I circled my tongue around the blunt head.
“Careful, now. That tickles.”
“Show it to me.”
Knowing what I was referring to, Christian crossed his arms and threw off his shirt faster than I could track. I wanted my eyes on that big, beautiful raven tattoo while I took him into my mouth.
Christian stroked my hair. “Jaysus,” he breathed.
I loved all the smooth and rough edges of Christian Poe. From his sharp tongue to his soft look. From his hard muscles to his pliant lips.
I fell into a slow rhythm, just the way he liked. When his eyes hooded and shoulders tensed, I drew back and let him see my fangs. Christian’s dark eyes went wild, his fangs punching out in response.
I stroked him from base to tip. “Do you want it?”
Without answering, he reached back and gripped the top of the headboard. The wood creaked from the pressure of his tight grasp, and his muscles were solid.
So much power.
So much control.
When my sharp fangs grazed the tip, he hissed. Vampires never got winded, but Christian’s chest rose and fell at a rapid pace as he gazed down at me like a feral creature—an image that would have terrified most with his deadly fangs and bottomless black eyes. I moved down the shaft to that lovely patch of skin where his leg joined to his hip. My fangs throbbed, hungry for his blood. Eager to please him, eager to please myself, I got on my knees and yanked his pants down to his ankles.
Christian groaned.
I sensed his anticipation as I softly kissed his skin, searching for just the right spot—the one he had shown me. My other hand stroked him fast and furious.
The headboard snapped.
Fear kept him from touching me. The fear of breaking my bones or crushing my skull in a moment of passion. There was only one way to level the playing field.
I drove my fangs deep down until blood filled my mouth.
Christian’s sharp groan hung in the air as I drank deep and continued stroking him. I braced myself for him to flip me onto my back and fuck me hard. That was how we played this game.
But he didn’t. He stretched out and let me take control.
He was actually going to let me drink until he climaxed.
God, yes. His blood united us, and I could feel his lust. It only heightened my desire, and with each swallow and each stroke, I could feel him getting closer and closer, the biting pulse of arousal at his fingertips.
I also felt a swell of Vampire power rising within me.
After licking the wound closed, I sat up, crawled onto his lap, and watched him snap my panties away as I reached to put him inside me.
His eyes were that of a depraved man as I rode him. Hard and fast. As if my life depended on it.
Christian gripped the back of my neck and pulled me down. The moment his fangs pierced my neck, it felt as if my eardrums were vibrating. His blood was coursing through me—ancient blood. The blood of his maker and every Vampire before him. Everything went still as he slid down on his back and I draped myself over him.
Christian drank greedily, his arms encircling me. The moment his tongue swiped over the wound to seal it, I yelled out, the sound filling the room and probably the hallway.
I sat up and studied his lips. Not a single drop of blood in sight, but it clearly intoxicated him judging by the way his lustful gaze settled on my bra. He made no attempt to remove it or tear it to shreds even though I knew he wanted to see my nipples, to taste them. To prick them with his fangs just enough to tease. But instead, he memorized their outline against the white cotton.
“You’re a fecking goddess,” he said, his hands on my thighs.
“Do I have to move the heavens to make you come?”
“Ladies first.”
And there we were, back in the game of who could hold out the longest. Once blood entered the picture, neither of us lasted long. We didn’t do it all the time, but it intensified everything.
I pinched his nipples until he bared his fangs at me. “The next costume ball we go to, we’re dressing as a llama.”
He gave me a quizzical stare.
With my palms on his shoulders, I leaned in and slowed my rhythm. “That way you can fuck me from behind in the middle of the room with everyone watching.”
“Won’t people wonder what the back end is doing bumping up against the front end?”
I kissed his mouth. “Stop overthinking it.”
His breath came in rapid pants against my lips as he chortled. When he saw my stunned reaction, his chest rocked with laughter, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.
I sat up and gave him a baleful look.
“Jaysus, I can’t help it, lass. Don’t be cross with me.”
“I thought you liked the dirty talk?”
He wiped his eyes with his palms. “Your dirty talk just took a left turn at the intersection of Stark and Raving Mad.”
I playfully ran my finger down his chest. “Says the man who once told me I tasted like the Dead Sea.” Falling out of the mood, I caught my breath and relaxed. “Sorry. I guess I’m distracted.”
“I can see that.” With Vampire strength, Christian lifted me up and laid me down beside him, still erect but no sign of disappointment on his face. No feelings hurt or desire to finish what we’d fallen out of. Christian didn’t believe in forcing desire, and if he knew how to read blood as well as he claimed, he probably sensed my distraction mingling with the passion. If my head wasn’t all the way in the game, he wasn’t in a hurry to play.
And that was what was so great about our relationship. No forced expectations. No hurt feelings. No petty arguments. Maybe it was the blood connection, but everything between us felt natural and easy.
I watched him pull up his pants and then kick off his shoes. Christian was a man of mystery. Most people would have gotten undressed, but he wasn’t one for lying around naked all the time. Not unless I was his blanket.
Which was a shame. Christian had a remarkable body I loved to admire.
He adjusted my pillow before lying on his side, head propped in his hand. “What’s on your mind? You’re anxious.”
“Maybe we should just lie here for a while and bask in our failures.”
He circled his finger around my navel. “I’m as satisfied as a man can be. Now tell me what vexes you.”
I crossed my ankles. “Blue and I did something today I’m concerned about. We went to see a sleuth and wound up releasing a chained woman. Well, she was in bear form.”
“And you were caught,” he said, twisting his mouth to one side.
“They weren’t too happy about it. Tensions flared, but nobody died.”
“Well, thank the heavenly angels for that. I wouldn’t envy the task of picking your carcass out of a bear’s teeth.”
I slapped his chest. “Who said I’d be the one to die?”
He arched an eyebrow. “How many bears?”
I stared up at the ceiling. “Just fourteen.”
He let out a single, sharp laugh. “Just fourteen, she says. And now you’re worried they’re coming after you. Is that it?”
“You know how fragile the male ego is. Normally I wouldn’t worry, but I’m going to be in Shifter territory for a while, and it’s possible I might run into them again. I’m not sure I’d even recognize all their faces. Everything happened so fast.” I turned on my side to face him.