Page 17 of By the Pint

I let the occasional thought slip through the barrier of my mind, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not, and each time Casey seemed so surprised and triumphant. It was adorable. I was still waiting for the penny to drop. For him to realise the similarities between Killian’s mind and mine. Did my mental barriers resemble Killian’s? When would Casey recognise them for what they were?

But I was also sort of hoping it wouldn’t be today. That I’d get at least one morning with him before he figured it out and no doubt lost his shit. I already knew that Casey would lose his shit when he found out. I’d seen inside his memories. Casey lost his shit rather frequently.

Not that I was frightened of Casey’s temper tantrums. Apex predator, remember? People seem to forget that underneath my rainbows and smiles and fluffy bunny slippers, I was a convicted killer.

The gravel paths soon morphed into the carpeted hallways of the castle’s hotel. We were silent as we walked. Now and then, Casey shot me a glance and his determined, horny, serious expression would crack into the yummiest smile, somewhere between affected coyness and genuine coyness. Occasionally, our knuckles grazed each other’s. It sent sparks, like a plasma ball, licking up my arm, zapping to every inch of my body. Mostly my dick.

But the best part was what happened inside his head. I should have felt ashamed that I spent so much effort drinking down each one of Casey’s thoughts, but I didn’t. He had abandoned any attempt to gain entry to my mind, as though, in that moment, none of it mattered. Any stray thought he had about his ‘duty’, he quickly batted aside. The man pictured only what he would do to me once he got me to his bed.

It was intoxicating.

Though, bless him, he really thought he would top. I mean, I didn’t mind bottoming. Loved it actually. I could switch. But not tonight. With this guy. In these circumstances. If Casey wanted to fuck me, he was gonna have to relinquish that delicious control.

We paused outside his room, and Casey fumbled in his jacket pocket for the key. The plaque next to the door readFAMILIAR 313. He shot me another look, halfway between desire and … nerves? I would be his first vampire. He laughed. His mouth, still swollen from our kiss, parted, his hot breath eased out. His tongue traced non-existent fangs.

Casey wiggled the key in the lock, and the door swung inwards. “Oh, let me just get the curtains,” he said, running inside and shrouding us in darkness.

His room was similar to mine. Stone walls with wrought iron, electric sconces, and heavy red satin drapes, but with the addition of a mirror, and in place of a velvet-lined coffin sat an intricately carved, wooden four-poster bed. It seemed entirely too small to contain his elongated, sports-hewn body.

He ran a hand through his already sex-mused hair and smiled at me.

“Shit, sorry. You may come in,” he said, allowing me to cross over the vampire threshold. A phenomenon that existed automatically in any human — or non-vampire — dwelling. Even if only a temporary dwelling like a hotel room.

Casey closed the door behind me, closed his fingers around mine, and guided me into the middle of the room. We stopped at the foot of the bed, the space silent except for Casey’s heavy breaths, and we simply stared at each other. For a few seconds, or maybe a lifetime. His eyes travelled over me as though he could undress me with his gaze alone.

I offered him a smile, and that was all the encouragement he needed.

Casey launched himself at me. Hands closed over my chest to slam me into the wall behind, and his lips crashed against mine.

His enormous, warm, human body covered my own completely. He didn’t flinch or shrink away from my icy body temperature, even as I sank my fingers into his hair, pulling it up at the roots, whining into his mouth.

“Fuck!” he said, his hot breath filling the space between us, making me lightheaded. I could get drunk off being so close to this man. His hands were on my shoulders, on my jaw, on my chest, like he had to touch every part of me at once. “I need you so bad.” He ground his pelvis into mine, pressing his erection into my abdomen.

I frantically pulled my cloak off, and Casey shucked his jacket, tossing it onto the counter. We worked the buttons on each other’s shirts, our mouths connected the entire time. I only managed two buttons before I had to stop to pull his hair again, and he kept grabbing my face, and adjusting my position to dip his tongue into my mouth.

“You taste like metal,” he said, through heavy breaths. “It’s so fucking hot.”

“You taste like …” I didn’t know. It had been more than half a millennium since I had eaten human food. Not that I remembered any of it. “Sweet, like ...”

Casey didn’t seem to care that I left my thought hanging there. He finally undid my bottom shirt button and pushed it off my shoulders. It fell to the ground at my feet. He hooked a hand around my neck and took his open-mouthed kisses down the column of my throat. And I had to pause for a ‘breather’. My fingers came to a standstill on his shirt buttons. I needed to savour the delicious warmth of his lips against my cold, deadskin. Lighting me up like a fucking Winter Fest tree, making me feel as though every nerve ending was on fire.

He dragged his mouth lower, tongue and teeth and hot breath, over my chest. “How is a vampire so fucking ripped?” Casey straightened up and flicked open the fastening of my trousers. He plunged his hand down into my underwear and closed his fingers around my cock.

I cried out, my head hit the stone behind me, and I writhed into his grip. I could have come just from the living heat of his palm.

“Fuck,” he whispered into my hair. He sounded as close to falling apart as I was. He ground his erection against my hip. “You’re so much bigger than I thought—” His mind raced with the possibilities of how the morning might play out. “How do you want to do this?”

I forced a gap between us to gaze into those hazel eyes. “You’re going to bottom.”

“Oh,” he said. His brain said,Fuck,but it was an exhilaratedFuck.

“And sub,” I added. “I’m the boss tonight. And in any future hook ups we might have. We do things my way.”

He smashed his mouth against mine again and whined down my throat.

Casey always topped. Sifting through his most recent memories, one thing was made abundantly clear. He never gave away control. Not outside of the bedroom and certainly not inside it. He held the upper hand. Needed to be calling the shots. It hadn’t always been this way, and it wasn’t as if he didn’t like the sensation of being fucked. I read his mind, I saw his desires, and his sizable dildo collection. He’d wanted exactly this for some time now. Wanted someone more powerful to come along and take the reins.

I might have been smaller than him, in every aspect, and younger looking, and when it came to recent sexual experiences, he had the definite advantage, but where dominance was concerned, that was all me.

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