I drop my head to her throat, fangs scraping her pulse, and she doesn’t pull away.Doesn’t scream.Just tilts her head to give me better access, offering herself like a sacrifice.
“Do it,” she whispers.“I want—”
I bite.
The first pull of her blood is ecstasy.She tastes like sunlight and cinnamon and every good thing I’ve ever denied myself, and I can feel her orgasm building through the connection, feel every spike of pleasure as though it’s my own.My fingers work her faster, harder, driving her toward the edge while I drink her down in long, greedy pulls.
When she comes, it’s with my name on her lips and my venom in her veins, and the bond that snaps into place between us is so powerful it feels like being struck by lightning.
She’s mine.
Mine to protect.Mine to claim.Mine todevour.
And when I finally lift my head, blood dripping from my fangs, she doesn’t look afraid.
She lookshungry.
“More,” she breathes.
So, I give her more.
I strip her sleep pants off in one smooth motion, spread her thighs wide, and bury my face between them.Her taste is even better here, salt, musk and that addictive sweetness of hers that makes my head spin.I work her with my tongue, my fingers, my fangs scraping teasingly close to her femoral artery, and she writhes beneath me like she’s trying to crawl out of her own skin.
“Vex, please—”
“Please what?”I lift my head just enough to meet her eyes.“Tell me what you want.”
“You,” she gasps.“I want you inside me.I want—”
I’m on her before she can finish the sentence, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand while the other rips open the buttons of my jeans.My cock is so hard it’s painful, and when I line myself up and thrust into her in one brutal stroke, shescreams.
Perfect.
She’s so tight around me, so hot, soalive, and I can feel her heartbeat everywhere, in her throat, her wrists, the walls of her cunt clenching around my cock.I fuck her like an animal, all teeth and claws and desperate hunger, and she takes every inch of it with a ferocity that matches my own.
“Mine,” I snarl against her throat.“Say it again.”
“Yours,” she moans, wrapping her legs around my waist.“Yours, Vex, please don’t stop—”
I don’t.
I take her hard and fast and deep, one hand fisted in her hair to hold her still while I mark her throat with bites that don’t quite break skin.The bed frame cracks under us, wood splintering, but I don’t care.Nothing matters except the way she feels beneath me, the way she cries my name, the way her blood sings in my veins.
When she comes again, it triggers my own release, and I bite down hard on her shoulder, right over the ice-devourer’s mark, and claim her fully.
The bond roars to life between us, a living thing that ties her soul to mine in ways that can never be undone.I can feel everything she feels, taste every emotion, and the love-terror-need pouring from her is so intense it nearly brings me to my knees.
“I love you,” she whispers, her hands cupping my face.“Monster and all.”
And God help me, I believe her.
Reality crashes back like ice water.
I’m still in the hallway.Still standing outside her door with my fists clenched and my fangs aching and my cock so hard it hurts.The fantasy fades, leaving only the cold truth behind.
If I touch her like that, I’ll kill her.
Just like I killed Catherine.
