Page 59 of Forever Touched

“I could thrall you into telling me,” he quietly said, but the words didn’t sound like a threat. More like a plea.

“You could,” I replied, knowing that I couldn’t stop him if he tried. It had been twenty-four hours since he’d fed me his blood, long enough that it should be out of my system by now.

When his jaw hardened, I braced myself for the inevitable. But a moment later, his expression fell, and he roughly said, “Problem is, I don’t want to. The very thought of forcing you to doanythingmakes my blood run cold.”

At his heartfelt admission, the mask I’d erected to protect myself crumbled.

“I’m sorry,” I said, unable to keep the tremor from my voice. “I’ve made promises that I can’t break. But I need you to know that I don’t . . . I don’tenjoywhat I do.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him more, but I knew the words wouldn’t form, no matter how hard I tried to say them.

No doubt seeing the turmoil on my face, Everett sighed and whispered, “Come here.”

I readily went to him, immediately feeling better the second his arms were around me again.

“When do you leave?” he asked after a moment, surprising me.

Was he really letting me go, just like that?

Worrying my lip, I finally answered, “As soon as I can.”

Something hit me in the chest then, an emotion that wasn’t mine.

Hurt. He washurt.

Wanting to reassure him, I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. There was nothing I could say anyway. Nothing he wanted to hear.

“Then I guess we should get this over with,” he said, sliding a hand to the nape of my neck.

My eyes widened. “Getwhatover with?”

Was he going to thrall me after all?

He angled my head back so that I had to look at him. “You need venom. I’m going to give it to you, but you should know how dangerous venom addiction is.”

“I know,” I replied, all too aware of how powerful it was.

Ihatedmyself for this weakness, but I still craved venom. Still needed the high it gave me in order to survive this world. Without venom, I would have fallen apart a long time ago. Would have succumbed to my darkness and allowed the remaining pieces of myself to be torn to shreds.

The false promises it offered kept me from losing my mind entirely. If I held out until the next hit, I’d eventually make it to the other side. Tofreedom.

It was a lie. All of it. But I’d embraced the lie to stay alive.

I hadn’t had venom for over a day now, the longest I’d gone without it in three years. Need pounded through my body, making my head spin.

“Please,” I whispered, unable to stop the desperation from entering my voice. I trembled harder, already anticipating the highhis venom could give me. Lifting my chin, I exposed my throat to him.

“Oh, baby girl,” he sadly said, leaning down to press a featherlight kiss to my neck. “What have they done to you?”

“Please. It hurts,” I begged, struggling to breathe. The anticipation. Theneed. It was too much. I needed venomnow.

Responding to my pain, he opened his mouth and sank his fangs deeply into my neck. I jerked against him, the burning agony of his bite a shock to my system. Only for a moment, though. On the heels of his bite came a flood of venom. It poured into my veins and chased the pain away, filling me with indescribable bliss.

I went boneless in his arms, uttering a breathless moan as every corner of my body filled with euphoria.

He clutched me tightly to him and released a groan of his own, pulling deeply from my neck. My eyes rolled back as I gave in to the pleasure of being fed on. Normally, I needed to remain lucid enough to control my client while he fed, but I had no desire to control Everett right now. He’d refused to thrall me. The least I could do was respect him the same way.

As he fed, I completely gave myself over to the moment, not even worrying about how much blood he was taking. I felt safe and blissfully warm, something I’d never experienced with a pair of sharp fangs in my flesh before.

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