Page 78 of The Monster of Hotel No. 7
I hiss between my teeth as he lifts his hand between us, drawing my focus.
Surprise jolts through me, waking me more, like cocaine paste injected into my veins.
Blood.
Viscous and red, seeping into the swirl of his fingerprint.
Oh, god.
I’m bleeding.That’s why I can’t see properly.
Panic lurches through me and I am no longer half-awake. I scramble upright, kicking at the damp sheets around my body. Sullen releases me and I dive over him, sliding along his lap before my bare soles hit the cool hardwoods of the Attic. I move so quickly I’m dizzy, my limbs tingling with a warning as my body feels faint, like I am on the verge of blacking out. More spots pop in front of my eyes as I get to the dresser, slamming my hands down on the wooden surface and leaning in, afraid to look but compelled to see.
I suck in a breath at the sight of a thick line of blood smeared at the corner of my eye, oozing a slow red path down the line of my nose.
“What the fuck?” I whisper it at the same time I catch sight of my throat, a purple and green bruise where Sullen bit me, but the skin there glistens, like it is coated in ointment. I remember his words, about wounds becoming infected, and for one brief moment I am not panicking. A flood of warmth surges through me, thinking of him doing what he said and taking care of me while I slept, probably finding a first aid kit somewhere in the Attic.Maudeseems to have thought of everything.
But when I lift my eyes back to my reflection, blue irises edged out by blown pupils, I see the blood crawling along my face again and a tang of iron is bright on my tongue, and I am positive I am going to collapse.
My knees tremble beneath me, a dizziness flooding through my bloodstream and causing my chin to tilt downward, lolling toward my chest. Fuck,fuck.I’m going to faint.
I can no longer see and it isn’t the blood; it’s my blood pressure dropping. My palms are clammy and the blood is blurring my gaze and now that I know why, I feel worse, sick and waning, and—
Sullen’s arm bands around my waist.
I didn’t even notice him move, the way everything dims around me. But I do notice when his hand grips my throat, thumb pressing against the side of my neck as he lifts my head.
I blink, my body resting into his own, so much bigger than me, comforting, too, in this moment when I feel like I’m holding onto consciousness with a single thread.
I catch my gaze in the mirror, him looming over me, but only for a second before he dips his chin, and he forces me to arch mine. We are staring at one another upside down, his hand keeping my head tilted back, his arm wrapped tight around me and pulling me into his warmth.
Then he leans closer, bending over me, and I feel his tongue along my skin, just beneath my eye. He is cleaning the blood from my face.
A surge of adrenaline keeps me awake as I reach up with shaky fingers, curving them around his forearm, the one threaded over my chest, his hand still gripping my throat.
He licks me again, my eyes closed, skin warm where his tongue is, then cold as the air hits my flesh. A soft moan leaves his lips when he pulls back, only to press his mouth to the tip of my ear.
“You were whimpering in your sleep. I thought it was because I was trying to…touch you.”
My legs feel boneless with those words; my deepest fantasy. My longed-for dream; Sullen taking advantage of me when I’m dreaming, lost in reverie, coming awake to him buried inside me, his hand over my mouth so I don’t scream.
“But you started shaking. I thought I was doing something wrong. I wasn’t inside you, but I was trying to make you… feel good.” His mouth dances along my skin, his arm barred hard around my body, the other clamped over my throat.
I feel him growing hard behind me, his erection pressing into my back. He feels sobig,and suddenly, I don’t care I was apparently digging at my eye in my sleep. I don’t care he just tasted my blood. I amaliveagain, no longer on the verge of fainting.
I want him more.
I want him now.
“You were dreaming, though, weren’t you?” There is a marveling sort of tenderness in his throaty voice, and he must have seen from my reaction in the mirror I didn’t intentionally hurt myself. “What was it, Little Sun?”
But before I can answer him, he pulls back and spins me around so easily, like I am his doll. My eyes flash open and I can see perfectly again as my back hits the dresser and he catches me with both of his hands wrapped around each of my wrists.
He lifts my right hand between us, my fingers slightly curled as he twists my wrist, my palms up.
There it is.
Blood beneath my index and middle fingers.
