“I trust you.” She palmed the back of my head and drew me down, but we both knew I wouldn’t have gone with her if I hadn’t wanted to.
My mouth watered.
“I can’t glamour you. You’ll remember every second.” My lips brushed her skin, and I kissed her gently as the need roared within me.
“Good. Now feed.” Her heartbeat quickened, but her grip only tightened. Still, I held back, knowing that the first drop that hit my tongue, I’d be lost. “Please, Alek, let me take care of you. Please.”
I struck, clean and hard, my fangs sinking into her neck and piercing her vein. Holy fucking perfect. Honey and almonds, spiced with cinnamon and that warm, sugared vanilla. Her blood filled my mouth and slid down my throat easier than wine. I’d never tasted anything like her.
“Alek,” she moaned, and her hips undulated against mine. My cock strained against the leather of my pants. I wanted to consume her in every way, to bury myself deep inside her as I fed. But somehow, she’d made it to the age of twenty-four without sharing her body, and I wasn’t going to fuck her on a table for her first time.
I couldn’t glamour her—couldn’t make her forget, but I could make it just as good for her. I drank deep, feeling the strength rush back into me with every pull at her throat, and my hand slid between her thighs, and she parted them wider, urging me closer.
My thumb pressed into her cleft, and I growled without breaking my bite, the sound low and deep in my chest. She wasn’t just wet, she was soaked through the fabric of her panties. I pushed the lace against her clit, and she gasped.
Her flavor changed, turning even sweeter and more addictive—she wanted me. I moved my thumb in the same rhythm as the pulls at her throat, using the lace for delicate friction. The feeding had her almost there, her thighs tightening around my hips.
“Alek…oh my God.” She ran her hand under my shirt, her fingers stroking up over my abs to my chest and the inked skin that bore my family’s crest right above my heart. “Alek, Alek, Alek.” She chanted my name, but I couldn’t reply. Couldn’t lift my mouth. Didn’t dare mar her skin by striking again and wasn’t even sure I had the willpower to release her.
If I couldn’t take her fully like every cell in my body demanded, then I would at least taste her orgasm singing through her blood.
I supported her back, then scraped my nail across the lace covering her clit, and she gasped.
I pinched, and she groaned, her thighs trembling.
I pressed and rubbed, and she came apart, screaming my name and going limp under me. Sweet, addictive, nectar rushed over my tongue, and I drank and drank as she shuddered again and again each pull of my mouth brought another wave until we were both lost.
Her heartbeat stopped pounding and…stuttered.
I broke my bite, swiping my tongue over the small puncture marks to seal them shut and kick-start her own healing process, then jerked my head back to look in her eyes.
They were hazy with satisfaction, but her cheeks had paled. Her breathing slowed.
“I took too much.” Fear chilled my lust in less time than it took to blink.
“I’m okay,” she insisted, her words slurring.
“You’re not. Fuck, Lyric, I’m so sorry.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d apologized to anyone, but I’d spend the rest of my life pleading for her forgiveness. Her head rolled against me as I gathered her in my arms, carrying her limp frame over to the couch and settling her in my lap.
Slow. Her heartbeat was too slow. I hadn’t just taken too much, I’d nearly drained her.
Her beautiful eyes fluttered shut.
“Damn it. Lyric, open your eyes.” I held her head upright. “You’re dying. I took too much. You have to drink.” It was the only chance she had.
Her eyes flared open, but only for a second. “I’m not drinking blood again. Yuck.”
“Look at me.”
She forced her eyes open, meeting my gaze.
“You have to feed, Lyric. I can’t lose you.” Panic formed a pit in my stomach. “It doesn’t…” I battled my own instincts, my fangs descending even though I’d just fed. “It doesn’t have to be me. I can get you someone else, but you have to feed.” I’d simply kill the other vampire directly after. No one else would be allowed to live after being inside Lyric in any way. Ever.
“I’ll die?” Her brow furrowed as if she finally understood the gravity of our situation.
I nodded, my lips pressing into a firm line. Even now her heart was slowing, the euphoria from the bite and her orgasm fading.
“Only you,” she whispered.
Thank fuck. She was going to feed. I scored my wrist with a fang and pressed the small cut to her lips. She’d been nearly unconscious the last time I’d done this.
She swallowed once, then locked eyes with me and didn’t look away as her mouth opened against my wrist. Then she drank, her eyes flaring at the first sip.
“You’re doing great.” My dick surged as I watched her lips on my skin, felt her soft, drawing sucks. I listened to the rhythm of her heart steady, then grow stronger. “Just a little more, baby.” Where the fuck did that endearment come from?
Her skin flushed with health, and I sighed in relief. “That’s enough. You can sleep off the rest.”
She broke the suction at my wrist, and I quickly ran my tongue over the cut to seal it shut.
“Are you okay?” I asked, cradling her against my chest. It had been so close, and I’d been so utterly fucking stupid to lose myself and endanger her like that.
She nodded, touching her lips with her fingers. “Is it weird if I say that you taste really good?” Her forehead scrunched.
I laughed. “I’ll take it as a compliment because you taste fucking incredible.” I already felt stronger, my powers flexing and expanding to fill the room, the house, the estate. I knew instantly where every vampire was and who they were with. I was back.
“As good as the humans you keep over in the other house?” She arched a brow and licked her lower lip.
I cradled her face and stroked her cheek with my thumb. “You taste better than anyone I’ve ever come across.” My brow furrowed. “It’s why I took too much.”
She lifted her hand and smoothed the skin between my eyebrows. “Don’t worry so much. I’m fine. I’m better than fine.” She grinned.
I caught her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm.
That’s when I saw it.
Gravity shifted again, but this time I wasn’t floating away, wasn’t lost. I was tethered to her—to Lyric.
The cravings. The need. The possessive, primal feelings. It all made perfect sense, and there was no denying it anymore, not now that she’d even opened the door to the battle room. “I know why the door let you in,” I muttered, studying the circular tattoo that consumed the inches beneath her wrist.
It was identical to the mark above my heart—the heart that now lurched at my ribs like it was the only barrier to get to her.
“Because I’m human so it didn’t know what to do with me?” she teased.
I shook my head slowly, and turned her hand so she could see her wrist.
She gasped.
“Because it recognized you as a member of the royal family. You’re my mate.”