Chapter 8
Dorian
“It was a pleasure getting to know you properly, Henrietta,” I say as we pull up outside of her house a few minutes later.
She lives in a quiet cul-de-sac, a ten-minute drive from Edie’s house, her tidy detached bungalow circled by a well-tended garden.
It screams domesticity, when she seems anything but tame.
In fact, like Edie, she seems immune to Logan’s compulsion but, interestingly, not mine. It’s something I’ve never come across before. She’s an anomaly all by herself.
Logan scoffs, then mutters. “Nice isn’t how I’d describe this shit-show.”
“Oh, believe me, the pleasure was all mine,” she replies, completely ignoring Logan’s remark and throwing me a wink as I look over my shoulder at her. “Despite what my grumpy angel just said, I’m certain he enjoyed himself too,” she adds, beaming as she turns her attention to him.
“Being mauled by a pocket-sized demon is hardly enjoyable,” he retorts.
Henrietta’s curls dance around her face as she laughs. “Playing hard to get is like waving a red rag at a bull. It just makes me want to chase you harder. Thought you should know.”
“I wouldn’t suggest it,” Logan snaps. “You might not like what happens if you do.”
“Well, on that note, I’d better get inside. Tonight has been a blast,” Henrietta says, unclicking her seatbelt. “Though I think I’ll be spending some quality time with Mr V since I’m wound up tighter than a grandfather clock.”
“Who. The. Fuck. Is. Mr. V?” Logan demands, his voice dangerously low.
“My vibrator, silly.”
I can’t tell if Logan’s silence is because Henrietta just called him silly, or because she announced she’s in desperate need of release. Either way, he’s struck speechless.
“Henrietta,” Edie admonishes, her gaze flicking between them both.
“What? I’m sorry, but am I supposed to just ignore the fact that my poor vagina thinks she’s finally hit the jackpot and is desperate for a little action?
Angel might not want to take a long, leisurely stroll through my lady garden because he’s playing hard to get, but she needs relief, and so do I.
So a date with Mr V is absolutely needed. ”
With that, she leans in, kisses Edie’s cheek, and hops out of the car, the door slamming shut behind her.
“Fuck me,” Logan groans. “She’s not just any demon, she’s a goddamn succubus.”
Edie stifles a laugh.
“Is she always like that?”
“Like what?” Edie replies, straightening her features and turning her attention to Logan.
“So unafraid to speak her mind.”
“Aside from when she’s at work, Henrietta has no filter,” Edie begins, waving at her best friend, who is standing on her drive, waving back.
“And I adore her for it,” she adds, a streak of protectiveness shining through her words.
“Beneath all the teasing and the sex talk, she also has the biggest heart. I think this is just her way of protecting herself.”
“Why does she need to protect herself?” Logan asks, his tone cooling further as he leans forward between us.
“Her ex was a…” Edie’s voice trails off as she chews on the inside of her cheek. I can’t help but notice how she leans away from Logan. Unlike Henrietta, she has some self-preservation. Then again, she’s not like that with me, which is as curious as it is concerning.
“Her ex was what?” Logan presses, and out of the corner of my eye, I see him scanning the street, like he half expects Henrietta’s ex to appear out of thin air.
“It’s not really for me to say,” Edie replies. “But I can assure you she’s better off without him.”
“Is she in danger?” Logan asks.
“In danger?” Edie frowns. “I don’t think so. At least… Well, there was that one time a few weeks back when Gareth turned up at her house and acted a bit like those pricks in the pub earlier. She dealt with him, though. Gave him a black eye, actually.”
Logan swears under his breath.
“I’ve said too much,” Edie says, pulling a face. “Listen, she might be petite, but Henrietta is as fierce as they come.”
Logan opens his door with a muttered curse. “No, Henrietta is as breakable as you are.”
“Logan—” I begin, but he cuts me off.
“I’ll make my own way back to the club,” he snaps, then gets out of the car and slams the door.
Watching Logan approach Henrietta is like observing a lion on the hunt, but it’s her eyes that blaze with a fierce kind of hunger. For a second, I think about stepping in, but instead, I roll down the window and say, “Remember the rules, Logan.”
Logan throws me a look over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed and his jaw tight. “I don’t need reminding of the rules. Do you?”
“What rules?” Edie asks as Logan turns his attention back to Henrietta and whispers something in her ear.
