Page 20 of A Vampire for Christmas
I swore, when starting this journey, to make this a holiday worth celebrating. It may not be with the tree and snacks and large window envisioned, but it’s still capable of being something worth remembering.
Which is why I turn my head farther into the pillow, baring more of my neck. He takes the invitation with a press of his lips to my pulse, followed by a lick as his fingers caress the bottoms of my breasts.
“When did you last eat?” I find myself asking, but not in distress.
“A few days ago.”
Being fed on seems like it’d be an experience. I’m slightly curious to know if the initial act of his teeth sliding into my skin would sting. Some movies depict it being pleasurable, and maybe they got their information from the actual source at some point in history.
It’s one thing to believe Lucian’s safe—to curl up beside him in bed and trust that the vampire I’ve known for a day won’t harm me. It’s another thing entirely to offer myself up as his snack. Learning Santa was real would have been easier to process.
Lucian’s lips travel to my ear. “Your thoughts are loud. Careful, little human.” It’s a warning and an invitation all rolled into one. I can’t help but roll over to face him and edge closer to that danger.
It’s now impossible to ignore. I’m willingly lying in his man’s arms, close enough to spot the individual flecks of red that flare within his midnight eyes. His touch slides from my stomach to my back and all the way up until reaching the base of my neck. I’m completely at his mercy.
“Then what am I thinking?” I challenge, arching into him.
“What it’s like to be bitten.”
His two incisor fangs grow, sliding from his gums until lightly prodding his bottom lip, which he parts to make room for.
My hand, previously lying limp, comes up between us but pauses near my own mouth instead of his. I want to touch him again, but the more I do, the less likely it is I’ll be able to stop myself from begging to feel him in other ways.
“Does it hurt?”
“Depends how I bite. If I sink them in and drink fast, yes.” His head jerks down until a fang abruptly slides against my finger. Any harder and the skin would have broken, and based on his expression, that’s what he was going for. “If I slide in slowly, gently breaking the skin and giving you time to adjust,then no more than the initial prick.” He dips again, this time slowly sliding his teeth along my finger.
“They’re really cool.”
He tilts his head back. “Cool?”
“Interesting. Seeing your teeth grow is something humans obviously don’t do, so yeah, cool. Intriguing. Interesting.”
His mouth stretches into a grin as he flips me onto my back and kneels between my thighs, slowly inching down my body. My nipples tighten in response. “Are you scared?”
Even as my heart races against his own, I shake my head. “I trust you.”
“That’s a very dangerous thing. How do you know this isn’t some ploy?”
“I don’t. I’m hoping it’s not. If you wanted to hurt me, you’d have already done it. If you were going to feed without permission, you’d have done that, too.”
A throaty chuckle fills the room before he lifts his head, revealing the brightest crimson eyes I’ve yet to see on him. “Believe me,” he grates, “it isn’t without difficulty.”
His cockiness, his tone, his eyes make it believable.
“What do I smell like?”
His nose drags along the base of the hoodie, where it rests on my thighs. His face perilously close to the heat between my legs—and the scent he’s surely catching. “Everything I want. Everything I crave. Everything I desire to make mine.”
That wasn’t a proper answer. Yet, it doesn’t stop a full-body shiver from consuming me—much to his own amusement as he tilts his head again. Red and black mingle like a dark version of Christmas as he inches his way back up my body, his hands dragging the sweater up to my hips.
“You smell like a temptation I won’t hold back from for much longer.”
“That sounds like a threat.”
“It’s a promise.”
His tongue drags over the strip of skin he’s revealed. My hips, on their own accord, arch off the bed, chasing the high. The drugged sensation that is his tongue lapping back and forth, his sharp inhale chilling the same area before his exhale warms it, forever keeping me on edge.
