But as close as I am, I don’t want to finish there.
“I want to be inside you,wife.”
Winnie doesn’t say a word as her golden eyes lock on mine. Candlelight sparkles in her irises. I reach for one of the golden packets I put in my pocket after our first night together, butshe stays my hand.
“I have a gift for you,” she grins. “We don’t need a condom.”
I darken. “The risk of Dhampir?—”
“Iknow, Alaric. That’s why I had a copper IUD installed. It’s another type of contraception, and it’s even more effective. It’s a little device that stays inside me and makes sure I don’t get pregnant.”
I’m so shocked that I lean back in the chair, studying her. “You have a contraceptioninsideyou?”
She nods, her body taut with desire.
I can barely speak through my hunger. “I can feel all of you, bare, without restraint?”
In response, Winnie stands and mounts me, inch by exquisite inch, sliding her wetness down my cock.
I grip hard onto her hips, guiding her. I know she wants it fast by the way she slides against me, but I need it slow. I need to take my time and feel every inch of her.
Winnie lets out a gasp as she rocks her hips and I slide home.
“You are exquisite.” I wrap my arms around her, pressing her against my chest, her racing human heart against my immortal one. “I wish I had eternity to worship every inch of you.”
“Youdohave all of eternity,” she huffs as she grinds down against me.
“True, butyoudon’t. I have only a blink of an eye to hold you.” I choke back the emotion swelling in my chest as she rides me hard, drawing me nearer to release. “I have one blink to show you what you’re missing.”
“Alaric, you?—”
I sink my teeth into her neck.
The sensation is of falling. I fall through starlight as her blood rushes between my lips. I tumble like an autumn leaf, tossed on a crimson river, drenched in sunlight and the blush of summer’s first fruit.
Winnie quakes around me as the bloodthrall carries her along her own crimson river. Her screams fill my ears as my mouth fills withher blood.
Ecstasy.
I can’t hold it in anymore as I grip hard onto her hips, spilling myself into her as I suck as much blood as I dare to take from her.
It costs me my soul to pull away. I lick at her wound to seal it before I collapse against her, breathing in the fresh warmth of her flesh as she gasps and shudders against me, still suspended in her own pleasure.
Winnie clings to me as her cries quieten. The scent of her blood and arousal tickles my nostrils. Her heart rate slows until we are beating in sync, her chest rising and falling against mine.
I reach beneath the table for the cord to ring for Reginald. The bell tinkles deeper in the house.
“Why did you do that?” Her eyes widen, but she makes no move to grab her clothing. “He’ll see us like this?—”
“He’ll leave some food outside the doors. You need to eat something. You’ve lost blood.” I bow my head with remorse. “More blood than I should have taken, I’m so sorry. You tasted so good, I … I had to fight for control.”
“If tasting my blood feels likethat, you can have more.”
“Don’t tempt me, human,” I growl, my fingers digging into her hips.
“Now that you mention it, food does sound good.” Winnie rests her head on my shoulder, her eyes fluttering closed. I stroke her hair, humming softly to her and listening for the sound of Reginald leaving a tray of food in the hall.
“That was … Wow,” she murmurs, her body slackening against mine.
