Page 64 of Cruelly Bitten
Although, it would be short-lived if he so much as looked at Ismerelda again.
Running a hand down my shirt, I faced the female in question and found her feline gaze watching me intently.
There was a hint of something in her features that I couldn’t quite define. Not fear or disgust, nor was it born of shock or surprise.
I tilted my head, curious. “You’re not afraid.” Not a question, but a statement. “But you’re staring at me strangely. Why?”
She said nothing for a long moment, making me want to remind her of our roles here. But in a very different way from how I’d just put Michael in his place.
I took a step forward, ready to begin a new lesson, when she said, “You just reminded me of the night we first met.”
“The night we first met?” I repeated, frowning.
Her lips curled a little. “Yes.”
“How did we meet?” I wasn’t sure why this mattered, but I found myself eager to know.
“You saved me from being gang-raped,” she replied, shocking the hell out of me.
“I what?” My brow furrowed. “That doesn’t sound like me at all.” I wasn’t a hero. I also usually avoided human interactions, leaving them up to their own devices whenever possible. “Why the hell did I do that?”
She laughed a little and shook her head. “Because you were hunting me and they were about to taint your intended meal.”
“Oh.” That sounded much more reasonable.
“But I wasn’t afraid of you,” she went on. “And that intrigued you.”
I stared at her.Of course. Because I saw the lioness in your gaze. The same one I’d noticed tonight.
“I already knew about vampires because of my brother,” she continued. “So I knew what you were, too. Or what I thought you were, anyway. Then I mentioned Ryder.”
I moved closer to the bed while I listened, enthralled by this encounter I had no memory of.
“And that changed everything,” she concluded.
“Because I didn’t want to potentially harm another royal’s property,” I surmised, aware of how I would handle a similar situation now.
It didn’t matter that I was older and therefore higher ranked in the bloodlines than Ryder. Altercations with other royals were time-consuming and bloody. I wouldn’t have wanted to risk something like that over a meal.
“Yet I obviously kept you.” I slid my hands into my pockets as I paused next to the bed, my thighs a mere inch away from the mattress. “So what happened next?”
“I told you about my connection to Damien and Ryder. And then I begged you to bite me.” Her cheeks reddened a bit with her words. “I wanted to know how it would feel.”
“And I obliged you?”
She snorted, the sound irking me less than before. “Barely. I think you took two pulls from my vein before you insisted that I drink from you to cure myself.”
“Why would I do that?”
She shrugged. “Because you were terrified of injuring me.”
“I see.” I must have been afraid of repercussions from Ryder. He’d turned her brother, making her essentially a relative to his family tree. He would have been quite protective of her.
Hell, he probably still was despite her being mine.
“Then you stayed with me for months while we waited for Ryder and Damien to return. It was a time before technology existed, so we didn’t have much choice.”
“I stayed with you?” That was surprising. Perhaps I’d wanted to discuss something with Ryder.
