Page 18 of Blood Moon Heat

“Then name your price,” I whispered.

His fingers curled around my jaw, and he tilted my head back. “There is no bargain, no offer you can make that will get you those things. Little dolls belong in their pretty little houses.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

His gaze dipped to my mouth. “Because I can.”

We stared at each other in the darkness, his eyes almost glowing they were so bright. He hadn’t fed in a while; they’d be darker if he’d fed. He hadn’t fed since the garden when he’d had my blood.

His gaze slid to my mouth, and a low purr vibrated from him as he moved closer.

I froze, not sure what he was doing.

His nostrils flared and his chest expanded sharply as his fingers tightened on my jaw.

“Nero?”

He leaned in, coming closer, his lips…oh gods, they were about to make contact with mine—

I jerked my head to the side, and his mouth brushed my cheek instead. The purr morphed into a low growl. He kept hold of my jaw, then rested his forehead against the side of mine. “Are you trying to punish me, Lalka?”

“I told you I won’t have you.”

“You were begging for my fingers in your cunt three nights ago.”

I flinched.

“Let me touch you,” he said in a hushed voice that lifted goose bumps all over me. “You want to feel good again, Mina, I know you do.”

I realized in that moment that I had power here. Yes, I was the one locked in this room, but we were blood bonded. My physical pain had stopped, his would only be getting worse with each passing day that he chose not to mate me.

Stepping back, I pulled from his hold. “No, you feel that way. You want me more than I will ever want you. How much pain are you in, Nero?”

He straightened but said nothing.

“When was the last time you fed?”

Still, he said nothing. He didn’t need to. I knew the answers. He was suffering badly. “While you treat me like a prisoner, you will not get the privileges a bonded…a mate would get. You don’t get to drink my blood or put your hands or your mouth on me.” He was so much taller than me, but I straightened my spine, standing as tall as I could. “And you are not welcome in this bedroom at night. If you want to come in, you knock, and I’ll decide if you’re permitted to enter.”

He blinked down at me several times.

I’d shocked him, but only for a moment.

I didn’t see him coming. My feet left the floor, and a second later my back was to the wall, his large body pressed against mine.

“Put me down,” I gasped.

He dipped his head, dragging his nose along my throat, then he nipped my skin, hard enough to break it. The scent of my blood reached me before he swiped his tongue over it sealing it again.

Lifting his head, he let me see the blood on his lower lip, my blood, then slowly licked it, telling me without words that not only could he take whatever he wanted from me, whenever he wanted to, and I had no way to stop him, but that he had the kind of control that I could only dream of.

I held his frigid stare. “Get out.”

His nostrils flared again and he growled.

“Get out of my room,” I said, fury and fear making my voice shake.

He released me suddenly, placing me back on my feet. They’d barely touched the ground, and he was gone.

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