After that, she wasn’t sure who moved first. All she knew was that one second, they were staring at each other with the promise of death in their eyes …
And the next, their mouths were fused together.
Tiny tingles and simmering urges ignited into a powerful wildfire, one Murmur wasn’t sure he could stop. He slid a hand into Suyin’s hair and pulled her closer, pushing deeper into her lips and losing himself in her taste.
It wasn’t close enough. If he could have, he would’ve crawled right into her skin and consumed her from the inside out.
Suyin seemed to feel the same. Her grip on his clothing was tight, pushing him to the edge of his tolerance, but he allowed it. Their heads tilted in opposite directions, and their mouths opened wider so their tongues could keep twisting between them.
He’d thought he might detest even the pressure of her tongue, the slight restraint of her lips pressing against his, but that wasn’t what happened at all. Instead, every stroke, every mingling breath, added more fuel to the fire.
The space between their bodies felt like an ocean. The clothes between them felt like barriers that he needed to tear down immediately. He needed her underneath him, trapped and unable to escape.
He transferred his grip to her waist and lowered them to the floor, rising over her and using his body to pin hers. A gasp escaped her as her back hit the ground, but she didn’t try to break his hold.
He took a moment to appreciate the sight of her beneath him. Her skin was flushed, her chest heaving with rapid breaths, her hair spread out on the floor like a midnight halo.
She was small, but he was beginning to recognize a fierceness inside her that could not be conquered. He wanted to conquer it anyway. And in this moment, with her trappedbelow him, her eyes clouded with desire, he felt closer to his goal than ever.
One of his hands supported his weight, and the other dove back into her hair, clenching it in a fist. Then he dropped his head, and their lips crashed back together again.
She reached up, sliding her hands into the hair at the base of his loose braid, and that was when he hit the boundary in his head. His skin crawled at the invasion, and his pulse skyrocketed.
He lurched back, snatched her wrists, and then pinned them to the floor above her head with one hand. More hair slipped free of his braid, and it fell around his face above hers, blocking out the rest of the room.
As soon as her arms were trapped, he calmed, so he dove back into the kiss with renewed vigor. She moaned as their tongues tangled, arching her spine off the floor and pressing her breasts into his chest.
With his free hand, he reached down and cupped her ass. She tried to hook her leg around his hip as he ground their bodies together, but he stopped her with a growl, gripping her thigh and pushing her leg open. She didn’t seem to mind, her tongue still dueling with his until it caught on one of his fangs. It was a light scrape, but the sudden coppery, sweet flavor of her blood made his head spin.
He could feel the heat between her legs, and it was quickly making him lose all sense. The taste of her blood was the final straw—he was seconds from biting into her tongue again to draw more. Or better yet, sinking his fangs into her throat.
But he dragged his mouth away suddenly.
As their gazes met, a thousand dark urges charged through his head like raging bulls. He couldn’t place a single thought or organize the tumbling chaos. All he felt was an unquenchable desire of epic proportions erupting from the center of his being.
He wasn’t entirely sure what would happen if he gave intoit, but he knew it would be dark and twisted. Like everything else in his mind. Like everything else in his life. He also knew he would no longer be in control, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to let go to that degree. There was no telling what would happen.
He searched Suyin’s dark eyes. He saw desire reflected back at him, but he also saw wariness.
He understood. She was right to be afraid. She was right to be unsure.
“I’m giving you the chance to leave now,” he said, his voice sounding strange to his own ears. “I won’t stop you. I won’t chase you.”No matter how badly I might want to.
Her eyes flared slightly at the word “chase.”
He wasn’t sure why he was warning her. Shouldn’t he want to take what was offered now, before she had a chance to reconsider? Shouldn’t he want to feed whatever dark beast she’d awakened while he had the chance?
And yet the idea of taking something from her that she wasn’t sure she wanted to give was repulsive. No matter that he’d stolen her from her home and stolen her blood. This felt different. He didn’t want to steal this.
“If you stay, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to stop. This is your chance to go.”
She swallowed visibly. And he saw the moment his warning fully penetrated. The haze of desire faded enough from her gaze for it to sharpen with understanding.
He released her wrists and pushed off of her, dropping back against the couch. He closed his eyes, flexing and releasing his hands, and fought to get his urges under control. They were strong enough even to drown out the wailing of his souls. It should have been a reprieve, but it was far from that.
“Go.” His voice was a growl.
She didn’t move, lying frozen on the floor as if begging to be leapt upon and ravaged.
