much he enjoyed her, how delicious she was to him, how precious, how treasured. Had anyone ever desired her in this way before, had anyone ever delighted in her to this degree?
He wished to possess her; she wanted nothing but to belong to him.
And as he drank and the bond flared, for those moments, it was all true. She was his. He took control of her entirely.
He removed his teeth rather quickly. He had bitten her for much longer times, had much more of her blood in the past. This time, though, she felt in the bond that he wished to be careful with her, and that he knew that the times before, she had needed to sleep away half the day because he had not been able to control himself from taking so much. He lapped at the fang wounds on her neck and she could feel them knitting closed.
Then he planted kisses on her clavicle. “You’re exquisite,” he told her again. “You’re exactly what a pretty little human girl should be. You’re the epitome of beauty and sweetness, and your blood is wondrous. I cannot get enough of you.”
She wriggled against him, pressing her body into his, and he clutched her to him.
“You should likely go back to sleep,” he breathed. “But I did control myself better now with the bond, so that bodes well for us, my sweet one.”
“Does it?” she said. “Because we can do it again? Because you can come to me in the night more often? Drink from me more often?”
“Yes, I think so,” he said, giving her another soft kiss on the lips. “Yes, I wish to do exactly that.”
CHAPTER NINE
HE DID NOTcome to her every night, though she would have welcomed him if he had.
It was not even every other night, but it was easily every third night, and he came two nights in a row before the Netherfield Ball.
