Instead, I remain perfectly still as his lips brush against mine.
My thumb disappears into my fist where I squeeze it tight to staunch the bleeding.
I’m not sure who releases the shuddering breath, him or me, but it mingles between us. Another light pass of pressure and my fear recedes as something else rises up inside me. Raw, powerful desire.
Neither of us close our eyes, the visual contact somehow important, vital to not ruining this.
Kaison doesn’t lean in again but licks his lips. He’s waiting for me to make the next move. Despite the fact I see the bloodlust clearly stamped on his face, he is in complete control, proving it to me.
His expression repeats his words,I won’t bite you.
There is something under that message, something I’m missing, but I can’t pull it out because there is too much swirling inside my body, my head, whispering across my lips.
With a hard swallow, I cross the distance this time, pressing my lips against his in a real kiss.
His mouth yields to me, letting me take control. Kaison’s lips are firm and soft in all the right places. His hands frame my face gently, still letting me direct this. Something hot and burning passes between us that is almost painful.
I test the texture, the drugging delicious taste of him until my mouth opens, letting his tongue slide in. A low groan rips out of his throat and my body responds with swirling hot liquid in my lower belly.
There it is again. The fear. The arousal.
Fearousal.
Fingers slide into my hair, gripping tightly as he licks at my tongue. He must be tasting the blood there. He samples then devours my mouth with sensual expertise until I’m gasping, panting, and needy.
The burning intensifies. I must have got his lips with my teeth because I taste the metallic slickness of blood and it’s not mine.
Kaison’s eyes flutter closed as he kisses me more insistently, plundering my mouth. The piercing on his tongue swipes in passing mine. I test pressure on the hoop on his lower lip until we are more certain of each other. The kiss becomes more intense, confident, and intoxicating.
Though any traces of my blood must be gone by now, Kaison still ravages my mouth as if it’s the most addicting thing he’s known.
He breaks with another needy moan. “You taste like if heaven and hell combined for a smoke-infused ambrosia.”
His words come out thready, needy, and though he’s the one with the fangs, able to rip out my jugular, for the moment it feels like he’s at my mercy. Like I own him utterly and completely.
Then I see the blood on his lip. My silver tongue ring. That’s what the burning is. Where the fresh blood is coming from. The silvers seared his flesh, yet he kept kissing me.Hebled forme.
Something shifts inside me. As if an old, stagnant part of myself is dislodging and reorganizing. The block of intense emotions—terror, anger, fear, pain—that once anchored me begins to shift. Suddenly, there are two punctures in this block, allowing light to filter through the darkness.
My hands find his shoulders, using them to steady myself, hold on, or test the muscle underneath. Or really, all three.
“Fae lords, what you do to me,” he says like a prayer. Kaison dips his head toward my throat.
His lips barely brush my jugular before I slam him back. He hits his ass and I’m across the room, panting, fear back at the forefront again and exploding like fireworks in my head.
“Sorry, sorry,” he rushes to say, lifting his hands. “I forgot. No fangs near your body. I know.”
My black lipstick is smudged over his mouth, adding a new layer of confusion and fear. Fear of how much I like my mark on him.
I fight for breath as if I’ve been running for miles. The erratic beat of my heart begins to drain my energy and I press to the wall, using it to keep me upright. Fae fucking anemia.
Twice in one night. This is some bullshit.
What he tried was bullshit.
That’s what I try to tell myself, but the look of anguish and apology contorting his handsome features is difficult to ignore. The way he burned himself, bled for me just so he could kiss me.
You can’t trust him. He’s a vampire. He’s one of them.
