CHAPTER 7 #4
In answer, she drew him over to her bed by the window.
It was covered by the rumpled quilt that had once been her mother’s, patterned with silver and blue stars.
Dani pushed the sleeve of her cardigan up.
Her wrist was pale in the faint light given off by the single butter-yellow candle and the bit of moonlight from the open window.
Alex knelt before her, dark hair spilling into his eyes, black hoodie getting lost in the shadows of the room, looking very much in that moment like a vampire.
Something dark and secretly delicious shivered up her spine.
A feeling of wanting, of desires she’d never had the opportunity to explore.
Terrified as she was of what the consequences might be, she wanted Alex to feed from her again.
Wanted it in a way that she could only now, in the space of this dark room, with the two of them together and nothing but the flickering candlelight to bear witness, admit to herself aloud.
She wanted to feel that rush of vulnerability in the second that his fangs penetrated her skin and her pulse began to race, the strange intimacy of it, to know he was taking from her, and she was freely giving him the nourishment he needed, something he could get only from her body.
“Dani?”
She flushed, feeling heat tingle across her skin. She hadn’t realized he’d asked her a question.
“Sorry. I’m a little keyed up.”
“It’s okay. I’m feeling it, too, if I’m being honest.” He exhaled, stroking the veins of her wrist. “You know I’ve fed from sanguines, ever since I was a child.”
“Of course.” Something raw opened up inside her, and she was forced to look away.
She knew this was how it worked, that it shouldn’t have stung.
Alex wasn’t saying this to hurt her. It was the vulnerability of their newly formed connection toying with her emotions, and yet something twisted within her at the thought of him sharing this intimacy with someone else.
The room grew quiet, the candle flickering against the wall. Alex’s thumb stilled where it had been tracing her vein.
“Daniela,” he whispered, leaning in. “I didn’t mean—”
He lifted a hand as if to trace her face, then hesitated at the last second, clearly remembering his promise not to touch her. Taking his fingers, she pressed them to her cheek.
“I feel it, too,” Alex said in a rough voice, fingertips toying with strands of her hair. “Whatever this is happening between us, it isn’t just you.”
She leaned into his palm, inhaling the spicy scent of his skin and the warm waxy vanilla of the candle.
“It doesn’t matter what either of us feels.
” Her breathing quickened and she forced her voice not to waver.
“Whatever this is must remain here in this room after tonight. You will be required to marry Lara. And I need you to swear to me that if Sera is wrong, if I am lost to blood addiction like my stepmother, that you will make sure my sisters are taken care of.”
His brow furrowed. “Daniela—”
“Please.” She silenced him with a shake of her head. “I know the risks. I accept them. This is all that I ask, that you would not let them starve.”
“I would not abandon them, or you.”
“Then I’m ready.” She scooted to the edge of the bed, the panels of her cardigan falling open. She wore a thin white tank and black leggings beneath it, and if she wound up fainting as soon as Alex began to drink, well, at least she would be comfortable.
“I love the scent of your skin.” Alexander kissed the base of her hand. At the brush of his lips, Dani felt her knees begin to shake. “You’re absolutely decadent.”
His mouth moved to the crease of her wrist, and she could no longer deny the achy need at the juncture of her thighs. Alex stared up at her, slowly stroking his thumb over her vein, his eyes glowing faintly silver in the dark.
“You make me feel as if I might go mad, Your Highness,” she whispered. “And you have only touched my wrist.”
“Ah, but it is I who may go mad.” His eyes held hers. “Finally being able to taste your skin again.”
Dani felt her breathing quicken, her aching nub pulsing in response to the brush of his lips. She shifted on the bed, needing something, anything to relieve the pressure. And… oh, gods. He’d just gotten her wet.
While he was kneeling right between her knees, no less.
Alex said nothing, but his eyes immediately flared silver. She felt her cheeks flush, grateful it was so dark. Could he smell how aroused he was making her?
“May I?” he asked huskily. “I confess, I need to take from you rather badly now.”
“Yes,” she whispered in a rush. “I want you to. I mean, I want to feed you.”
Before she could help herself, her fingers reached out, threading through his hair. Alexander’s eyes briefly hooded.
