Chapter 22
I lingered in the gardens until the sun beamed into the glass paneling of the green house.
The halls were deserted as I walked through the corridors.
My eyes skimmed the walls, taking in every piece of neglected art, cobwebs stretched across the corners.
It was easy to imagine what this place would have looked like back in its glory days.
The fact that it had become in such disrepair made my heart ache.
By the time I reached our bed — Blackthorn’s bedroom, I hoped I’d been gone long enough that the vampire had retired for the day, keeping me from having to have an uncomfortable encounter with him.
I cracked the door open, wincing at the creak that resulted in. Cast in darkness, the drapes pulled closed to keep the sunlight out. I blinked a few times trying to get my eyes adjusted to the darkness. My eyes darted to the bed, almost sighing in relief at the lump on Blackthorn’s side of the bed.
Slipping my shoes off my feet, I held them in my hands as I made my way to the open closet.
Trying to undress myself in a dress that took another person to get into required stretching and bending in ways I hadn’t thought possible.
Eventually, I untangled myself from my gown and slipped into my nightgown.
My gaze slid over to the bed, watching for any movement as I crept through the room and to the closed bathroom door.
My back up against the door, I twisted the handle, eyes narrowed on the bed for any sign that Blackthorn was waking up.
Breath held, I slipped into the bathroom, closed the door and leaned my forehead against the wood.
My eyes closed as I blew out the breath I was holding.
Water splashing hit my ears and my eyes snapped open. Instead of a darkened room, a golden light filled my eyes. My fingers tightened around the handle of the door, my heartbeat picking up the more water swished behind me.
My eyes slowly closed, and I muttered under my breath, praying for anyone who could hear me to suck me into the floor right then and there. To save me from what was going to be one of the most humiliating moments of my life.
Frozen in place, I contemplated the likelihood that Blackthorn hadn’t seen me yet. Maybe he’d fallen asleep in the bath, and I could sneak back out before—
“Are you going to stand there all night?”
The humor in his voice made my shoulder bunch up to my ears. No such luck.
My fingers slowly let go of the door handle, aching at the intensity of which I had been gripping it. Keeping my eyes lifted to the ceiling, I turned to face the very person I was trying to avoid.
“I thought you were asleep,” I murmured.
The water splashed again. “What was that?”
“I said—” My gaze flicked down briefly before shooting back up to the ceiling. My cheeks burned red. The sight of the bare-chested vampire — a vampire I knew was completely naked before me — caused my body to react involuntarily. “I thought you were asleep.”
“And you were trying to avoid me.” He stated it with such certainty that my eyes dropped once more to glare at him.
“I was...” I put a hand over my eyes, unable to trust myself to keep my eyes off him. “Trying not to disturb you.”
Blackthorn hummed.
The silence that followed made me squirm.
“Why weren’t you?” I prodded.
Blackthorn’s body shifted in the tub, and I couldn’t help but imagine what he looked like. “Why wasn’t I what?”
I huffed, and my shoulders drooped. “Why are you still awake? Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
Blackthorn chuckled. “Am I not allowed to go to bed when I wish?”
“Yes, of course, I just meant...” I stuttered over my words, wanting this moment to just be over already.
“Perhaps I was waiting for someone.”
His words made the air in my lungs freeze in my chest. My back pressed firmly against the door, grounding myself. I didn’t know what to say to his admission.
It had been clear from the beginning that Blackthorn was interested in me. Not that he had said it in so many words. But my sudden “saving” and then everyone calling me mistress, he had obviously told them how he felt about me. Though he’d never said so much to me.
There was a choice to be made here. I could continue pretending like I didn’t know how he felt about me in hopes that Fran had some miracle cure for my contract with Rumple lest I be forced to return. Or I could see where this could go. A far more exciting and terrifying prospect to be sure.
Sucking in a deep breath, I settled myself before lowering my hand. My eyes searching until I found those dark orbs locked on my face. “Why?”
Blackthorn’s brows rose, his broad shoulders appearing even bigger with his arms braced on either side of the tub. “Why was I waiting for you? Isn’t it obvious?”
