As she sat quietly in his arms, she made a list of possible causes for her reaction other than sexual, but knew that she didn’t have enough factors to determine a conclusion. In the end, she closed her eyes as she absorbed his warmth and memorized how her body fit into his. She grew so comfortable cocooned in his arms that when his lips touched the shell of her ear, she barely noticed.
“Relaxed?” he asked.
“Mm-mm.”
His chest rumbled with a low laugh, and his arms tightened. “Even for a human, you are strange. Also funny, brilliant, and beautiful.”
Her soft laugh echoed throughout the room, but his lips drifted behind her ear and moved her attention from his words to the feel of his lips on her heated skin.
Opening her mouth to beg for something she couldn’t express, she shuddered when he buried his face in her hair and inhaled sharply.
He continued his delicate exploration down her neck until he reached the barrier of her shirt, which he tugged aside. When his lips pursed against the sensitive skin around her clavicle, she bit her lip to prevent a whimper from escaping her throat.
“So soft,” he murmured, his lips never moving from her skin.
She had no words to express the sensations that rushed through her at the innocent brush of his lips. Kai’s touch affected her more than she realized.
The few dates she had been on in the past had left her confused, wondering what trance men spun to have women forget about everything else around them. The kisses she shared with those men had been so far removed from explosive that she’d given up on finding the one man who would leave her breathless and wanting. She smiled when she realized where her thoughts had taken her. A man hadn’t drawn out her dormant feelings. A vampire had.
His hot breath traveled across her collarbone until he found her jugular. Her heart beat in an unnatural rhythm from the excitement of being in his arms, but there was no way to hide her reaction from him.
This time, when he stroked his tongue over the area, the prickle of heat lingered on her skin for much longer than it had before, and she was unable to prevent the cry of need that escaped her lips.
His tongue slicked over her skin once again, and her body tensed at the sensations that left her breasts tight and her core throbbing. When he pulled back, her eyes opened as she tried to find her voice to protest his desertion, but he quickly shifted her on his body, until her legs straddled his thighs and her breasts were flush against his chest. As she relaxed, her core brushed against his hardness through layers of clothing, distracting her, while his teeth sank into her neck with practiced ease.
Everything that she’d been worried about—the pain, the pierce of his teeth against her skin, the sound of him drinking from her—were muted in the background. Pleasure, unlike anything she’d ever experienced or could’ve dreamed of, washed over her untried body and she unmercifully pressed herself against him. Her strangled cries of pleasure were drowned out by the constant growl that rumbled out of his throat as he drank. But with each pull, she moved closer and closer to release. When she whispered his name, trying to convey her swirling emotions from this new revelation, his body tensed under hers.
In a flash of movement, she found herself pressed against the wall near the kitchen, grateful she had something to lean on, as she found her knees barely able to hold her up. After his last lick on her sensitive skin to close the punctures from his teeth, she reached blindly for him, but her reach met with emptiness.
A metallic whir reached her, but she ignored the sound. Her body shivered without his warmth pressed close to her. Her eyes blinked open and found him in front of the picture window, staring blankly at the shimmering lights of the town, his head bowed. She could hear his breathing from across the room, while he stood stiffly with his back toward her, effectively shutting her out.
While her mind searched for a reason for his abrupt departure, her body cooled from the distance between them, and the horror of the situation presented itself.
He needed to feed, an essential need for everyone, and she took the opportunity to take her pleasure from him, all because she couldn’t control her desire when he touched her.
Embarrassment washed over her, even as she remembered his hardness pressed against her core and his hips surging up to meet hers. With his heightened senses, and he could surely smell her arousal from his touch. She had accosted him, aroused him, all because she couldn’t control her need for him whenever he touched her.
The situation between them would be considered adversarial. In a round about way, she had been a factor in creating a drug that could kill him and his colleagues, and he’d done her a great favor by vowing to protect her. Although her reactions to his touch had been unexpected, she shouldn’t have allowed herself to be carried away by the wonderful sensations he drew from her, and by doing so, she had made it awkward between them.
A deep breath escaped her tight throat and she glanced up to see that the stiffness of his posture hadn’t relaxed. She decided to give him distance, and she needed to get her rioting emotions under control.
“Excuse me,” she said.
She turned and stumbled down the hall toward the bathroom, and shut the door with a quiet click. Not bothering with the lock, she turned on the cold water and splashed her heated face several times. A small vibration of pleasure was still present as she moved. She closed her eyes, trying to will it away. Her nipples felt tight against the cups her bra, and her panties were damp with unfulfilled pleasure. As she smoothed down her shirt, she resisted the urge to check the marks on her neck.
It took several minutes before she could breathe normally, and as the fog cleared, she knew that she had to come up with a plan to combat her response when he touched her. Pain and sickness were her forte, not ways to combat gratification or pleasure, especially when she didn’t have experience to deal with her attraction toward Kai. It wasn’t because he saved her life, or him being an immortal that made him an unknown quantity. It boiled down to the way his touch ignited her and made her crave more.
