Ha. Like I could ever.
I stepped back, sweeping a hand in defeated invitation. Aaron already permanently lodged himself somewhere in my chest, he might as well enter my apartment.
He closed the door behind him, returning the moody darkness to my environment, to the hole I crawled in and didn’t relish leaving anytime soon.
My mouth turned dry as I remembered the last time Aaron was here. Flashes of his sun-tanned flesh flipped through my mind with startling clarity considering how much I’d had to drink.
An ached developed along my palms as they remembered traversing over the contours of his muscles. A tingling need began in my lips, having nothing to do with the gin and everything to do with the knowledge of how Aaron expertly used his tongue and teeth between mine. I brushed my cheek with my knuckles to quiet its craving for the rasp of Aaron’s stubble grazing it.
I tipped back the rest of my ice-cold drink, downing it in one go.
Aaron pushed his hands into the pockets of his shorts before removing them a moment later, as if he didn’t quite know what to do with them.
“I’m sorry,” Aaron said abruptly. “I-I didn’t mean too—I didn’t want?—”
I held up a hand, silencing him.
I studied him, torn between greedily taking him in and trying to decipher the puzzle he presented. How he was able to have such complete and utter power over me.
I opened my mouth, shut it with a shake of my head, and returned to the open globe bar for another Gin Rickey. My sixth, or maybe my seventh. I didn’t know and didn’t care.
As I poured a generous amount of gin over ice, I finally said, “You don’t owe me any explanation. You are entitled to do as you wish.” Even as I said the words, the poisonous sting in my heart flared all over again like it did on that stage, seeing Aaron lave his tongue over Seth’s jugular.
The spoon clinked as I stirred with care, afraid the memory of Seth’s eyes closing in sensual satisfaction under Aaron’s touch would shatter the glass.
“That wasn’t me,” Aaron insisted in a firm voice.
Turning around, I waved a hand, making my way back to the couch. “It doesn’t matter.”
“The f-f-fuck it doesn’t,” Aaron said, his stutter resurfacing as something hot burned in his eyes.
I blinked.
“You are bound to Seth,” I tried to speak as coolly as possible. “It’s the natural order of things. And I let your situation get the best of me. The gods’ faith in me has been severely shaken, and it’s my own stupid fault.” I said the last words into my glass as I sipped.
Aaron ripped my glass away and threw it across the room, where it shattered against the wall, leaving my hand hanging empty in the air.
“I didn’t want that. I don’t w-w-wanthim.” As his stutter worsened, the veins in Aaron’s throat throbbed with obvious aggravation.
“I became a v-v-vampire to be with you.” Aaron’s nostrils flared. “I knew you would never be with me as long as I was f-fragile, human. So I became this.” He opened his arms. “For you.”
Despite his outburst, my voice was quiet and calm. “Are you saying this is my fault?”
He shook his head. “No, but I’m saying we’re better together. Stronger together. And I’m sick and tired of you denying it.”
I was on my feet in front of him so fast a cool breeze swept across my naked chest from my robe billowing around me.
Only the brief flutter of Aaron’s lashes indicated his surprise as I stood there in his face, fists clenched, near shaking, chest heaving as if I’d run halfway around the earth.
I grabbed his face and crashed my lips to his with all the unrestrained fury I felt. I let myself take everything I always wanted.
Aaron tensed for only a moment before he pushed back, opening his mouth, clacking his teeth against mine with desperation. The rake of his scruff across my face fanned the hot flames of need in me to an incendiary level that threatened to melt down the whole hotel.
I hungrily devoured his clean masculine taste. It melted and morphed on my tongue to something deeper and darker.
He grabbed my hair in one hand while gripping my bare hip in the other so tight I knew his vampire strength would leave a bruise. Good. I wanted it. I wanted him. I wanted him to mark me inside and out, to leave an Aaron-sized imprint on my body and essence so I’d never feel the absence of him ever fucking again.
The very thought tore a snarl out of me as I ripped his shirt over his head and backed him into a wall, attacking his neck, sucking and biting, making him mine.