“Never take a bite unless you’re prepared to finish the meal,” I mutter, my eyes flicking to the pulse beating in Edie’s neck. Her skin is slightly bruised there from where I sucked on her skin earlier.
“Is that some kind of kinky innuendo?”
“Something like that,” I reply, pressing on the gas and driving us towards Edie’s house.
“Is this when I’m supposed to ask you in for coffee?” Edie asks as I park outside her house. My gaze falls to her hands as she tugs on the hem of her skirt. She’s nervous, which surprises me.
“I don’t drink coffee,” I say, reaching over and placing my hand over hers.
“Well, that’s all I have. So I guess we’ll call it a night then?”
“I want to come in, Edie.”
“I hear a ‘but’ in there somewhere,” she says, searching my face.
“I need to get back to the club.” I explain, mentally berating myself for being such a fucking gentleman. What I actually want to do is some pretty unspeakable things to Edie, and that’s exactly why I’m removing myself from the situation, unlike my second, Logan.
I should’ve ordered him back into the car.
“Ah, I see,” she replies, unclicking her seatbelt.
“Wait,” I say, tugging on her arm gently.
“Yes?” she asks, her breath hitching as I lean closer, my gaze flicking to her lips.
“This isn’t me turning you down.”
“I get it. You’ve no need to explain yourself to me,” she replies, shoring up her walls that I want to break down as quickly as she’s putting them up.
“You don’t get it. Not at all.”
“Honestly, Dorian. It’s no big deal. I can take rejection like the best of them. I’ve had years of practice, after all.”
Her fingers wrap around the door handle, and before I can even think through what I’m about to do, I lean across her and press the seat recline button.
“Dorian, what are you—”
“Doing? I’m finishing what I started in the restaurant,” I say, before sliding my hand up her thigh and slamming my lips against hers.
She instantly melts against me, the tension in her body evaporating as I slide my tongue into her mouth and slip my fingers beneath her knickers, feeling her warm slickness. She parts her legs, moaning into my mouth as I circle her clit with my thumb.
“Fuck, I want to eat you out,” I say, “But for now I’m going to have to make do with finger-fucking you until you come.”
“Dorian, someone might see.” Her fingers curl around my wrist as her gaze widens.
“Just say the word, Edie, and I’ll stop,” I say, gently slipping two fingers inside of her. She blinks up at me, her pupils dilated, her chest heaving.
“No. No, I don’t want you to stop. Don’t you dare,” she snaps, her legs widening as she gives me more access. “Make me come, Dorian. Just make me come.”
Within her command is a thread of vulnerability, and after her confession, there isn’t a chance in hell that I won’t give her exactly what she needs.
“There she is.” I smile against her mouth before capturing her lips with mine once more.
Our tongues collide as Edie reaches up and yanks me closer.
Whatever doubts she was feeling towards me moments ago seem to evaporate as she rocks her hips against my hand, chasing the orgasm I know she’s on the verge of having.
Thank fuck I drank a litre of blood before I came tonight or things could turn dangerous very quickly.
“You’re so damn receptive to my touch,” I groan against her lips, my cock so fucking hard it’s painful. “I want to eat you out so bad.”
“Then, please, come inside,” she whispers, her eyes rolling in the back of her head as I lower my lips to her pulse and scrape my teeth against her skin. I can feel her blood thrumming beneath my lips, and the reckless side of me, the dangerous side, wants to come out to play. I bite harder.
“Dorian, please,” she begs, gasping from the pain, trembling from the pleasure.
Despite everything telling me I should leave, I can’t bring myself to deny her another orgasm, not after what she told me.
So, with an absolute determination to get her off, I continue to fuck her with my fingers.
The slick sound of her pussy and the warmth of it makes me fucking crazy with the need to let my fangs fall, to sink them into her neck.
This is dangerous. Irresponsible.
Still, I feel a restless urge to break free, to cast off my restraints and take what I want.
But I can’t. I can’t.
“Dorian, I think I’m going to…” she pants, gripping my arms as she trembles beneath me.
“Come? I want you to come, Edie,” I grind out, my voice barely recognisable.
“I want you to come all over my hand, and I want you to remember what this feels like. This is the first of many,” I growl against her skin, my fingers stroking her in a steady rhythm, knowing this is what she needs more than anything.
To feel worshipped. To feel adored. To give in to her base needs. To fucking come.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god,” she pants.
