Wait a moment.
Through the haze of my lost in blood thirst, the pieces slowly fell together. It was his first time in a kink club, and his first time atThe Bat Denin particular. I chalked up his aura of ignorance to that, but was there something else going on?
Tearing my gaze away from the flesh of his neck, I glanced at Scotty's face. He was smiling, a mix of demure and excited. There was no indication on his expression that he was bracing himself for pain. Vampires could make a bite hurt less, sure, but the experience wasn't painless on the receiving end. That was why many of the patrons here were members of the BDSM community. It played into their fantasy of getting pleasure from pain.
My fogginess cleared away as I asked myself one very crucial question: did Scotty know that he was playing with a real vampire?
A feeling of dread crept up on me. "Scotty, did you sign the waiver at the door?"
He nodded, but he didn't seem like he was paying attention. Humans tended to do that when they were aroused.
I gently gripped his chin and made him look me in the eye. "I need you to answer carefully."
He blinked, looking more sober. "Okay."
"Did you read the waiver?" I asked.
"Um... I skimmed it. Does that count?"
My undead heart dropped to my stomach.
Dear sweet God, he had no idea what was going on.
I backed off as if thrown by a force field. This naïve little human bared his throat to me without knowing what he had signed up for. He didn't know he'd offered to let me drain his blood.
His mouthwatering, delicious blood.
I wrenched out of my illicit thoughts. The situation just turned dangerous. I had to protect Scotty.
But was I protecting him from other vampires?
Or from myself?
5
Scotty
HolyshitI was hard.
I'd never been so turned on in my life. All Malachi did was pet my hair and run his hand along my upper body and here I was, ready to burst. There was something deeply erotic about being doted on by a sexy man I'd just met. The weird part was that I couldn't imagine doing this with any other stranger. The idea of it did nothing for me. I preferred to actually know the person I was doing naughty things with.
But that was the thing about Malachi. I did feel like I knew him. He was warm and charming, and he'd saved me from Carnassial earlier. Hearing him say that he craved me was just the cherry on top of his attractiveness.
Brayden never told me that. Ever. Not during our whole relationship.
But here was Malachi, saying those honeyed words and sounding like he actually meant it.
They didn't just sound sexual either. Maybe it was my imagination, but I sensed true kindness behind them too.
Or… I was making stuff up that sounded way too good to be true. This was a club, after all. It was a place of kink and fantasy, not somewhere to find love. I knew I shouldn't have let myself think of Malachi that way. This was only a game to him.
When he asked me about the waiver, I felt so mindless in my lust I barely heard him. But I snapped to attention when he grasped my face and forced me to look at him. Admitting I hadn't actually read the waiver wasn't my finest moment, but I certainly didn't expect Malachi's reaction. He backed off instantly, almost like he was afraid of me. My mood came crashing down.
"What's wrong?" I asked, unable to disguise the plea in my voice.
Malachi put a hand to his forehead. Masculine veins ran along the back of his hand in sinuous lines.
"I can't," he mumbled.
