Page 60 of Love Bites
"So which blood type do you like best?" I asked Talon, even though I already knew the answer. I only wanted to distract him, really. It had been almost a week since his meeting with that witch, Puck. He'd told me what they'd discussed. The gist of it, anyway. I still got the feeling that he was holding something back. Mostly because he'd been tense all week. Now we were sharing a bottle of blood between us before he had to head out to work and I wanted to see him relax. We had so little time together.
Talon shot me a look. "Aside from your blood, you mean?"
I gave a small sigh, because really, it had been a long time since he'd bitten me. I missed it, and I was willing to bet that Talon did too. But he insisted that he wasn't going to drink from me again until the baby was born, not even a little bit. I told him that he was being ridiculous and that I could handle it, but he never budged. Not even when I was naked, needy and begging.
Distractedly, I rubbed the side of my neck where I wished Talon's teeth would be. "I might never let you drink from me again, you know, if you keep denying me. Give you a taste of your own medicine."
Talon set his glass down. Unlike me, he'd already drained most of it. Shifting his attention from the glass to me, he fixed me with his gaze. "So if I offered to bite you right now you'd say no?"
I said nothing, because even if I'd tried to say yes and back my claim up, the lie would have been obvious on my face. I simply wanted his teeth on me too damn much.
"That's what I thought." He smiled in a way that showed me his fangs.
I made myself look away, focusing on the glass of blood in my hand instead.
Stupid vampire.
I took a sip. Drinking blood was still weird, but it wasn't so bad once you got used to the taste. I'd take it over passing out and dying any day. Fortunately, I didn't feel the need to drink too often. Once a week or so. I could deal with that.
"Feeling okay?" Talon asked, his fingers playing with the hair in the nape of my neck. A shiver went down my spine. I wanted to feel those fingers in other places, but there wasn't enough time to fool around.
Who would have thought that being pregnant would make me horny?
I'd certainly never felt this needy before.
"I'm fine," I made myself say.I'd feel even better with your dick up my ass.That was the part I didn't say. "How about you, though?" I turned the topic around. "You've been kind of... I can tell that you're worried about something."
Talon's fingers stilled. "It's nothing for you to worry about."
"Isn't it? Because I'd really like you to trust me with whatever's troubling you."
"It's a vampire thing." Talon retracted his hand. Damn it.
"Can you at least try to explain?"
Talon considered this for a moment. "Have you ever found yourself wishing that you could quit your job?"
"Loads of times. That's not a vampire thing."
"No, but say your job involves killing people without asking any questions why. And that you can't quit because your employer can control your mind."
Okay, now it sounded more like a vampire thing.
"I didn't know that was troubling you so much." And now I felt stupid for not realizing sooner. Of course Talon didn't want to go out there to kill people. He wasn't the ice-cold killer he liked to pretend he was. I'd already established that fact.
"It didn't used to trouble me," Talon said without any hint of remorse. "And now it's troubling me for the wrong reasons."
"The wrong reasons?" I studied Talon's profile, wondering how I might help him and coming up short.
"I've been told I'm not human enough to escape my sire's clutches. I can't really argue with that. If I'm told to end someone's life, I will do it and feel nothing. That's not human."
"But you don't do it because you want to," I pointed out.
"No, I didn'twantto join the kill squad." Talon touched his scar on his cheek, and my eyes lingered on it. One day he'd have to tell me how he got it. If he even remembered. Could vampires get scarred? Before I could ask, Talon spoke again. "How can you be okay with knowing what I do when I leave here each night?"
"I try not to think about it," I said, even though this wasn't completely true. I told myself that Talon wasn't a killer, not really, but at the same time, I knew that it was my privilege to pretend because he'd never hurtme. Other people weren't so lucky. And there was a part of me, a part I'd never admit to, that kind of liked it. I didn't want to confess to this, but knowing what he did to others, what he was capable of, made the way he treated me that much sweeter. It made me feel special. But I didn't like to investigate those feelings and if you ever asked me, I would lie.
The truth was, I liked being this beast's Belle.