The one problem of her newly discovered attraction. He made a vow to protect her because of the situation she had brought to their attention and not because he chose to have her stay. She had to remember that although essential, feeding from her was distasteful.
Her life became endangered the moment she had made the decision to destroy research, but although they were stuck together until a group decision had been reached, she knew she had to make it as easy for him as she could.
So, she became resolute.
She would become numb to his touch and lecture her body not to react to him, no matter how many times a day he would need to feed. If need be, she would think of scientific calculations in order not to react, do anything to get her mind off the pleasure from his touch.
That, or expire from unfulfilled lust.
Chapter Seven
Kai
Kai had heard her quick retreat as she hurried down the hall, recognizing which door she disappeared behind by the soft click as it closed, but couldn’t manage to unfreeze his large form in order to follow her.
His chest heaved with deep breaths as he tried to cool his heated body. Aware of the distant flutter of wings from nocturnal birds outside and the silence throughout the rest of the house, his thoughts refused to budge from the woman in the other room. Rough fingers rubbed against his forehead as he tried to understand his reaction to the taste of her blood, the smell of her skin as it heated from his touch, and a sexual urgency that had left him stunned by the intensity of it.
He couldn’t decide what affected him more. Her sweet blood that had tasted more like a delicacy, or the desire that pulsed in his veins as her soft curves pressed against him.
She had trusted him, despite her fear and the way he had treated her since he brought her home. He found himself torn between taking her soft mouth beneath his, or sinking his fangs into her luscious skin. But in the end, his thirst had won out.
Between the con
tract on her life, and trying to keep his distance from the temptation she presented, he hadn’t given much thought to sustenance, and that had presented a danger that he hadn’t thought through.
He never allowed a lapse in feeding, but he knew that answer didn’t allow for the reason he reacted with such intensity to her taste. He wanted to blame his reaction to her presence in his home or the simmering attraction beneath the surface, but while he drank from her, pleasure beyond anything he’d ever felt gripped him. Avoidance had deepened his need for her, not detracted from it, and he knew he couldn’t stay away from her for a moment longer.
Without a solid idea how to proceed, he hurried to the bathroom door, pausing when he heard her voice. When he realized what she said, he smiled as he listened to her whisper to herself as her feet shuffled on the tile floor. Relieved that he hadn’t been the only one distressed by what had happened, he struck the door with a soft rap so he didn’t startle her. Her mutterings came to an abrupt stop, and he found he missed her voice.
For a long moment, he considered what he would do if she refused to speak with him. He’d understood with clarity how rude he’d been when he put distance between them after such an intimate encounter, but before he could come up with the proper apology, the door swung open. A smile lifted the corner of his lips. Liv had been nothing but brave, and he expected nothing less of her, even if she stood in front of him, a blush of embarrassment staining her cheeks.
“I didn’t quite get what you were saying,” he said.
Her fist shot out, and when she punched him in the arm, a laugh rumbled from his throat. He rubbed his arm, a natural human reaction that he must’ve never forgotten, and she rolled her eyes at his action.
“Don’t be obtuse. I know that it didn’t hurt. But if you keep teasing me, I will find a way to make it excruciating for you.” Her hand whipped up and slapped against her mouth, her eyes bulging.
His roar of laughter echoed through the room, and something inside him settled at her actions. She would never hurt him and with clarity, knew she would have never developed a weapon to do just that.
Before she could stumble over her words or express guilt, he snaked an arm around her waist and tugged her close. He hugged her against him for a split second before he stepped back. He enjoyed her uninhibited reactions to him and smiled as her breath hitched at his unexpected contact.
“I should have warned you about the possibility of my venom causing euphoria. I must’ve allowed too much venom to release into your body,” he said.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it euphoric,” she mumbled.
“What…”
Her eyes darted around the room until they settled on the floor.
“Erotic. It was the most erotic experience of my life.” She glanced up. “Does…is that what usually happens?”
Fuck.
The words that fell elegantly from her lips shocked his body with intense desire, and as fast as he could pull his next breath, his cock was pressed against the zipper of his jeans, pulsing.
He could smell her arousal, thick and honeyed in his nose, and bit back a groan as he spotted her swollen nipples through her shirt. Because of a growing hunger that had nothing to do with her sweet blood, the next words out of his mouth were gruff and rapid.
“No. I hypnotize them so they can’t remember the experience. If I can’t drink from a target, then I’m provided a volunteer, and after the experience, I wipe their memory of the event.”
“Why didn’t you hypnotize me?”
He opened his mouth to give her an excuse, any number of the ones that he’d come up with to justify his actions, but the truth flew out of his mouth before he could censor himself.
“I didn’t think about it. You allowed me a small taste when I scraped my fang against your wrist, and despite your earlier anxiety, you sank into my arms and trusted me not to hurt you. The moment I tasted you, I couldn’t stop myself from taking more.”
