“Let’s!”
I took the first bite, allowing the richness of it to slide over my tongue and warm my cold mouth. It wasn’t quite a substitute for blood, and my body would derive no energy from it, but that didn’t make it any less delicious.
A sound of pure bliss came from across the table, and I found myself completely enraptured yet again.
Naomi’s eyes were closed, those beautiful, ruby-painted lips of hers pursed slightly as the muscles in her jaw worked. I watched as she swallowed, her throat bobbing up and down as if it was beckoning to me. I had no doubt she would be more delicious, more satiating than any food even the most Michelin-awarded chef could make me, but alas, my lie about being human meant I could never taste her.
But as much of a gut punch as that was, as much as my teeth ached to slide into her gorgeous flesh, as much as I wanted to grip, to take, I would be happy to resist that impulse for centuries if it meant keeping her company. There were much more important things in the world than bloodlust, and I was absolutely certain Naomi Bracken was one of them.
She opened her eyes, and I had to scramble to think of something to say, like I’d been patiently waiting to speak rather than just mooning over her. Although, I thought it was perfectly justifiable how caught up I was in every aspect of her.
“How was it?” I croaked, then cleared my throat and tried again. “How was it?” Better. Still a bit raspy, and I could hear my mouth trying to work around my fangs that were trying to grow, but much better.
“This is so good,” she said in that musical way of hers as she smiled brilliantly at me.“Do you want to try it?”
Suddenly, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was what it felt like to be under a vampire’s glamour, because I was temporarily stunned. Thankfully, I recovered quicker and didn’t sound like I was doing an impression of a frog.
“Yes, please!”
I had been expecting her to slide one of her plates toward me, but instead she speared some fresh fish on her fork and used her spoon to scoop rice and gravy onto the utensil. She held the fork out to me, giving me one of those dazzling smiles.
Fuck.
My fangs grew so fast I was shocked there wasn’t an audible pop. My mind was buzzing with so much. Desire. Lust. Surprise. But also, there was something so... Was it wholesome? Being offered not only food from Naomi’s plate, but her literal fork?
Was I already falling? Because when I looked into those eyes of hers, saw the fluttering of the pulse in her neck, and let my gaze drop to that same beautiful, genuine smile, I felt a lovely ache in my chest that I had only barely brushed against during my long life. It was rare to encounter something I had so little experience with after more than a century of life, but that was how each new experience with Naomi was.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Naomi said, mistaking my pause for hesitancy.
Well, we couldn’t have that, now could we?
I leaned forward, locked eyes with her once more, and opened my mouth to take what was on her offered fork. The tips of my fangs had to be visible, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was the simmering heat I was beginning to feel at my heart and rapidly spreading through my limbs.
Did I take satisfaction in the tiny hitch of Naomi’s breath as I straightened, chewing methodically? Of course. Andgod,the flavors that exploded over my tongue only enhanced themoment that much more. If it tasted that good to me, a vampire, it had to be downright heavenly to a human.
“W-what do you think?” Naomi sputtered slightly after swallowing. Once more, I was distracted by the siren song that was the bobbing of her throat. Shit, I couldn’t recall the last time I was so affected by a singular person. She was better than a live band, more fun than puzzling out a new instrument. She was… she was…
Naomi,my mind supplied.
And yes, that was it. More than any of my vocabulary could describe, she was just wholly and wonderfully her.
“Scrumptious,” I murmured after taking my time chewing and swallowing. If I had my way, that moment would never end, and it would be the two of us locked into this lovely—and perhaps a tad odd—experience.
But now it was time for the tables to turn.
“Here, try mine.” And if my voice dropped a bit lower while saying that… Well, that was nobody’s business. Carefully, I constructed a fork with a little bit of every component of one of my dishes and extended it over the table.
Even with the lovely makeup Naomi was wearing, I could still see the flush that traveled down her face before becoming much more vibrant as it reached her neck and décolletage. Both parts of me—the civil and the feral—liked thatverymuch.
And then her mouth opened, her tongue instinctively swiping over her bottom lip. The demon within me wanted to leap over the table and bite into her. Taste her. Consume her. As for every other part of me? It understood that compulsion but argued that the absence of the vision in front of me would leave us lacking, no matter how satisfying the feed.
At that, the apex predator inside me settled, and my fangs slowly returned to normal. Even as I sat transfixed, watching Naomi swallow yet again, her eyes fluttering closed in ecstasy, Ienjoyed it for the beauty of the moment rather than imagining how I could devour it.
However, that didn’t stop an image from flashing through my mind. Her in my lap, that beautifully muscled and tanned back of hers flexing as she bounced up and down, a look of pure bliss and indulgence across her resplendent features.
“Oh my god,” she moaned, as if she could see the fantasy rushing through my mind so quickly that I couldn’t stop it. Not that I was sure I even wanted to stop it. While I wasn’t celibate, I wasn’t exactly the hedonist that so many vamps my age and younger tended to be. I needed connection, needed familiarity and companionship in order to feel solid in my lust. I always thought that it was another way I wasn’t quite really a vampire, but now, as I let myself drown in everything that Naomi made me feel, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was how it was supposed to be all along.
“That issogood!”
