Page 91 of Ruthless Ends

It hasn’t beenthatlong since the last time, but it feels like forever. He slowly pulls back, his gaze holding mine the entire time, and fire blazes through me as he continues with that pace.

It’s slower than anything we’ve done together, even the times we’ve said we’d take it slow. And it’s all-consuming. The extra space letting every sensation grow and expand, brushing every nerve, every cell. It feels like a language, the communication passing between us wordlessly in a way no one but the two of us could understand.

His hand never stops moving, the caress gentle but firm as he strokes my leg, my hip, my stomach, my breast, my arm, my face. It almost feels better than having him inside of me, feeling him everywhere all at once.

My hands create a similar dance on his skin, roaming from the flexing muscles of his back to the wide set of his shoulders, the flat planes of his chest, his abs, his hips, carefully skating around the bandages and bruises. He presses his forehead to mine, our ragged breathing filling the space between us.

A soft smile brushes Reid’s lips, his hips pausing before he slows his pace again. I knot my fingers in his hair, giggling as his gaze flicks from my eyes to my mouth.

“What?” he asks.

I shake my head, unable to tame my smile. “You’ll make fun of me.”

He brushes his nose against the side of my throat before planting a kiss at my pulse point. “I won’t.”

That same sensation floods my stomach as he pulls back to look down at me.

“I just—I love that even after all this time, I still get butterflies whenever you look at me like that.”

His smile grows wide enough to crinkle the corners of his eyes before he leans down to kiss me. “For the record,” he murmurs against my lips, “you do the same to me. All the time.”

I giggle again as he kisses the corner of my mouth, my cheek, my jaw.

“We’re so cheesy,” I breathe. “I hate us.”

His chest vibrates with his laugh. “Me too.”

My laugh stretches into a moan as he grinds his hips against me, pushing himself deeper, keeping the same slow, rhythmic pace. My heart feels like a stampede in my chest, my lungs struggling to pull in air.

There’s pressure in my jaw—from clenching it?—but no, then in my gums, and then—

I gasp as I realize my fangs just extended. That’s never happened during sex before. I look up at Reid, horrified. What is going on with me? I’m not even hungry. I’ve fed plenty since being here, more than enough since I’ve been trying to gain the weight back.

“Hey,” Reid says, looking utterly calm as he stills. “It’s okay. It’s perfectly normal.”

“It is? Oh!” I slap a hand over my mouth, even more horrified at how my words slur around the fangs.

“Yeah.” Reid gently wraps his fingers around my wrist and lowers my hand from my face. “When vampires are romantically involved, plenty of them enjoy feeding on one another. It’s just an instinct.”

“Oh.” I press a finger to the tip of a fang like I can force it back into my gums. They’ve come out before, of course, when I’ve fed, but they’ve always retracted quickly. Now, they’re making themselves right at home. “But you’ve never, I mean, I’ve never seen yours come out.”

He pulls the rest of the way out, and my body mourns the loss of him. He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, expression thoughtful. “I’ve always tried to keep them back with you. I didn’t want…I didn’t ever want you to be uncomfortable. Or feel like I would…”

“I know you’d never hurt me, Reid.”

His smile grows into something amused as he traces a finger along my bottom lip. “But so you know, I’m yours, Valerie. All of me. Anything you want.”

“Have you done that before?” I ask, unable to look him in the eyes. I don’t like thinking of him sleeping with anyone else, though I know there had to have been others before me. But for some reason, the idea of him feeding on them at the same time twists even deeper in the pit of my stomach.

“No.” He cradles the side of my face and ducks his head, forcing me to look at him. “As you’ve seen, sharing blood with another vampire can create a pretty intimate bond, especially in this way. It also makes things more intense. It’s not something I would do lightly.”

“But you would do it with me?”

His lips curl. “But I would do it with you. If that’s something you wanted.”

“Just like you never wanted to turn anyone but accidentally turned me?” I tease.

His smile broadens into a grin. “You really do have me breaking all of my rules, huh?”

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