Page 7 of Blood Moon Heat

“What did you feel?” I questioned.

“Agony.”

A chill slid through me. “And you want that?”

“Yes.” His cool lips touched the hinge of my jaw as his hand slid up my back, then unlatched the choker that he’d left in my dressing room for me and slid it in his pocket. “I want a lot of things, Mina. I want to taste your pain, your need, your rage and fear, and I want to know what it is to be loved, adored by my innocent little mate.”

What he said, even the way he said it, was twisted, dark, and strangely naive. “You have to know that love isn’t just taking, it’s giving as well.” I knew, because I’d seen it with my parents. “You can’t command me to love you. How could I love a male who would revel in my agony and take pleasure from my pain?” I blinked up at him. Yes, I was afraid, terrified, but a being without emotions meant he couldn’t be angry with me, he couldn’t be disappointed, he wasn’t capable of it, so I told him the truth. “You will never know what it feels like to be loved by me, because I could never love a monster like you, Nero.”

He stared down at me, unblinking. “How disappointing,” he said, but there was no trace of disappointment on his face or in his voice whatsoever.

Before I could reply, he jerked my head to the side, and sunk his fangs deep into my throat. I screamed and tried to jerk back, but his arms banded around me, holding me fast. Warmth slid from the spot where his fangs impaled my flesh, then slid down my neck. His lips were cold, his tongue hot as he sucked heavily on my vein.

Oh gods. I’d stopped fighting. Instead, my hands fisted his shirt at his sides, hanging on, desperate for purchase as my knees threatened to give out. The warmth slid lower—over my chest, behind my ribs, a scorching swirl through my belly—before gripping me between the thighs.

I groaned as my inner muscles turned liquid, clutching and spasming as the ache reached new heights. My underwear was soaked through so thoroughly that my thighs were slippery. I knew the wetness; I’d experienced it during Nero’s visits, and the days after. It was shameful, and humiliating, especially with him so close, but I didn’t know how to make it stop.

There was no pulling away, though, no hiding from it, because that all-consuming need that he caused in me, grew deeper, more intense until it overrode all thoughts and feelings completely. Without my say-so, I pressed closer to him, and my hips…oh gods, my hips rocked, reaching for something, something I couldn’t name but had fully possessed me in the seeking of it.

I felt so incredibly empty all of a sudden. “I n-need…” I gasped. “I need…” I growled—confused, hungry, desperate for that unknown dark thing, so wrong and wild and animalistic. It was as if Nero had taken full possession of my body, and I had no control of it to speak of.

He snarled roughly as he sucked deeper, wringing a wanton moan from me when I felt it coiling hotly between my thighs. My muscles clenched, drawing up in a way that had me gasping, then holding my breath.

“Don’t fight it,” he grated against my jaw. “It’s mine, Mina, give it to me. Give me what’s mine,” he said against my skin.

I didn’t know what he wanted from me. He was the one with all the control.

My thighs were pressed tightly together, clenching as the muscles inside me clutched desperately at nothing. I was hot, sweating, my body so tense I felt ready to snap any moment as the wild sensation grew higher, so wonderful—yet terrifying. Nero sucked harder on my vein—

I shattered, and a keening wail burst from my lips as it washed over me, feeling like I had been tossed into the deepest ocean during a storm. I had no control over my body or the sounds that came from me, and, oh gods, it felt good, so good that I didn’t care.

I didn’t care that I gripped Nero’s shirt so tight that the fabric was tearing beneath my nails, or about the moans and cries that I couldn’t hold back. The only thing I cared about was the feeling rolling through me. That was all that mattered.

My pulse sped frantically as he dragged his tongue over my throat, sealing his bite. Everything clenched again, and the wetness between my legs slid down my inner thigh as the pleasure eased, and I was left limp against him. I tried to cringe and pull away, but he held me there, not giving me an inch.

My face was scalding with humiliation from the way I’d reacted, at the way my body had responded to his touch.

“You are the most delicious morsel I have ever tasted,” he said, his voice now hoarse. “Will my blood be as delicious to you, do you think?” He squeezed my hip and tilted his head back as he breathed in deep again, scenting me. “With how wet you are, I think you’ll come again from just a taste—” He stilled, and lifted his head, on full alert.

“What is it?”

“We need to go.”

A commotion came from somewhere deeper in the garden. I had no chance to ask anything else, because Nero suddenly lifted me into his arms, threw me over his shoulder, and ran. So fast, the world around me was a blur.

When he finally stopped, it was to put me in the back seat of a car.

A moment later we sped away.

I spun to him. “What just happened?”

“Shots were fired.” He stared over at me. “One of the females’ fathers had a change of heart.” His gaze darkened. “He has to know there is no taking her back. There is no taking any of you back.” He licked his lower lip. It was fuller, darker after feeding. “You belong to me now, Mina. Every part of you is mine.”

I stared at him—the arrogant and extremely old vampire I was tied to for eternity—and my stomach cramped from the finality of those words.

I was no match for a male like him, but I wouldn’t, couldn’t, roll over and not at least fight for myself. “If I belong to you…then you belong to me.”

His violet eyes seemed to brighten in the darkness of the cab. “You want to own me?” His gaze searched mine. “You wouldn’t know what to do with me, little doll,” he finally said, then looked ahead, going still once again, as if he were made of marble.

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