Chapter 8
W ednesday was the first day Tessa had off from work at the hospice, but was still scheduled to see Amos. It was the first time Amos would see her in anything other than scrubs, and she was staring into her open closet, at a loss. As time ran out, she finally settled on her favorite pair of jeans—comfortable, while still somehow managing to hug the curves of her ass and hips with utter devotion—and a bright red, delicately-knit wrap sweater that hinted less-than-demurely at the full glory of her breasts, and tied snugly around the tidy nip of her waist.
Her curls had decided to play nice today, so she left her hair down, cascading down her back in loose black spirals. Bending over, she fluffed her roots and flipped her head back up. Looking at herself in the mirror, she smoothed her hands over the dramatic curve of her body from waist to hips, admired the romantic drama of her hair, and smiled at herself. Self-satisfied, but nervous, she threw her coat on and headed downstairs.
“Baby?” Ma looked up from the couch as Tessa passed the living room, taking in her jeans and unbound hair. “Not working tonight?”
“No. I’m going to be out for a little bit, though. I’m not sure when I’ll be home.”
Ma’s face brightened. “Oh! Are you going to watch the kids for Robbie? I knew you’d change your mind!”
“No,” Tessa said, struggling to keep her voice level as she felt her temper rise. “I made plans with a friend.”
Ma’s smile fell away. “On Robbie and Sarah’s anniversary? You couldn’t spare a little time for your family?”
“No,” Tessa gritted out. “I made these plans long before Rob asked me to babysit.”
“With a friend? What friend? Family is more important.”
Tessa drew in a slow breath. She would not yell at her mother. For a while after Dad died, Ma had become a passive shell. The return of her real personality—the bossy, family-obsessed matriarch—should be cause for joy. Except that, before Dad died, Ma would shout right back at you when you shouted. Now, when Tessa raised her voice, Ma looked like a kicked dog. It made arguing with her impossible. It made the guilt Tessa constantly felt that much worse.
“Ma,” she said softly. “I deserve to have my own life. I hardly ever have any free time.”
“All the more reason to go over to your brother’s. When’s the last time you saw the kids?”
“I just saw them on Saturday when they came over.” And Thursday before that, and Tuesday as well, because whenever Sarah had to work late, Rob brought the kids over to Ma’s so he wouldn’t have to cook dinner or look after his own children.
Ma waved that away. “They love their auntie. And Robbie could use the help. ”
What about me? she wanted to scream. Who’s going to help me? If everyone loves me so much, why am I constantly drowning and getting no fucking help?
But she kept that all tightly bottled. “ Robbie can pay a babysitter. It won’t bankrupt him. I’ll see the kids again next time they’re at the house. I’m going out now. Lock the doors behind me.”
“Well, goodnight then,” Ma said archly.
“Goodnight, Ma.”
As Tessa stepped outside, the toe of her boot connected with something small and hard. It skittered down the steps, flashing red in the porch light. At the bottom of the steps, she crouched to pick it up. It was a red glass button, fashioned like a smoothly polished ruby in a filigreed brass setting. How it had ended up on her front steps was anyone’s guess, but Tessa liked it, so she slipped it into her pocket.
As she made her way to the train station, the sun sank below the horizon. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she fished it out. She had an e-mail from HemoMatch. Concerned that something had gone wrong, she opened it immediately. It was a receipt for her full contract—a year long—paid in full and deposited into her account.
What? Tessa opened her banking app as she walked, checking her accounts. Sure enough, she had a deposit of nearly seventy-eight thousand dollars. Instead of sticking with the monthly payouts, Amos had fronted her the cost of the entire contract. After she’d just admitted to him that she needed the money.
As always seemed to be the case when it came to Amos, she was torn between two feelings. The abject relief at having that money at hand, coupled with the outrage that he had taken it upon himself to do such a thing. Did he think she had no pride? Did he think he could buy her affection? She didn’t want to believe it, but who just threw seventy-eight grand away like that?
When she reached her stop, Amos was waiting for her on the platform. She marched over to him, throat tight.
