CHAPTER 28 AILEEN
CHAPTER 28
AILEEN
I woke up in a small tacky room that looked as though it had been decorated in the fifties, with a floral tapestry, old pink sheets, and ugly pastel green curtains.
Trying to push the blankets off me, I could hardly lift my hands. My body was heavy—so heavy, in fact, that rolling onto my back took whatever energy I had left.
Footsteps grew closer, and I saw a gorgeous man with a far-too-small towel around his waist coming out of the bathroom.
And for a moment, nothing else mattered but Ragnor Rayne being in this small room, right before me, looking like a god.
I couldn’t help but blatantly leer at his body like a pervert. Lickable, sun-kissed skin covered his tight pecs, leading to a sexy V barely hidden by the damned towel. Long powerful legs, taut with muscles, made me instinctually wet my lips. Raking my eyes up his body, I watched his biceps flexing as his corded arms used another towel to dry off his hair.
Despite the fact I couldn’t move, my body seemed to be working just fine, if the slickness on my inner thighs was anything to go by.
When he turned his back to me and dropped his towel, revealing a muscular ass I wanted to bite, I wondered if he knew I was awake, considering he hadn’t looked in my direction even once. Taking the opportunity to devour him with my eyes, I trailed my gaze from his butt to his back and up to his broad shoulders, where I could simply stare.
In the few times Ragnor and I had had sex, I’d never gotten a good look at his back. It wasn’t that unusual, considering we were mostly fooling around in empty rooms and taking off only the clothes necessary to fuck. But even that one time we did have sex fully naked, I didn’t get to explore his entire body.
So I never knew his back was full of scars.
Before I could study those scars, however, Ragnor pulled on a clean black tee that hid his spectacular body. When he put on a pair of jeans, I had to swallow my disappointment and come back to my senses.
What the hell was I doing, drooling over Ragnor Rayne like this? Did I have no pride?
“I see you’re awake.”
My breath got stuck in my throat as Ragnor faced me and sat down on the bed right next to me. “Here,” he said, bringing his soap-smelling wrist to my mouth. “Drink.”
I glanced at him, hoping my cheeks weren’t red with lust when I said, “I’ll be fine with human blood.”
He gave me a somewhat wry smile. “You’ve lost a lot of Lifeblood, Aileen. Normal blood won’t be enough to replenish it.”
Having no desire to argue with him—my desires leaned in completely different directions at the moment—I attempted to raise my hands to grab his arm, but my hands fell.
Seeing that I could hardly move, Ragnor settled on the bed near me, and with his warm, big hand, he cupped the back of my head, lifting it to his wrist and pressing my lips against his skin.
Resisting the urge to lick his skin, I unsheathed my fangs and nudged them against his wrist. It was the first time, I realized, that I would be drinking from a living being, and a vampire at that. Swallowing hard at the sudden nervousness of the upcoming act, I tried to prick his skin and realized I couldn’t.
Frowning, I tried again, but it was like his skin was too thick for my fangs to penetrate.
“Harder,” Ragnor said in a rough voice. “My skin isn’t easy to break, so you need to bite harder.”
Following his words, I pretended Ragnor’s wrist was juicy meat and forced my fangs to sink into his skin. Blood flowed into my mouth from the wound.
I jolted as I felt an electric shock coursing through my veins at the taste of his blood. Normally, human blood tasted like water. Some types were sweet and others a bit tart—still, some were bland, with hardly any discernible flavor at all, depending on the blood type, but Ragnor’s blood tasted like nothing I’d experienced since he’d given me the Imprint.
Ragnor Rayne’s blood tasted heavenly.
Like what I imagined ambrosia tasted like.
It had the pure sweetness of raw honey, the tartness of pomegranate, the bitterness of dark chocolate, and the salty flavor of the ocean.
I took a long, deep drink of his blood and shuddered. Nothing I’d eaten had ever tasted as good. It made me feel heady, almost drunk, the more blood I sucked.
At some point, I realized I was holding his arm on my own, not needing his help anymore, since my energy seemed to come back with every sip of his heavenly blood. I could feel the meat on my bones fattening, the vitality returning to my skin, and the exhaustion dissipating, making me feel more awake than ever before.
When Ragnor attempted to move his arm away from me, I moaned and followed his movement with my fangs, refusing to let him go, feeling so delirious from his deliciousness. But Ragnor didn’t let me. “Enough,” he said quietly as he grabbed my hair and forced me to part with his wrist.
“No!” I said, suddenly enraged as I tried to launch at his wrist again.
But Ragnor was stronger, and he held me at bay as he pulled his wrist to his body. His midnight blue eyes lowered to mine. “It’s enough,” he said slowly, voice resolute but gentle.
I wanted to cry. I needed his blood. “Please ...,” I said, pleading with him. “I need more ... so much more ...”
In one swift movement, he pushed me back onto the mattress and loomed over me, pinning my hands down with his. “Didn’t you want to save your friend?” he said as he seemed to be studying me.
His words slowly sank into my consciousness, and I felt the fight within me die. My delirious need for Ragnor’s blood abated as the memories of what had happened returned to me in full force.
Ragnor had saved me from being sold off to the Jinn.
But I didn’t save Isora.
