I’d almost forgotten I had that picture in my desk.
“You really did love her, didn’t you?” she asks.
Looking at Nell’s beautiful, smiling face drives a spike of sorrow through my heart. As much as I’ve tried, I can’t get those last moments with her out of my head. I may have granted her final wish, but it’ll haunt me for the rest of eternity.
“I did,” I whisper, staring at Elliot over the picture. “For a longtime, I thought I had lost my humanity completely, that I was more monster than man, and because of it I would be cursed with an eternal life of loneliness. The madness of monotony.” I pause and do my best to push down the rising grief. “Nell helped me see that wasn’t true.”
Elliot places the picture gently on top of my computer. “If I asked you to kill me, Lucian, to grant my final wish like you did with Nell, would you? You may not have given me a choice in being turned, but would you at least give me that if I wanted it? End me?”
“What?” The words sink their teeth into me. Is she out of her mind? Kill her? I saved her because I couldn’t bear losing her. “Why are you asking me this?”
“It’s a simple question,” she says. “One I’ve been pondering for a while now. There has to be a way to kill a vampire. If this isn’t the life I wanted for myself?—”
My hand snatches her by the chin, cutting her off midsentence, her baby blues flashing as they roam my face.
“Please…” I whisper, unable to stop the pain from leaking into my tone. “Don’t ask me that.”
She rubs her lips together, and the simple gesture awakens something inside me. I know she’s debating whether to press me further, but my thoughts are already spiraling into possession. The mere idea of her not being with me urges a desperate need to hold on tighter.
“Is being with me forever really so bad, Monty?” I ask, shifting closer.
“No…” Her hand curls around my wrist that still holds her face. “I’ll never be Nell, Lucian.”
“I know,” I say. “And I don’t want you to be. But I also don’t want you to die, so please don’t ask me to do that for you. Ever.”
I don’t realize I’m leaning in closer until my mouth whispersover hers. And she kisses me back with eyelids fluttering closed. She lifts onto her toes and presses firmly into me, and her excitement fills the air, mingling with mine.
An ache blooms fast, and the kiss deepens.
Her lips part, and instinct takes over completely. I angle my mouth to hers and our tongues duel. The way she melts into me like she’s been holding herself back too makes heat coil low in my body. My hand slides from her jaw to her neck, my palm fitting there like it belongs, grounding me even as everything else spins out.
She’s whimpering against my mouth for more, and I can’t stop it even if I wanted to. Not with Elliot. It’s like her body, her soul, calls to me, and I’m powerless against it.
The kiss turns hungry, breathless. No longer careful. No longer restrained. Whatever line I meant to hold becomes blurred beyond recognition.
I step forward, moving her back until she’s pinned between me and the desk. I press my thigh between her legs and savor the heat radiating off her pussy.
Yes, this is exactly what I want. Elliot mine, like this, forever. My Monty.
But before I can rip off the clothes that have been on her for way too long, she surprises me by breaking the kiss, pulling my hand from her throat, and dropping to her knees before me, like a religious worshiper come to kneel at my altar. To sacrifice herself to a dark god.
She clutches my thighs, bringing me in closer, and her breath fans over my crotch making me instantly hard. “I’m still hungry, Lucian.”
The meaning to her words isn’t lost on me, and my cock responds by fully tenting my pants.
Elliot presses her lips against it and bite-sucks on me through the layers of material, making me groan.
“Fuck, Monty,” I mutter as she unzips and pulls me out. Her hand is hot, searing in the most delicious way against my skin, and she licks me like she’s the one in control.
But she isn’t.
I am.
Wrapping her hair around my fingers, I push my cock into her mouth, stretching her lips wide, the wetness within divine as her tongue strokes against the sensitive underside.
I ease back, then thrust in, pushing as deep as I can go. She gags but grabs at me, pulling me into her.
Fuck, she’s perfect. I start plunging in and out of her hot, wet mouth as she sucks at me, my balls hitting her chin with each surge into her. And she swallows, gagging, but I push past it, into her throat with those thrusts.
