Page 62 of Flock This

I didn’t want to become his thrall. The idea of being bound in such a way to anyone felt like a splinter wedged beneath my nail bed. My entire being rejected it so fully that the very thought made me feel ill.

However, the crazy thing was, I didn’t feel the need to turn around and run away. Despite his anger, despite his threat, despite the insanity of his gaze, I didn’t want to walk out.

Which was a strange feeling. I always felt like peacing out of everything. Even when I enjoyed being somewhere, when I had fun, when I felt safe, a part of me always wanted to skip town.

Yet now, at the time when I should have been running as fast as I could, I didn’t.

Kelvin’s gaze remained locked on me. “You want to go? I think I can keep myself here for just long enough if you want to run.”

“You said not to run from predators.”

“Yeah, but I also don’t want to see the look on your face after I lose control. I don’t want to see you hate me after I chew on you a bit. And make no mistake—if you stay, I will chew on you.”

My fingers ached from how tightly I grasped the edges of the coat, my brain playing a game of ping-pong as I bounced between what I wanted and what I knew I should do.

The logical part of my brain said run. Hell, that part even suggested throwing myself off the balcony and hoping my stupid bird brain could figure out flying from this many floors up.

Another part, a deeper part that I hardly recognized, refused to move, however. That part—the foolish part that annoyed people—wouldn’t move. Instead, I loosened my grip on the coat and slid it off, letting it fall to the floor.

Standing naked before a vampire this far gone was by far the dumbest of my mistakes.

And possibly my final one.

He picked me up, his strength as impressive as ever. He moved so fast that I struggled to keep track of anything beyond the ravenous look in his bright blue eyes.

The weight of Kelvin’s body startled me when it came to rest over me, pressing me into his mattress. His bed sat there unmade, the covers warm and thrown about.

Had he just gotten out of this bed when I’d arrived? The thought of it made my heart race just as much as his touch.

His lips sought mine, but the kiss felt different because of his fangs. They still hadn’t retracted, and they made the kiss awkward.

Or, it might have if I didn’t want this so fucking bad that I’d accept fangs. Hell, I was fairly sure I’d accept a third leg or a weird prehensile penis. I had extremely low standards when it came to this, after waiting so long.

I ran my tongue against one of his fangs, the tip of it sharp and the surface smooth. It should have turned me off with the speed of a door slammed by an angry teenager, but somehow, it had the opposite effect.

I grasped the front of his shirt and yanked, suddenly finding the entire idea of buttons more trouble than they were worth.

The sound he released was deep and rough, but he leaned back, on his knees, undoing the buttons of his shirt with surprising deftness. The light from the setting sun streamed in through the huge windows, and it created a halo around him. It cast his face in shadows, and I wasn’t sure if he’d ever looked so demonic and so angelic all at once.

Maybe that was who he really was, though, a mixture of the two extremes, a collision of the best and the worst traits.

Dishonest. Safe. Lethal. Protective.

He was so many things at once and for right now, I wanted them all.

He tossed his shirt away as he scanned over my naked body. Heat and hunger danced in his blue eyes, sending an electric shiver down my spine.

He set his hand out flat against the center of my chest, the pressure pinning me in place. “I haven’t slept since you ran off. I’ve stayed up, searching for you.”

“So that explains why you look so rundown,” I whispered back.

He snorted. “Most people would realize just how much danger they were in, pinned beneath an angry vampire. Here you are, though, vulnerable and naked and making jokes? I think you don’t realize just how dangerous I could be to you.”

“Oh, I realize it. Don’t ever think I don’t know how easily the world could crush me.”

“So why did you take the coat off? Why didn’t you run when you got the chance?”

“Because some things are worth taking the risk for.”

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