“I won’t let that happen.” The quiet confidence in his voice almost makes me believe him. Almost.
“Are you a god instead of a vampire?” I shake my head. “We’re both trapped here. You should have told me the circumstances of your side of it.”
He starts to speak and shakes his head. “You’re right.”
I blink. I didn’t expect him to actually agree with me. “What?”
“You’re right. I’ve played this all wrong.” His grip softens on my hips and he nudges me closer to him, pressing us more firmly together. Impossible to ignore that his cock is rock hard. Apparently the regular feedings means he doesn’t have to bite me to get it up. I shiver.
Malachi dips his thumbs beneath my shirt and strokes my skin. “I should have been honest with you.”
“Uh huh.” I lick my lips.
“Why don’t we try some honesty right now?” He holds my gaze. “The reason I stopped doing anything but biting you is because I don’t trust myself not to seduce you into having sex with me before you’re ready. I fucking ache for you, Mina, but I want you to choose me because you want me. I don’t want it to be coerced because you’re out of your mind with bloodlust.”
He said something to the same effect before, but part of me believed it was just another manipulation. It doesn’t feel like that right now. I carefully set my hands on his chest. “And what about Wolf?”
Something like guilt flickers over his expression before he locks it down. “We’re friends. Sometimes more.”
Friends. Sometimes more.
The truth reaches out and slaps me in the face. “You want to share me for more than just blood.”
He holds my gaze. “Wolf and I fuck, Mina. We have since we were teenagers.”
I don’t ask how long ago that was. The bloodlines have been dying out for a very long time. Malachi could be a hundred years old, or he could be five hundred. The gap between us already feels miles long without adding age to it.
I try to think, try to understand what he’s saying and not saying. “So you’re going to keep fucking Wolf, but you want to fuck me, too, and you’d be into me also fucking Wolf,” I say slowly.
“More or less.”
“I—”
“You don’t need to say anything now.” He releases me, and despite the fact he’s still pressed against me, I feel unmoored. “I just wanted to clarify where things stand.”
“Are you going to fuck him tonight?” The question pops out before I can think too closely about why I want to know.
Malachi carefully lifts me and sets me back to my place on the couch. “That’ll depend on what Wolf has to say when I talk to him later.”
That wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no, either. Something like jealousy flickers to life in my chest, even if it’s a foolish emotion I have no right to. Malachi isn’t mine. I didn’t choose him. Even if I did, Wolf has a claim which precedes my birth, let alone this week.
It’s too much. I don’t know what to think, what to feel. “Oh.”
He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. “No matter what Wolf acts like, he won’t touch you without permission.”
“Permission from you,” I say bitterly.
Malachi snorts. “How quickly you forget you told him to bite you, little dhampir.” When I open my mouth to protest, he beats me there. “It doesn’t matter why you did it. The fact remains that you did, and so he bit you. If you hadn’t, he would have backed off.”
It seems to defy belief. “He had me pinned to the couch.”
“Mmm.” He looks at the fire. “It changes nothing. Wolf will manipulate if it suits his purposes, though, so if you don’t want him to fuck you, be careful what you say when his fangs are inside you.”
This conversation has taken too many strange turns for me to keep up. I study his profile. “And if I have sex with him?”
Malachi meets my gaze. “Someday, you’ll believe I’m not your father. I have no desire to own you, Mina.” His hand snakes out and he grasps my chin. “I simply want you.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough.”
I don’t know why I’m so determined to push him, to shove my way through his carefully cool exterior, but I can’t seem to stop. I lean into his grip on my chin. “And what happens if Wolf knocks me up, Malachi? If he gets there first because you’re too busy being noble to take what you want?”
His eyes flare and I hear the fire hiss behind me. “Do you want me to fuck you, little dhampir? All you have to do is ask. All you’ve ever had to do is ask.” He leans forward, easily holding me immobile. “But you do have to ask. We started things poorly, and I’m not interested in playing the part of marauding beast any longer. If we do this, it’s because you’re choosing it, not because I forced the issue. Until you’re ready to admit that, it’s not happening.”