Page 22 of A Love So Deadly
Why she lied about who died.
Someone did, but it wasn’t a friend from school or a friend in an accident. I think I’ll research her.
The lying should worry me, but it thrills me instead.
“You’ll be coming to the cocktail hour with me,” I say. “I’ll send you a dress.”
“It’d be easier to leave from here. My part of Tenebris isn’t exactly something where high society goes,” she says, her wrist still in my grasp, her finger still pointed out.
I should let her go.
I don’t.
This is a test of my own limits.
“Really?” I ask.
“Yes.”
I rub my thumb against her leaping pulse, the blood flowing is rushing from its journey around her body, feeding her organs and cells oxygen, nutrients. It’s rushing to be replenished in her heart.
That blood’s going to be dark and flavorsome, like the finest of whiskeys. The fresh blood’s more like wine. I fucking love how complex a human can be on so many different levels.
And I can, if I choose, feed on either, just by listening.
With Elliot, I want both.
“I’ll have it delivered.”
“What kind of event?” Her gaze is on my mouth.
I’ve had plenty of women look at me with lust. Plenty look at me with hate or fear.
She’s the first I’ve had that looks at me with a mixture of lust and distrust.
It’s pure catnip.
Maybe Vittoria’s right and I shouldn’t have hired her. But if she’s right, she’s also wrong. Not many pick up on my numbered ads.
It means she went looking, it means she wanted this, which is why I was interested in her in the first place and I still am.
Enemies, if she is one, should always be kept close.
This time, as I rub my thumb light over that leaping, racing pulse, I wonder what, exactly, kind of enemy she is.
“I need…I need some water.”
She has that drugged-out look a sub gets when she goes into subspace, that natural version of a mesmerized human. Intoxicating doesn’t even begin to describe the look she’s wearing. And I think I might be teetering. My fangs want to drop. Sink deep into her flesh and rip open her veins so I can swallow down that hot, divine blood.
Let the sweetness of her flow through me.
My cock hardens at the thought.
I release her and get a bottle, cracking the lid and handing it to her. She takes it, fingers brushing mine, and that vital heat of her shoots through me all over again.
Her delicate throat works as she swallows down the water, but when she stops, I notice that she’s still in my aura, still close. Like she’s unconsciously tethered herself.
It’s the effect of me being an old vampire. I’m strong, so her ability to throw off the mesmerization intrigues me all over again.