“What is this? ” Tessa demanded, shoving her phone in his face.
Amos caught her wrist, steadying her hand so he could look at the screen and read the invoice. His brows drew together. “The cost of your contract. Is something wrong?”
“Yes, Amos, something is wrong! What were you thinking, throwing all this money at me?”
His frown deepened and he released her wrist. “I was thinking that you said you needed money, and I’ve got money, so why not just give it to you now?”
“ Seventy-eight grand ?” Tessa choked.
A passerby let out a low whistle as she walked past the two of them. “Take the money, babe.”
“Mind your own business,” Tessa snapped at the eavesdropper, without looking away from Amos. “You just handed over that much cash out of the goodness of your heart?”
“Yes,” Amos said evenly, patiently. “Why is this an issue?”
“Because it is!” She couldn’t figure out how to explain the hurt she felt without making herself sound pathetic. She had been starting to feel like Amos thought she was special. He’d told her he wanted to court her and guard her and gave her all kinds of sweet bullshit. But it turned out he thought she was something he could buy. She felt cheap and gullible.
“Tessa,” he said, raising his hands in partial surrender. “The money was going to be yours either way. What does it matter if you have it all now, or if you get it portioned out month-by-month?”
“Because that was the agreement! And it was separate from us . But now there’s this… this thing between us. Do you think I’m for sale?”
Amos’s expression shifted from confusion to dismay. “Ah, fuck,” he groaned, dropping his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. He inhaled slowly, and Tessa braced herself for an offended tirade. But it never came. Instead, quietly, calmly, he said, “Tessa, I’m sorry.”
She blinked, caught off-guard. “What?”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve pursued anyone romantically. I was trying to do the opposite of that. I didn’t want the ongoing payments to put you in the position where you couldn’t walk away if you were unhappy. If you had it all right now, you could make whatever choice you wanted to.”
The hurt and anger fizzled immediately. “Oh.” The stiffness eased from her shoulders. “That’s… um, really thoughtful, actually.”
Amos looked up. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” With any of her exes, and most the other men she’d known, she’d have still been suspicious. But Amos had proven himself time and time again to be patient and thoughtful and protective. She believed him. She believed that he just wanted to give her choices, not make her feel beholden. “Thank you. And… sorry. For flipping out.”
“Don’t apologize. If I do something that upsets you, I want to know.”
Well, that was something she’d never heard from a man before.
“Do you still want to come over?” he asked.
“Yeah, of course. It’s Wednesday. ”
“You don’t have to. I meant what I said, Tessa. If you’re upset with me—”
“I’m not. I’m really not.” She took his hand. “Come on.”
Back at his place, Tessa toed her shoes off and unbuttoned her coat while Amos locked the door. As she slid her coat down her arms, revealing her outfit, Amos made a throaty sound almost like a purring cat. Tessa glanced curiously at him. His pupils had dilated, just a bit, as his gaze tracked over her curves. She couldn’t help but subtly cock one hip.
“Tessa…” He wiped at his mouth. “What is this?”
She smiled demurely. “I don’t always wear scrubs, you know.”
The black of Amos’s pupils slowly overtook the red of his irises as his expression shifted to undisguised predatory hunger. Tessa suppressed a shiver as she stared back at him, acutely aware of the rise and fall of her breasts with each breath, of the ticking beat of her pulse in her throat, her wrists, between her thighs.
“Your sweet scent is getting stronger.” Amos stepped closer, backing her against the wall. He put one hand on the wall, caging her with his arm, and leaned in close. His other hand cupped her cheek, thumb stroking over her bottom lip. “You like being prey.”
A thrill of something dark and weak and needy shot through Tessa’s body. Her knees wanted to tremble, but she clenched them together while she met Amos’s midnight gaze. Hungry Amos was an entirely different beast from the polite, respectful man Tessa had been treated to so far. The difference was a surprise, but not an unwelcome one.
“Maybe I do,” she said, more breathlessly than she intended .
