"Not—" Her breathing was ragged. "Not yet. Please."
I drew back and looked at her face and I saw the desire there, yes, but also fear. "Talin." I gentled my touch, meeting her eyes. They were wild, pupils blown with desire, yet edged with something that looked like panic. "We don't have to?—"
Tears filled her eyes, but her voice was strong. "The vest stays on."
"Okay." I didn't understand it, but I could see this was important to her. Could see the vulnerability in her eyes that she was trying so hard to hide. "Okay, baby. Whatever you need."
She blinked. And her expression softened again. "You called me baby."
"Is that all right?"
Instead of answering, she pulled me down into another kiss. This one was slower, deeper, a surrender and a claiming all at once. I felt her power wrapping around us, those silver threads weaving between each other like a net.
I was going to drown in her.
"Elias." My name was a whimper, a plea, and I eagerly gave her what she needed.
I kissed her like she was the only thing keeping me tethered to this earth. My hands explored everywhere I could reach without removing the vest she clung to like armor, learning the shape of her, the sounds she made when I touched certain places over others. It was all I could do not to rip off her clothes and mine and bury my cock so deep inside of her she'd taste my come.
As if she could read my thoughts, she wrapped her legs around my waist and ground against me, and all rational thought fled entirely.
My mouth trailed back to her throat. Her pulse called to me, steady and strong and hers, and the vampire in me rose to the surface. Hungry. Possessive. Demanding. My aching fangs lengthened fully, ready to bite. To feed.
I shouldn't. I knew I shouldn't. But the need was too overwhelming, too primal, a force I couldn't control.
"Need to taste you." The words came out more growl than speech as the tips of my fangs grazed her skin again, my cock straining against my jeans. "Please, Talin. Need to taste you."
She should have said no. Should have pushed me away. Should have recognized the danger of a vampire on the edge of losing all control.
Instead, she tilted her head to the side, baring her throat to me.
I didn't let myself think. Didn't let myself question. I just struck.
Faster than a striking snake, my fangs sank into the soft flesh where her neck met her shoulder, and her blood hit my tongue like liquid fire.
Oh, GODS.
The moment it hit my tongue, the world around us shattered into fragments of light and sensation until time stood perfectly still.
Better than the finest whiskey, it poured down my throat and burned through me like molten gold, every nerve ending in my body lighting up at once in a symphony of pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. My vision went white, then sharpened with brutal clarity. Sharper than it had ever been before. I could see everything. The individual strands of her hair. The faint sheen of sweat on her skin. The sparkling threads tangling around us. I could feel everything. Her heartbeat. The pulse of her life beneath my lips. The tension in her muscles. The heat radiating from her core. I could taste everything. Her fear. Her desire. Her power flowing into me.
And gods, the taste. The fucking taste of her.
Cinnamon and wildfire. Dark sin and bright magic. Something fundamentally Talin that I'd never experienced with anyone else. It wasn't just blood. It was essence, soul, every part of her distilled into something so perfect I nearly collapsed under the weight of it.
And as I drank, the mate bond slammed into place with the force of a freight train.
I knew. Absolutely. Irrevocably. That she was MINE.
Every possessive instinct I had roared to life. She was mine to protect. Mine to claim. Mine to keep.
Forever.
I drank deeper. I couldn't help it. I needed more. Needed all of her. My hands tightened on her waist, pulling her harder against me. She made a sound—pleasure, pain, I couldn't tell—and the combination nearly undid me.
My cock was so hard it felt like it was going to fucking explode, my entire body shaking. Trembling with the strain of not giving in to every dark, possessive urge currently shredding me apart.
Talin's fingers dug into my shoulders, her legs tightening around my waist as she made small, desperate sounds that nearly broke me. I could feel her pleasure through the connection of blood and magic, could taste it on my tongue, and it was the most erotic thing I'd ever experienced.
