My face is hotter than ever, my body temperature rising. I feel embarrassed and I’m not sure why, but I want to turn and duck my head.
I don’t move.
I force myself to watch as he looks at me once more, pupils dilated.
And he places the bandage in his mouth.
He keeps his lips parted as he bites down on it with his back teeth, never looking away from me.
I swallow tightly, feel the skin along my throat sting, but there’s another sensation in my body, too. Like I am buzzing. Floating. Flying.
I know he can feel my heartbeat racing from his grip on my wrist, blood pounding through my veins at a dangerous speed.
He smiles as he chews, his cheekbones lifting, eyes gleaming and glowing deep violet from the light of the room. He doesn’t speak, and I don’t move, my mind racing, but I can think of nothing to say or do.
He continues eating the blood, the bandage, the thing of mine that isn’t quite me.
Perhaps this is a baby step. A slow crawl to what he really wants to eat.
I bite my bottom lip the moment he swallows, hard, his eyes closing for a moment as he does, as if it’s a lot to get down.
“I am a lot.” The words come out unbidden. I want to snatch them back because he won’t know what I was thinking, how that sentence fits inside my head. He justatea blood-soaked bandage and for that I feel I should give him something more than what I said but?—
His fingers come to the back of my neck, tangling through my hair and pressing to my skull as he drags me closer. My breasts are pressed against his chest, our heartbeats echoing one another.
My nose is close to his own, his mouth brushes mine and I feel as if I’m spinning when he says, “And I am a liar.” He runs his lips against mine and I am trembling in his lap as he holds me by the back of my throat and the circumference of my wrist.
I have never wanted anyone this much.
I only have room inside my head for him.
But I don’t know what he lied about. I don’t know what he means.
Then he bites my bottom lip. His canine digs into my flesh, splitting the skin after a glorious moment of pressure until I give way for him, bleeding into his mouth as he closes his eyes, savoring the taste of me.
“I told him I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you,” he whispers, speaking against my mouth, the taste of pennies tangy on my tongue as I try to remember I need to breathe or I might pass out. His eyes snap open, dark and gold and violet nearly swallowing me whole. “ButI’mgoing to.”
Before I can respond, he is shifting his hips, his hands, holding me as he stands the moment before he sinks to his knees on the plush carpet. I wrap my legs around him, my arms, too, and he comes in again to kiss me, and this time, I don’t just lethimbite.
I sink my teeth into his plush bottom lip as his breath catches, his body trembling as he sits on his calves and holds me in this close embrace. I dig deep with my front teeth, worried I am hurting him, but wanting to all the same.
I bite back, Sullen Rule.
And the moment I tastehisblood, I laugh. Wicked, loud, obnoxious, bursting through the quiet of the purple-gilded room.
A slow tug of amusement pulls on his lips, then he is pushing me back, both of us going to the floor, the fresco ceiling arching over our heads like heaven, but I know that’s not true. What’s divine is this between us. His body over mine, his fingers now on my face, the way he brushes his swollen, bleeding bottom lip on my top one, tempting me, tasting me.
And then we aretrulykissing.
My knees fall to the side to accommodate his bigger body, pressing me flat to the rug, the wooden slates beneath it hard under my spine but I don’t care. Not when my fingers are tangled in the thickness of his hair and his mouth is franticallyexploring my own. Rushing, never stopping. He opens and closes, devours me, leavingmebreathless as I try to keep up. I am more experienced, I should know what I am doing, but with the wine in my head and his closeness and the fresh scent of him like a graveyard after it rains under a full moon, the dizziness in my brain, traveling to my limbs, this is like nothing I have ever done.
He doesn’t stop kissing me, his tongue cool, his teeth pricking along my lips. It stings, it hurts,it is heaven.
His hands are everywhere now, sliding down my throat, lower still until he slips them under my shirt, his gloved fingers tracing up my ribcage, causing my muscles to jump. I am not wearing a bra and he grabs my breasts, squeezing hard. I tense but I don’t want him to stop and so I tighten my legs around his hips, pulling him closer. He groans into my mouth, then he bites me again, causing me to wince.
His eyes flash open when I gasp, but he doesn’t stop kissing or touching.
Desire is thick in my veins, and I can feel how much he wants more too,at least physically. But when he dips his head to kiss along my jawline, then lower, over my neck, my throat, I prepare myself for him to stop at any moment.
