“You should feed,” I quickly stated, my eyes dropping as I stepped away. He held my hand fast, keeping me from putting more distance between us.
“Yes, I should.” Blackthorn’s voice lowered to an intimate level that had me shuddering, his fingers stroking up and down thetop of my hand. He slowly lifted my hand, and his lips and nose brushed against my palm, letting out a low moan as he breathed me in. “Every time you blush, you smell so exquisite. It makes me crazed. It’s a wonder I don’t try to keep you in a constant state of embarrassment.”
My face heated even further against my wishes. Strangely, the thought of him biting me didn’t scare me. I was... intrigued. Curious even. And a small dark part of me was even eager for it. To know he wanted me so deeply that he needed me just to stay alive. It filled some part of me that I didn’t know I needed.
“Please.”
Blackthorn’s eyes snapped open and locked with mine. “You don’t know what you are asking me.”
I closed the distance between us, a decision made. I pressed my wrist into his grasp. “I do.”
His gaze stayed on me for a long moment, searching my face for something — fear or regret, perhaps. He must have seen something that satisfied him, because his lips pressed to the inside of my wrist. His eyes stayed on mine as his mouth opened. His tongue tickled my flesh, and I saw a quick flash of his fangs before they sank into my skin.
I gasped. There was a sharp pain and then a strange pulling sensation. I almost told him to stop, that I’d changed my mind, but then it was like his mouth was connected to other parts of me. Each drag of my blood into his mouth pulled on my nipples, and the feeling sank further down my body, settling between my thighs. My knees buckled at the sudden pressure on my clit.
Blackthorn’s free arm wrapped around my waist, pressing me against his side as he drank. A low ragged moan came out of me. Had I had a clear head, I might have been embarrassed, turning even pinker than ever before.
His eyes never left my face. Even as my breathing came in rapid pants, my thighs pressed together, a need building harder and stronger. My mouth fell open in a silent cry, my legs shaking as Blackthorn’s sucking slowed.
My vision blurred and darkened. His fangs slipped from my flesh, and his tongue lapped at the skin there. Blackthorn’s voice grew low, sounding like water in my ears, as my head grew fuzzy. I couldn’t shake the darkness closing in.
I thought I asked him what was happening to me, but I couldn’t be sure before everything went dark.
Chapter 23
I jerked awake with a start. My eyes blinked open, taking in the familiar room around me. The bed beneath my fingers was the same one I’d slept in the last few weeks. My hand slid out, feeling the cold sheets next to me.
Blackthorn must have gotten up hours ago.
The thought of him had me remembering last night. I lifted my arm, my eyes moving over the two dots on my wrist. I was no longer bleeding and, if I wasn’t mistaken, the wounds were already healing.
Frowning, I wondered at such a phenomenon. I had never thought about what it would have been like to be bitten. It certainly wasn’t anything like I expected. My cheeks burned at the thought, making me laugh. Blushing had been what had started it after all.
The bedroom door opened. My shoulders tensed, and my chin dipped to my chest, eyes on the bed.
“Oh, well, look at you, mistress, still in bed at this hour.” Fran placed a tray on the bed before me before putting around the room. She pulled the drapes back, showing the sun had already started to set.
I’d slept all day and then some. My fingers traced over the red marks on my wrist. Must have been the blood loss.
“Here.” Fran offered me a hand.
I quickly hid my wrist, pushing the covers back and slipping out of the bed on my own. “It’s alright, Fran. Thank you.”
Her brow quirked, and she stepped back, not saying anything.
Keeping my arm hidden behind my back, I shifted around her to walk into the closet. I grabbed a dark blue robe made of silk and wrapped myself in it. My senses were filled with the scent of Blackthorn. It was then I realized the robe I’d taken belonged to my captor.
“Mistress?”
Pulling my face away from the collar, I stepped out of the closet. “I’m here.”
Fran took her usual seat on the couch, pulling a book into her lap. “I thought we could return to our topic of your...” She struggled to say the word ‘spell’ for a moment before it came out as, “mole.”
I snorted, shifting my skirts so I could sit down. “It’s definitely one stubborn mole.” I picked at the fruit on the plate, picking a strawberry up and removing its stem. “You mentioned something about a loophole?”
Fran didn’t answer right away, her eyes focused on something else.
My sleeve had fallen down when I lifted the strawberry to my mouth, letting her see the marks on my wrist. I quickly placed one hand over them to cover them up and averted my eyes from hers.
