“What does it feel like?” I whisper again.
“What?” he whispers back this time, and I bite my lip. His mouth is still millimeters from my neck.
“If you… you know…” I angle my neck the tiniest bit, but it’s enough for him to catch the movement, and his chest rises against my back with a sharp inhale.
“If I bit you?” He pretends to bite me, lightly pinching the skin at the base of my neck between his teeth, causing me to suck in a quick breath and freeze.
My emotions are all over the place now; there’s definitely some fear mixed in at this point as my shifter instincts respond to the threat of a vampire at my neck, but there’s also undeniable lust threading through me as my insides turn molten with the feel of his body pressed against mine.
I offer a hesitant nod in response, and his lips ghost over the indents his teeth leave in my skin as he releases me.
“It feels however I want it to feel. It can hurt.” At this he lightly drags his teeth from my outer shoulder to the base of my neck.
“It can be numbing.” This time his elongating fangs scrape up my neck and behind my ear.
“It can bring pleasure…” His words flutter over my skin and his fangs graze the shell of my ear before he sucks my earlobe into his mouth.
It’s at this moment that I realize the full effect he has on me. My thighs are clenched together with my ass pushing back into him, and I’m straight up panting. Like a dog in heat.
Or a turned on shifter during the full moon.
I gulp in air and swallow some of it on accident while trying to wrestle control of my senses back from him, causing me to choke as my earlobe pops out of his mouth.
His lips curve against my ear into what I’m sure must be the smuggest smirk to ever grace this plane of existence. I choose not to give him the satisfaction of confirming it by looking.
It takes me a few seconds to compose myself before speaking again, and I ignore the breathiness of my voice when I finally respond.
“I didn’t know any of that was possible.”
“It’s all about intention.” His nose is in my hair again, his fingers tracing patterns over my lower stomach. “I told you all you have to do is ask, and I’ll happily make you feel the best you’ve ever felt.”
I don’t respond—don’t know how to respond—but I don’t pull away either, and he takes that for the yes that I mean it to be. Asher kisses lightly along my ear and neck, and as he nips at the sensitive skin, he tightens his hold around my waist.
I’m forced to let out the involuntary whimper that’s been hiding behind my lips this whole time, and he loosens his hold when he hears it.
Pulling back from me, Asher raises himself on one elbow, angling his body over mine as he admires me quivering beneath him.
“Later, little shifter," he says, lightly tracing the line of my neck with one finger and following the path with hiseyes. When my throat bobs under his touch, his gaze flicks back up to mine. “Now, we practice.”
“Wait, what?” I scramble up, my body chasing after his without my permission, but he’s already across the room and closing the bathroom door behind him.
Stupid, horrible, evil vampire.
I slap a hand to my forehead, then swipe it down my face.
“What just happened?” I whisper, voice muffled by the hand covering my mouth in what I’m absolutely, positively sure must be one hundred percent horror, with no hints of desire to be found. Besides, if there were any, they’d obviously be due to the full moon and not the sinful vampire I’ve been sharing a room and bed with.
The shiftingpractice that morning doesn’t go as well as the day before. I’m not able to shift on purpose, but I do feel more centered and stable, and I focus on my inner animal presence again. It’s getting easier to differentiate it from myself.
I attribute the mediocre progress to my emotions going haywire from Asher’s bedroom antics this morning. Despite sharing a bed with him, I’ve been getting better sleep than I have since this random shifting started over a year ago. It makes no sense, as I should be more anxious and uncomfortable in such close proximity to him, but I’m responding opposite to that. Not to mention, it’s becoming incredibly difficult to focus when he’s anywhere near me.
I still can’t wrap my head around it; it feels like we’ve been dancing around each other forever, even though we’ve only known each other for a matter of weeks.
It could be that weird phenomenon that happens when you’re in a new place so everything feels different but normal at the same time. That’s how I’ve been feeling, and it makesme dread returning to Portland. I’ll have to come clean to Zuri about Asher, which is sure to be a disaster. There’s no way I can tell her everything though; what would Zuri think about me wanting to be bitten? I shudder.
Insane. That’s what she’d think.
There’s no way I can deal with that right now. I’ll be as honest as I can, without revealing too much about how close we’ve gotten.
