Page 24 of Norah

I growl at Ethan, almost feral in my desire, wishing he’d bitea little harder. Encouraged by the sounds I’m making, he fulfills my unspoken request with another small bite. And now I’m undone, frantic to get him inside of me.

I shift backwards far enough to undo his pants, and reach inside, wrapping my hand around his thickening girth. After a few strokes, Ethan is thrusting into my hand, and my excitement increases. “Norah,” he gasps out, “You need to slow down.”

“No.” My voice sounds unlike me, deepened with desire. “I want you inside me right now.” After a brief pause, he lifts his hips enough so that I can slide his pants down and free his erection. In a flash, I yank mine down as well, take him into me in one smooth motion.

“Norah…” Ethan hisses out as I feel him filling me completely. Another time, I might go slow, luxuriate in the sensation of fullness.Not now. Not when I need this release so urgently. I lift and lower myself, thrusting desperately. He seems to grow even larger still, and I tilt my hips to take more.

It’s so quick, but waves of pleasure are catching up to me, and with one last thrust I’m gone. Pulsing around him, toes curling, back arching, I cry out. And with that cry, I feel Ethan’s release, jetting into me and filling me with warmth.

Tingling from the aftershocks, still joined, Ethan cradles my head against his chest. As his arms wrap around me, his heart thundering, and I thinkmaybe my luck has changed.

Don’t You Trust Me?

ETHAN

This is the night.

I’m following Norah out on her hunt, so to speak. She won’t call it that. Instead, she makes vague mentions of finding blood and feeding. But ahuntis what it is, with random men in bars as the prey, which makes me feel like kicking or punching something. She needs the blood, so I understand, but I want her to come tomeinstead.

Norah’s still wrapped up in her fear of hurting me, which is why I’m going to let this issue slide a little while longer. But Iwillconvince her I’m the best source for her. I know she doesn’t want to have me come, and is afraid I’ll be upset, because she’s asked me no less than five times if I wanted to reconsider. I’ve just asked her the same question, and it makes her go silent.

“Are yousureyou don’t want to stay home?” I turn to look at Norah dressed in a midriff-baring shirt paired with skintight jeans, inches of bare skin showing, and barely restrain myself from ripping everything off and having my way with her right now.

“Nope. I’m sure. Are you ready to go?”

She puffs out a sigh, then grabs her purse. “Ready as ever.”

The bar that Norah picked for tonight is one she hasn’t been to in a couple of years. She explained to me she tries to frequent as many places as possible, so she doesn’t get recognized. This bar is pretty divey, which makes me feel itchy when I think of her walking through there alone. She’s reassured me about her strength and speed, and I believe her, but anyone can be taken by surprise. So I’ll be standing back, not interfering, but watching Norah the entire time.

When we’re standing on the sidewalk outside the bar aptly named Drinkers, about to head inside, I think of one more question. “How do you choose?”

She turns her head towards me. “What do you mean?”

“How do you pick the guy you’ll feed from? Clothing? Body type? Accent?”

Her lips press together in a small grimace. She hates talking about this, and I think she may give me a non-answer, but she doesn’t. “I ask them all a question. Something simple, but easy to lie about. Like, can I trust you? Or are you a nice guy?"

"If he lies, it means he might decide to try something later, do something I’ll have to defend myself from. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I might if they forced me to. So I wait until I find someone who doesn’t lie to me.”

Huh?How would she know if a guy was lying to her? I’d bet at least half the men in this bar would lie through their teeth to get a girl like Norah. “How do youknowthe guy is lying?”

She looks at me with a serious expression on her face. “It sounds crazy, but ever since I changed, I can tell if someone isn’t telling the truth. When they lie, their face gets kind of shadowy. Like a dark mist crawls across their face. It’s weird, but it comes in handy when I have to do this.”

Thatisweird. Suddenly, I wonder if I ever told Norah that I liked something she cooked when I actually thought it was terrible.There were those cookies one time…Norah notices my expression and places her hand on my arm. “It’s not about little white lies,like does my butt look good in these jeanskind of thing. It only happens when it’s about something more integral to the person’s character. And it only works if I consciously think about it. Otherwise, I’d see dark faces all over the city, and that would beawful.”

Phew.“I would never lie to you about your butt looking good in jeans. Italwaysdoes.”

She smiles at me, looking pleasantly surprised, and I vow to give her more compliments than I already do. “I would never check to see if you’re lying, Ethan. I trust you, and I wouldn’t ever betray that trust by doing anything that wasn’t completely honest and real.”

I want to give her a hug, show her how wonderful I think she is, but I can’t blow her cover. Instead, I step away and gesture for her to head into the bar. “I’ll be nearby, Norah. Call out if you need me.”

Norah glances at me with a resigned look, then straightens her spine and walks through the front doors. I wait a minute before following, bracing myself for whatever happens inside.

NORAH

I’m not looking forward to this.

The entire experience of feeding is bad enough on my own. Adding in the watchful eyes of Ethan is making my stomach twist in knots of anxiety. I understand why he thinks he wants to see this, and I guess it’s better than him sitting home conjuring up many terrible images of things that aren’t happening.

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