Shit.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. “I’m fine now,” I said softly, releasing my tense muscles.
Ragnor gazed at me with eyes gone neon. “Are you sure?” he asked, voice low. I realized then that I was still in my torn dress, showing far too much skin, while Ragnor, so sexy with his hair still wet from the shower, was right above me, his eyes taking me in from head to toe as if he couldn’t get enough.
Sparks flew from where his hands held mine down to my loins, and I had to squeeze my thighs together as my breathing turned shallow. “Yes,” I said in far too husky a voice.
He stared at me for a few more moments, and I could see the lust I felt mirrored in his eyes. But then he sucked in a deep breath and let me go, getting off the bed. “Take a shower,” he said with a voice on the verge of growling.
With my Lifeblood replenished, I could finally shove the blankets off me and leave the bed. Without another word, I almost ran to the bathroom and shut the door behind me, then leaned against it in an effort to regain my composure.
Calm down, I told myself, trying to stop my heart from beating like crazy or my pussy from drenching my panties.
But Ragnor’s naked body and delectable blood made me want to go back into the bedroom and jump his bones.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Remember what he did to you, Aileen, I scolded myself. He threw you away, and even if he didn’t, it’s not the time for that. You need to save Isora!
That last thought did it. My heart slowly returned to a normal pace while my thighs stopped squeezing with need. Agitated for a different reason now, I tore the dress off me and pulled off the makeshift hair band. Just before I entered the shower, I glanced at the mirror and froze.
My shaky hands rose to my hair. Right. The black dye was gone, replaced by my original golden locks. I remembered it had happened right after I had “assimilated” the Bird of the Nile painting—if what Atalon said about his powers was to be believed. But why? My hair had been rejecting the dye since the Auction and now had completely negated it in a single day. How? What the fuck was happening to me?
Whatever the reason was, I didn’t have the luxury to worry about it now. Not when Isora was in the hands of the Jinn.
I wrapped myself in a towel and pulled the door open just enough for me to peek into the bedroom.
Ragnor lay on the bed with his eyes closed, his chest heaving softly. On the other side of the bed lay clean clothes about my size—jeans and a moss green V-neck tee. As quietly as I could so as not to wake him, I rounded the bed and, with my back to him, dropped the towel before I put on some new panties and a bra—where he got them and how he knew my size, I had no idea—and the clothes he’d prepared for me.
When I was fully dressed, I turned around, only to see Ragnor’s midnight blue gaze on me.
Freezing, I stared at him. “I thought you were asleep.”
He put his arms behind his head and gave me a languorous grin that made my thighs clench. “I figured it was only fair, since you peeped at me earlier too.”
My cheeks blazed. And here I thought he hadn’t noticed. Folding my arms, I looked away and said, “We need to talk.”
Ragnor let out a heavy sigh. “We should order some food first.”
“Speaking of which,” I said when he grabbed the vintage cabled phone near the bed, “where are we?”
“An inn in Clyde, New York,” he said absentmindedly as he pressed the numbered buttons. “Both of us needed rest.”
When he finished dialing, he put the large phone to his ear, and once the receptionist answered, he said, “I would like to order two deluxe dinners to our room.”
He gave them our room number, hung up, and patted a spot on the bed near him. “Come sit. The food’s going to take a while.”
I eyed the bed suspiciously before looking around the room. Aside from the bed, there was a wooden closet that had seen better days and a couple of ugly nightstands.
Since I didn’t want to sit on the cold tiled floor, I settled on the bed as far away from him as I could. “First things first,” I said, turning to face him, and I wished I hadn’t. His eyes were staring at me with lust that I could feel down to my pussy. Swallowing hard, I averted my gaze, staring at a spot beyond his shoulder. “I need to save Isora.”
He was quiet before he spoke. “Isora is your friend, right?”
I nodded jerkily and looked down. “She’s a blood slave. When Oz put her in the prison cell with me, she was in a really bad state. The Jinn must’ve taken her already, and she won’t be able to survive. She was barely alive when I saw her last.” I clutched the blanket. I didn’t want to imagine the unthinkable, without knowing how long it had been since Ragnor had rescued me from Atalon. For all I knew, Isora could already be dead.
I felt him shifting next to me, and when I glanced back at him, he’d sat up straight. “First, tell me about the deal Atalon made with the Jinn,” he said, his face blank but his eyes a bright neon blue with anger.
Feeling angry myself, I said, “All I know is that Atalon was willing to lend me to the Jinn for a while, along with Isora, in exchange for something that’s called the Tears of Euphorrey. And Isora would go with me, though I can’t for the life of me figure out why he would offer to give Isora over too.”
His face remained void of expression, but his eyes flared brighter. “Before then, did Atalon do or say anything?”
I know exactly when you received your magic. I know exactly what happened between you and Rayne. I know exactly what you did to that poor boy Logan. I know exactly what part you played in your father’s crimes.
You see, the price they’re willing to pay to rent you out for a few weeks is far too tempting to refuse, Natalia.
I flinched and looked away. “He said nothing.”
Obviously, he didn’t buy the lie. “Let me put it this way, then,” he said quietly, and I tensed when he moved much closer to me. Ragnor took a few strands of my wet hair in his hand, eyes on me. “How long has he known you’re Sacred?”