Page 42 of Discovery of the Vampire
She glared up at me defiantly, wrapping her arms around herself against the cold that I didn't even fucking think about before I dragged her out here. "It's none of your business what I do or who I dance with, Brogan. You made it pretty clear you don't want anything to do with me."
"Bullshit," I growled, leaning in closer until our faces were only inches apart. Her scent was driving me wild, desire ripping through my gut. "You know damn well that's not true, no matter what I said. I just…I can't fucking think straight when you're around."
"Maybe you should have considered that before you accused me of putting a love spell on you and kicking me out," she hissed back at me. “Before you completely ignored me at the club like I wasn’t even there and slammed the door in my face.”
My jaw clenched as I fought back the wave of shame that crashed over me, beating me down. She was right. I had accused her of that, even though deep down I knew it wasn't true. I’d heard her calling me, and I’d run like a fucking coward. This thing between us, this unrelenting need that consumed me—it wasn't magic. It was completely real. And it scared the ever-loving shit out of me.
"I'm sorry," I gritted out between clenched teeth, the apology feeling foreign on my tongue, even as I leaned in, running the tip of my nose along her bared throat. Unable to help myself, I tasted her salty skin. Her pulse beat wildly against the tip of my tongue, only winding me up more. "I shouldn't have said that. And I shouldn’t have ignored you. I just...you're in my fucking blood. And I don't know which way is up half the time."
She was intoxicating, making my head spin and my body ache. I wanted to devour her, to claim her, mark her as mine for all the world to see.
But even as unbridled lust pulsed through me, something within me screamed at me to stop. This was wrong.Iwas wrong for wanting her like this. It was too much. Too consuming. Uncontrollable.
Lust is a sin. Desire is a weakness. Control yourself or be damned.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the insidious whispers. But they only grew louder, mingling with the pounding of her heart and the rush of her blood through her veins.
"Brogan…" Her breath ghosted along the skin of my cheek. She wanted me too. I could smell the sweet musk of her desire. Feel the way she trembled against me.
"I can't...I shouldn't..." I choked out, my hands clenching into fists against the brick wall, but I couldn't force myself to back away. "You don't know what you do to me. The things I want to do to you..." I couldn't even say it out loud.
My entire body shook with the effort it took not to grab her and take what I so desperately craved, my fangs throbbing in time with Esme's racing pulse. Every instinct I had screamed at me to sink my teeth into her soft flesh, to drink deep and lose myself in her intoxicating essence. But I couldn't. Iwouldn't.
But fucking hell, I wanted her.
She was MINE.
"Esme, I..." My voice came out strangled. "We can't do this.Ican't do this."
No. I needed to remember what she was. She was a witch. Abruja. Her soul was damned.
Ahh…I breathed in through my nose and out my mouth.
But so was mine.
I squeezed my eyes shut, images of fire and brimstone flashing behind my eyelids. Sinners burning for eternity. Witchcraft was evil. A perversion. And my feelings for her were sinful.
But Ifuckingwanted her. I did. God help me, I did. And that only made it worse. Mademeworse. An abomination in the eyes of the Lord.
I almost laughed at how hypocritical I sounded. If she was all those things, then what the hell was I?
Yet those whispers from my past, the ones that had controlled me for so long, grew louder and louder until they were an incoherent roar in my head.
The wind shifted, and suddenly they were drowned out by something even more powerful than my shame—Esme's scent and the wild beat of her pulse beneath the delicate skin of her throat. It was a call I couldn't ignore, not anymore.
Fuck.I was damned either way, caught between my desire and my disgrace, with no way out.
And I wasso thirsty…
With a groan of surrender, I bent my head and pressed my cold lips to the warm hollow of her throat as my hands slid down the wall to grip either side of her head. Her breath caught. Her pulse skipped a beat beneath my thumbs before it raced even faster than before. My fangs elongated, the back of my throat burning with thirst as I whispered, "I'm sorry." Then I reared back and struck, breaking the skin easily, moaning with exhilaration as her thick blood flooded my mouth and throat. I swallowed hard, the flavor even more tantalizing than I remembered, a wild mix of red-hot spice and honeyed sweetness. I drank deeply, greedily, my hands fisting in her hair as her fingers gripped the fabric of my shirt.
She tasted of dark, forbidden things. She tasted of sin. And I moaned against her skin, leaning closer, unable to stop even as a small part of my brain warned me that I wasdefinitelylosing control. I didn't care. I wanted this. I neededher.
Her soft moans and ragged breaths fueled my hunger, stoking the heat inside me until I was on the verge of incinerating from the inside out. My hips bucked, relentless as I ground my hardened length against her, seeking relief I wouldn’t find until I was inside her.
"Dios mío! I want you," she whispered.
Her hands moved between us, freeing my cock from the confines of my pants. I hissed against her throat as she wrapped her fingers around my width and stroked.
