I let him feel my curiosity rather than asking aloud.
“I wanted you,” he replied. “Except if you’d found out the truth, you’d leave. That you might not discover the subterfuge didn’t sit well with me either. Neither did the fact you wouldn’t tell me who you really were of your own volition.”
A knot of anger coiled in my stomach. “You had so many chances to tell me, Kyros.”
“The thought has kept me up many a morning.”
Good.
We turned onto the freeway, heading toward the theme park. Lyall Bay glistened beyond it.
“Thank you for explaining,” I said, remembering my reason for being here.
“Thank you, but no thank you?” he murmured. No accusation filled his voice.
“Essentially. You had a shot. To say that you blew it is a gross understatement. I’ll move on and you need to come to terms with that.”
“No man can make you feel like I can.”
Don’t I know it.
I studied the ticking of his jaw muscle. “You assume sexual pleasure is vitally important to me. After what I’ve been through at the hands of Vissimo, I crave safety and security. You can’t fulfil either.”
A wall of shock descended upon me, none of it mine.
He pulled off the freeway, taking the ramp for Lyall Bay. Not a speck of his disbelief showed outwardly as we continued driving, but the emotion ran rampant through him.
That was news to him? I’d never been beaten up so much as during the last seven weeks.
Kyros was silent until we parked next to a beachside restaurant.
“You don’t believe I can protect you?” he asked, killing the engine.
I observed him, inside and out. My answer mattered. I also wasn’t willing to lie to spare his alpha ego—the work of over a century.
“No. Not with the game you play,” I replied.
He reached across my hips and pulled the lever on the outside of my seat. The chair thudded back, taking me with it.
Kyros covered my body with his, braced on his elbows, his knee between my legs.
“You don’t think I could fight off anyone who threatened to harm you?” He growled, dipping his head to the swell of my breasts.
He pushed my white cover-up down, baring a shoulder.
I gasped as he kissed between my breasts, moving across the hem of the tiny bikini triangles to kiss every inch of skin the swimsuit failed to contain.
I gasped as he bit the outside of my right breast gently, then lapped at the same spot with his tongue.
“You doubt my power?” His mouth moved to repeat the ministrations on my other breast. I arched up against his leg as he slid a hand up the outside of my thigh with grating slowness.
I’d mentioned car bonnets to him yesterday, but hell if I wasn’t changing that fantasy to the passenger seat. My back arched higher, and I panted my reply, “Not your physical strength.”
I’m going to combust.
“I’m already one of the most powerful alphas in the world,” Kyros snarled. “In time, there will be few I cannot best. How is it you don’t feel safe?”
Irritation crackled within me. “I feel safe from them.”
His face blanked, and I turned my face away.
“This wasn’t part of the deal,” I mumbled. “I want to go to the beach.”
“Tell me,” the Vissimo above me demanded.
I shoved at his rock-hard stomach, glaring up at him. “I don’t feel safe from you, Kyros. How can you possibly feel confused over that? Do I need to spell out that I don’t trust you after everything you’ve done to me? Now get off me before I knee you in your damn vampire balls!”
His mouth covered mine.
Bliss.
A low moan left me. Or was it his?
Heat, want, desperation, relief, betrayal.
His feelings were my own. Mine his. Telling them apart when we both felt so strongly was impossible. A hissing sigh escaped my lips, and I opened my mouth to him, hands seeking purchase on his tight tee.
“That fucking bathing suit,” he said hoarsely.
“More,” I pleaded.
His tongue battled with mine as his hands roamed. My hands? Fuck, it wasn’t just his emotion plus mine. The effect was exponential. I was at exploding point from sensory overload.
A knowing heat, a languidness built within me—the feeling of us meeting equivalent to multiple sets of hands roaming over me, stroking and nibbling.
“Kyros,” I panted, eyes wide.
Fear coursed between us. Not all of it mine.
He dipped his head to my neck, cursing.
The vampire leaned forward, grinding his thigh into me, and my head thudded back onto the headrest. My knees clamped either side of his leg, hands reaching to yank him closer and position him exactly where I wanted. But there wasn’t enough space. I was hovering on some kind of ecstasy. One I may never recover from. One that would consume me forever.
Breath catching, I circled my hips, pulling his toffee hair to force his face back to mine. With each passing second, it was harder to be afraid of coming undone.
“It’s not enough,” I said with a bite, a primal desperation filling me. I wanted to be consumed.
Kyros lifted his head.
Gleaming fangs.
I froze.
He dropped his head again, heaving with ragged breaths. “I want to drink from you,” he said, pain screwing his expression. “We need to stop or I’ll force the fourth exchange on you.”
Right now, I needed almost zero convincing, but another second of clarity brought back our surroundings. “Uh, yeah. A restaurant filled with people probably isn’t the best place for that.”
Three giggling teens were staring at us from a park bench.
Oops.
“You’d let me?” Kyros moaned as his fangs retracted back into his gums.
I watched in fascination. “Not in my right mind, no. Now, absolutely.”
“Fuck,” he hissed, hands curling to fists either side of my head. “That’s not helping.”
His phone vibrated in the console.
I glanced at him, but Kyros wasn’t home right now. I fished for his phone.
“Yello?” I asked, pressing the cool device to my ear.
“She’s with him. She just answered.”
I pulled the phone away to read the screen.
“Gerome? What do you want?”
Snickers trailed down the line, and I glanced at Kyros as he pried off my body and returned to the driver’s seat.
“Are all of you there?” I sighed.
“Shh, she can hear you.”
Sometimes I found it hard to believe Kyros’s siblings were older than seven. Except Safina. She was legit badass.
“Is my brother there?” Gerome asked.
I eyed the vampire next to me.
Nodding, Kyros extended his hand.
A ball of excitement formed in my gut. The fourth blood exchange would be easier than I’d thought. The same thing just had to happen in the right setting—his tower.
“What?” he snapped.
Couldn’t blame him. I felt seriously unsatisfied too. I straightened on my seat and twitched my cover-up back into place over my boobs, fidgeting against the agonising ache between my legs.
Just what I needed.
I exhaled, fidgeting again. Ten seconds. That was all it’d take to get me there in this state.