I’d seen her face down my father, the entire Dynasty, a marriage to my brother, then to me, without breaking a sweat, but now, faced with the most basic, biological act a vampire could do, she was a bundle of nerves.
And selfish bastard that I was, I had to feel her teeth in me.
I wanted to feel her body pressed into mine, her fingers digging into the back of my neck, her breath against my skin, and I wanted it so badly, I was dangerously close to getting on my knees and begging.
“If you’re going to pretend to be my wife,” I muttered instead, “you’re going to be well fed. Strong. Dangerous. Notsome half-starved symbol to be paraded around like a trophy.”
Her throat worked. “I’m not half-starved, but I don’t know how to do this.” She was so quiet, I barely heard her, raw doubt filling the space between us. “I’ve heard descriptions, but… no one ever… I’ve only seen it done from a distance. Once. A long time ago.”
“I’ll walk you through it,” I told her through grit teeth, my cock throbbing like a motherfucker behind my zipper. “Do you trust me?”
She snorted. “That’s a bullshit question if I ever heard one.” She scrubbed her red face. “Obviously, the answer is no, because I’m not a complete idiot, but let’s assume for the next ten minutes our truce is still in place.”
“That’s good enough for me,” I agreed, even though I was hoping this would last far longer than ten minutes.
I crossed to the chair opposite her and sat, spreading my knees, hands on the chair arms, realizing I should have had the decency to at least put on a shirt, and… well, I’d already established I was a selfish bastard. Besides, that black dress covered her from chin to ankle. Not much chance of anything untoward happening.Unfortunately.
“Come here,” I ordered, my voice dropping.
After a brief hesitation, she slid out of her chair, moving toward me with the kind of elegant grace that could never be learned, only inherited, the smooth glide of a fighter, fully aware of her own power. The hem of the dress whispered around her ankles, her bare feet silent on the floor.
She stopped a few feet in front of me, chin lifted, pretending she wasn’t trembling from head to toe. “Does it have to be your throat?” Color rose again in her cheeks. “Can’t we just…”
“This has to be convincing,” I grit out between clenchedteeth as her scent hit me like a punch to the gut. “We’re doing this properly, Ember. Or not at all.”
I widened my knees, leaned back, and bent my head to the side until my neck strained. For decades, I’d been ambivalent about my body. I was strong enough to survive the pits—that was all that mattered—but when her eyes widened, when her gaze drifted slowly down my torso, the points of her nipples poking through the thin fabric, pride filled me like molten lava.
Emberline thought I lookedgood.
Good enough that her pupils blew wide, and her fangs fully descended, sharp white points showing between panting red lips. My entire body responded, surging toward her before I got myself under control.
“First lesson,” I sucked in a harsh inhale, fingers digging into the arms of the chair to keep myself in place. “You don’t hesitate. You strike, hard.Two clean punctures, here and here.” I tapped the skin on either side of the artery. “You anchor yourself—hand on my shoulder, my chest, whatever makes you feel steady. You breathe through your nose, even if you don’t think you need to. And you listen. To me, to the way my blood fills your mouth. You stop when I say so.”
“And if I can’t?” Her voice was very small, gaze firmly pinned on the pulse drumming at the side of my neck as her bloodlust rose.
“You will,” I ordered sharply. “Because you are not weak, and I’m not the kind of bastard who’ll let you drown in your first feed. Now, comehere.”
Her jaw clenched, and she stepped closer, stopping between my knees, so close I could touch her if I wanted, yank her into me, fist that beautiful mess of curls and drag those full red lips to mine and fuckingdevourher.
I stayed right the fuck where I was, hardly even breathing.
“Emberline,” I rasped. “Look at me.” I couldfeelher visceral reaction, the way hunger surged through her body in consuming waves, instincts snarling awake, the walls of her self-control shuddering as they began to fall.
Ember dragged her heavy-lidded gaze from my throat to my eyes, looking unsure, young, and inexperienced, and remorse flooded through me like poison, hot and mean and bitter.
“Do you want this?” I asked. “I’m not…” I wet my dry lips. “I won’t force you into something you don’t want,tesoro.”
“Yes,” she whispered helplessly, staring at me through half-lidded eyes as if she had no more control than I did. “I… need this, I think. And I’m… curious what you will taste like.” Another one of those blushes turned her skin the perfect shade of pink.
“Then take what you need,” I husked. “The rest of them will see the marks and make their assumptions, but only you and I will know what went on in this room.”
She swallowed once, nose flaring as my scent hit her, and her instincts took over. Feeding was a supremely primal act for a vampire, hunger and lust intimately entangled together, and she was wrestling with both.
She leaned closer, one hand braced on the chair, trying not to touch me, keeping enough space between us, she could convince herself this was safe.
“You need to get closer,tesoro.”I chuckled. “Unlike you, I’m not going to bite.”
She growled low in her throat, a frustrated, angry sound, then her body was flush against mine, a lean line of muscle, one hand clamped down over my shoulder, nails bitingthrough skin. I muffled my moan when her other hand slid down over my chest, flattened over my pec. Warm air ghosted over my skin, and I closed my eyes, bracing myself.
