Chapter 23 #3
The exhilaration vanishes, my gaze dropping to the vial sitting innocently beside the analyzer. Somewhere, theoretically, there could be a vampire whose blood reacts to Beatrix’s the way James’ reacts to Taylor’s. Whose bond could make her immortal, tying her to them for the rest of eternity.
Something vicious twists in my chest, my hands curling against the edge of the workbench.
No.
The scientist in me is already cataloguing the implications. Taylor and James are no longer an isolated anomaly– the marker can be identified, screened for, and studied. With enough samples, perhaps I could determine its prevalence in the human population, develop a reliable assay…
The rest of me wants to smash the analyzer. Destroy the sample, erase the result, and make certain no one ever learns what I’ve just discovered.
The response is irrational. Unscientific. Entirely contrary to everything I’ve spent my life pursuing.
I don’t care.
I’ve only just allowed myself to have her, and now I’ve discovered evidence that she may have been made to belong to someone else. The thought is intolerable.
I stare at the green indicator for another long moment before turning away from the machine. I don’t re-run the experiment. Instead, I leave the laboratory.
By the time I reach the stairs, the possessive urge has settled beneath my skin like a fever. I descend quickly, following the familiar rhythm of her heartbeat down the hall to her bedroom. The door is open, the lights low, but I find her immediately.
She’s standing beside the dresser, dark hair twisted into a messy knot atop her head, her body half-swallowed by an oversized sleep shirt. She turns at the sound of my approach, green eyes widening.
“Hey–”
I cross the room before she can finish. My hand closes around her throat, and I press her back against the wall, her pulse jumping beneath my palm.
Mine.
Her eyes search my face before a slow, knowing smile curves her lips. “Time for the playroom?”
“Not tonight,” I growl, gripping the fabric of her t-shirt and yanking it off over her head in a single motion.
All she’s wearing underneath is a tiny pair of black lacy panties, and I promptly shove them down her legs, stripping them off and gathering them in a fist. Then I spin her around, taking both of her wrists in one hand behind her back before twisting her panties around them in a makeshift bind.
She lets out a nervous laugh, glancing back at me over her shoulder. “This is new.”
I slide a finger between her skin and the lace. “Too tight?”
“No,” she replies breathily, slowly moving her wrists to test her binds. “It’s good.”
Banding an arm around her waist, I lift her up and haul her over to the bed with a burst of vampire speed, bending her over the edge.
My knee nudges between hers to shove them apart, my hand pinning her bound wrists to the small of her back.
She gasps as my other hand slides up the inside of her thigh, the scent of her arousal immediate, sharp, and addictive.
“You ready?” I rasp, barely clinging to my control.
She nods back at me over her shoulder, strands of dark hair escaping from her bun and falling over her face. “Yes, Eli.”
Fuck it.
I shove my pants down one-handed, grip her hips, and bury myself inside her in a single, brutal thrust. She screams, and I bask in the sound, my eyes rolling back as her inner walls pulse around me.
It’s a tight fit, but goddamn, is it good.
I pull out halfway and shove back in, fucking her hard and fast, slamming her hips into the mattress with every stroke.
Her hands twist in the makeshift bind, but she never tries to pull free. If anything, the restriction makes her arch back into me, desperate for more.
“Eli!” she cries out, my fingers digging bruises into her hips as I hammer into her ruthlessly.
I can feel my control slipping, the edge of it burning away with every pump of my cock. I want to bite her, to mark her in every way possible, to make it absolutely clear that she belongs to me…
But I don’t.
Instead, I press my mouth to her ear and whisper, “Say you’re mine.”
She’s trembling, wracked with pleasure and pain and everything in between. “Yours, Eli,” she whimpers, a tear leaking from the corner of her eye.
I shove a hand between her body and the mattress, fingers delving down to strum her clit. She detonates in a matter of seconds, her pussy gripping my cock like a vise as she freefalls into her climax.
The sensation is too much. The pressure building inside me snaps, my eyes squeezing shut as a blinding wave of pleasure rolls through my body. My fangs break through, and it takes everything in me not to sink them into her shoulder.
Beatrix shudders, collapsing onto the bed in a boneless heap as I pull out and quickly free her wrists. She breathes in shallow gasps as my gaze combs over her naked body, clocking every fresh bruise blooming on her skin.
Slowly, she turns her head, a sated smile on her lips. “Possessive bastard.”
I stare back at her, my typically analytical mind suddenly a jumbled mess.
The scientist in me knows what I should do– record the results, continue my research.
The man in me can’t bear the thought of losing her to someone else.
And the vampire in me absolutely refuses to rescind his claim.