Page 22 of Love Heals
I scowled. "I know that. You can't order me around. You're not my sire. But I thought you'd be happy to get a kiss from me. Lots of men would be happy to!" I huffed and silently cursed myself for being so obvious about the fact that he'd hurt my pride. It didn't matter that I was a vampire and I should be above this, rejection still stung. Especially when I could feel his attraction for me plain as day. "Are you ashamed of your desires, is that it?" Was I not good enough for him? Was I too manly for him? Not manly enough? Not mortal enough?
"I'm not ashamed, but I'm not a predator either."
"No, you're not. You're not a vampire, which makes you prey."
"That's not how I meant it."
"How did you mean it?"
Jared leaned in closer again, brushing the pad of his thumb across my lower lip in a way that almost made me want to stick out my tongue and lick it.
What would it be like to have his fingers in my mouth? To suck on them to get them wet—and him hard. Jared's thumb didn't linger long enough for me to try, though."I'll kiss you when you want to kiss me," he said. "Not when I want to kiss you."
I wanted to argue, but his words left me speechless. I could have pointed out that I'd been the one to initiate the kiss, so he should have felt free to take me up on it, but we both knew that wasn't how it worked. The reason I'd kissed him was his attraction toward me, not the other way around. The thing that stunned me was that it mattered to him.
When had it last mattered what I wanted?
I opened my mouth to say something, anything, because this silence was the worst, but then, something in the air shifted. Something that had nothing to do with the attraction rolling off Jared.
Magic. Someone had used magic.
