Page 47 of Hot Blooded

Ma nodded distractedly. “Don’t forget you have to be at Aunt Louisa’s at two.”

Tessa clenched her jaw and said nothing, climbing the stairs with more force than necessary.

Several long, exhausting hours later—a few inadequate hours of sleep, a couple frustrating hours trying to walk Aunt Louisa through signing up for Medicare, and then a few more stolen hours of sleep back at home—Tessa stepped outside to head to Amos’s. At the bottom of her steps, she nearly stumbled, a scream rising in her throat as a dark figure materialized out of the shadows beneath the maple tree in front of the house.

The scream died when she realized it was Amos. Still, her heart pounded against her sternum, a surge of unspent adrenaline making her want to flee.

“I can hear your heart racing,” Amos said, his voice lower and darker than usual. The sound of it sent heat pooling low in her core, intimate muscles tensing in anticipation. Amos let the shadows fall away from his form, streetlight shifting across his face like a well-placed theatre light. His expression was feral, hungry.

“What if I ran?” Tessa asked softly.

His smile was predatory. “You wouldn’t get very far.”

Well, that was encouragement if she ever heard it. She spun around, all of her earlier exhaustion forgotten, and sprinted for the narrow gap between Ma’s house and Marcus Weaver’s. She’d expected Amos would at least let her get to the alley behind the houses, where the garages and fences would provide all sorts of hidden nooks and crannies for him to feast on her.

But she was wrong. Halfway to the back of the house, big arms wrapped around her. A truly surprised scream tore out of her, but it didn’t matter, because one of Amos’s hands was pressed over her mouth. He held her pinned against his body, a purr thrumming in his chest. He was hard, and he let her feel the full length of him pressed against her ass.

“What have we here?” he murmured. His tongue swept out to trace the curve of Tessa’s ear. She whimpered, goose flesh racing over her neck and back. She was still high on adrenaline, and she knew Amos liked a struggle, so she gave him all she had. She twisted and bucked in his grasp, truly putting all her strength into escaping his hold.

She had no chance. Laughing at her efforts, he pushed her up against the house, his bulk pressed against her back. The bricks scraped her cheek as she hauled in desperate breaths through her nose, muffled cries sounding incoherently against Amos’s hand.

“Why are you struggling?” he asked tauntingly. “I’m too strong for you. Why not just enjoy what I’m going to do to you?”

Tessa renewed her efforts, hips pushing back against his, pressing the hot, hard brand of his erection against her ass again. He shoved his whole body against her, crushing her flat against the wall. His hips worked in subtle flexes, grinding his cock against her. He bent his head, tracing his nose up and down the side of her neck.

She made wordless objecting noises, even as she felt slick moisture pooling in her panties.

“You fight me now, but I’ll make you like it,” Amos promised darkly. He licked the tender skin over her pulse. Before she was ready, his fangs were in her throat. The sharp pain sent a spike of pleasure through her core that had nothing to do with his venom, and everything to do with the helpless pleasure of being Amos’s plaything.

He drank in deep, brutal pulls. His venom seeped into her blood, and by the third draught, blinding pleasure was singing through her veins, lighting her up from the inside. The unbearable ecstasy of it overwhelmed everything. She was no longer aware of the rough brick pressed against her face, or the sounds of the city, or the cold air, or any of it. There was only Amos’s mouth and the euphoria he wrought.

He finally finished drinking, but it took a minute for the venom to dissipate and the climax to ease. When she had a better grasp of the world around her, she became aware that Amos’s hand was still pressed over her mouth, his tongue lapping gently at the wound in her throat. She relaxed in his hold, sated and at ease.

He realized she was no longer in the grip of his venom and pressed a kiss to her cheek as he lowered his hand from her mouth.

“Okay?” Amos asked.

“Yes,” she said, voice a little raw from all the stifled screaming.

“Good. Let me take you home.” He lifted her into his arms, holding her against his chest. The speed at which he could move was dizzying. Deprived of her usual volume of blood, Tessa closed her eyes against the blur of their surroundings and simply held onto Amos, trusting him unerringly.

At his house, he kept her in his arms as he carried her to the kitchen. He set her gently at the table and went to fetch snacks. Tessa watched him, feeling dozy and warm. Now that the excitement had passed, she was feeling the toll of the day’s stress and lack of sleep. She yawned heavily, folding her arms and leaning on the table as Amos took the seat across from her, spreading the outrageously gourmet snacks in front of her.

She picked something without really thinking about it and ate it without really tasting it.

“Tessa, are you alright?” Amos’s brow was furrowed, his eyes soft with concern.

“I’m really tired,” she admitted, drinking whatever drink Amos had opened and passed to her. Some kind of fruit juice. “It’s been a really long day.”

In a blink, Amos was out of his chair and standing over Tessa, one hand feeling for her pulse, the other pressed to her forehead, assessing her temperature. “Did I take too much?”

She closed her eyes, savoring his gentle touch, his instinctive caretaking. “No. Please don’t feel bad about feeding from me. It was the best part of my day.”

Her eyes flew open on a gasp as Amos scooped her into his arms, moving at a speed she could barely comprehend. A second later, they were in the living room. He set her on the couch and pulled a multi-colored patchwork quilt from the trunk-style coffee table. He sank down next to her and pulled her sideways onto his lap, settling the quilt over her.

It was the comfort she’d been aching for all day. She swallowed hard past the sudden constriction in her throat, squeezed her eyes shut against the burn of impending tears.

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

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