Page 52 of Inception

“It is,” he agreed, gazing at me as he coiled a loose strand of my hair around his finger and then tucking it behind my ear. His touch sent a ripple down my back.

“Am I making you nervous?” he asked. His voice was like silk against hungry skin, smooth and seducing in every way.

Of course I was nervous. How could I not be with that voice in my ears, and those eyes on me, and that tugging smile on his lips? Everything about him stirred my insides.

“No,” I lied, my heart hammering hard against its cage, threatening to betray my words.

He raised a skeptical brow and moved in closer as though he were challenging me to resist him. I already knew I’d lose that bet. I flattened my back against the stone wall, steadying myself so I didn’t topple over from the sudden rush.

“Maybe a little,” I admitted.

His mouth hinted at a smile as he studied my eyes with an intensity that made my cheeks warm. “You like me,” he accused, seemingly amused by this.

“No I don’t!” Something about the way he made the claim made me not want to give him the satisfaction.

He moved in closer until we were nearly touching and placed his arms on the stone wall on either side of me, leaning in. “Are you sure about that?” he asked, whispering into my ear.

I wasn’t even sure of my name anymore.

His lips twisted into a satisfied grin. “That’s what I thought,” he said as his eyes drifted out over my head into the darkness behind me, before resting pensively on my face again. “Tell me, Jemma, have you ever been kissed before?”

My heart was beating wildly now. If he could hear it, if he could feel it racing, he’d know the answer. But since he couldn’t, I’d sooner die than admit I’d never been kissed.

“Tons of times,” I said and then cringed at my own response.

“I think you’re lying, angel.”

I didn’t look up when I answered, “Maybe a little.”

His hands came up and moved through my hair, pushing the loose strands away from my face, and then slid back down the other way, over the apples of my cheeks. I shivered through each caress, sighing as he cupped my face in his hands.

“I’m going to kiss you now,” he informed. “Is that okay?”

A strange noise bubbled out from my throat, some kind of inaudible mumble. I think it was a yes.

I looked up into his dark, smoldering eyes and inhaled sharply as his thumb skimmed the surface of my lips, studiously, tauntingly, before his own lips pressed down onto mine.

I felt the rush from his kiss soar through me like a missile, awakening every cell in my body with its searing emissions. His lips moved over mine hungrily, expertly, and I followed suit as the earth all-but stopped its rotation in honor of my very first kiss. My mind-numbing first kiss.

An entire lifetime came and went before his lips detached from mine and reemerged just below my ear as he strung an even row of kisses all the way down my neck, reaching my collarbone and working their way back up to the top, gently, slowly—deliciously slow.

And then came the pain.

The barrage of soft, velvety kisses ceased their torrent, and were replaced with a sharp ache at the hub of my neck. I winced from the pain and tried twisting away from it, but I was immovable. Something was hurting me, and worse, I couldn’t break free from it.

And then, like a brutal flash of consciousness, the horrifying realization set in that it washim—Dominic.

He was biting me.

16. REALITY BITES

I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears as Dominic Huntington locked me against his chest and growled into me, feeding on me freely and without my permission. I wanted to fight back, to hit him where it hurt and run, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything but whimper in his arms.

Something strange was happening to me.

An unmistakable feeling of lethargy washed over me, traveling through me—through my bloodstream, pacifying every cell in my body as it moved. And just like that, I was barely fit to stand upright anymore. My legs were weak beneath me, tingling like the rest of my body with synthetic sensations of solace, and serenity, and something else, something horrifying...

Pleasure.

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