My head snaps up. “Look at me, Edie,” I command, the sharpness of my desire making my voice rough. Her eyes fly open, and she whimpers. “You say my name, and only my name when you come.”
“Dorian,” she cries, her eyes rolling back in her head as her whole body stiffens, her core fluttering around my fingers, her thighs holding my hand prisoner as she finally gives in to the sensation, and fuck, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life.
A single tear slips from her eye, and I capture the salty jewel with my tongue, savouring it. If this is what orgasming does to her, I’d gladly drown in an ocean of them.
“I want more,” I murmur against her lips. “I want all of your orgasms. Every damn one. I want you to know from this moment on, every orgasm you have belongs to me, and only me.”
A familiar prickle scatters down my spine, the urge to impale my fangs in her neck becoming almost impossible to resist. I ease backwards, dragging in a deep breath as I gently remove my fingers from her dripping cunt.
Her arousal lifts into the air, bringing with it the scent of something else.
My nostrils flare as something sharp and familiar coils at the back of my tongue.
Metal. Heat.
My vision blurs at the edges, the world narrowing to the frantic thrum beneath her skin, and then I understand.
Blood.
I drop my gaze to my hand to find a slick trail of crimson covering my fingers. She’s menstruating.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Dangerous bloodlust unfurls within me as darkness clouds my vision and prickles of heat erupt beneath my skin, burning me up with desire. With irrepressible need.
My temples throb. Every muscle in my body is straining against the need to claim her. My fingers itch to touch her again. I can feel the dangerous onslaught of my true nature fighting for dominance as my gums sting and my canines begin to elongate.
Take her, that wicked voice inside of me demands.
I have to get out of here.
“Fuck,” I hiss, willing my fangs to recede. I’m losing my fucking mind trying to keep the monster within me from breaking free.
“Dorian?” she whispers.
“You need to go,” I snap, refusing to look at her, suffocating on the thick, vibrant scent of her blood.
“What’s happening right now? Why are you being so… cold?” she asks, reaching for me. I hear the confusion in her voice and hate myself for it.
I’m not cold, at least not in the way she thinks.
I’m unravelling. The craving to cross forbidden lines with her sets me on a knife’s edge as I fight to keep myself contained.
One wrong move and we’ll both be sliced open.
When her fingers brush my arm, a shiver rips through me, and the darkness within me pounds against the walls of my self-control.
“Don’t,” I warn, feeling her gaze burning against my face, aware that it has slipped to my hand.
“Is that my blood?”
“You’re menstruating,” I grind out, not because it disgusts me, but because it doesn’t. My fingers twitch with the urge to lift them to my mouth and taste the rich decadence of her blood.
“It’s been months since my last… I thought that had finished… This is so humiliating…”
She chokes on the words, and I feel her shame expanding between us like a balloon about to pop. I want to tell her I’m not reacting this way because I’m disgusted, but because I’m fighting so hard to maintain control, I can’t even begin to find the right words.
“You need to leave.”
A bitter laugh slips past her lips. “So this is how it’s going to be.
” She pauses, dragging in a tremulous breath.
“I believed everything you told me earlier. I hoped you were different, but you’re exactly like every other man selling pretty lies to get what he wants, until what he gets disappoints him. ”
She’s out of the car before I can respond, the door slamming behind her. I track her movements, waiting until she disappears inside her house.
“No. I’m not like every other man, and that’s the fucking problem,” I murmur. Then I reach down, unzip my trousers and pull out my cock, fisting it.
My fangs instantly drop as Edie’s blood smears my dick, its rich, metallic scent filling my nose as I violently jerk myself off.
It doesn’t take long before my orgasm breaks and I’m spilling all over my hand, Edie’s essence mingling with mine.
I don’t hesitate, I lift my fingers to my mouth and taste her blood.
The second I do, my eyes slam shut and the back of my head hits the headrest.
Fuck. Me.
Starlight. That’s her flavour. Pure, unfiltered starlight.
The taste of her blood hits like the smoothest vodka, sharp and powerfully charged, sending an electric current through my veins and making my whole body hum.
Underneath, there is a thread of sweetness, deep and decadent as dark chocolate, and below that, something I cannot name.
It is not a taste but a sensation, a surge of awe and wonder, of mysteries waiting to be discovered.
Every human carries their own distinct flavour, but none has ever come close to this. No other blood has ever painted galaxies behind my eyes.
In that instant, I know Edie belongs to me, irrevocably and without question.