James growled, and I swallowed the sound with my lips crushing his. His knee slipped, and he crashed down on top of me in the bathtub. Water spilled over the sides, but we didn’t care. I was too busy chasing James’s tonsils with my tongue. He braced himself with one hand on the edge of the tub and the other brushed my birthmark on my ribcage—the one that proclaimed me his mate. Knowing what it would do to him, I speared a hand through his hair, my fingertips teasing the matching piece to the puzzle he sported on his neck. He shuddered, wrenching himself free from the kiss to trail a hot path across my cheek, my jaw, and down to my collarbone.
Sweat beaded across my hairline, and it had nothing to do with the heat from the water. James was on fire, as if he was close to losing all control.
Maybe someday I would know what that was like.
He licked over the bruise on my neck, lingering venom from the previous bite already tingling beneath my skin. The anticipation was killing me. My pulse increased, beating against the flat of his tongue. I panted, growing dizzier by the second. Time seemed to slow, then stop altogether. James, who tended to sink in fast, was apparently unhurried this time. Thin, sharp razor blades scraped over my skin, drawing an almost pathetic-sounding whimper from my lips.
“Please,” I whined.
“Shh.”
And damn it if my body didn’t know to just obey, just like that time in the alley when he had his hand around my throat. As if he could read my thoughts, his palm snaked up my side until it curled around my neck, his thumb and forefinger teasing my pulse points. I moaned, and he pressed gently with his fingers.
This time, his fangs pierced my skin slowly. The burning started instantly. The deeper he bit, the farther the venom spread, blazing through my veins and igniting every inch of my body from my neck all the way to my fingers and toes. I began to shiver, sweat beading across my skin. Pain set in, and the heat in the room almost became unbearable.
James withdrew, but only long enough to whisper, “You’re doing great, love.”
Warm, wet blood trickled down my neck, and James swooped in to lick it clean, humming at the taste and releasing my throat to wrap his hand around my cock. It throbbed in his palm, and a low groan tore up from deep in my chest. Blood pumped faster than he moved, rivers of deep red flowing down my chest, getting tantalizingly close to the water before he chased them with his mouth. I could hardly move, my head too foggy to comprehend more than the burning deep inside me and the firm, steady way James shuttled his hand over my rapidly thickening erection. Clearly, I could push past the pain.
Typically, he only bit me once—that was all he ever needed. So it shocked me when he turned his attention to the left side of my neck and sank in there as well. My eyes flew open.
Big mistake.
Rivulets of red blood poured down my chest so fast that it made me woozy. Was that from the blood loss, or simply the sight of it?
Or was it the way James lunged to take another drink? When he peered up at me from his spot between my legs, chin and teeth stained the same crimson as his eyes, my body somehow found the resources to send blood to my cock.
“God, you taste good, Ryder,” James growled, body blurring from the restraint of holding himself back. He drew a finger through the slippery mess on my chest and brought it to his mouth, sucking it clean. I could only lie there, watching through heavy-lidded eyes. I never would’ve imagined that seeing someone lap my own blood off my chest would turn me on, but if the way my cock throbbed in James’s hand was any indication, I loved it.
I couldn’t speak.That’s far enough, I wanted to say. I couldfeelthe venom coursing through my body. Thathadto be it. I had to be turning now. But my tongue felt like lead in my mouth. I tried to raise my hand, to bring my vampire to me, but I couldn’t. The only sound that escaped was a strained wheeze, but James seemed to get the hint.
Funny enough, I still wanted to give myself to James in any way I could. If that meant lying there while he had his way with me, so be it.
Thankfully, he got the hint. He brought his mouth to my neck again, licking over each bite mark to seal them shut and stop the bleeding. Now trapped beneath my skin, the burning from the venom intensified. The pain threatened to overtake pleasure, but James distracted me by squeezing my shaft beneath the bathwater, now tinted red from the blood. He sucked and kissed his way down my chest, my stomach, cleaning up what he could with his tongue and praising me the entire way.
Slowly, the burning faded away, taking the heavy feeling in my limbs with it. At first, I could only move a finger to stroke James’s hand. I protested when he let go of my cock but welcomed his arms around me to help me sit up. He knelt between my thighs once more, and my arms found their place around his neck.
Red smears decorated his mouth and chin, and a drop of blood lingered at the corner of his mouth. Unsure what came over me, I lunged forward to lap it up. James swore, clenching his fist in my hair and tipping my head back to bring our lips together. The copper taste of my own blood flooded the kiss. James’s tongue darted into my mouth, and it didn’t matter to me that we were both covered in my blood, or that it seeped into the bath water.
My strength returned, and the heat pooling low in my belly came back to me. I might turn, I might not, but either way I wanted my vampire.
Eventually, my lungs burned so desperately that I had to break off the kiss to catch my breath. It only occurred to me then that James was still offering soft compliments in my ear. I panted, resting a sweaty temple against his jaw, shivering at the realization that the water had gone cold.
“Can you stand up?” James asked me.
After test-wiggling my legs, I nodded. “I think so.”
“Good. I need to get you rinsed off before I put you to bed. It’s time for you to rest.”
As I stood, the heavy weight between my thighs almost made me protest, but then I swayed on the spot. I was lightheaded, a dull ache beginning to set into my limbs. The pain increased with each beat of my heart, and by the time James pulled theplug in the bath and turned on the water, my stomach was churning. Soon, his arm around my waist was the only thing to keep me upright.
“I’m not feeling so great,” I managed, swallowing against a bout of nausea.
“I know, love. I’ve got you.”
Chapter 7
“Will you tell me about it?”
