Page 3 of The Vampire's Mate

“Fuck!” James threw his head back against the pillow. Hot, sticky spurts of come splashed his chest and stomach, slickening our skin.

I eyed the mess, drooling so much that a drop of saliva fell and mixed with his release. With a smile, he swiped two fingers through the small puddle and brought them to my lips—which I accepted like I hadn’t eaten in days. His venom altered the flavor, and I hummed as the now familiar sweet taste of honey spread over my tongue.

That tipped me over the edge. James gasped as my cock pulsed and erupted, spilling inside him. I groaned around his fingers. I knew what he was feeling right at that moment, and my heart warmed knowing it wasmewho was making him feel that way.

I rode out my orgasm, holding myself in place until my arms threatened to buckle. I wasn’t about to move until he signaled he was ready. When he finally gave me a nod, I pulled out of him and rested back on my knees, shaking feeling into my arms before climbing off the bed.

I froze when he captured my hand with his. Pleading eyes looked back at me. “Stay.”

“I’ll be right back,” I promised, sealing it with a kiss to his knuckles.

Reluctantly, he let go. I went to the bathroom and returned with a warm, wet cloth. When he saw what I was holding, he looked bashful. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.”

I kissed him again, wiping him clean as I did so. I discarded the cloth before climbing under the blankets. He curled into my side and half on top of my chest, tracing lazy circles around the crescent-shaped birthmark on my ribcage.

I squirmed. “What is it with you and that mark?”

“I was actually hoping we could talk about that. How does tomorrow afternoon sound?”

I raised a brow. “Tomorrow afternoon? How… specific.”

“Well, yeah.” He rested his chin on my chest, giving me a lazy smile. “The morning after is your favorite, after all.”

Fuck.

My heart hammered against my ribcage.

I was tired. Scratch that; I wasexhausted.But as I looked into those sparkling eyes of his and fumbled for something—anything—to say, one phrase balanced on the tip of my tongue.

Three words that could change everything.

Three words that scared the shit out of me.

Three words I wasn’t entirely ready for.

So instead of uttering those three words, I clenched my hand in his hair and hauled him into a blistering kiss as I went in for round two.

Chapter 2

It couldn’t have been morethan a few hours later that my eyes peeled open. The room was still submerged in darkness, save for the soft glow of the moon through the sheer curtains. I faced away from James, but I felt his attention on me.

Every now and then he’d force himself to doze but that night, there was a certain edge to the energy in the room—an uneasy charge that almost made me roll over and press him for information.

But as I turned and tucked myself into his neck, his arms fell around my waist and that plan went out the window. The only thing I wanted was him.

“What time is it?” I murmured against his skin.

“Too early,” he answered with a kiss to the top of my head. “Go back to sleep.”

I grimaced and forced the next words out of my mouth. “Are you sure we shouldn’t have that talk? You seem unsettled.”

He chuckled, the sound vibrating my skin. “Don’t worry about me. We’ll talk soon enough. Get some more rest.”

I nuzzled deeper into his neck, and the combination of his hand in my hair and his lips on my skin sent me right back to sleep.

The next time I woke up, it was the sun’s fault. Shading my eyes with one hand, I reached out for James with the other, but I only found cold sheets. I pried my eyes open, rubbing the sleep away as I looked around the room for him.

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