Page 64 of Blood

Toss a cheese ball directly at his face.

“Catch!” I holler...a solid second after the cheese puff already bounced off his forehead and landed on the broad slope of his shoulders.

Dimitri slowly moves his eyes to the tiny ball of cheese marring his otherwise perfect attire. Slowly, almost languorously, he brushes the cheese puff onto the ground.

“That, Violet Dracula, was rude,” he says simply as he prowls toward me.

“You need to lighten up a little more,” I babble as I eye the arresting man now leaning over me on the bed. My heart beats so loud I can barely hear my own thoughts over the tumultuous pounding. “You’re still alive, but you’re not truly living. How can you be, when you never allow yourself to open up? That must be a sad, lonely existence.”

Ohmygawd.

Shut the fuck up, Violet.

I wish I could take a net to the words, capture them all, and then lock them away, so they’ll never see the light of day again. Sometimes, I really don’t know when to stop talking. It’s a curse. And a gift.

Depends on the day.

When I slide my gaze to Dimitri’s face, I expect to see anger, maybe even disapproval.

Instead, I see nothing but liquid heat that shoots fire straight to my core.

“You’re right,” Dimitri murmurs, surprising the shit out of me.

“I’m...what?”

A wry smirk dances at the edges of Dimitri’s lips. “I know you don’t hear those two words together very often, but you’re right.” His finger comes up to trace the seam of my lips, soft enough it could almost be the wind that rattles the leaves on tree branches. “I’ve been thinking a lot about my own mortality. And when I thought you were dead...” Shadows explode in Dimitri’s normally impassive eyes, darkening the blue until those orbs almost appear black. “I don’t want to push you away anymore, Violet Dracula. I love you. I love you with every inch of my dark, fucked-up heart. It’s a lump of coal, but it’s yours...if you want it. I love you when you babble. I love you when you say asinine things that make most people shake their heads in disgust. I love you when you’re covered in cheese dust and staring up at me with wide, terrified eyes. I love you, and I’d be remiss if I spent another day not telling you the truth. I pushed you away because I was terrified of how you make me feel. I shoved you to your knees in a futile attempt to make you feel small and insignificant. But, Violet, my love, my heart... You were never born to bow. You were born to rule.”

Desire beats through my blood as I stare into the eyes of a man who pushed me away, made me feel small, and then, somehow, found a way to give me wings to soar. Mingled shock and desire root me to the spot.

I knew that Dimitri loved me, but this? This heartfelt declaration? It’s almost too much for my poor, puny vampire-but-not-a-vampire brain to handle.

My heart feels like a restless bird in my chest that has smashed repeatedly into a window. I’m pretty sure the organ’s broken. Is that a thing? Can you break a heart like you can a bone or ankle?

An earthquake rolls through the center of my being.

“Dimitri...” I reach for the front of his shirt desperately, crinkling the meticulously ironed material, and tug him toward me. He comes without complaint or argument, molding his lips to mine. I feel like an addict standing in front of a lit cigar, just waiting for the plumes to blow into my face. I need more of Dimitri Gray.

I need everything.

My hands are feverish as they roam across his broad shoulders, his back, and then cup his ass through those black trousers. He pants against me as he kisses me senseless, losing himself in me just as I am with him. I reach up to push off his suit coat, and he allows me to, not even protesting when his hair becomes disheveled in the process. His wide, famished eyes are locked on mine as he pushes me back onto the bed, my blonde hair splaying across the pillow.

“Violet,” he growls into my ear, nipping my earlobe hard enough to sting. His tone makes the small hairs on both of my arms stand on end and sets my pulse to racing.

With skilled proficiency, he grabs both of my wrists in one of his hands and lifts them above my head. I instinctively grab at the headboard there, and his lips curl into a cocky, satisfied smirk.

“No matter what happens, you are not allowed to move your hands from the headboard.” He bites down on my neck hard enough to elicit a gasp from me. “Do I make myself clear? If you move, I will stop.”

Goose bumps flutter across my skin, even as a surge of defiance rushes through me. “I thought you said I was a queen,” I pant, hoping he doesn’t hear the hitch in my breath, hinting at my arousal.

Dimitri’s smile could almost be described as...lecherous. It’s a look I’ve never seen on him before, but it causes my stomach to do cartwheels.

“You may be the queen, Violet, and I may be nothing but a humble servant when it comes to you...” He sucks a patch of my skin into his hot, wet mouth. “But in the bedroom, I’m in charge.”

The darkness in those words has my heart slamming against my ribs and my breath coming out in choppy pants.

Dimitri keeps his eyes on me as he removes a dagger from the waistband of his pants. How the fuck didn’t I feel that when I was groping him?

He slices down the middle of my tank top and tosses the fabric aside.

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