Page 18 of The Mafia Bloodline
I turned, and my breath caught. Volken.
His hair was a mess, his tracksuit pants hung low on his hips, and his magnificent chest was bare. He was barefoot, moving like a predator who’d been startled out of sleep. His eyes were molten silver, his pupils wide and wild.
When he saw Ivan’s hand on my arm, his snarl filled the hall, a sound low and animalistic, vibrating straight through my bones.
Ivan’s hand dropped instantly, palms raised in surrender. “She’s fine,” he said quickly.
“Out,” Volken growled, his voice low and shaking with control. “Now.”
Sorcha grabbed Suraya and backed away fast. “I’ll, uh, explain later,” she whispered to me before darting off.
I turned back just as Volken closed the space between us. His gaze burned into me, his jaw tight. “You’re bleeding.”
I blinked. “I told Sorcha that. You don’t need to…”
“Don’t move,” he warned, the words rough, feral.
My mouth opened, then closed again. “You can smell it, can’t you?”
His throat worked as he swallowed hard. “Every inch of me can feel it.” Okay. Suddenly, Sorcha’s panic made sense.
“I didn’t know it was… like this,” I said softly.
Volken dragged a hand through his hair, breathing hard. “When a vampire’s mated, blood from their mate isn’t just a scent. It’s a call. A demand.”
My stomach flipped. “You mean…”
“I mean I’m about three seconds away from forgetting what self-control is.”
Despite the situation, heat rushed to my face, and lower. “Sorcha said something about… bunnies?”
That earned me a dark, dangerous look and the ghost of a smirk. “She’s not wrong.” he murmured, voice thick as smoke.
Before I could ask what he meant, Volken moved.
In one swift motion, his hands slid to my hips, and he lifted me clean off the ground like I weighed nothing. I gasped, grabbinghis bare shoulders for balance as he turned and started down the hall with long, deliberate strides.
“Volken…hey, put me down!” I hissed, glancing around in panic. “People will see!”
“They already saw enough,” he growled, the sound low in his throat as his chest brushed against me. “You’re bleeding, you’re mine, and every fucking vampire in this house can smell it. You think I’m letting you wander around like that?”
“Volken!” I smacked his shoulder, though it did absolutely nothing. “You’re being ridiculous!”
“Ridiculous?” His voice dropped lower, rougher. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me right now.”
Heat flared through me at the edge in his tone, half warning, half hunger. My protests died on my lips as he pushed open our bedroom door with his shoulder, stepped inside, and kicked it shut behind us.
The movement jostled me just enough that I grabbed tighter onto him. My pulse thundered against his chest, and when his gaze caught mine, I saw it, that flicker of restraint, the thin thread he was hanging onto by sheer will.
“Volken…” I whispered, suddenly breathless.
He set me down gently on the edge of the bed, leaning in close enough for his breath to warm my cheek. “You drive me insane,” he muttered, the words barely human anymore.
His pained expression had me amused when I thought what had him this excited, I couldn’t hold back the grin and then a giggle broke through.
“And if you keep laughing at me, I might forget how to stop.”
And that, somehow, made me laugh even harder. I couldn’t help it. The sound spilled out of me, nervous and teasing, cutting through the heavy air between us. And that laugh broke the tension just enough for him to groan, drag a hand over his face, and mutter, “You’re impossible.”
