“I did indeed,” Alistair says, smiling at me fondly. “I’m glad we don’t have to hide anymore. My angel finally decided to make our relationship public, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Luca makes a strange choking sound. I don’t dare check on him.
“Secret love . . . How exciting,” Ciprian drawls.
I snuggle into Alistair’s side, wrapping my arms around hiswaist. “Sneaking around was hot,” I say. “But I can’t keep my hands to myself any longer.”
Ciprian leans forward, bracing his elbows on the bar, and his deep black eyes settle on me with a focus meant to unnerve. I smile widely at him instead, knowing the next words out of his mouth with be another attempt to unsettle me.Bring it on.
“Tell me if I’m being too forward,” he says. “But I’ve always been curious to know if a vampire’s bite is as... pleasurable as rumor says.”
I freeze—not because his question is out of line, which it certainly fucking is—but because I have absolutely no idea how to answer it. I’ve only been bitten in a dream. It was euphoric thenand based entirely on the dirty rumors Ciprian is referring to and not reality. This is a test, and if I answer wrong...
“I don’t kiss and tell,” I murmur, patting Ciprian on the cheek as I walk away, towing Alistair behind me like a barge. I stop in the hall and pivot, inhaling sharply as I notice how close he is to me. “Okay, we might need to share some information to make this believable. That was too close.”
Alistair bends until his nose grazes my neck. “Why talk about it when I could show you?”
FIFTEEN
Unspoken rule of the Fringes #2:
Never expose your throat.
ALISTAIR
Thank the gods. All of them. Every single deviant troublemaker who lords over the realms with their capricious favor and hedonistic meddling. I’ll worship them all diligently for the rest of my miserable life if it means I get a taste of the angel.
Life on the Fringes is crowded with monsters, yet the real beast devouring us all is loneliness. It sunk its teeth into me long before I moved here and hasn’t let up. Somehow, though, Celine appears immune to it. She has Luca, her friends at the club, and a fire that seems unquenchable.
I want that. I want her.
Watching her started as a way to pass the time, but quickly spiraled into something of an obsession for me. I make a living trading information, but I’ve never coveted anyone’s secrets like I covet hers.
Celine wants to use me as cover, bait, and ally? Done. It givesme the opportunity to return the favor. Forget the wind beneath her wings, I’ll be the rug beneath her feet if she gives me an opening. Then maybe I’ll finally be able to make sense of this pull she has over me.
Her breath catches as I tease her about my bite, and my instincts hum. She’s not against it. No, this ferocious creature, sent from the heavens to tempt me, is curious.
I don’t mix business and pleasure. Ever. But I would make an exception for her.
“Would you like that?” I whisper calmly, thanking the gods for my vampire traits. On the inside, I’m trembling with excitement, completely primed to cock this entire thing up. But on the outside, I’m nature’s biggest tease.
“Alistair, I’m at work,” Celine protests.
I’m glad one of us remembered. Touching her is all I can think about. Rolling my bottom lip into my mouth, I imagine sinking my teeth into her neck and driving her mad with pleasure. My fangs throb.
Sex is sex. Biting is punishment. And blood... well, blood is food. By choice, I’ve never mixed the three, but Celine doesn’t know that. I lick my fangs. I could do it now, in this hallway. But if someone walked by... Fiery rage consumes me, then turns to ice in my veins.
I can never lose control with her. I know that. That side of me is too dangerous, too cruel, too exacting to let anywhere near her.Could she be as immune to my darkness as she is to the loneliness?I hope to never find out.
Instead of sinking my fangs into the throbbing pulse at her neck, I pull her hand to my lips and kiss her knuckles. “I’m happy to answer any questions you have about my kind, angel, but in the interest of time, let’s say you greatly enjoy my bite and all the benefits it provides.”
Her pupils blow wide, devouring the rich brown of her irisesas she processes my words. “How long has our illicit tryst been going on?” I ask, watching with delight as the color rises under her cheeks.
Regaining her confidence quickly, Celine pops one hip to the side and leans into me, dragging her index finger up my chest. “Let’s say three months to be safe.” Her finger reaches its destination—my mouth—and traces the edges of my lips. “And before you get any ideas, keep those fangs to yourself, Alistair. I’m fine with a reasonable level of touching to make this believable, but nothing over the top.”
She pulls her hand back and examines her crimson nails. I’m tempted to ask her to clarify what she considers a reasonable level of touching, but I stop myself before I can make such a foolish mistake.
Over the pounding bass and whistling crowd, I hear footsteps coming our way. For the ruse and the fun of it, I spin Celine around and press her against the wall, entwining our fingers beside her head. “Trust me, angel?”
