Page 47 of Thicker than Blood

“What just happened?”

“Forgive me, darling, but I couldn’t bear the thought of someone else seeing your beauty and how I’m about to absolutely wreck you.”

A shiver rolls down my back. “What did you do?”

“A little assistance from a witch friend. She put a veil over the space. We can see out, but if someone were to peek in, it would be blurry. I told you I was greedy.”

I nod, scooting back on the chaise. “That’s cool.”

“Yes.” He shrugs his jacket off, and my stomach flutters in response. “You told me a secret so I’ll tell you one of mine.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve been bored, dear mortal. Very bored.” He elegantly toes off his shoes while also working on unbuttoning his dress shirt. “When you’ve walked the earth as long as I have, you run out of surprises and new experiences.”

“That makes sense.”

“Until you came here.”

“Me?”

“You’re a new experience and a delightful surprise. I thought I’d unwrapped every interesting mortal in existence, but here you are, eager and tasting of cherries and cream.”

“Cherries and cream?”

Elias nods, pulling his shirt from the hem of his pants and revealing a stunningly gorgeous canvas of toned, tanned flesh covered in… tattoos. How on earth…?

Elias chuckles. “You’re curious again. Every time your mind conjures a question, your pulse ticks up and your scentincreases.” He tips his head back and inhales. “My, how delicious.”

“Is it annoying always smelling and hearing and seeing so much?”

“You get used to it and learn to drown out most of it.” He stalks toward me. “But I don’t think I could ignore you if I tried.” Gesturing to the button of his slacks, he asks, “Would you like to do the honors?”

“Heck yeah.” I flick the button open and suck in a breath when they slide down his hips enough to reveal the carved dips on either side. Elias looks as if he was sculpted from marble in the sixteenth century. “How did you get the tattoos?”

“Another secret.”

I tug his slacks all the way down and a literal whimper escapes my lips. He’s not wearing anything underneath. His cock isn’t super long, but it’s very thick as it hangs heavily between his legs. He’s uncut and—holy Dracula—he’s pierced.

“I’m so confused.”

Elias drags his hand through my hair. “Your research has told you that vampires cannot have modern body enhancements because we heal too quickly. Am I right?”

“Yeah.”

“But we’re smart and tenacious, you see. We pursue solutions for the things we really want. Magic exists and it can be just as helpful as it can be deadly.”

I reach out to touch his cock but pull my hand back. “But this is real?”

He nods. “Very real. The magic is, shall we say, unpleasant, but it works to slow down the healing process, almost as if we were mortal again, but just long enough to complete the modification. We also have a specially curated group of artists who use magical tools for the process. It took over a hundredyears to get it right, but we did. The shops we have across the world are never empty.”

“That’s incredible.”

“Thank you. I take it you like what you see?”

I nod, grazing my teeth over my bottom lip. “I’ve never been with someone pierced before.”

“Hmm, well, you’re in for a treat. Until you’ve had thick, cool metal graze your prostate, you haven’t truly been fucked.”

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