Amos’s predatory gaze held hers for a moment. With visible effort at self-control, he stepped back. “Go to the living room,” he said. “At the end of the hall.”
Not the politely formal sitting room, but instead, the cozy, personal space. “By myself?” she asked. “Where are you going to be?”
“Right behind you.” The words were nearly a growl in his deep voice.
A hot shiver ran down Tessa’s spine. Weak-kneed, she somehow managed to navigate the path to the living room. Amos shadowed her, close enough that she could feel the looming force of his presence with every step. She paused at the threshold of the living room, taking in the space while she savored the feel of Amos at her back.
“Go in,” he said, his voice soft, but irresistible with command. “Sit down.”
She did as he told her, anticipation simmering beneath her skin. As she turned to sit on the couch, she swallowed a gasp. Amos was right there, standing over her. In the dim light, his face was a shadowed mask. The gleam of his eyes flickered as his gaze tracked over her body.
And then suddenly, Tessa was on her back, laying on the couch, with Amos’s immovable bulk pinning her down. She didn’t even have time to gasp. He’d moved so quickly, she never saw it.
“ Amos ,” she said on a shocked, hitched breath.
“Are you frightened?” The words were spoken in Amos’s familiar deep voice, but there was something different in his tone. Something wicked and hungry and maybe a little mean.
Was she frightened? Yes. A bit. But she was far more aroused than afraid, and she was surprised to realize that the fear had more than a little to do with it. That was… new. She stared up at Amos, feeling the thud of her heart against her sternum and the tremble in her hands as she clung to his shirtfront. She shouldn’t like being afraid of a man. But she did. She liked it a lot.
She squeezed her thighs against the pulsing ache in her core. The slight motion rocked her hips subtly against Amos’s. A low, wicked growl reverberated in his throat. It was the sound of a hunting animal, and it only made Tessa clench tighter.
“Frightened?” Amos prompted again, dark eyes gleaming as they fixed on the ticking pulse in her throat. “Or aroused?”
“Both,” Tessa whispered.
Amos went very still. “Both?” he repeated carefully. “I’m frightening you, Tessa?”
She squirmed beneath him, restless and flushed and trembly. “Yes. But I like it.”
Amos bowed his head, eyes squeezing shut, brow furrowing as if he were in pain. “Ah, sweetheart, you shouldn’t encourage me.” His eyes flashed open again, and the predatory hunger in them set Tessa’s heart thundering. She gasped as Amos fisted one hand in her hair, pulling her head back until her throat was bared to him.
“ Amos ,” she panted, thighs squeezing together, pussy clenching around nothing. Her underwear rubbed against slick, swollen flesh.
“Beg me not to,” he growled.
“Please,” she gasped, fingers clenching in the expensive material of his button-down shirt. “Please don’t—”
His fangs sank into her throat and her words died on a helpless cry of shock and pleasure. Instead of bracing himself politely above her like he usually did, Amos kept his full weight bearing down on her. As soon as his venom flooded her system, she was coming, wave after wave of incomparable pleasure. This time, when Tessa’s arms looped around Amos’s neck, he caught her wrists in one big hand and pinned them over her head. With one hand holding her by the hair, the other trapping her wrists, and his considerable weight draped over the rest of her body, she was completely and utterly caged by him. She had nowhere to move, no chance of escaping. The powerlessness made her nerves electric with fear and desire.
Amos drank from in her deep, bruising draughts, rougher than he’d been before, but with more of his delicious, drugging venom seeping into her veins and pushing her endless orgasm higher and hotter and sharper. The pleasure wiped out thought, wiped out sense. She lost track of the physical sensations of Amos’s fangs and his hard grip on her hair and skin, and the heavy weight of his body. She lost the feeling of inhabiting her own body, except for the mind-shattering bliss that kept cresting again and again and again.
Time stretched on forever. And yet, somehow, at some point, Tessa became aware again of herself and her surroundings. Bit by slow bit, she recognized the feel of Amos’s big arms wrapped around her, cradling her tenderly as his tongue stroked over the spot where he’d bitten her. His weight was no longer bearing down on her, but instead, curled protectively around her. Dizzy, tingling with pleasured aftershocks, Tessa let out a ragged breath.
