Chapter 23
Kylie
I wake up smiling.
The fire in the hearth has burned down to embers, painting the cabin in low orange light. Rook’s arm is still wrapped around me like a steel bar, heavy and sure, as if it hasn’t moved once since I fell asleep.
I wiggle just enough to test a theory, and he doesn’t stir. Not even a little. And I tilt my head back and find him already looking at me.
“Were you just…watching me sleep?” I ask on a whisper.
“Yes.” He smiles, and there’s no embarrassment or hesitation.
“Oh boy.” I giggle. “That’s either incredibly romantic or incredibly creepy.”
“Depends how you feel about it.”
“Definitely romantic. Though, maybe it should be a red flag?” I roll onto my side, propping myself up on my elbow so I can see him better. “Pretty sure most serial killer documentaries start with someone creepily watching another human being sleep.”
His chest shifts with a surprised laugh, and that leads to several hearty chuckles escaping his lips. Grumpy, surly, always-super-serious Rook Slater laughing? Man, I love that sound. Want to spend the rest of forever hearing that sound.
“I can assure you, I’m not a serial killer,” he says with an amused smile.
“But I won’t deny I love watching you sleep.
I also love watching you smile.” He reaches out to run his index finger across my currently smiling mouth.
“And laugh. And talk. And do pretty much anything at any given moment of the day.”
“So…you’re obsessed with me?” I ask, my smile turning teasing.
“Oh baby, I’m more than obsessed with you.”
I don’t miss the fact that he looks exactly the same as he did hours ago—alert, calm, eyes dark and focused like the night hasn’t touched him at all.
“You’re not tired tonight,” I note.
“No.” He smiles again. “Vampires don’t get tired.”
“What do you mean by that exactly?”
“I mean, we don’t need to sleep.”
I search his eyes. “Like at all?”
He shakes his head.
“So…every time I’m sleeping…you’re just awake? Holding me for hours?”
“Yes.” He presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “And there’s no other place I’d rather be.”
Warmth presses against my rib cage, and I touch my palm flat to his chest, feeling the solid heat and steady strength of him.
“You know, that feels wildly unfair,” I murmur. “You don’t need to eat, you’re basically running on unlimited batteries, and you’re, like, a supernatural weighted blanket.”
His mouth twitches. “Not everything in life is fair, baby.”
“No, not everything in life is fair,” I say. “But at least we have each other.”
“Forever,” he agrees, and the urge to kiss him, to touch him, to be as close to him as I physically can, overcomes me.
I kiss him. My mouth light and teasing and my teeth playfully nipping at his bottom lip.
And when a soft groan escapes his mouth, I climb over his body and straddle him. His hands move to my hips automatically, gripping the flesh gently. His cock is already hard; I can feel the bulge of it against my panties.
I roll my hips, using his arousal to press against the bundle of nerves between my legs until a little moan escapes my lips.
“Careful,” he warns, and I just playfully roll my eyes at him on a snort.
“You’re the one who said forever, Rook. You can’t threaten me now.”
“Damn, Ky.” He laughs again. “You’re dangerous when you’re sassy.”
“You should remember that,” I say, leaning down to press my lips to his. “I’m a very dangerous girl, and it would be in your best interest to do what I want so you don’t get hurt.”
I roll my hips against him again, slow and deliberate, and he grips my hips tighter, forcing me to stop.
“Kylie,” he chastises, all serious Rook again.
“You know what? You’re grumpy when you’re turned on.”
A smile twitches his lips. “And you’re a handful.”
“A handful that’s tired of your mind-blowing restraint.”
He just laughs. “Restraint is important, baby.”
“But I don’t want you to exercise restraint right now.” I lean down, my mouth brushing his ear. “I want you to lose control. I want you to feed on me. You wouldn’t do it last night.”
“No.”
“Why not?” I ask, leaning back to meet his eyes.
“Because I’m not draining you for sport.”
“But that’s what I want, Rook. I want you to feed on me again.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t want to weaken you, Kylie.”
“But it doesn’t make me weak,” I whisper and brush my mouth against his.
“It makes me feel things I can’t even describe.
Good things. Amazing things. Things that make me wet whenever I think about them.
” I reach down and slide my panties out of the way of my sex and roll my hips against him.
Letting him feel my heat. Letting him feel my arousal. “See? I’m already wet right now.”
“Fuck, Kylie.” A groan escapes his lungs, and he briefly shuts his eyes.
“I want to feel you inside me. I want to feel you feeding on me. I want all of it, Rook. I need it. Badly.”
His gaze locks with mine. Hunger, fear, protectiveness, they all flash across his face at once.
“Rook, stop holding back,” I whisper, and my hips just keep humping erratically against him, my entire body greedy for him. “Stop holding back and put your cock inside me. Stop holding back and feed on me.”
For half a second, I think he’s going to refuse. But then, he flips us in one smooth motion, pinning me beneath him without crushing my weight, his body warm and solid and very, very aroused.
“You’re bossy.”
“You love it.”
“I do.” His mouth hovers near mine. “But you’re playing a dangerous game, baby.”
Heart racing and completely unafraid, I let a moan escape my lips. “Do your worst.”
“The good girl and the bad man,” he whispers.
“You’re not a bad man, Rook.”
“Kylie,” he says quietly as he brushes his lips against mine, “you underestimate what I’m capable of when it comes to you.
” He leans back to meet my eyes, and he drags his thumb slowly across my lower lip.
“I don’t hurt people without reason.” He slides his hand to my neck, fingers resting over my pulse.
“But you’re not a reason.” His voice drops. “You’re the line.”
“And if someone crosses the line?”
“I’d kill them.”
His teeth graze across the skin of my neck, and my pulse jumps in anticipation.
“Do it,” I whisper and wrap my legs around his waist, forcing his cock inside me by shifting my hips. I’m already so wet that he slides in easily.
And then he sinks his teeth into my neck. The bite isn’t painful, though. It’s fire. It’s ecstasy. It’s heat rushing through my veins and exploding in my chest.
He starts to thrust inside me, each drive of his hips backed by power and hunger and strength. He pushes himself as deep as he can go, stretching me to my limits, and his mouth sucks at my neck, taking drop after drop of my blood.
I feel so much pleasure I can’t contain my moans or panting breaths.
No restraint, Rook feeds on me. Fucks me. And feeds some more.
And all I feel is heat. Our bond. And the unwavering certainty that there is no world in which we untangle from each other now.
I can’t live in a world without him.