Page 5 of Kings
“It’s probably better if you ask him. Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about him. How are you doing?”
“As fine as I can be, considering I know nothing about what’s wrong with me.”
He gave her an apologetic smile, but she could tell he wasn’t sorry enough to tell her the truth. “We’re just trying to keep you safe, Ella.”
“So I’ve gathered.”
Things were finally starting to be okay, aside from her conflicted feelings about the men she’d been so fiercely drawn to. The bullying had largely ceased, and Marissa was keeping her distance. She’d even gotten on good terms with some of Avery’s other friends, and she was finally starting to catch up in her classes. The knowledge that it all could come crashing down in an instant made it impossible to enjoy any of it.
“There’s something else,” he said quietly.
Ella looked up at him, waiting for him to continue. There was hesitation in his gaze that she’d never seen there before. “What is it?”
“I want you to mark me.”
She blinked, convinced she’d heard him wrong. “I’m sorry…what?”
“Axel shouldn’t be the only one who gets to have fun,” he said with a smirk. “I don’t like the idea of him being bound to you in a way I’m not.”
“So this is about your silly competition.”
“That’s part of it,” he confessed, sweeping her hair behind her shoulder to reveal her neck. The way his gaze lingered on her pale flesh made her throat feel vulnerable, and a familiar longing stirred within her core. “But I told you, I want more than just this ring to prove who I am to you. I want you to be my mate, Ella, and I want to mark you so the whole world knows it.”
“You do?” she asked breathlessly. She was so used to any attachment to her being a stigma most were unwilling to bear, and even though she knew Sterling had to keep his distance for reasons far more serious than social acceptability, it still wasn’t doing any wonders for her self-esteem.
“Of course. And if you biting me is part of that, then I want that, too,” he said, shrugging. “I don’t want any barriers between us.”
“And yet, you won’t tell me the truth about what I am.”
He gave her a knowing look. “In time, El. I promise.”
The nickname made her swoon in ways she should have been beyond, but she turned into an infatuated schoolgirl in his presence. That hadn’t changed, and it didn’t seem like it would anytime soon.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” he answered, leaning in to kiss her. Her lips parted instinctively to receive his tongue, and by the time he’d finally broken the kiss, she forgot all about why she’d been upset with him in the first place.
“What if people know?” she asked, thinking back to what he’d said about the change in Axel’s scent.
“They’ll just think we’re mating a lot,” he said with a sly grin. “I’m more than fine with that.”
Ella’s cheeks grew hot and she looked away. When his fingertips brushed across the side of her throat, she shivered.
He was serious. He really wanted to mark her, and he was going to do ithere.Despite the fact that the roses were their only audience, they were still outside and there was something about it that felt scandalous, even though she knew a mating bite didn’t have to come in the throes of sex.
“So, who goes first?” she asked, her voice strained with nervousness.
Bishop’s answer was to pull his collar away from his neck, baring his throat for her. Her heart pounded at the thought of biting him the way she had Axel. It was just something that had come over her in the moment, and now it felt anything but natural.
Nonetheless, she leaned in and tried to still the butterflies in her stomach. His scent immediately soothed her anxiety and she forgot about where they were or who might be around. There was only him and her, and as she pressed her lips to his neck, the bond she’d felt with him back at the cabin rose to the surface.
She felt the same with Axel, even now, which made his absence all the more torturous. She longed to feel tethered to someone who wouldn’t leave. And maybe it was in spite of her common sense, but she did trust Bishop.
When her fangs sank into his flesh, his muscles tensed, but he kept her in his arms, his fingers playing in her tresses. His breath hitched and the sigh he released as her tongue passed over the droplets of blood beading at the surface of his skin was far from pained.
Ella pulled away in a daze, and when she met his eyes, they were full of lust she recognized all too well. Bishop was usually so cautious and gentle, so when he took her into his arms and crushed her to his chest, it came as a welcome surprise.
Arousal bloomed within her as he covered her neck in ravenous kisses, hard enough to leave bruises. She melted in his arms, every inch of her on fire, but this time, it was a controlled burn, intense but pleasurable. It dulled the pain when his fangs sank into her neck, but even that was its own kind of delight.