Amos paused his focused tending to her throat, lifting his head. “Tessa?”
“ Yeeeeesssss , Amos?” she asked loopily.
His body shifted, gingerly easing her from his hold. He rose up onto one elbow, gazing down at her. His face was flushed, his eyes still black. Concern knit his brow as he lifted gentle fingers to stroke her cheek. “I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice heavy with remorse. “I was completely out of control. Are you alright?”
The fuzzy post-feeding high was slowly beginning to dissipate, and enough of Tessa’s synapses were back online for her to realize that Amos was upset. “Are you alright?” Tessa asked.
Amos stared at her, at a loss to speak for a few seconds. “Am I— Am I — Jesus Christ, Tessa, I jumped on you like a rabid dog. You ’re the one who needs to confirm you’re okay.”
Tessa huffed out a weak laugh. “Amos, I’m more than okay.”
He searched her face for a moment longer, then finally seemed to relax. With a heavy sigh, he sank back down, pulling her into his arms once again. “I promise I won’t lose control like that again.”
Tessa snuggled closer into the warmth and strength of his embrace. “Why not?”
Amos didn’t answer her right away. After a long pause, he finally ventured, “Would you like that?”
Tessa buried her face against Amos’s chest so she wouldn’t have to meet his gaze as she admitted, “I like when you take control.”
That purring sound rumbled deep in his chest. “Do you?” he enquired, a little of that dark hunger creeping back into his tone.
She nodded.
“But you were afraid?”
She pulled back, forcing herself to meet his gaze, even though her face was still burning. “It’s… it’s a good kind of afraid. Like… like a roller coaster. Or a haunted house. ”
Amos cracked a smile at the last one. “I see.”
Encouraged, Tessa went on. “I have to be in control of so much stuff all day long and I guess… I like having you take it away.” She took a breath. “Only you. I can’t think of anybody else I’d trust to… to do that.”
The purr deepened to nearly a growl. Amos pulled her tightly against him, resting his chin on the crown of her head, stroking his big hands up and down her spine. “Tessa,” he said her name reverently. “I’m honored.”
Not just honored, she knew. Throughout the entirety of their discussion, his cock had been an iron brand pressing against her thigh.
“Would you…” Amos trailed off into a silence that felt self-conscious.
“Would I what?” Tessa shifted, nudging ever so slightly against that rampant hardness.
Amos hissed like he’d been burnt. His arms tightened around her, immobilizing her. “I want to hunt you,” he said, the words coming out in a pained rush.
“Hunt me?” Despite the fact that she’d just spent an untold amount of time orgasming, being restrained by Amos was getting her fired up again. She wriggled in his hold, trying to grind against his erection.
Amos wrapped one leg around hers, pinning her more effectively. “Vampires like to hunt. It’s in our nature,” he explained, grunting when she managed to slide her thigh between his. He clamped his legs together, trapping her again. “I would never hurt you. I hope you believe that.”
“I do,” Tessa assured him, momentarily abandoning her efforts to tease him. “I trust you, Amos.”
He nodded, swallowing hard. “Hunting… it would just be pl ay. But I would… I would pursue you. In the dark. I would catch you, and drink from you.”
Tessa shivered as a bolt of arousal tightened her core. Amos was affected, too. His hips had begun to rock, ever so subtly, sliding his still-hard cock against her trapped thigh.
“You would attack me,” Tessa said, her voice husky.
Amos’s purr returned. When he spoke, his voice was deep and graveled. “Not for real.”
“But kind of for real,” Tessa countered, rocking her hips in tandem with Amos’s gentle grinding. “Because once you caught me, you’d use your strength against me. I wouldn’t be able to get away.”
“Tessa,” he said softly, a hint of warning in his voice.
“You’d hold me down and take what you wanted from me. Would I fight you?”
