Page 27 of Secret of the Vampire
“But that’s not enough to convince you otherwise.”
After a brief hesitation, she shook her head.
However, that tiny sign of indecision gave me hope.
I approached her slowly, giving her plenty of time to tell me to stay the hell away from her, and beyond grateful when she didn’t. Slowly, I lifted my hand to her upper arm and let my fingers trail down her silky sleeve. Twining our fingers together, I lifted our joined hands to my mouth and placed a soft kiss on the inside of her wrist.
Her lips parted on an intake of breath and her pulse sped up beneath my lips. Placing her hand flat against my chest, I stood absolutely still and reached out with everything I was, wrapping my very soul around her. I knew she sensed it when her wide eyes flew to mine. “I know you can feel me,” I told her. “Do I feel like something you need to be afraid of?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
The answer surprised me and caused me more pain than I was expecting to feel. “I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”
“Whatdoyou want from me, Alex?”
I knew the answer to that, but I didn’t know if she was ready to hear it. So, I said nothing.
Gods, she was so beautiful, looking up at me, her brown eyes wary behind the lenses of her glasses, her chest rising and falling with unsteady breaths. Images filled my head of this woman naked in my bed, her mahogany skin silky and warm beneath my hands and mouth. Dark nipples tipping the breasts I desperately wanted to feel pressed against my chest. Her full thighs spread wide so I could see how wet she was. How much she wanted me, too.
Something in my expression must’ve given away my thoughts, or maybe she’d forgotten her promise to stay out of my head, for I heard her breath catch in a quick inhale. And her eyes, so dark and mistrustful a moment before, began to burn bright with the same fire that was heating my blood.
The tip of her tongue wet her bottom lip, and I was lost.
Chapter 10
Kenya
Oh gods, what was happening?
Alex stared down at me, his eyes tracking every tiny movement I made. I was used to this kind of thing from vampires, whose senses were in overdrive and tended to pick up on stuff humans wouldn’t notice.
But I’d never before been hit with this level of intensity from someone who wasn’t one of us. The way he was looking at me made me wonder if this was how humans felt when they stared into our eyes and we bewitched them with our vampire mind games.
Yet, it wasn’t just his gaze holding me captive. His magic surrounded me…No. It was more than that. It was like his life force had left his body and everything that was Alex was now wrapped around me, like the spirit in those Anne Rice novels I read years ago.
Or like a lover.
I took a shuddering breath, and his scent filled my nose, coating the back of my throat and making my mouth water. His blood was the most delicious thing I’d ever smelled, only slightly muted by the body wash he showered with. I’d noticed this before, and I’d had to do everything in my power not to show this weakness to him.
But right now, the urge to lick the side of his throat so I could feel the pulse throbbing beneath my tongue was near overwhelming. My gums burned as my fangs elongated, aching to pierce through his skin to the warm blood beneath. My eyes fell from his perfect lips to the side of his throat, just beneath his hard jawline.
“Do it,” he told me in a husky voice.
Gods, I wanted to. Just a little taste…
“Go on, Kenya. It’s okay. Do it.”
With a helpless sound I couldn’t control, I stepped into him, his strong arms coming around me as he lowered his head to mine, his jaw rough against my cheek. My hands fisted in his coat and I did what I’d wanted to do for so long, flicking my tongue out quickly, tasting the salt of his tan skin before I ran it slowly along his pulse. It beat strong and steady, unlike my own, which was racing like I’d just outrun a pack of werewolves. Unable to resist, I scraped one fang over his skin, feeling his heartbeat with the sensitive tip but not breaking the skin.
Alex sucked in a breath and moaned as a shudder ran through his big body, and I felt an answering need low in my groin.
I’d never fed from a warlock before, and the thought frightened me. What would happen? Was the magic there in his blood? How would it affect me?
The thought sobered me instantly and I pulled away from the temptation of his throat before I did something I would regret. Witches were strictly forbidden to us. Well, at least they were before Killian mated with Lizzy. However, I had no idea what that meant for the rest of us; if it changed anything within our agreement with them or not. Without knowing for sure, I couldn’t take the chance. And besides, it wasn’t like I could feed from him and then wipe his memory like we did to the humans that came into the club. Witches weren’t so easily manipulated.
But before I could step completely out of his embrace, he caught me by the back of my neck and pulled my mouth to his.
His kiss was hard. Hungry. Like he wanted to devour me the only way he could. And he knew exactly how to do it, teasing my fangs with his tongue and nipping at my lips. My response was just as urgent, the lust for his blood swiftly changing to a starving hunger for his body. He tasted like whiskey and smelled like dark, honeyed wine, and I wanted him inside of me in every possible way.
