Captivated (Deep in Your Veins 6)

Fighting her pull would have been a lot damn easier if the attraction was purely physical. But there was a lot to like about Lexi Solomon. She was genuine. Accepting. Gutsy. Cautious and guarded, but still open to letting people into her life; open to giving them a chance to earn her trust.

And fuck, she could be funny. We’d talked a lot between sex sessions yesterday, and she’d had me laughing so hard when doing impressions of people. She was brilliant at accents, and her impersonation of Sam was perfect.

I couldn’t help but find it crazy that she wasn’t the least bit scared of Castor but almost had a major freak out when we spotted a spider on her bedroom wall. Oh, she’d dismissed it at first. Even as her shoulders went stiff, she’d acted all aloof and uncaring, clearly determined to ignore how its presence creeped her out—Lexi didn’t give into fear easily, I’d learned. But the closer it had crawled toward the headboard, the edgier she’d become until eventually she’d flown off the bed and done a full-on body shiver while insisting I throw the spider out of the window.

We’d exchanged more stories about our lives, and I’d learned just how damn useless her mother was. She and Lexi had ended up in homeless shelters on several occasions. But Lexi had never once tried to trivialise any of my own childhood shit; never been all, ‘oh, the poor little rich boy.’ That just wasn’t the way she operated.

“It’s not like you to sit in silence,” she said, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel.

I met her eyes. “I was just admiring the view.” She didn’t look as though she believed me. “I don’t regret coming here, or staying with you, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“You should regret it.” She chucked the towel onto the counter. “So should I.”

“But you don’t,” I sensed.

She straightened, all defensive. “Well you make me come really hard.”

A chuckle burst out of me. “I love your honesty.” I patted my thigh in invitation.

“Oh no. Keeping space between us is best.”

In a blur of movement, I was stood directly in front of her. “I don’t like space.” I did like that she never seemed spooked by how fast I could move. No reminders of the fact that, hey, I wasn’t human appeared to bother her.

I palmed one side of her face and swept my thumb over her cheekbone. “Do you like it when I feed from you?”

She swallowed. “You know I do.”

“Then I’m going to give you something to think about.”

“Huh?”

“I want you to consider being my vessel.” I needed to keep her at my side a little longer. Needed to have some claim on her. Needed time to get over my obsession with her.

She narrowed her eyes. “What exactly would that entail?”

“Nothing complicated,” I assured her. “In a nutshell, no one else but me would feed from you, and you’d officially be under my protection. That means anyone who harmed you by word or deed would deal with me.”

“But you would feed from others?”

“Would you rather I didn’t? Why are you scowling at me?”

“Because I would rather you didn’t, and that bothers me. Feeding just seems so intimate. Even without sex.”

I curled an arm around her and drew her close. “Then I’ll drink from only you.”

“Just like that? It wouldn’t bug you to restrict yourself?”

“Fuck, no. Your blood is addictive.” I brushed my lips over the pulse in her neck. “And now it’s mine.”

“Whoa there, I didn’t agree to be your vessel.”

I lifted my head. “But you’re going to. I can tell.”

“I don’t think we’d manage to keep it … nonsexual.”

“You mean we’d end up fucking? Yeah. We would.” There was no sense in lying to ourselves about that.

She rubbed at her forehead. “It was only supposed to be a one-time thing.”

I kissed one side of her mouth. “I know.”

“We did it twice.”

I pressed a kiss to the other corner of her mouth. “I know.”

“Making it a regular thing wouldn’t be smart.”

“I know that, too.” I palmed her face with both hands. “But I see you, and I want.” The reaction was as basic as it was powerful. “I’ve never wanted anything the way I want you. And your blood, fuck, there’s nothing like it.” I licked and nipped at her neck. “Say yes.”

She cursed when I teased the hollow beneath her ear with my tongue. “Dammit, Damien, that’s my goddamn weak spot.”

I knew that. “Say yes.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Good enough for now. “Make sure that you do.” Righting my head again, I nipped her lower lip. “I’ll find you later.”

She frowned. “You say that like it will be super simple.”

“When one of my kind regularly feeds from a human and has much of their blood in our system, we can find them very easily—providing they’re not too far away. We feel them. It’s like a tug in our blood that draws us their way. But only if we’ve fed from them recently. I suppose it’s nature’s way of ensuring we don’t lose our food.”