I pressed my palms against the door behind me, bracing for his next words.
Instead of answering, he stood from the bath, water sloshing around him, sliding down his body.
My eyes caught on a droplet, chasing its pathway down his muscular chest over his abs and slipping over where his defined hips.
I jerked my gaze up before it could go any further meeting his smoldering gaze.
“Would you mind?” He held his hand out, gesturing toward the towel sitting nearby.
Swallowing thickly, my heart in my throat, I stepped away from the door and reached for the towel. My breath came out shaky with each step toward the bath. I stopped a few feet away holding the towel out to him.
“I cannot reach.”
Before I could stop myself, I scowled, knowing he was full of it. I took a single step forward, holding the towel out to him.
Blackthorn smirked, reaching for the towel. His hand wrapped around the end of the towel and, with a quick jerk, yanked me close.
My hands released the towel, bracing myself to keep from falling into the tub. They landed on the hard planes of his chest, his skin slick beneath my fingers. Where I once thought I’d feel a beat beneath his chest was still now.
My brows furrowed, briefly distracted by the lack of a heartbeat and not the inches between us.
“No blood.”
Lips twisting to the side, my eyes lifted. “What?”
Blackthorn’s hand sat on top of mine, moving it to settle over where his heart would be. “My heart beats when I have fed. Since I haven’t...”
My eyes drifted to our clasped hands. “No blood.”
Blood rushed in my ears at his words. The implications of what he was telling me caused a mix of confusion and, strangely enough, a pleased feeling to fill my chest. His desire to have my blood trumped his need to feed.
I wasn’t sure I’d known a single man who would allow himself to suffer for the sake of a woman.
My gaze drifted back up to his dark one. The hunger there was not just for my blood. The depth of it made me gasp.
“You should feed,” I quickly stated, my eyes dropping as I stepped away. He held my hand fast, keeping me from putting more distance between us.
“Yes, I should.” Blackthorn’s voice lowered to an intimate level that had me shuddering, his fingers stroking up and down the top of my hand.
He slowly lifted my hand, and his lips and nose brushed against my palm, letting out a low moan as he breathed me in.
“Every time you blush, you smell so exquisite. It makes me crazed. It’s a wonder I don’t try to keep you in a constant state of embarrassment. ”
My face heated even further against my wishes.
Strangely, the thought of him biting me didn’t scare me.
I was... intrigued. Curious even. And a small dark part of me was even eager for it.
To know he wanted me so deeply that he needed me just to stay alive.
It filled some part of me that I didn’t know I needed.
“Please.”
Blackthorn’s eyes snapped open and locked with mine. “You don’t know what you are asking me.”
I closed the distance between us, a decision made. I pressed my wrist into his grasp. “I do.”
His gaze stayed on me for a long moment, searching my face for something — fear or regret, perhaps.
He must have seen something that satisfied him, because his lips pressed to the inside of my wrist. His eyes stayed on mine as his mouth opened.
His tongue tickled my flesh, and I saw a quick flash of his fangs before they sank into my skin.
I gasped. There was a sharp pain and then a strange pulling sensation.
I almost told him to stop, that I’d changed my mind, but then it was like his mouth was connected to other parts of me.
Each drag of my blood into his mouth pulled on my nipples, and the feeling sank further down my body, settling between my thighs.
My knees buckled at the sudden pressure on my clit.
Blackthorn’s free arm wrapped around my waist, pressing me against his side as he drank. A low ragged moan came out of me. Had I had a clear head, I might have been embarrassed, turning even pinker than ever before.
His eyes never left my face. Even as my breathing came in rapid pants, my thighs pressed together, a need building harder and stronger. My mouth fell open in a silent cry, my legs shaking as Blackthorn’s sucking slowed.
My vision blurred and darkened. His fangs slipped from my flesh, and his tongue lapped at the skin there. Blackthorn’s voice grew low, sounding like water in my ears, as my head grew fuzzy. I couldn’t shake the darkness closing in.
I thought I asked him what was happening to me, but I couldn’t be sure before everything went dark.