He did a slow turn, and his lips disappeared behind his beard. “I’m beginning to feel like an ATM.”
“Quit your brooding, Vamp. I want you.” I dropped my dagger and wrapped my cold fingers around his neck, which made him smile. The great thing about Christian Poe was how he could regulate his internal body temperature.
He encased me in his arms and gently kissed my lips. “It’s better you not have too much.”
“The power you gave me earlier is mostly gone, and if we run into the lions—”
“Thenyou’llshock them andI’lldestroy. Just as we planned.”
“Things don’t always go as planned.” I nibbled on his bottom lip, and his fangs punched out. “I need you inside me.”
Christian pinned me against a wide tree and pressed his hard body against mine. There was a dance involved when taking Vampire blood, especially Christian’s. He wanted it, but he didn’t want it.
He just needed a little convincing, and I knew exactly which buttons to push.
“I need it,” I whispered, nipping on his earlobe and trailing kisses down his whiskery neck.
When I licked his artery, he sucked in a sharp breath. Pieces of bark fell from the tree where he gripped it. While most Vampires were easy to seduce, Christian was particular in how he liked his blood foreplay. I had to make him hungry for me in more ways than one. My fangs lengthened, and I teased him with tiny pricks while pulling his hips to mine.
Christian was hard like granite, ready to fill me up with more than just his blood. He cradled my neck in his hands. “I want to feast on your body, but not here. Not in the woods like animals.”
I wanted to invite him in, to feel his hands on my body and his tongue in my mouth. But he was right. This wasn’t the time or place. Was it too much to ask to have sex on a bed for a change? Or at least somewhere less public? Our love life had taken a left turn out of the gate, and as delicious as the sex was, maybe I needed to pull back on the reins a little.
I sank my teeth into his neck. When my fangs retracted, warm blood flowed past my lips and down my throat. Instead of fisting my hair and grinding against me like a savage beast, Christian tenderly stroked the back of my head with his fingertips and held me to him.
His blood awakened my Vampire soul, and the power culminated within me. After a final swallow, I sealed the puncture wounds with a single lick.
When our eyes locked, a connection formed between us like an open channel. We had a bond based on love and respect, but blood linked us in some indefinable way.
Christian leaned in and kissed my bloodstained lips. The intensity of his gaze made my stomach flutter.
“What do you taste?” he asked.
While I could taste his desire, I hadn’t yet learned all the complexities of blood reading. Perhaps my gift was weaker than most.
“Lust.” I smiled imperceptibly. “Love.”
“Is that all?”
I furrowed my brow. “I’m not sure.”
He tapped my nose. “You spend too much time with Niko learning to be a better Mage. But one day you’re going to have to learn how to read the language of Vampires. In my time, we drank more freely, so we learned faster. Now they frown upon recreational drinking. No wonder the younglings are numpties.”
I nudged him away with a strong hand. “Watch who you’re calling a numpty.”
He inclined his head. “Present company excluded.”
I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and drank in the night. It was clearer than just moments before, the moon bathing the new leaves overhead in a silver glow. “I can only imagine what you see.”
He admired the view. “I can see every insect in the trees. Your night is my day.”
“And what’s our day?”
“My hell.”
I snorted. “Thank God for sunglasses, huh?”
We continued our walk.