A silence stretched between them as he watched her as she mulled over his words. He listened to her stuttered breathing, and absently wondered at her next question for him, while his sole thought was on how to control his need to taste more than her blood.
His eyes skimmed the counter as he calculated the quickness of his hands undressing her, exposing inch by inch of creamy, olive skin to his viewing, before he set her on the counter and feasted on her. He tried to imagine whether she tasted of honey, or another sweetness that he’d discounted after honey had taken residence in his brain. He thought about his lips traveling over every inch of skin as he exposed her to his view, with slow, torturous movements.
Lust, and something more he couldn’t determine at the moment, slammed into him with such force, he dug his nails into his palms enough to bleed and allowed the pain to wash over him so he could regain a small semblance of control. He healed at a rapid rate, so no matter how deep he cut himself, the pain wouldn’t be able to distract him for long.
“Kai?”
His eyes snapped back up to hers. The flush on her face drew him closer, but after one step, he made himself stop. Had she guessed his thoughts?
“Does drinking from me,” she swallowed, “stimulate you sexually?”
A snarl tore from his throat to prevent the words that would come across as a plea. Instead of shrinking at his hostile gesture, a smile played on the corner of her lips as she studied him. Her eyes roamed his body, similar to how he scanned her a few minutes before. But with each demure drop of her eyes, or what felt like a caress of his sensitized skin, heat erupted underneath his skin and burned, unimpeded.
“If you drank a little longer, I would have found my release.”
Unsure whether his heart beat faster from her body’s earlier silent admission, or her verbal one, he stood mute as she stared into his eyes.
“But I’m not quite sure if it was the pleasure of your venom in my system, or because I was able to touch you.”
His arousal made the next words harsher than he would have liked. “It was the venom.”
“I have to admit that I was attracted to you the moment I spotted you.”
“You only saw me for a few minutes the other night—”
“No, months ago, when you first came into the diner. I noticed everything about you. You never ordered anything, never spoke to anyone other than Stella—and that was to dismiss her—and left soon after I did. I sensed that you were near, but I could never catch sight of you anywhere. It drove me crazy that your hood had covered your face, but I found myself anticipating the moment when you entered the diner and my eyes would search you out, more than I would like to admit, even now. I remember it was a Wednesday, three months ago, that you finally lowered the hood, and I could see your face and your silver eyes. I found that handsome was such a pedestrian word for you. And after all of these months, I still haven’t come up with one that fits.”
Her words held no deceit. But in all the times he’d walked into the diner and observed her, they’d never locked eyes or had he even been aware that she’d known of his presence in the eatery she frequented. Yet, she knew the exact day he had rid himself of the covering and could admit, although to himself, that he’d been following her to keep her safe. Humans were fragile, delicate, and although she’d shown daring and cleverness, a surge of protectiveness washed over him whenever she was close. With that need came another, a pull so tenacious that he sensed her in ways beyond the abilities of his vampire form.
When he’d been short with her in the bedroom, he perceived her sadness at being brushed aside. When he’d spoken about Jade, jealousy overwhelmed his senses. As she spoke to Seth, he had been happy and relaxed, and on one occasion, he found himself grinning when Seth asked her about her work.
Although he had a mind link with the assassins when needed due to years of training and working closely together, he had never experienced someone else’s emotions, much less as acutely as he seemed to sense her.
Each minute he spent with her, he was torn bet
ween the growing need to touch and memorize every inch of her luscious body and finding another assassin to keep her safe while he straightened out his jumbled mind. But the latter thought was dismissed as quickly as it entered. He would keep her close.
“Yes, to answer your earlier question, I find you sweet to drink from, but your soft curves and beauty arouse me, inflame me,” he said.
“I want to kiss you.”
Despite the pleasure her statement had created in him, he thought it fair to warn her.
“It might lead to more,” he replied.
“I’m hoping it will,” she said.
Within a second, he lifted her into his arms, and he took his first real taste of her lips.
Chapter Eight
Olivia
Pure pounding bliss rushed through her veins as his mouth mastered her untried one in a move that left her breathless and aching. His soft lips sipped at hers, a teasing lick on the corners of her mouth, before he slowly moved his tongue between her lips, seeking permission in a subtle, yet carnal way.
She opened for him in an instant.
His tongue swept inside, and at her first taste of him, a frosty mint taste that had her shivering in his arms, she understood what she hadn’t before. A kiss should be intimate and encompassing. He proceeded to show her as his lips mastered hers; each slide of his tongue weakened her knees and caused a surge of hunger so acute, her body throbbed.
She sighed into his mouth each time his hands gripped her tighter, as if he worried that she would somehow fall away from him. He branded her hips and waist as he moved her closer to his body, the promise of pleasure her fantasies failed to live up to.
Their bodies synchronized. When he shifted to the right, she would follow; if she leaned back, he would crowd forward. Each movement mimicked, all while their lips and tongues sought more.
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