Page 18 of Bite of Passage
“There’s nae an ounce of royal blood here, unless you count the time I drained dry the prince over in Kentshire.”He grinned enough to show off his elongated canines.
“I don’t know how the doorway works.”She pointed at the human on the ground.“Is he dead?”
“Not yet.”He nudged the human with a toe, half hoping he’d stir and provide a better fight.
She swallowed hard.“Your eyes…the whites of them went red, which happens on the show before you go psycho killer.Are you okay now?”
The show?Maybe she’d been watching him for a lot longer than he thought.He wasn’t as bothered by it as he should be.
“Sure.”Liar.His blood hunger shifted focus from the male on the floor to her pulsating jugular.She smelled so much better.Fresher.
He swayed.His breaths came out ragged.No biting.Count in your head before you touch her.One, two, three…
He ached to close the space between them, to lift her up by her waist and pin her against the wall.He’d rip off her clothes and bury himself deep inside her while he drank deep from her neck.The moment he struck her vein she’d orgasm, as would he.Fuck, he wanted it.
He could use persuasion on her.She’d come harder, though, if not under mental inducement.
He couldn’t.
I want it.
It would be wrong.Dangerous.
One bite injected the vampire poison.Then he’d have no choice but to kill her.No turning her.Not now.Not ever.
She launched herself at him.
He caught her against his chest and froze.This woman had no sense of self-preservation.He didn’t breathe on purpose to limit breathing in the smell of her.The need for blood…need for naked flesh…
One step toward the wall.Another…
“He would’ve killed me.I didn’t realize I had nothing here to fight with until…” Her arms wrapped him, and she buried her head in his neck.Her breaths tickled his skin.
Thethump-thump, thump-thumpof her heartbeat mesmerized him.
“I guess we both saved each other from a scripted death,” she said against his neck.“The Grim Reaper won’t be happy with us.”
“He’ll resume his hunt,” he gritted out.A growl started deep in his throat.He twisted her neck and kissed down the column.Her pulse teased his tongue.
She moaned.
His teeth scraped the delicate skin of her neck.
This obsession was a far cry from the pale, anemic desire he’d felt for females in the past.
Balls, he was going to break.
ChapterSeven
“Stop,”Gemma whispered.She craned her neck away from his mouth.“Don’t bite me.”
Skarde clamped his lips together.His canines caught on his tongue.The coppery taste of his own blood didn’t tame the drive to take her.
“Skarde?”She put a hand on each cheek.“Snap out of it.”
“You smell as if you’d taste…” His teeth gently touched her skin again.He replaced them with his tongue.“Exquisite.”
She craned away and pinched his nose until he shook her hand off him.
