“Ciprian,” I whisper, trying to ground myself. To focus. To… to… I don’t know. Regain a semblance of control? “I…”
He lifts his mouth from my breast, my blood painting his lower lip.
At least until he licks it clean.
His eyes are a glowing crimson, his hair a wild mane of dark colors that hides his pointed ears. But he’s not human. That much is very clear. And not just because of the wings at his back or the tail inside me.
Yet all I want is to be held by him. Kissed by him.Penetrated by him.
I feel drugged. Pent-up. Needy.
He crawls back up my form, his bat-like wings splaying across the bed as his size becomes incredibly evident. He’s so much bigger than me. So much stronger. But all of that just makes me want him more, not less.
“Did you decide on a safe word?” he asks, his question nearly undoing me.
Because this ancient monster is actually trying to understand me. He’slisteningto what I have to say. He may have been rough. He may have hurt me. But on some level, he obviously cares… because he’s attempting to do right by me.
And that knowledge has me grabbing him and kissing him.
He lets me, his tongue gliding with mine in a passionate embrace that almost allows me to feel like his equal.Almost. However, his massive form and the strength of it have me feeling very petite beneath him.
I like it.
I like him.
I likethis.
“Vampire,” I breathe.
He growls in response. “Strigoi.”
“No,” I whisper, shaking my head. “Vampireis my safe word. If I say it, you stop.”
He stares down at me. “What if you think it?”
My lips twist. Because he has a point. I woke up thinking about him being a vampire. “I have to say it out loud.”
“And if your beautiful mouth is otherwise occupied?” he asks silkily, one of his eyebrows arching.
I swallow, which draws his attention to my throat. It doesn’t take a blood-bond or mind reading to determine what he’s thinking. “If I… can’t speak, then I’ll hold up two fingers in a V shape?” I suggest awkwardly.
His lips twitch. “What if your hands are bound?”
An image flashes through my head, one of me on my knees with my wrists tied behind my back and his cock deep in my throat. “If you incapacitate me, then you need to be focused on my mind and what I’m thinking,” I tell him. “If I thinkvampireon repeat while we’re in the middle of, um,things, that should be enough, right?”
He cups my jaw, his thumb tracing the hollow beneath my eye as he holds my gaze. “Yes, regina mea. I believe that would be a sufficient way to ensnare my attention.”
“Okay. Thenvampireis my safe word.”
His tail stops moving between my legs. “Are you using it right now?”
“No.”
“Then I may continue?”
My cheeks warm. “Yes, please.”
“Hmm,” he hums, his focus slipping down to my mouth. “I think you were right before, Ms. Dalca. I rather like hearing youconsent.”
