Page 60 of Forged in Blood

He laughs wickedly and runs his nose up the column of my throat. “I have a feeling I’m never gonna be okay ever again.”

“Give them the room,” the professor barks, and I don’t understand why he’s angry. This is what he wanted, isn’t it?

Xavier growls. “What? No. Why the fu?—”

“I said leave them!”

“Fuck’s sake,” Xavier mutters, but he obediently files out of the room behind Professor Drakos.

Malachi shuffles after them, but before he closes the door, he gives me a longing look and mouthssorry. I return my attention to Axl and find his eyes fixed on me, the weight of his body pressing me into the mattress and his warm breath dusting over my face.

Regret, shame, and humiliation ball in my throat, but I swallow them down. I need to get out of here and far away from him. He’s taken what he wanted, and now it’s time for me to leave.

So why don’t I move?

Chapter

Thirty-Six

AXL

In all my two hundred and forty-seven years on this earth, I have never felt even a sliver of what I feel right now. A heady mix of power, euphoria, and contentment courses through my veins, combined with an animal lust that’s oddly contained around her. When she walked into my room earlier, the beast inside me wanted to rip out her throat and feast on her until there was nothing left. But at the same time, her presence soothed him, turning him into little more than a purring kitten.

“Why did he ask them to leave?” she asks, her dark lashes fluttering.

I press a kiss to the corner of her mouth and rest my lips lightly against her skin. “Because you don’t need an audience for your first time.”

“My first time? What makes you think I want to do anything with you?” she snaps, but she makes no attempt to move from beneath me. Not that I would let her.

“The way your heart’s racing.” I trail my fingertips between her breasts where it pounds against her ribcage. “Your heavy breathing.” I kiss across the seam of her lips. “The way you were grinding against me while I was feeding.” I rock my hips, finding a little relief for my aching cock against her pussy. “And you’re soaked, Pyro.”

A blush colors her cheeks. “That doesn’t mean I want you. Those are purely physiological reactions.”

Trailing kisses along her jawline, I growl as her scent floods my senses once more. My fangs protract and my cock throbs at the thought of being inside her. “You do want me, Ophelia. And make no mistake—I am going to fuck you the next time I feed on you.”

Her tits shudder against me as she takes a deep breath, but she still doesn’t try to move away. “But this was all about you getting what you needed. A guy like you would never be interested in a girl like me, right?”

The ache in her heart feels like a hot knife slicing through my chest. It’s incomprehensible to me now that I could ever want to hurt her, and the memory of how cruel I was to her has guilt eating away at my insides. “I know I pushed you away. Partly because I enjoyed seeing you in pain, but also because it was easier to keep my oath if I pretended you were nothing.”

“You made me feel like less than nothing.” There’s a tremor in her voice, and she inhales another shaky breath. “And you enjoyed that?”

Her eyes are so full of pain, and I want to look away from her, but I can’t. “I’m a fucked-up guy, Ophelia. But you already knew that.” I run my nose over her jawline. “You know that, yet you want me anyway.”

She shakes her head. “No. You were… All of you…”

“I know what Xavier and Malachi told you, princess, but you have to know they didn’t mean that either. They were just following orders.”

She blinks back tears. “I don’t know that at all. What they said was cruel and…” A sob catches in her throat. “I’m not here for your amusement, Axl. Now let me go and we can all get on with our separate lives.”

That knife slices deeper. “There is no me without you, Ophelia. There is no separate. Not anymore.”

She shakes her head. “You only want me because my blood is vampire catnip.”

“No, princess. I wanted you before I ever tasted you. I will still want you if I never get to taste you again. I’m going to show you how much.” I grind myself against her and smile when she whimpers. “Let me fuck you, Ophelia.”

“N-no.”

I arch an eyebrow at her. “No?”

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