“ Yes ,” Amos growled. He’d given up on restraining Tessa or himself. He still held her tight, but his hips rocked desperately against hers, rubbing his stiff cock against the juncture of her clenched thighs. “You’d try to get away, but you wouldn’t be able to.”
“And you’d make me like it,” she went on, her voice becoming breathless and strained. “Being helpless against your strength.”
Amos groaned at her incendiary words. He dropped his head, seeking the warm cove of her throat. His lips touched her pulse point, then the tip of his tongue.
Tessa’s breath hitched, but she kept talking. “And as soon as you sank your fangs into me, I wouldn’t even be able to fight you anymore because I’d be coming so hard I wouldn’t want to get away.”
“Yes,” Amos breathed, teeth scraping the skin of her throat, but not breaking it .
“I’d want you to take what you want.”
Amos growled.
“I’d want you to control me—use me.”
“Tessa,” he groaned against her skin.
“Take what you want, Amos,” she pleaded, arching against him, baring her throat. “Please, take— ah! ”
Amos’s fangs pierced her skin in a sudden, brutal bite. Venom flooded her veins in a tingling rush, bringing ecstatic pleasure with it as he drank deeply from her throat. Tessa’s hands moved of their own volition, seeking the waistband of Amos’s jeans, finding the zipper, pulling it down. Amos made pained sounds as he reached for her wrists and pulled her hands away from the hot, hard length concealed behind his briefs. He pinned her wrists over her head again, and she yielded to the pleasure of his control.
He shuddered and stiffened suddenly, his grip on her wrists becoming almost painful as he groaned, fangs still piercing her. After a moment, his whole body relaxed, grip easing on her wrists, fangs sliding from her throat. Pleasure continued to roll through Tessa in slow, languid waves. She lolled dizzily beneath Amos as he lapped at the closing wounds on her throat.
“How are you?” he asked when they’d both caught their breath.
“Very, very good. And you?”
He observed her saturnine expression, looking chagrined. “You made me come in my drawers. That’s the second time you’ve done that to me.”
Tessa laughed. “You make me come in my drawers every time we see each other.”
“It’s less messy for you. ”
“I assure you, it’s not. I’ve started keeping a change of underwear in my bag for after I leave your place.”
Amos’s gaze heated. That rumbling purr resonated quietly in his chest.
“Are you thinking about my wet panties right now?” Tessa asked with feigned affront. “And here I thought you were a gentleman.”
“I think I’ve pretty conclusively proven otherwise.”
Tessa softened against him. “You’re wrong,” she said contentedly.
Amos chuckled. “I’ll try to live up to your high regard.” He shifted, pulling away from her. “Starting with feeding you. I’ll be right back.”
Tessa stretched out languidly, sighing a long, contented breath. A moment later, Amos returned, wearing different jeans, arms filled with snacks. Tessa pushed herself up to sit, feeling dizzy and off-balance. Amos sank down beside her, spreading his offerings on the couch between them. Tessa selected one at random—a packet of dried cherries covered in dark chocolate—and struggled with clumsy fingers to rip it open. Amos took it from her, opened it, and handed it back.
“Thank you,” she said, popping one into her mouth.
Amos watched her, his gaze occasionally dipping to the cleavage revealed by her top, before valiantly dragging back up to her face. She nearly choked laughing when he realized she’d caught him looking and his eyes went wide. Red suffused his cheeks. So strange to think that it was her blood doing that to him. Her blood giving him that raging erection earlier, too.
“Like what you see?” she teased.
His startled expression shifted to amusement. “Very much.” He might’ve been embarrassed at being caught out, but he wasn’t shy about his appreciation. He was just, whether he believed it or not, a true gentleman. And to Amos’s mind, probably, a gentleman didn’t ogle a lady’s tits, no matter how invitingly they were displayed. Never mind that she’d very intentionally written the invitation, and would’ve been happy to hand deliver it.
But, as much as she wanted to take things further with Amos, Tessa had no intention of rushing his courtship. There was something about the contrast between his polite self-control and the dark hunger it concealed that made Tessa’s toes curl and her heart pound.