Page 45 of Nightshade

Not with him tightening around me with his own orgasm. All I could feel, all I could see, all I could think of, was Altair, filling every one of my senses and finally overflowing as my own orgasm crested inside me, and I filled him up completely, arching up into his body as I released.

Then I collapsed back to the bed, breathing hard, and he fell atop me, a sated smile on his beautiful lips.

I held him, stroking his hair, until both of us fell asleep, still naked and sticky, and neither of us seeming to care a single bit.

CHAPTER 22

Altair

He held me.

The fool held me, his fingers carding gently through my hair. His heart was pounding so hard, it was all I could hear. And he surrounded me.

He was so warm all over, every single part of him. He let me slip my top leg between his, tuck my toes beneath the underside of his knee.

I drifted in and out of sleep, half aware because I wasn’t alone. For the first time in so long, there was someone beside me who made me feel safe and wanted.

I wanted to wrap myself around him and cling like those vines we’d found.

I wanted to bite every part of him and mark him as my own.

The second that thought crossed my mind, I froze. My tongue slipped over the sharp point of a canine and I shivered.

Was this what Victor meant?

I’d fed from humans before. Not under Ivan, and not while I was with the witches, but in the years between. I’d killed plenty—not everyone, but some. There were plenty who deserved it, the selfish and cruel, but Leo was neither of those things.

He was kindness incarnate, all warmth and generosity. His smile was so sweet it broke my heart a little every time I saw it, because how had I lived so long without it?

But I’d never thought to possess anyone before. I’d never wanted ownership. The thought of turning a vampire, of having the same control over someone that Ivan had over me, turned my stomach. Yes, sometimes it was tempting to think of how much easier things might be if I had a servant, a built-in ally who couldn’t betray me, but I knew what it was to have your will bent and shaped to another’s. I didn’t want to be the source of that pain.

Only, curled against Leo, I desperately wanted to bite him, every inch. I wanted to bury my face against his neck, press my lips to his skin, and drink my fill.

The problem: I was sure I couldn’t get enough.

Maybe this was why Ivan had torn me open—this draw toward possession, this need to make him mine.

Other creatures felt love, but vampires? It must be some twisted, blighted thing.

I shivered, tightening my arm around Leo’s middle and burying my face against his firm chest.

He was here with me. He’d come of his own volition, and he’d looked at me with arms outstretched and hope in his eyes.

He’d wanted me. I hadn’t taken advantage. I hadn’t hurt him. I hadn’t lost control.

But could I?

I’d never wanted anyone like this, and it was all too easy to imagine burning the whole world down just to keep him at my side. I wouldn’t give it a second thought if he could still look at me and smile.

I’d turn into something worse than Ivan to keep him.

Leo must’ve felt the tension running through me. He inhaled through his nose, his chest rising fully, and when he let the breath out again, his hand swept down my arm.

“What’s the matter?” he whispered into my hair, almost too quiet to hear.

He’d been worried about waking Viktor before, and . . . truth told, no, I didn’t want his brother to catch him in my bed. It’d only prove his worst fears true.

I shivered, burying against Leo’s ribcage until he turned toward me. Both his arms wrapped around me, and I was spared having to meet his eye tucked into the curve of his chest.