His lips ticked at my answer. “So, you know that I found him half dead from being beaten by some woman’s husband? And you know that he has a bad habit of charming a woman out of her undergarments and then losing interest?”
I cleared my throat before picking my glass up and taking a large swallow.
Obviously, I didn’t know Balyn as well as Blackthorn did. Then again, he had been here with him for years. It did make whatI thought was Balyn just being nice — trying to make me feel comfortable — into something far less kind.
“He’s harmless,” I muttered, standing by my earlier defense.
Blackthorn’s chair creaked as he bent forward. His hand was cool against my own. “Is that what you want? Harmless?”
My eyes flickered down to his hand, the weight of it sending a tingle up my arm, making me squirm in my seat. “No, I mean, yes. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with someone who’s harmless.”
“But it’s not what you crave. What you need.” Blackthorn’s voice dropped an octave, gaining a rumbling quality to it. “Harmless is someone who needs to be taken care of.”
His fingers traced a path up my arm, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. That finger caught a piece of my hair and curled it around his finger.
“And what?” I let out a shaky break, glancing up at him beneath my lashes. “What do you think I need?”
“You take care of everyone around you,” Blackthorn continued, his fingers brushing the line of my jaw. “Even rushing to a stranger’s side to help them. Except... who takes care of you?”
I fought against the urge to lean into his touch; to distract myself my fingers rearranged the silver ware next to my plate. “I enjoy being needed.”
“Being needed and not having your own needs met are not exclusive to one another,” Blackthorn stated, letting his hand drop from my face, but he didn’t lean back in his seat.
“I—”
Before I had a chance to speak, Balyn returned with my dinner. He placed the steaming plate before me and quickly walked back to the kitchen, not lingering like he usually did. Probably due to Blackthorn’s rudeness earlier.
However, Cookie had out done himself this time. The roast beef before me was succulent, juicy, and melt-in-your-mouth good. So much so that I let out a small sound with each bite.
Blackthorn cleared his throat.
My face burned, realizing what I must sound like to him. I chewed my bite, quickly swallowing it down before reaching for my glass so I could avoid his penetrating gaze.
“Your food is to your satisfaction, I presume?” Blackthorn’s voice had dropped low again more so than before. It had a hunger to it that made me look up, meeting his dark gaze.
Licking the remnants from my lower lip, I let out a shaky breath. “Yes, it’s delicious.” I pushed my food around on my plate unable to take another bite while he was watching me. “You’re not... eating?” I wasn’t sure what the correct terminology was for a vampire drinking blood.
“No.” Blackthorn’s eyes flicked from my lips to my eyes. His elbow leaned on his chair away from me as if restraining himself from coming closer. “I cannot have what I hunger for... yet.”
He let the final word sit between us, turning the air thick with tension and longing.
I picked at my food, eyes darting to the side to look at him discretely or what would have been discrete if Blackthorn ever took his eyes from my face. Swallowing thickly, I coughed.
“I’m sure whoever’s turn it is will be sorely disappointed.”
Blackthorn waved my comment away. “They feed me out of obligation, nothing more. It’s been decades since I have embraced someone who truly wanted the pain and pleasure of my bite.”
The way his eyes slid down my form, lingering on my heaving chest before coming back to my face, made my entire body hot. My thighs pressed together to quell the heat there. The prospect of pain should have had me making excuses to leave.
But there was something in the way he said it — the painandthe pleasure — that had me undeniably curious. That adventurous part of me that had left my little island to come to Candiopolis was rearing its head after years of being shoved down for self-preservation.
I let out a nervous laugh. “I wouldn’t know much about that. You’re the first vampire I’ve come across.” I picked up my glass, going in for a drink only to realize it was empty already.
“Here, let me.”
Before I could process it, his larger hand wrapped around mine, holding the glass steady while he poured more wine into my glass.
I stared at that hand, focusing on the feel of it against mine. Forbidden thoughts filled my head. Those pale hands brushing across my skin, cupping my breasts, sliding between my thighs, holding my hands as the vampire pushed me closer and closer to ecstasy.
