This is who you are.
I shook my head against the barrage of voices. No—itwasn’twho I was… Right?
No matter how I felt about magic, I could accept that I was a witch. I could even accept that I’d taken a vampire’s life in self-defense. But a person who killed another being without remorse? Without hesitation? Without… anything?
Was that really me?
Whether the vampire had deserved it, hers was the first life I’d ever snuffed out. Darius and I had cleaned up and changed clothes at Haley’s, but the woman’s blood was still caked under my fingernails.
I should be devastated. Or at least freaked out.
So why was I numb inside?
What the hell is wrong with me?
“I thought you could use a bit of normalcy after… everything.” Killing the engine, Darius leveled me with a piercing gaze, his eyes a bright gold contrast to the black button-down he’d changed into. While his body had quickly healed, the lovely cashmere sweater he’d worn earlier had not.
I already missed the soft feel of it against my cheek.
“I should’ve found a way to de-escalate the situation,” Darius said. “If I hadn’t attacked first—”
“They might’ve killed me. Case closed.” I turned away and looked out the window, trying to pick out the boats docked at the marina next door. From here they were no more than silhouettes bobbing on the water, moored until someone decided to set them free.
“I wouldn’t have let that happen, Gray. Iwon’tlet that happen.Ever.” Darius laced his fingers through mine and squeezed, but more than his touch, the certainty in his voice sparked something inside me. I turned to face him again, searching his eyes across the dark, intimate space of the car.
“We’re connected,” he said softly. “I care for you. No matter the circumstances that led to our bond, that bond exists. I know you feel it, too.”
My heart rate kicked up in response, but something about his words stung, threatening to dampen my desire. “So this… whatever this is between us. It’s just because of the bond? Like some kind of magical… obligation?”
“Ah, love.” He brought my hand to his mouth, lips brushing my palm. “If you think that’s all this is, you are sorely mistaken.”
He grazed the skin inside my wrist with his teeth, and I gasped as a current of unbidden pleasure rippled through me, stronger and more intense than what I’d felt that night at Black Ruby.
His fingers trailed up my arm, and his mouth followed, lips tracing a light path along my veins.
Just like that, my entire body relaxed, muscles unclenching, bones melting into goo.
He was kissing myarmfor God’s sake. How could something so simple feel so utterly amazing?
“I don’t… I don’t know how you… do that,” I breathed, all the stress from tonight’s ambush floating away.
“Do what, love?”
“It’s like you know exactly how to touch me. How to make me feel…” I gasped again as his teeth scraped the sensitive spot just inside my elbow. “Like that.”
“I’ve tasted you,” he said softly, his lips lingering on my arm a moment before moving up to my neck, lightly brushing the spot where he’d bitten me tonight. The memory of that sharp, exquisite pain sent a little thrill down my spine, and I shivered. “I can smell the blood running through your veins. Hear the tempo of your heartbeat.” He tapped his fingers gently against my thigh, mimicking the precise beat of my heart, as frantic as a frightened rabbit.
I wasn’t frightened though. Not of Darius. Not anymore.
Darius leaned close, his scent enveloping me, eyes dark with desire. “I can feel where youache.”
His mouth closed over mine, stealing the breath from my lungs, and I parted my lips, taking him in deep, ignoring the sting of my swollen lip. The taste of him exploded over my tongue, like sweet wine and dark chocolate, and despite the coolness of his lips, my entire body was on fire, blood racing through my veins as if everything in me had fallen under his command.
We were parked in the shadowed back corner of the lot, close to the shoreline, but I didn’t care if anyone walked by the car anyway, shined a light inside, caught the whole thing on video. Darius felt so good, so right, there was nothing left to do but lose myself in this delicious, intense pleasure, for however long it was destined to last.
I pulled him toward me, maneuvering in the passenger seat so that he was on the bottom and I was straddling him.
“You’re absolutely enchanting,” he breathed, kissing my chin, my jaw, then dipping down to my collar bone.
