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And then it was over, much too soon and much too empty.
“Alek,” I whispered, panting for breath.
Alek went rigid as he pulled away, lowering me to the ground and turning his back to me in the small tunnel.
“Alek,” I repeated. With my underwear torn off, I pulled my dress down over my bare skin, suddenly feeling very exposed even in the darkness.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say to him. What had just happened was…
Deranged.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. His voice shook and cracked. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
What the hell?
“Don’t say that,” I argued. I tried to wipe the blood from my shoulder, then my mouth. Shame washed over me, overtaking any lingering fire that may have remained. “Look at me, Alek.”
Even in the darkness, I sensed him shaking his head.
Emotion hit me like a punch, so unexpected and raw after what had just happened. “No, you don’t get to do this.” I grabbed his arm and spun him around, forcing him to face me. “You don’t get to switch this on me. This? Whatever the hell just happened?”
I motioned to the space between us.
“This is us, Alek. You don’t get to tell me to give into the darkness and not give in yourself. You told me not to be ashamed. You told me to…”
“I know what I told you,” he whispered.
“Good, because you’re not allowed to regret what just happened here.”
“I could have hurt you, Lyra.”
Ah.
That was it. The hidden truth, the brutal honesty. Alek was not ashamed about drinking my blood, about making love to me in the secret tunnels of the ballroom.
He was still trying to protect me, trying to keep me safe. And that made me love him all the more.
“Impossible,” I breathed. I stepped forward and placed both hands on his face, running my thumbs against his cheekbones. “You can’t break me, Alekzander Black. The only way you could hurt me is by hiding this from me.”
His eyes fluttered close. “Demons don’t become addicted to blood,” he said.
“We aren’t addicted to blood. We’re addicted to each other. There’s a difference.”
He scoffed. “Hardly.”
I knew what he meant. We had both stopped tasting the blood that time, but next time? Who knows?
We were merely testing the waters of lust and desire, much of it in ways that were new to both of us.
“Here,” I said, reaching up and wiping the tiny drip of blood from his neck. “We should get back before anyone notices we’re gone. I don’t have demon eyes like you, but I’m pretty certain it might look like we just had sex in here.”
He huffed a laugh. It was small, but it was a start. I couldn’t take it if Alek felt even an ounce of shame for what just happened, especially after he made sure I was comfortable, after assuring me that what I felt was normal.
But maybe neither of us were normal. Maybe we were both dark and twisted and ruining each other in a way that neither of us could back away from.
Alek reached up and smoothed my hair, pulling some of the curls over my shoulder to cover the bite mark his teeth left in me. “I fear they’ll already be thinking that.”
“Are we okay?” I asked, brow furrowing.
