I nodded. “Yeah, I want to.”
We’d done this only twice before, as the trust required had stretched me to my limits.
“Just to be absolutely clear,” he said, “You’re giving me permission to use our blood bond to exert my will over yours.”
I wanted to roll my eyes at how explicit he was being, but I knew why. If I were being honest with myself, it scared me a little.
“I am a willing and consenting vampire.” Despite my answer, I swallowed hard.
“Then we are going to need more room,” he said, promise lingering in his words.
He reached over to press a button. The lift had already arrived at the penthouse at the top of the pyramid hotel, and the doors must have opened and closed.
We stepped into our apartment.
God, that was weird.Ourapartment.
As soon as I fled my aunt and uncle’s house at eighteen, running as fast as my skinny legs could take me, I was determined to always live alone. Freedom was not something I’d known growing up under my relatives’ roof, and I preferred to reside in a dirty hovel, chasing after skips, if it could be on my terms.
Until now.
Though it still felt like Grim’s apartment, rather than mine. The penthouse was at the very tiptop of the pyramid.
Neon lights from the Strip streamed in through the slanted, floor-to-ceiling windows. Grim began slipping the rest of the buttons out of his shirt as he walked backward, pulling me with him farther into the penthouse.
I followed him into the bedroom. It was like walking into a gothic boudoir. I felt his magic pulsate, and suddenly the candelabras lit up along the walls, casting light on the black moulded walls and gold finishes. Nifty trick. His masculine scent permeated the room, mingling with the aroma of freshly laundered sheets and something dark and tempting.
Thick purple curtains hung on the walls, though there were no windows. The ornate bed could have fit a half-dozen people, and I remembered first seeing it and imagining all the orgies he’d likely hosted here. But now I knew it as the place where we explored each other, pushing one another to the absolute limit before breaking together. I could no longer count the times I’d clutched and clawed at those black silk sheets.
We stopped at the foot of the bed. The shirt slid down his arms, revealing his sculpted body. Broad shoulders framed his wide chest before tapering down to his defined abs. Though he spent his days judging souls from a throne, his body appeared combat-ready, ready to go to war at a moment’s notice.
The Greeks thought they knew beauty when they carved marble into the likeness of gods, but Grim left them all in the dust.
My brain raced like a hungry school child in a candy shop, trying to focus on my favorite part of him.
His rounded shoulders.
No, wait!
His perfectly lickable six pack.
No, but what about the dip at the base of his neck, between those handlebar collarbones?
Your favorite part hasn’t been exposed yet, my brain whispered.
I shucked my boots and leather pants, about to push down my matching red panties, when Grim stopped me.
“I would like to start now, if that’s alright.” His tone was low and steady, as if he were approaching a wild animal.
I was nervous as hell to hand the reins over to him, but I dropped my arms and nodded. Traipsing around in my underwear never made me self-conscious before, but standing here stripped down, I felt vulnerable and exposed.
Those honey eyes glowed again as he called his power forward. When he spoke, his words seemed to come from inside my head, from inside the marrow of my bones, until I was absolutely compelled to do as he commanded.
“Touch your neck.”
I couldn’t have disobeyed if I tried. Once a vampire drank from a god, a blood bond formed, giving gods the power to bend them to their will. I was Grim’s first blood bond, having abstained all those years ago, we were still learning our own way through this connection.
My fingertips touched the column of my neck.