“You can keep doing that if you want to.” Then he carefully positioned his fangs at her wrist.
Alex closed his eyes, and she could see his shoulders were starting to shake. Her legs began to quake as he moved in closer, gently nudging her knees further apart to accommodate the breadth of those glorious shoulders. Gods, she wondered what he looked like with his shirt off—
His thumb continued tracing her wrist and she felt another pulse of wetness at the juncture of her legs.
She knew she should hate herself for being both aroused and terrified by what he was about to do, the animalistic power of it, but somehow…
couldn’t. She wanted this. Wanted his fangs in her vein.
Just like before, there was a brief nick of pain, her legs going wobbly as her world threatened to contract.
Black spots blotted out her visual field, followed by a familiar dropping sensation in her stomach.
She knew she would faint, accepted it as an inevitability, and yet she wanted to hang on to the last fleeting seconds of feeding Alex for as long as she could.
She wanted to feel the intimacy of him pulling from her wrist, to relish in the electric warmth building low in her hips and fluttering across her skin as he took from her in deep, rhythmic pulls.
She felt… woozy. But strangely, she hadn’t passed out yet.
Her fingers continued teasing through Alexander’s hair.
She thought back to the explosion on the road earlier that day.
She’d encountered blood then, too, and hadn’t passed out.
Was it possible there was something about Alex’s vampire venom that was making her more resistant to her fainting spells?
And then, just as quickly as he’d started to feed, Alex was withdrawing, sealing the wound closed with his venom and tongue.
“You’re shaking.” He swept her into his arms. “You didn’t pass out this time. How are you feeling?”
“A little lightheaded.” She reached up to tuck back a lock of hair that had fallen across his forehead as he laid her carefully in her bed.
“Let me get you some juice. I’ll be right back.”
Dani scooted to one end of the bed. It was a twin, the small room she shared with Evan already cramped between their belongings. She’d just tucked her legs beneath her and was examining the puncture marks on her wrist when Alex slipped back into the room.
“I wasn’t sure if you had a favorite, so I brought apple and orange.”
Dani scooted over to make more room, and reached out to take the apple. “I like both. We don’t often have juice. It’s a special treat.”
“Of course.” He looked down. “That was insensitive of me. I didn’t think.”
“We come from very different worlds.” She took a sip of her juice.
“Evan and I had to grow up very quickly after our parents died. There wasn’t time for boys or relationships.
” She toyed with the bottle cap. “We were so busy surviving that I didn’t have time to think about first kisses or what I might have liked to experience if I was attracted to someone.
I haven’t ever been with anyone before.”
“And you’re very sure you still want to go through with this?
” he asked softly. “I know you must think the worst of vampires, and with good reason, but I would never want to be with you, or anyone else who due to circumstances, couldn’t fully consent.
” He leaned in, tracing her hair back behind her ear so that their noses were very close in the dark room.
Dani felt her breathing quicken. “The moment you finally come to me, I want it to be because you’re dizzy with anticipation.
I want you to whimper every time my hands move over your body, telling me where you want them to go. If you’re not ready, then we wait.”
“It isn’t that I don’t want to.” She took his hand in fingers that were now shaking. His thumb stroked her index finger encouragingly. “Only that this is very new to me. I want you to touch me tonight.”
“Then we shall go slowly.” He reached for her empty juice glass and set both bottles on the ground beside the bed.
Mirroring her positioning, he reached for her hands.
“That way you can tell me if what I’m doing feels good to you, and how I can make it feel even better.
May I hold you? Your blood is in my veins, and I confess, it’s driving something primal and possessive within me to have you pressed close to me right now. But if that’s not okay—”
“Yes,” she breathed, heart beating faster. “I would like that very much.”
Stretching out on the bed, she pulled him down beside her.
Snowflakes drifted down outside the open window.
Alexander lifted one of his arms and after a moment’s hesitation, she scooted closer so that her head was resting against his shoulder.
His hoodie was warm and smelled of the same spicy cinnamon scent.
His fingers trailed lightly through her hair.
She nuzzled into his neck, and he sighed.
“We don’t have to do this,” he said at last. “I don’t care what Sera says. I don’t want your first kiss to be something you regret.”
She chewed her lip. “Can I tell you a secret?”