Chapter Fourteen
Victoria
My days settled into a bizarre routine.
Matthias let me pretend we didn’t find ourselves in a compromising position as long as I didn’t acknowledge he was totally awake for those few minutes as well.
We still fell asleep separately but, inevitably, we woke up tangled together. It couldn’t be helped. Matthias’s skin was so cool! It was like a balm on my overheating skin, a warding charm against the warm summer nights, and I scooted closer on pure instinct.
The fifth and sixth days slinked by and, while Theo and Tristan visited when they could, they were busy remotely managing the Sanguine and negotiating the deal. Most days it was only me and Matthias.
Well, and the shadow of Carl stalking after me, but we learned how to either avoid him or channel his ire to our benefit.
At the end of one of my shifts, Tristan came by to pull Matthias aside for a private conversation. They went outside and spoke in hushed tones but they didn’t account for how their words carried through the open window to the room I was cleaning.
I didn’t intend to eavesdrop but my head whipped around when I heard a certain very worrying word.
“…you can’t keep going like this, Matthias. I know you are hungry. You joined me and Theo straight after dealing with that werewolf gang and you didn’t have the opportunity to feed since then,” Tristan was saying.
“So what? I can keep going.” A peak out the window showed me Matthias stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest.
Matthias was hungry? What was this about? I personally saw him inhale a good portion of our lunch. A lunch we prepared together. Maybe he needed a specialized diet? Something for all of those muscles? Oh god, were there medical reasons? Was playing bodyguard for me hurting him?
Speechless, I turned to Theo, who was left to keep an eye on me, and gesticulated wildly in the direction of the two men.
Theo grimaced.
“It’s not my place to say what this is about. BUT,” Theo interjected seeing my lips opening in a protest. “I think you should talk to Matthias about the issue. Tell him…” Theo hesitated but then his gaze grew steely. “…that he is allowed to share his secret with you.”
Before I could press him for more he made a strategic retreat just as Matthias came back inside.
Theo left with Tristan and a heavy silence settled between me and Matthias.
Thanking all the stars I was at the end of my shift, I took care of the last needed cleaning to get back to my room as quickly as possible.
As soon as the door closed behind us I advanced on Matthias.
“Whoa!” he yelped as I sandwiched his face between my hands and observed him closely. He seemed even paler than when we first met. His skin was cold. And his eyes… was it possible for the irises to change color? I swear his eye color was darker but now it looked like amber with hints of red.
Determined, I sneaked a hand under his shirt but what I felt were the fat and muscle I expected to find and not signs of an illness.
“Not that I’m not enjoying this, but what gives?” Matthias asked.
I pulled my hands away as if I was burned.
“Ah, sorry. I was a bit too focused…” I said with a blush.
“Focused on what?” the man asked with a roguish grin. “Feeling how sculpted my abs are? You should grab a hold of my pecs. Those are to die for.”
“I heard you and Tristan talking,” I blurted out.
His eyes widened and he took a step back before he tried to play at nonchalance.
“Yeah? Don’t pay attention to what he was saying. It was a load of bullshit.”
“Look me in the eye and tell me you are fine,” I demanded.
He did and growled, “I am fine.”
“Now do that without lying,” I snarled at him.
We were locked in a staring contest and as I held his gaze I was certain his eyes got redder.
“I’m fine… for now,” he said through clenched teeth.
I felt lost. All I could do was beseech him to trust me.
“Tell me what you need.”
His eyes zeroed in on my neck, irises filling with red the color of blood. Blood…
“I… I can’t,” Matthias said as if the denial was hurting him and pressed his forehead to mine.
I laid my hand over his chest. His heart wasn’t beating.
“Theo said to tell you: you can share your secret with me,” I said gently. “But would it be easier if I said the words?”
Matthias pulled his head away but I didn’t let him go far. My hands wrapped around his neck to ensure he wouldn’t run. He looked scared. Terrified. But also… hopeful.
“You are a vampire, aren’t you?” I said, feeling the thrill of finally uttering those crazy words. “And what you need is my blood.”
“Your blood is what I want ,” Matthias leaned towards my neck and took a deep, shuddering breath in. “It sings to me, with its sweetness. But as for need … I can get it elsewhere. You don’t have to be scared of me.”
The declaration elicited many feelings in me and fear was only a small portion of them. It felt almost like a spice added to make a meal better.
“I don’t want you to get it elsewhere,” I said vehemently. Jealousy. Possessiveness. Lust. Those were feelings that filled me in this moment. “You quenched my hunger, and I want to quench yours.”
The red eyes blinked slowly as he took me in, noting the reactions of my body with his sharpened senses. My wildly beating heart, the blown pupils, the way my hand shook just a little from excitement… they all told him a story. I was an open book and he was taking his time reading me.
Could he sense how wet I was getting?
“Hmm, I don’t know, maybe I should make you eat some juicy, fat steaks with red vegetables to get more iron in your diet, before I take a bite,” he said, mischief dancing in his eyes.
“Is that so? You want to fatten me up like a lamb for slaughter?”
“Not exactly fatten you up but a good diet is certainly beneficial. It means I can take more and return to your taste faster,” Matthias lowered his head to my neck and I tilted my head to give him more access.
His lips brushed against my neck as he spoke.
“I don’t know if, after a week without proper meals, I can feed on you safely. ..”
“But you can still have a taste, right?” I asked with sudden desperation. “Just a little…”
“There’s nothing I want more, little bird,” Matthias groaned. His tongue darted out to lap at my neck where my pulse beat a staccato rhythm.
“Bite me then,” I pleaded.
