Page 55 of Taste of Fate

She relaxed, although her expression remained tentative. “How do you feel?”

“Good as new, thanks to you.”

Tavi smiled, and I had the fleeting thought that I wouldn’t mind seeing her lying next to me like this every morning and evening.

“How about you?” I returned my hand to her waist, pulling her a little closer. “I didn’t take too much from you, did I?”

“No. I feel fine.” She shoved a hand under the pillow, getting comfortable. “I had some snacks and juice last night. And I think sleeping helped.”

“Good.”

We said nothing for a few moments, but she must have noticed how long my fangs were. She must have realized how intently I was staring at the long, graceful slope of her neck.

“Cy?” Her pupils dilated and she licked her lips. “Do you need more?”

A part of me wanted to say no, that I could wait. She should have another full day at least to recover from the first feeding. And truthfully, I could wait with little consequence. I was hungry, but it would be another two days or so before I started to feel significantly weaker.

But she was here, now. And I was already so weak to her warm skin, her sleepy smiles, and her heavenly taste.

“You offering?” I drawled, making sure my fangs were revealed in my lazy smirk.

Tavi blushed and I had to hold back my resulting hiss. I knew she couldn’t help it but there was no bigger temptation than seeing her skin deepen with color because of that beautiful, hot life force under the surface.

“If you need it, I’m here,” she whispered.

I sensed her pulse quicken and her breaths coming in shorter. Oh, she wanted me to take from her. My brave, self-sacrificing little human got turned on from it. She was hoping for it, craving it.

How could I deny the beautiful woman in my bed what she wanted most?

I rolled over, pressing up to my hands until I hovered over her. Placing a knee between her legs, I pressed her thighs apart until she straddled me. Tavi stared up at me, eyes wide with anticipation and just a hint of fear.

She was dressed in a large T-shirt and shorts, and I had sweatpants on. None of that was getting removed. I would be drinking from her, not fucking her. Even I wasn’t enough of a bastard to use her like that.

But if I was…if we were both naked and I could thrust inside her while I drank from her, this would be a hell of a view while I did that.

Tavi’s hair spilled out over the pillow, blood-flushed lips parted and tilted up to me like the most delectable offering. I lowered my face to hers, hovering a hair’s breadth away because I was so fucking weak for her and she had no idea.

“It’s not just your blood that I need.”

She barely had time to draw in a sharp inhale before I closed the distance with a firm, devouring kiss. I swallowed her surprised little cry with a stroke of my tongue, delving into her warm mouth. She licked my fangs, careful to avoid the points and my cock hardened to steel. I wanted to thrust, to let her feel what she was doing to me, but I kept my hips pulled back.

Tavi’s arms went around me as we kissed, and that kind of affection from my blood mate was almost too much to handle. I had to remind myself that she had no idea, and she’d never want me if she knew the truth of what a piece of shit I was. But her soft hands stroking past my ribs, running over the muscles in my back, digging in with her short little nails, felt so good and right. The sweetest fucking torture.

Our last kiss broke and I turned Tavi’s face to the side, taking in the sight of her jaw and neck. Instinctively I could sense her vein, knew exactly where it was and how the pulse fluttered under her skin. I kissed the corner of her jaw first, tasting her with my lips despite my fangs aching to sink into her.

“Perfect,” I muttered, lowering to my elbows as I kissed the spot under her ear. “You have no idea how fucking perfect you taste.”

“Cyan…” She breathed my name so sweetly, her legs sliding up my hips as if to trap me in place. If only she knew she had me hooked with no need to touch me at all. All she had to do was say my name like that, and I’d be on my knees.

“I won’t hurt you.” My lips were finally at her neck, her pulse thrumming so insistently like the vein itself was trying to kiss me.

My mouth trailed up and down a few times, zeroing in on the perfect spot at this angle, nuzzling into the warmth of her skin. When I found it, I kissed her there and dragged the tip of my tongue over the exact place I’d strike. My saliva acted as a mild analgesic and would dull the pain.

Tavi squirmed underneath me, but not as though to get away. Her thighs squeezed my hips, one foot running down my calf. My blood mate wanted it, wanted more.

I struck, sinking my fangs in and sealing my lips over the bite. At the first taste of her on my tongue, I moaned. Everything slowed, and my senses tuned out all but the heady, nourishing wine in my mouth and the soft body underneath me.

Each pull on Tavi’s vein thrummed in time to my own pulse. There was a slight pressure on my erection but my hands were on either side of her. Sweet fate, was she touching me through my pants? My hips rolled in lazy thrusts, seeking more of that pleasure. Sharp pricks of pain raked up my back and through my dulled senses, I could hear Tavi’s moans and whimpers.

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