Chapter 21
MARCUS
I’ve already taken the first step on the road to perdition. Biting her was foolish, but taking it further feels both imperative and dangerous.
My head swims. I’ve never felt this way before. Electric. Possessive. I’ve fed from blood-givers. I’ve had relationships.
Stories say nothing can compare to how it feels to take your mate. Stories didn’t explain the half of it.
I can hear my blood. I can hear hers. Every sense is drenched—her arousal, her silky skin, the taste of her blood, the shallowness of her breathing, and the thrum of her pulse.
I don’t remember being this turned on in my entire immortal life.
Not even when I was human. My body sings with pleasure, with power, from her blood.
My injuries are healed and I have never been stronger.
Magic sparks hot under my skin. I tip my head back against the wall as I burn.
Take her.
I nearly snarl. I will not be taking anything.
I will scare her. I could hurt her. She was so utterly unprepared for this. As unprepared as I was. I force my fangs away and watch her through half-lidded eyes.
She is lovely with her head thrown back and her face twisted in pleasure. She rides me and she takes, as is her due.
Her hips roll over my cock, and my body spasms. I want to bite her again, but I can feel my blood humming the way it always did before the arena. I am on the edge.
I should settle for nothing more than this. Give her pleasure and take nothing for myself.
“Marcus.” Her hands curl into my shirt. She rubs herself against me, and pleasure streaks through my groin.
“I know.” My voice barely sounds like my own. I should tell her to take. I should stop. But as she writhes above me, her nipples jutting against her thin shirt and her head falling back, I can’t stop.
The bond sings, pushing me to claim her, to force my blood between her lips, and I grit my teeth.
She whimpers, a feral, needy sound that makes my hips jerk.
“Yes,” she gasps.
I am on the precipice. She is my mate and I told myself I would never touch her.
I am a fool.
I growl in response and grip her hips. I guide her over my cock, listening for her breathy cries of pleasure. The relief of her is a heady ache. I shudder under her.
My vision is white around the edges.
“Bite me, vampire,” she demands.
She wants it. Goddess, she craves my bite the way I crave to bite her. My gaze is fastened on her neck, where blood trickles in invitation, then on her pretty nipples, beaded against the shirt.
Mine. She is mine.
I strike before I can think better of it. I shove her shirt up roughly one hand and pull her nipple into my mouth. The hard point tightens against my tongue, and I groan. She is a fantasy made flesh and I long for more, even as I take.
Her other breast fills my palm. I sink my teeth into her flesh, her nipple hot against my tongue, made hotter by the blood that spills.
Leah spasms above me, her orgasm taking her immediately.
Pleasure from the feeding and the feel of her riding me wash over me.
My mind is blank. I draw more harshly from her vein.
A shimmer of her pleasure brushes the back of my mind.
The bond.
Goddess, I feel her.
She’s still coming. Her presence at the back of my mind is not yet fully formed, but the feedback loop builds.
She cries out again, then, “I feel you.”
I suck harder on her nipple, lave it with my tongue, and she comes again, in a white-hot burst that makes stars bloom behind my lids.
I’m so close it hurts to hold back. My stomach pulls taut. I come with a groan that echoes in the silence, my vision blanking and my body twisting. The bond’s feedback loop amplifies it all, drawing the orgasm out until I am limp and sated.
“I didn’t know that would happen,” I rasp as I come down, fearing it was too much, that I was taken by the bond and the pleasure when I should have kept my wits about me.
Leah’s head drops to my shoulder. My hands run up her spine. My thumb soothes the ragged edges of my bite. I took too much.
My stomach pinches.
“I didn’t know, slayer. I’m sorry.”
She hums against my chest. I want to pull her close. I fight the urge, pressing myself to the tile. She is more dangerous to me than ever before.
She yawns and tucks herself closer.
My heart expands.
This was her first feeding. Her first time with me. I savaged her like an animal.
I do not deserve her.