Her need wasn’t just physical, and it wasn’t just about distraction. But he didn’t need to know that. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
As he’d slept, she’d periodically checked his various wounds and removed the bloodstained strips of shirt covering them as soon as he’d healed. The gash in his neck—the most serious of his injuries by far—wasn’t quite gone yet. It remained red andpainful-looking. But it was now entirely closed and in no danger of reopening. He was done bleeding for the night, assuming her ragged nails didn’t bite too deeply into his skin when she came.
Ducking her head, she brushed a kiss over that angry red line.
“Sweet Edie.” He sighed and moved his hands to her hips. Massaged there lightly. Pressed down until her clit rubbed against his dick. “Let me give you what you need. What we both need. Let me fuck you, love.”
“Mmmm.” Lazily, she ground down against him and gloried in his hitched breath. “You made me a promise, Max. About what would happen when we had enough time.”
“I did. I said I’ll—” When she rolled her hips again, his head tipped back, digging into the sofa’s cushioned edge, and he inhaled sharply through his nose. “I’ll fuck you so long, you’ll feel empty without my dick stretching your hot little chatte. So hard, you’ll feel me in your throat. And you’ll come for me until you cry.”
She had to close her eyes at that, if only for a moment. “You took some paraphrasing liberties there, but I’m prepared to accept your amendments to our agreement.”
“Generous of you.” Deliberately, he took her hand, squeezed it between their bodies, and curved her palm around his thick cock. “Ma bite is going to be your new best friend, sweet Edie. Use it for your pleasure.”
She smiled, her stare holding his as she scooted backward on his lap. Far enough that she could drag his lounge pants lower in front and ease his erection free from the fabric.
Gripping him firmly, she rubbed the head of his cock over her clit. Shit, it felt amazing, even through her panties. So amazing she couldn’t help squirming in his lap and moaning.
“Just like that,” he whispered hoarsely. “Just like that.”
“So good.” Unable to hold back, she sped up her movements. Rubbed harder. Faster. Her lids slipped shut, and stars began to burst behind her lids, white-hot and blinding-bright. “You make me feel so fuckinggood, Max.”
“Edie.” He gripped her shoulders. “Edie. Stop.”
She released his dick with a plaintive sound, dazed and so damn close to an orgasm she wanted to weep. When she tried to slide off his lap, though, he held her in place.
“When you come, I want you naked and spread out on my bed, not half-clothed on a couch,” he told her. “And before we go any further, you need to tell me whether you want my bite.”
She’d thought the answer to that question was obvious. “Max, we’re about to fuck. Of course you’ll drink from me.”
“One source of pleasure doesn’t necessitate another, ma puce.” He kissed her nose. “You can tell me no. You canalwaystell me no.”
Her delayed-orgasm crankiness receded at that kiss, at that declaration, and she offered him a small, genuine smile.
“If you don’t want my bite, I should open a blood bag and feed now, before getting my mouth on your skin. The way you taste, the way you feel…” He shook his head, his thumb teasing the base of her neck. “It’s too good. Too much. It’ll muddle my thoughts and intentions, and I might instinctively bite you. Even if we’ve decided I shouldn’t.”
Her head tipped, and she studied him curiously. “I imagine fresh blood tastes better.”
“Usually. Not always. Yours, sweet Edie, is…” His gaze clouding over, he ran his tongue over his incisor. “Spectacular.”
Pleased by that, she wiggled a bit. “Does blood straight fromthe tap help with healing or strength, over and above what the packaged stuff can do?”
“Marginally.” His hand flicked in a dismissive gesture. “But I’m mostly healed already, so a bag or two will give me sufficient strength for whatever needs doing.”
“Or whoever,” she pointed out, unable to resist.
A corner of his mouth tipped upward in a tiny, sexy smirk. “Correct.”
“That would be me.”
“That would be you.” Shaking his head at her, he nuzzled a kiss into the corner of her wide grin. “This is no longer an emergency situation, Edie. I don’t want you to agree to feed me out of obligation, or to be nice, or because you want me to heal faster, or for any reason other than the right one. Theonlyright one.”
“Which is?”
His grip on her shoulders tightened, and the warmth in his gaze turned molten, his irises darkening to obsidian. “Because you want it too. Because you need me inside you in every way possible, and my bite makes you come so hard you think you’re dying.”
The zombies might have been a million miles away. They might never have existed at all. There was only Max, only pleasure and lust, only the long night they’d burn through together.
