Page 30 of Blood Submission

Chapter15

Laney didn’t hearthe vampire coming, but she could feel his presence humming through her blood and knew he must be near. This connection to him simultaneously disturbed her and thrilled her. Jacking upright, she scrambled to her hands and knees, backed off his bed and onto her feet, her heart pounding so loud she was sure it was going to bust right through her ribcage. As she waited to see what was in store for her now, flashes of leather adorned with spikes and blades flashed through her mind. She wrapped her arms around herself and clenched her teeth together to keep them from chattering.

He appeared out of thin air. One moment the doorway was empty and the next he was there, filling it with his imposing size. Standing in the shadows, the black ink of the tattoos on his face and neck appeared to writhe seductively in the flickering candlelight. But his eyes held no emotion. No clues to his thoughts. Black depths she couldn’t read no matter how hard she tried.

She blinked and he was so close she could touch him, moving so swiftly and silently that she jumped back and nearly screamed when he was suddenly right there.

His upper lip lifted into a sneer, exposing his long fangs. “I’m thirsty,” he rasped. “I need you, Laney.”

The fact that he’d actually called her by name threw her off guard. Though his expression was as closed off as always, his eyes—those black orbs that had appeared so bleak from across the room—were suddenly filled with a hot desperation she hadn’t seen since that first night in the desert. Stiffening her spine, she braced for his attack, but it nevercame.

“Laney—” He paused, waiting.

Was he askingher?

“What do you expect me to say?” she whispered.

“I need to feed,” he reiterated. He loomed closer, though she hadn’t seen him move at all, growing larger before her eyes. Or maybe it was just a trick of the candlelight.

She backed away another step. “Then go feed on someone else,” she spit out. God, she couldn’t believe she’d actually just said that. That wasn’t what she wanted. She didn’t want him to hurt her, but she didn’t want him to go after anyone else, either.

But what other choice do Ihave?

“I don’t want someone else,” he argued. “I wantyou.”

Tears threatened, and Laney blinked repeatedly, trying to hold them back. It was stupid to cry…again. Tears weren’t going to save her. But she couldn’t help it. She’d always been a crier. If her emotions spiked in any direction, anywhere other than a happy middle ground, she cried. And right now she was so far off the charts, she didn’t know that she’d ever go back to feeling safe again, even if she did survive this somehow. So in spite of her best efforts to not show any weakness, a few leaked out and ran down her cheeks.

Before she could wipe them away, Dante caught one on his finger and brought it to his mouth, tasting the evidence of her fear. But then he did something she did not expect; he cupped her face gently in both hands and wiped away her remaining tears with his thumbs. “Don’t do that.” His voice was rough, his expression conflicted. He stepped in closer. Tilting her head to the side with a firm grip, he brushed her hair out of the way and exposed her pulsing artery.

Laney squeezed her eyes shut, knowing the end was near. “Just please don’t take me into that room,” she burst out. “Please.”

He stilled for just a second, and then she felt the warmth of his breath on her chilled skin. Bunching the front of his shirt up in her shaking hands, her body swayed toward him of its own accord, craving his touch, at complete odds with the terror rampaging through her mind. She waited for the sharp sting of his fangs to pierce her vein, and had a passing curiosity if he would be kind enough to hold her as he drained the blood from her body until she slipped out of this world and into the icy grip of death.

The pain never came. Instead, something warm and soft touched her jaw. Then her cheek, her mouth—

Laney’s eyes fluttered open. It was the vampire, brushing her lips softly with his own. His large body leaning over her and blocking out the light from the candles.

Startled, she pulled away. Releasing his shirt and dropping her arms to her sides, she repeated his order from a few moments ago. “Don’t. Don’t do that.” There was no reason to sugarcoat any of this with kisses. She wished he would just get it overwith.

Little mouse.

His nickname for her suddenly made sense. He was the cat, or rather the panther, playing with his prey. But Laney had had enough of his games. Her nerves were stretched taught, and a scream of terror hovered on the tip of her tongue. She couldn’t take muchmore.

“I’m not playing,” he answered her unspoken thought. “I just—” He snapped his jaw shut, cutting off what he had been about to say. The desperation left his eyes, only to be replaced with the predatory gleam she was more accustomed to. “I just need to feed, little mouse.” The corners of his lips turned up in a sinister smile. “Go ahead and scream if you want. No one will hearyou.”

She caught a flash of fangs as he yanked her hard up against him, right before he sank them into her throat with a deep growl. He wasn’t gentle about it, and she cried out in pain as her skin tore with a sharp sting. The vampire latched onto her vein and drankdeep.

Laney swayed in his arms, quickly becoming lightheaded. He moaned and sucked harder. She could hear him swallowing, the sounds interspersed with his moans of pleasure. Lifting her up off her feet, he straightened with her held in the vice grip of his arms. Laney gritted her teeth, struggling against him, but she couldn’t break his hold no matter how hard she tried.

Dante fell to his knees without releasing his mouth’s seal on her throat, taking her with him down to the floor next to the mattress. Her knees went to either side of his hips as he sat her on his lap, and she felt his erection thick and hard between her legs. The pressure on her throat eased off, and he lapped at the wound to close it. His lips pressed against her artery as though in fervent thanks before travelling up over her jaw to herear.

“What are you doing to me?” he groaned. “Laney….” He kissed his way over to her lips, probing for entrance with his tongue.

She wanted to deny him, to beat him with her fists, and scream her rage and terror, whether anyone would hear her or not. But her fear was swiftly turning to desire as her body responded to the change in his demeanor. Her grip on him became as frenzied as his on her. Everything was wrong with this. So very, very wrong. Yet she couldn’t find it in her to deny what he was demanding. It was like every feeling and desire that ran through him was her own. His craving was her craving, not only for her blood, but for her body. Like a man starving.

She could feel what he was feeling. And he was losing control.

“Let me in, little mouse,” he ordered against her mouth.

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