Page 8 of Promised in Blood

He runs the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip, tugging it down and opening my mouth. “I do worship you. And I know how good it felt. But there will be plenty of time for all of that. Right now, you need to sleep.”

How did he know… “Can you read my mind?” I blurt out.

He nods. “Yes.”

Well, that’s terrifying. “But how? I thought it was only when I spoke to you.”

He dips his head and runs his nose over my jawline, inhaling deeply. “Your scent is intoxicating and addictive, Ophelia.” The low growl that comes out of him makes my head spin. How is this my life? “I told you earlier that my power is in my mind.”

I nod, recalling how Malachi and Xavier told me that the professor could read minds, I just didn’t think he wasthisgood at it. “So will you always be able to do that? I mean, can I never have any privacy?”

He hums softly, his fingers trailing over my hipbones before he grabs me roughly and pulls me forward, pressing me flush against his chest. “You will learn to block me out, and I will not always want to be inside your head. But when you are naked and alone with me, yes, I will be inside there.”

“Oh.”

He arches an eyebrow. “And quite often, insideyou.” He gives me a swat on the ass. “Now get into bed.”

I press my lips together to stop my giggle. He’s so stern and serious, and I haven’t figured out how to act around him yet. For some strange reason, I enjoy him telling me what to do, so I do as he asks. He watches me crawl beneath the covers and pull them up to my chin, then he unfastens a button on his shirt. And now it’s my turn to watch. The only part of his body I’ve seen are his forearms, his head, and obviously his huge… I cough as my cheeks flush with heat at the memory of seeing him in his office earlier.

He moves swiftly, making quick work of his clothes, and I take in every beautiful inch of his skin. His broad chest, peppered with a faint dusting of dark hair. The pale scars that snake around the left side of his torso, twisting and curling into a point beneath his ribs. I tilt my head and study the marks, wondering how he could have gotten them when vampires heal too quickly to scar.

“Silver can mark a vampire.”

Of course, the mind reading. “It can?”

He unbuckles his belt. “If used repeatedly, yes. It is why the ink in Malachi’s tattoos is laced with silver.”

“Or his body would simply heal and force out the ink?”

“You are a very quick study, Ophelia Hart.” He pulls off his belt, and the sound of the leather sliding against the fabric sends a shiver up my spine. An image of me bent over his desk with my panties halfway down my thighs sears itself into my brain. What the…?

He arches a dark eyebrow. “So you would like to be spanked? I am certain we can arrange that.”

“N-no. I don’t want to be spanked,” I protest, and another image of him punishing me with his belt while I moan loudly comes into focus. I clamp my thighs together because wow, that is hot.

He slides his pants down his thighs—his incredibly muscular, almost-wider-than-my-waist thighs. “It seems like you do.”

“I do not. I have no idea where that came from.”

He takes off the rest of his clothes along with his shoes and places them neatly on a chair at the foot of the bed. When he stands tall again, I stare at his naked body, mouth hanging open as I drink in the sight of him. He looks like he was carved from marble. His lips curve in the faintest hint of a smirk. “But you enjoyed the visuals, did you not?”

Now my mouth hangs open for a different reason. “You did that? You put those images in my head? How do you do that?”

He moves quickly, sliding beneath the covers before I’ve even finished speaking. “I can do a lot of things, agápi mou.” He pulls me close, nestling my body against his solid form, and without an ounce of resistance, I curl into him like this is the most natural thing in the world.

“I don’t like not being able to tell the difference between my own thoughts and the ones you put there,” I admit.

He smooths my hair back with his palm and cradles the back of my head. “Your thoughts are your own. I simply evoked an image that you were already considering in that beautiful mind of yours.”

“I wasn’t imagining you spanking me with your belt until you made me think of it.”

Placing his pointer finger beneath my chin, he tips my head back. “If you listened to your own body as closely as I do, Ophelia, you would know that is not true.”

He seriously thinks he knows my body better than I do? I roll my eyes, and he narrows his. “You gasped when I took off my belt. Your heart rate increased in that exact moment.” He brushes the pad of his thumb over my lip. “I was unable to see the sparkling blue of your eyes because your pupils were so dilated. You do know why your pupils dilate?”

Adrenaline. Fear. Desire. “Of course I do. And I’ll remind you that I was watching you undress at the time.”

He hums. “Even if I discount the rest of your body language, the increase of blood flow, right here.” He slips his hand between my thighs and presses on my clit, sending a shockwave of pleasure ricocheting through my body. “Had already betrayed you. Blood never lies.”

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