His mouth opened to reveal long fangs and his expression was almost dazed. I thought he would sink those teeth into the pale column of my throat but he shook his head like a dog and some clarity returned to his gaze.
“Not the neck,” he said hoarsely. “I won’t be able to stop myself if I bite there. Give me your hand.”
The vampire took my offered hand and pulled me to the couch. I ended up astride his lap.
“This will hurt just for a moment,” was all the warning I got before lethally sharp fangs raked over the inside of my wrist.
The pain was sharp but the sting quickly turned into a different sensation as Matthias ran his tongue over the bleeding wound.
It felt as if what he was doing connected straight to my pussy.
I opened my legs wider, pushing against his sculpted body only to find…
he was completely flaccid. But before I could worry if vampires were capable of having the kind of sex I wanted I felt the cock beneath me stir to life.
His whole body warmed. A flush appeared on Matthias’ face as he licked at the dripping blood.
I was the one bringing him to life, letting him experience the joy of blood stirring in his lower parts to result in an erection.
He was halfway there and he muffled a moan into my red-streaked skin, cleaning every trace of the life-giving substance with his tongue.
And then he stopped.
“That’s enough. Thank you, sweetness. You taste exquisite,” he pulled back with effort, until his head hit the back of the couch. He stared at the ceiling, flushed and dazed. I had a feeling he was trying to resist the temptation by not looking at me.
A look at my wrist showed me the wound was already closing. The vampire saliva had healing properties. Matthias didn’t take much of my blood, but he had a point that I wasn’t in the best shape, so I didn’t push him to take more.
“Is the blood you took enough to let you…?” My hand trailed down between us but the vampire caught it and brought it to his lips for a kiss.
“No. I would need a bigger dose for that… or more frequent small doses,” he sighed but then grinned. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t have some fun with you. I don’t need to use my cock to make you scream, baby.”
I squeaked as he stood up with me; either his trained body or his vampiric strength let him carry me as if I weighed nothing.
He laid me on the bed like a meal, then peeled the pantyhose off my legs.
My underwear followed in quick succession but he left the maid costume, which Carl insisted I wear as my uniform, on, merely pushing the short skirt up before he dove down.
It should be scary to have those sharp teeth so close to my most vulnerable parts but I felt only exhilaration. When I felt his fingers pry my folds open to make space for his tongue, my spine bowed into an arc and I threw my head back with a moan.
“Yes, make all those pretty sounds for me,” Matthias encouraged and then made following his order absurdly easy as he licked a long stripe up my cunt then focused on my clit with a ferocity of a starving animal.
He was the definition of messy. When I gathered enough strength to look at him between my legs, his chin was covered with my juices and his own saliva. Matthias looked incredibly pleased with himself when he felt my eyes on him and met my gaze.
“You taste sweet, Victoria, but you know what I like even more than your taste?” He slid his nose over my soaked thighs and took a deep breath in.
“Your scent. It’s driving me crazy. I know how aroused you are.
I will always know, even if you want to hide it.
And right now you are soaking wet. Tell me how much you want it. ”
“Stop talking!” I groaned. My fingers tried to grab his hair but the strands were too short for me to find much purchase.
Matthias laughed and the puffs of air against my sensitive flesh made me shiver. Okay, maybe I could string a few words together. I had to, because not having that wicked mouth on me was torture.
“I want you. So much. Make me breathless, make me feel g-good,” I gasped out.
“Say my name and I will,” he growled.
“Matthias—ah!”
My thighs squeezed around his head as he pushed his tongue into me, fucking my pussy until I saw stars.
My body jolted into an orgasm as if struck by lightning.
Matthias slurped the wetness of arousal right out of me, not stopping until my limp limbs were once more clutching at him in a desperate search for more stimulation.
He pushed me right to the edge so easily that I wondered if his supernatural powers gave him more ways to read my body than just scenting my arousal.
Was it my wildly beating heart that told him I was nearly there?
Whatever it was, Matthias used his big fingers to circle my clit and I was gone, shattered into a million pieces by bliss.
I collapsed onto the bed, breaths sharp and my gaze unable to focus on the ceiling above me. The next thing I registered, as my pussy pulsed with the last waves of pleasure, was Matthias hovering right over me, our faces so close… I licked my lips, ready for our first kiss.
“Ah, sorry, you probably don’t want to kiss me after I…”
I pulled Matthias to me, not hesitating to add tongue to the kiss.
It quickly grew filthy. Filthier. The filthiest. Once invited in, Matthias charged into the kiss as if it were a battle.
Our tongues tangled, the slick slide a perfect medium to push my moans into.
Soon, I submitted to his dominance, dizzy with it, reeling with how perfect this felt.
The aftertaste of my own orgasm and my blood tingled on my tongue.
When we pulled apart, Matthias pressed his forehead against mine and we just breathed together for a moment, enjoying the closeness of each other.
My eyes closed on their own volition and I had to catch myself when I started listing forward.
“Ready to go to sleep? I see I tired you out,” Matthias said smugly.
“You did,” I mumbled.
“Do you want to clean up? I can change the sheets…” Matthias offered.
“Fuck it,” I snorted. “I’m not letting you go even for a moment. Let’s just go to sleep.”
“You are still dressed,” Matthias pointed out unhelpfully.
At my noise of objection he buried a laugh in my hair before he slowly coaxed me out of my maid’s dress, then took off his own clothes.
He decided cleaning me up or changing the sheets was still too hard because he bundled me under the covers and pressed against my back.
Calling us a big and little spoon wasn’t enough to describe how I was positively drowning in his arms. He was more of a ladle than a spoon.
Big, muscular arms circled around me and, for the first time in too long, I felt safe. Cherished. Kept.
I let myself drift into dreamless sleep.