My gaze dropped to her hand, bandaged up, and a burn of shame speared me.
“I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly earlier,” I began, catching her eyes. “I should have helped bind your wound.”
Erina blinked and then dropped her gaze down to her hand, frowning. I could see what she was wondering. If I had summoned her here at this time of night merely to apologize—again—to her. Then I wondered what exactly she thought she was doing here. What had crossed her mind when I’d sent for her to meet with me? Had she been frightened? Excited?
“But I didn’t ask you to come so I could apologize for that,” I added. Her head lifted.
“Then why did you?” she asked, her voice low. She had a nice voice. Pleasing and warm.
I’d thought, for the better part of the last few hours, how to approach this conversation with her, and I’d settled on a portion of the truth instead of the full truth. I’d settled on directness rather than playing it coy, like noble courtships often began, all games and riddles, meant to frustrate as well as tease.
“I’m tempted by your blood, Erina,” I said carefully, watching her. “Very tempted.”
Her lips parted in surprise, and my eyes swept down to them, watching her pink tongue dart out to wet them. I ignored the way my cock twitched in response.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” she confessed softly, uncertain.
I wondered how long she’d lived on my home planet of Krynn. Had she been born here? Or had asylum been offered to her? Did a noble House sponsor her? And what of her parents? Humans weren’tuncommonon Krynn, not for the last few decades at least, but I did wonder how much she truly knew about my race. Humans, from my experience, tended to stick to their own people.
“I’ll put it like this,” I said. “Perhaps you have a favorite meal? One you could eat over and over again. Kylorr have it too, in theform of blood. And your blood? To be blunt? I’ve never smelled anything quite so appealing to me.”
Her eyes sharpened on me. “You want to feed from me?”
Was she appalled by that? Curious? Tempted? I couldn’t tell from her expression. She looked only surprised.
“Yes,” I replied, my voice gruff and low as I tried to track every small new expression I could on her face. “Very much so.”
“Oh,” she breathed, her eyes dropping to my chest, flicking back and forth between the silver clasps there on my vest, unseeing. “Oh.”
Allowing her time to process the confession, I waited a small moment, and it felt endlessly long. Her scent was distracting. My fangs, I realized, were elongated. I tasted the sweetness of my venom across my tongue.
“It would be an arrangement between us,” I continued, keeping my tone even and smooth, as if I had these negotiations with a blood mate every day. “This would benefit us both, not just me.”
Why were my feet drawing me closer? I studied her carefully, trying to read her. She was naturally expressive. She was curious, flattered, but wary. I spied the flash of excitement, felt the energy rise off her like steam.
A knotted part in me untangled. She would accept me, accept this.Good.
“Can I think about it?” she asked me, halting my feet, which unknowingly had drifted straight toward her. Surprise curled in my chest. “It seems like a big decision. It would be wise to take time to…to…”
I lifted a curl of her hair that had escaped from the damp bun, watching it twine around my finger like an embrace.
“…to properly think about it. Right?” she finished, stammering slightly when she realized my nearness.
“Of course,” I murmured. “Take all the time you need. But you haven’t heard my offer.”
“Oh,” Erina breathed, her wide eyes on mine. A warm brown with strands of gold amber. Lovely. “I… Yes, I should hear your offer.”
My lips quirked, knowing the offer wasn’t necessary. This was a dance, a game—one I’d navigated far too many times. Everything was a transaction, disguised as courting or romance.
Yet the smell of her was intoxicating. And her eyes made my office shift and sway around me, like she’d dragged me into a strange realm where time slowed. My heartbeat was languid, at ease one moment and pounding the next.
I dropped the curl of hair, watching the end of it brush the pink of her lips. I imagined sinking one of my fangs into the fullness of the bottom one, just a small cut so I could lap at the blood, a small teasing taste as I kissed it.
Madness,I thought, slightly shaken as my body tightened.
I cleared my throat. “You would be my blood giver alone. No longer will you be a keeper in my House or expected to work as one.”
“But—”
