Page 11 of Blood Tribute

Her eyes flashed, and she snarled, “I am doing this for Gloria. Not myself. Don’t you dare forget it.”

She tore off the scarf and threw it on the ground. Her hair tumbled free, falling to her waist in wild red curls. Dav stopped breathing.

The scarf crumpled under his heel as he slipped behind her. She froze. When he lifted his hand, she didn’t shy away.

He wrapped one ginger curl around his finger. “What else are you hiding under your holy principles?”

“Things you cannot take from me, no matter what you do to me.”

“I will only take what you offer,” he reminded her. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

Are you not her worst fear?

He pulled the heavy curtain of her hair away from her neck. Letting its soft weight slide through his hands, he laid it over her other shoulder to leave her throat bare. He traced his fingertips along the sensitive juncture of her neck and shoulder and felt a shiver dance across her skin.

“Will you offer me your throat?” he asked.

“Yes.” The word came out in a husky whisper.

He covered her hand with his and pressed her palm amid the roses, bracing them against the marble carvings. A quiver of excitement went through her.

He buried his other hand in the tangle of her hair, tilting her head. The flow of her blood called to his arcane senses, a coppery pulse summoning his fangs. His canines ached, but he made himself wait.

He was in control. But she was not, judging by her racing heartbeat.

“Can you deny you want me to bite your throat?” he murmured.

“I’m offering it to you freely. Isn’t that enough for you?”

“No.” He lowered his head and kissed her neck.

He could taste the musk of her arousal on her skin. His deprived body rose to attention in the confines of his trousers. Goddess, why did this woman seem perfectly crafted to torture him?

“Admit it, Nora. You want my bite.”

“I have agreed to it.”

“You want it,” he ground out.

He closed his mouth over her vein and sucked her skin. His reward was a strangled little whimper from her. What would such an expressive woman sound like when she climaxed? Dav would wager a Hesperine could make her scream, and not from fright.

This time, he gave her no gentle bite. He took her vein fast and hard. She cried out, an unmistakable sound of pleasure. Her blood flowed warm and thick into his mouth, rich with the flavor of her lust. His own blood seemed to halt in his veins and wrench in a new direction. His thoughts faded, and his body hardened.

He was still in control, he told himself. But she was on the brink of falling from her self-righteous pedestal. He pulled back, her blood trailing warm and wet down his chin. His lips left a crimson smear on her pale skin as he spoke in her ear. “Can you deny you like how my fangs feel inside you?”

“You can’t read my thoughts,” she accused.

“I don’t need to. I can taste it in you. You want me to bite you again, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she hissed.

He sank his fangs into her once more. Her hand came to his face. But she didn’t push him away. Her fingers dug into his scalp, holding him to her vein with a vengeance.

His jaw locked, and he swallowed her lifeblood. She was so alive. Rahim was dead. Dav begrudged Nora each beat of her heart. But he drank down every surge of the elixir that heart pumped for him. He didn’t want her here, weaving into his blood. But his own heart pounded harder, driving her essence into the cold reaches of his veins and filling him with her warmth.

He tightened his bite, tugging on her hair. Her head fell back against his shoulder. Her shapeless gown could not disguise the fullness of her breasts or the way her chest rose and fell with aharsh sigh of pleasure. A savage desire overtook him to unbind the rest of her as he had her hair.

He slid his hand down to grip the column of her throat. Her pulse pattered faster under his touch. He slipped his fangs out of her neck and nipped her earlobe. “Can you deny that blush of yours goes all the way to your breasts?”

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