Original Sin (The Order of Vampires 1)
Her cheeks flushed. “I don’t know if I could handle you biting me.” She gasped. “Oh, my God. It was you! I thought a spider bit me, but it was you!” Her flush darkened and she shoved off him, her face hardening. “Here,” she growled, pointing to her inner thigh.
His neck heated. “There’s an artery—”
“Oh, shut up! You could have bit my wrist just as easily.”
“True.” He wouldn’t apologize for choosing the location he had. “I wanted to taste you where your scent was strongest.”
She sucked in a breath. “You dirty, Amish pervert.”
“I’d do it again if you let me.”
She gaped at him. “I don’t even know what to say to that!”
When he’d last had his mouth between her legs it took all his strength not to bite her again. Even as the blood pumped to her swollen labia and her heartbeat pulsed through her sensitive clitoris under his tongue, he considered taking a small nip.
“Stop it!”
“Stop what?”
“I can feel your filthy thoughts.”
He tried to look remorseful, but he could also feel hers. She was curious and her scent had intensified. Her skin wore a soft blush, and there was a reason she was keeping her distance.
“You want me to show you what it feels like.”
“No,” she denied—unconvincingly.
He smiled. “You’re curious.” And other things. “I could show you.”
“No. I don’t want to know. I don’t want any of this.”
“Are you sure?”
“This is not what anyone wants, Adam.”
The truth of her words doused their fragile reprieve. “All I am, Annalise, all I desire, is your happiness. I know I’ve broken your trust, but if you believe anything, believe me when I say I will accept your decision and hold nothing against you no matter what you choose.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t call it my decision. I didn’t choose any of this.”
“I’m giving you the choice. That’s why we’re here having this conversation.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Would you have me decide for you?” He’d done everything in his power not to decide her fate. He’d thought he’d done the honorable thing by allowing her to have options.
“I don’t want that either. I want ... normal.”
He smirked and let out a humorless laugh. “I’m afraid that’s the one thing I can’t offer.”
He wanted to hold her and soothe her, but he couldn’t bring himself to touch her now that she’d put her wishes so clearly between them. “Perhaps you’d prefer your male friend from the bar. He seemed less complicated and after only one thing.”
Her head jerked up and she scowled at him. “Are you talking about Kyle?”
His personal anger and envy nipped, clouding his judgment. “Yes.” He ground his clenched teeth.
Her mouth pursed in an angry little bow. “So, you want me to apologize for the way some guy felt about me? I have no control over other people’s—”
“How about what you felt for him? Did he fit your definition of normal?”
Her chest lifted as her breathing turned agitated. “It’s none of your business how I felt about him.”
“It became my business the moment I smelled him on your skin. The first time I saw you, your clothing reeked of him. Why were you with him outside of work?”
“He’s my friend!”
“A friend would say goodnight at a reasonable hour.”
“Screw you, Adam! Before you blew into my life and turned it upside down, I was single. I could have as many friends as I wanted!”
He growled, on his feet and crowding her before realizing he’d moved. “Careful, ainsicht.”
“Oh, go growl at someone else.” She shoved him back and he caught her wrists. “You’re not going to make me feel like a whore for dating.”
He yanked her forward, twisting and toppling her to the bed. He pinned her arms above her head and dragged his nose up the side of her throat, his body grinding into hers. “I don’t want you to have other friends. Only me, Anna.”
She pulled her arms, but his hold remained. “Get off of me.”
“Did he smell my claim on you? Did it repel him?” He gathered her wrists into one hand, lifting her skirts and sliding his fingers along her skirt. “He could sense a stronger male.”
She stopped squirming as his finger teased over her knee. Her arousal mixed with his, sweetening the air.
“I’m not ashamed. The moment I found you, I marked you. My territory.”
Her breasts pressed against her dress and her thighs opened. He teased the soft skin just above her femoral artery.
“And when I fed from you, sinking my teeth into this lush skin, your sex wept for me. You moaned and arched into me, your body begging for more. Nothing had ever tasted so sweet. Until the next time I fed from you.”
“I hate you.”
“Yet you aren’t fighting me off.” He loosened his hand, no longer holding her arms, but they remained above her head. He pulled the pins free from her apron and blouse, placing them on the bedside table.