26
HENRI
“Are you afraid of me?”
You posed this question to me in our bedroom. I’d secured Seneser for the night and made sure Lucian was adequately accommodated. Your cat opted to bed down with Lucian, which meant we had the room to ourselves. At the moment, you were reclined against an excess of pillows, wearing only your underwear and cradling a bottle of blood in your lap.
“Why would you say that?” I asked while trying to determine the nature of your inquiry. As was more common lately, I came up short.
Your dark eyes held mine captive as your fist squeezed the neck of the glass bottle, knuckles paling from the pressure. “You kissed me in your condo, then ran out the door. You gave me a blow job at the Bambi Hotel, then never said a word about it.”
“Compelling evidence,” I said.
“You say you want things with me, but you don’t follow through. That I’m irresistible, but here you are, resisting.”
You shifted so that you were kneeling with the bottle still between your thighs. I ventured closer to the bed. Your natural scent mingled with your cologne and was sharpened by a hint of blood—not yours. I suspected you’d already been nursing that bottle, though there was still a bite of hunger about you, customary for a youngblood.
“I’m not afraid of you, but I am wary of the effect you have on me,” I said carefully.
You licked your lips and tilted your head, silver hair falling over one eye alluringly as you stared at my thickening shaft, obvious in my ballooning trousers.
“That effect?” you asked, twisting your grip around the glass neck while your inner thighs squeezed the bottle.
“I like to be in control. That’s how I feel I’m better able to protect you. And when we’re intimate like this…” I swallowed, and my thoughts abandoned me because you’d bitten down on your lip. Ruby red droplets beaded up on your velvet skin.
“When we’re intimate…” you prompted.
There were no secrets between us anymore. Even if I wanted to keep them, I didn’t believe that I could.
“I lose all reason.”
“Worried I’ll take advantage of you?”
I smiled ruefully. “Or that I might. You’re innocent.”
“I’m notthatinnocent.” Your tongue swept across your mouth and claimed what had collected there. Your neck was lovely and unblemished. How much lovelier it would be when my teeth marked it. “I think you’re only lying to yourself.”
“About?”
“Part of you wants to protect my virtue, but another part wants to ruin me.”
“Ruin you?” I said. Blood pounded in my ears. And elsewhere.
“Yeah,” you said dreamily. “But you can’t have your cake and eat it too, Henri.” Your thumb massaged the cork that stoppered the bottle, so much like you massaged the ridge of your erection when you were pleasuring yourself, smoothing the slick over the crown until it glistened.
The stopper fell off, and you lifted the bottle to your lips, revealing your strident arousal. Blood dribbled out the corners of your mouth messily, the crimson fluid skirting down your chin and dripping onto your chest. Were you trying to evoke my bloodlust?
“Thirsty?” You held it out to me, eyes burning brightly from the feed, sharp teeth stained red. I nodded dumbly, rendered speechless by your provocation. I reached for it, and you drew it back to your chest as if to deny me. “First, get naked.”
In a way it was easier, made me less culpable in my mind. I stripped my shirt from my back and unbuckled my belt, removing it entirely from around my waist. I tossed the leather strap on the bed beside you. Your nostrils flared, and I made note of it.
“You removed Seneser’s gag when I told you not to,” I said, and you nodded slowly, a deviant look lighting up your eyes. “Why would you do that?”
“I wanted to ask him some questions. Without you snarling and snapping.”
You’d proven yourself a far better interrogator than me, and yet, I didn’t like that you’d disobeyed me. This was new territory for me, figuring out when to lead and when to follow.
“Did you learn anything interesting?” I asked.
