Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 154735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
But that was no more.
“Where are your necklaces now, angel?” she breathed. “You used to wear many.”
Gone. “Maybe I’ll put some back on sometime.”
“I would like that. If only because I could take them off you, one by one.” She flushed and dropped her eyes. “That is silly—”
“It’s a date.” As her stare flipped back up to his, he nodded. “If I didn’t have to leave you, I’d go get some chains right now.”
And then he realized—
“What is it?” she asked as her hand went down to his sternum. “What troubles you?”
“I, ah…” He captured her hand and kissed her palm. “I don’t want to freak you out.”
But he wanted to take off her clothes, and kiss her in places he wasn’t sure she was ready for. Holy fuck, he wanted to go down on her, right now.
“Without meaning any offense,” she said dryly, “I saved a dog earlier in the day. My threshold for surprise is quite high at the moment, thank you very much.”
He laughed. Then pressed his mouth to her hand.
When the silence became awkward, her brow lifted. “I would rather hope you will see your way out of this current dearth of words.”
“I love the way you talk and your accent. You roll your r’s and it goes right through me.”
“Oh?”
He looked at her mouth. “It makes me wonder what else you can do with your tongue.”
With surprising boldness, she met him directly in the eye. “Let us find out, shall we?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
As Rahvyn waited for Lassiter to respond to her rather blatant invitation, she enjoyed exploring his upper body, the feeling of his skin, so warm and smooth, the expanse of his shoulders and chest, so vast and hard, all of it a landscape she was compelled to touch. And as she imagined him with his gold on properly, she was tantalized with what it would have been like to have the links under her hands as well.
“So will you kiss me some more,” she said in a husky voice that did not sound like her own. “I like your tongue inside of me.”
“Fuck, yes,” he groaned as he closed his eyes for a second.
Gripping his shoulders, she used his body to pull herself to him, and as she closed in on his mouth, she heard herself purring in satisfaction. The contact started gentle, as it had before, but it did not stay that way. His arms came around her, and there was a crushing sensation she only wanted more of as he held her against him, fiercely. Running her fingers into his blond-and-black hair again, she wanted to get out of her own clothes. She wanted to be naked underneath him. She wanted…
Pulling back, she was breathing hard, and her eyes latched on to his neck, where the thick vein ran up the side. As the tips of her fangs tingled, she felt a compelling need to know what he tasted like—
“Do it.” When she recoiled in shock, he cupped the back of her head and held her in place. “Take me, in your way. I want you to mark me. I want to know what it’s like to have your fangs in me.”
Rahvyn’s heart thundered—and yet she hesitated. “I do not want to hurt you.”
“You can’t, don’t worry—even if you did, I don’t care.” His hand ducked underneath her hair and stroked her nape. “My blood may not offer you the sustenance you need, but I want to give you a part of me. Even if it’s not enough.”
Her mind told her no. Her body told her yes.
Her hunger told her now.
The decision was made before she was conscious of coming to any conclusion, and her fangs descended all the way down in a rush. Rearing back, a hiss came out of her mouth—
She struck with a violence that should have bothered her, but did not because she was just that starved to drink of him. On Lassiter’s side, his bark of an exhale as the punctures were made sounded like triumph to her ears, and then she wasn’t hearing anything. She was drinking, swallowing, taking of him.
He tasted of a piercing white wine, his blood cutting into her with a sizzle, the path of it burning down her throat and hitting her stomach with a blaze—that went right into the juncture of her thighs: Her core seemed to open upon the command of his flavor, and the response got even more intense as she nuzzled into his vein and sucked upon the source, pulling more and more of him into her—until her body was so hot, she fumbled with her clothes in an attempt to get them off.
“Shh,” he said from what seemed like a vast distance. “I’ll take care of it—”
The next thing she was aware of was a cooling on her skin, all over her, as if what she was wearing had melted off. She paid no attention to the hows or whys of that. Instead, she pulled him onto her, shifting his weight as she made space for him between her legs—