Page 30 of Forced Vampire Mate

“You bastard,” I hissed, slamming my fists into his chest.

Luken’s eyes widened as he took my blow. “Elara, I—”

“You fucking bastard,” I howled, striking him again. “Why couldn’t you just say you needed my blood to heal? Why can’t you just be honest with me? I’m here because of you! Because you refused to help me save Darcie. She could be safe already, but Thessa is gone now, too, and it’s all your fault! You know what Grayson—Draven—is willing to do to see you fail! But you can’t fucking tell me what you need.”

I went to hit him again, but he caught my wrists and yanked me forward. I slammed into his chest, and he twisted me down, pinning me beneath him in seconds. My legs wrapped around his waist automatically, my body crying out for more.

“You want me to be honest?” he hissed, pinning my hands over my head. “The honest fucking truth is that I hate how vulnerable you make me feel. And there’s nothing I can do about it! You refuse to listen, refuse to believe me! I could tell you exactly what I planned, but what difference would it make? You decided I was a villain and take my every action as proof.”

“You could have told me you didn’t kill my family at the hot springs,”

“And I could tell you right now that I never intended to let your sister be sacrificed, but you won’t believe me,” he spat back. “You’ll look into my eyes and feel my cock between your legs and think I’m just trying to fuck you. You don’t trust me, and I don’t know how to change that!”

His gaze flickered to my mouth. He was still hungry. Still on fire from drinking from me. His body pressed heavier to mine as he panted, his lips curling back to reveal his fangs.

“Tell me to stop,” he whispered. “Tell me to fuck off and stop touching you.”

Words weren’t enough for me to describe how much I didn’t want that. I arched myself, catching him off guard with a kiss. He released my wrists and caught my face in his hand, resting his weight on his elbows as he kissed me. They were hot, desperate kisses. I pulled him closer, tangling my hands in his hair. What was trust, or the lack of it, compared to the sheer weight of lust?

“Please,” he whispered into my mouth. “I have to have you. I have to be inside of you, Elara. I need it more than I need my next breath. Please, please give me hope.”

The heat penetrated deep inside of me. I ached, and I wasn’t sure it was just lust anymore. I groaned into his mouth, pressing my body up as tightly to him as I could. But I couldn’t find my words. I needed space. I needed to breathe, to think. I pushed upward with one side of my body and Luken let me roll him. He clutched at me as we turned, so I straddled him. When I pulled back, his arms fell loosely to his sides.

“I wish I could tell you what I need to trust you,” I said, my hands pressed to his bare chest. There was no sign of the mark anymore, as though it had never been there. “You can’t expect me to spend four years thinking that you did horrible, brutal things to my family and not come out of it with trust issues.”

Luken’s hands moved to my hips. “I won’t hurt you, Elara. Tell me you don’t want me, and I will control myself.”

I closed my eyes. With the warmth of the sun on my back and the slight breeze washing over my skin, I felt more centered. There was a chasm between us, something I wasn’t sure was surmountable. But what I did know was that right now, it didn’t matter so much. He was here, I was here, and we were both on fire for each other. He drank from me, and I didn’t want to fight this.

“I don’t want to fight you,” I breathed. “Not here. Not now. I thought you were going to die, and I want to feel you alive.”

Luken’s fingers moved, playing over the line of my panties as his gaze swept down my body. It traced over my scars, and I swallowed. He started to move his hands up, over the curve of my waist, and I bit my lip. He caught the movement and paused.

“Can you take them away?” I whispered. “My scars. Can you heal them?”

One hand moved to my back while the other traced the line of the burn. “In time, perhaps. It will take a lot of surgeries. I don’t think that it can go away entirely.”

“But you could use glamor, right? To hide them, at least?”

“Is that what you want?” Luken asked me, his voice gentle.

I nodded. “I hate them. I hate looking in the mirror.”

He cupped my cheek. “You’re beautiful.”

“I don’t care. I hate them. I hate the way they feel, and how much they remind me of the past.” I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. “I want them gone.”

“I can use a glamour on them,” Luken murmured, sounding apologetic. “But it won’t be constant. Glamour is a difficult magic. I don’t have the strength right now.”

I ran my hands down his chest. “Do you have the strength to fuck me, then?”

Luken laughed breathlessly. “You can only make me stronger.”

“Then tell me what to do.” I opened my eyes again and stared into his eyes. “The first time, you did all the work. This time, I want to do more. I want to be on top.”

“You did a pretty good job knowing what to do when we were in the shifter village,” he told me with a grin. “Do what feels good, Elara. If there’s anything in particular, I will let you know. Explore what you want to do, how you want to move. Although first… we should take off these wet clothes.”

I laughed as I lifted myself slightly, enough to grab the waist of his soaked pants. I pulled them off without ceremony, shimmying down his legs to get them off him. His skin was back to its gold-kissed tones, looking so supple and tempting that I had to bend over him and press my lips to his thigh. Luken shuddered as I moved up, peppering kisses over his abdomen and torso to reach his mouth again. His hands tightened on my hips, then, with a firm movement, tore my panties.

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