Page 104 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

“And are you doing it as a favor to me, to sate my ache? Or is it because your instincts have chosen me as well? You’re fighting this. You’re being so damn stubborn. You don’t want Thomas Knight’s daughter as your mate, so you’re trying to brush off our connection, but I can see behind your mask, Sterling, because it’s starting to crack. You’re losing the battle.”

He let out a low, rumbling growl then leaned forward so that a strip of moonlight fell over his face. A violent shiver came over me as I registered his sharp, silver-bathed features. He was as terrifying as he was beautiful with his needle-sharp fangs and those snow-white brows and lashes. And hiseyes…

They had turned crimson, but his ghostly cataracts made them gleam like a blood-red moon that had been coated in mother-of-pearl.

Knowing he was about to pounce any second, I spun and made a leap for another shelf. Maybe it was due to the fact that my focus was clamped to the vampire hunting me that I’d miscalculated. I didn’t jump high enough. My body slammed into the top of the bookshelf instead, sending it toppling over.

I was thrown into the air, unable to reach for anything to catch my fall because all that surrounded me was a rain of books. Hitting the ground would hurt enough. The falling books would leave some bruises, but the shelf would crush me.

Before I could do anything more than brace for the world of hurt that was about to come slamming down on top of me, I felt myself being snatched out of the air.

Sterling drew his arms around me, pulling me protectively against him so that when we slammed into the ground, it was his body that took the blow. Books hailed down around us, and he crouched on top of me, shielding me from the downpour of ancient leather and paper.

My skull rattled when the shelf smashed to the floor, missing us by inches. The ground quaked under the weight of the wood, sending splinters and pages flying every which way. Sterling held me tight in his arms, protecting me from the debris.

As everything settled, we remained there on the floor among the wreckage, our chests battering together as we tried to get a grip on our breathing.

I didn’t dare move. Maybe it was because I was in shock, seeing as I’d come within an inch of being crushed to death. Although, I was almost certain it had more to do with a half-naked man on top of me, who’d just used his own gorgeous body as a shield to save my own.

I could feel no heartbeat in Sterling’s chest, but there was still something magnificent about the feel of his chest rising and falling against mine.

“You’re right,” he said on a long breath in my ear, his tone fraught with an emotion that pulled tight on my heart. “I want you so badly, the pain of it is almost unbearable. And after all I’ve been through, I thought I was impervious to pain. But that’s not true because if I was impervious to pain, I wouldn’t be so fearful of getting hurt. I wouldn’t be so terrified of allowing myself to get close to you.”

With trembling fingers, I reached to touch him, running my hands over the sculpted planes of his chest. His skin, cool at first, heated at the contact. I traced the crucifix tattoo on his pectoral with my index finger, then pressed my lips to it, letting my mouth linger on the ravaged flesh that I was sure my father had tried to remove.

I looked up at him with a reverence I hoped he could sense. “For twenty-three years, I’ve been closed off from other people too. Not as long as you, but I know what it’s like to be alone. The only difference between my prison and yours is that you erected your own walls. You can choose to knock them down.”

Sterling’s mask fell away. All the shadows melted from him, and in that moment, he never looked so damn intoxicating, with a tender smile on his lips meant only for me and red eyes that betrayed his lust. Not to mention the rock-hard accouterment jabbing me in the thigh.

He cradled my head between his hands like I was the most delicate thing he’d ever held. The kiss was slow, descending upon me with a sensual gravity that reminded me of all those movies I’d watched when I was a kid. The ones where I would wear the VHS down because I would rewind to the scene at the end where the prince would kiss the princess, watching it over and over again, wishing it was me being kissed.

I never wanted it to end. It was as sweet as it was sinful. It felt like a moment stolen in time, a secret sanctuary from all the hurt and pain and all the fucking lies. Something that was all our own, where our walls had come down, and we both saw each other fully, with no armor, no deception. It was just us.

Sterling was blind, but I knew he could see all of me. There was nothing more erotic, knowing he was peering inside my soul, only to see the lust burn all the brighter in his gaze.

Using all my strength, I flipped him over so that his back was pressed to the rug, with me straddling the valley of his lap. He probably let me, and fuck, I’m glad he did, seeing how he looked, pinned beneath me.

He wore a thunder-struck expression like he knew he was just as powerless to break whatever spell had been cast on us, and by the smoldering heat burning in his gaze, he didn’t want to.

“What I would give to see you now…” His voice dripped with sex as he worked his lip between his teeth. His hands gripped my waist and slid beneath my top to fondle the globes of my breasts. I let out a soft moan, his hunger growing harder yet at the sound.

“You fit so perfectly in my palms,” he groaned, his head leaning back against a book as if he too was deliriously drunk from the magic suspended between us. “Like you were made for me.”

The moment was shattered when the library door opened with a howl of ancient hinges. I jerked my attention to the entrance to see Corry standing there, looking as though he would have been less shocked to find a three-ring circus set up in the coven library than his eldest brother plastered beneath me.

Then he ran his gaze over the mess of books and the broken shelving unit. “Fucking hell, what happened in here? The whole damn house just shook. It’s a little late for furniture breaking sex, don’t you think?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Sterling beat me to it. “Don’t come in here!” His muscles clenched beneath me, and he wrapped his arms tight around my waist, pulling me against him as if he was afraid I’d be ripped away.

But it was too late. Corry had moved inside, and the second he did, his pupils blew up, and his nostrils flared.

He tipped his nose to the air and inhaled deeply. “Holy shit…” His eyes snapped shut, and I knew exactly what was happening.

Because it had happened to me twice tonight. His youngblood instincts were taking over.

When his eyes flew open, a twisted smile stretched his face, and his blood-red eyes ran me through like a stake to the heart.

“Damn, Red. You smellgood. Good enough to breed.”

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