GRAY
“Tell me,” Darius said, his nose grazing my jawline, making me shiver. “Tell me what you need, love.”
I needed to touch him. To taste him. To feel him inside me, on top of me, all over me. Straining hard against the straps, I said, “Untie me and I’llshowyou what I need.”
“Untie you? I think not.” Darius arched an elegant brow, a smirk sliding across his mouth. His fingers ghosted across my wrist, caressing the thin swath of skin exposed along the edge of the leather strap, then feathered down the inside of my arm to the crook of my elbow. “Even if youweren’ta dangerous newborn predator, I rather like this look.”
Swallowing the thickness in my throat, I whispered, “Helpless and hungry?”
“Hmm.” His eyes ignited and he leaned in close again, soft lips buzzing my own, his erection pressing urgently against my hip. “Bound.”
I strained against the straps, desperate to uncover both the promises and the demands inherent in that single word. The leather creaked at my effort, but the hawthorn had dulled my strength just enough to prevent me from breaking free.
“Don’t struggle, love,” he said. “No point in it, really.”
“Touch me,” I begged. “Please, Darius.”
“Do you trust me?”
“You know I do.”
“Then let me take care of you.” Without waiting for a response, he glanced around the room, then opened a dresser drawer, fishing through it until he found what he was looking for.
“You want to… blindfold me?” I asked, dragging my gaze down from the wicked gleam in his eyes to the black bandana in his hand.
He folded it into a long strip of fabric, tugging it tight, the snap making me flinch.
“If I may?” he asked.
I nodded, struck mute by the sudden force of my arousal. I’d never been tied up or blindfolded before—rendered nearly powerless, putting a man in complete control of my body, my desires, my pleasure. The idea sent a thrill down my spine, and my slow-but-steady vampire heart kicked up into a quick staccato beat.
“Close your eyes, little vampire,” he ordered, and I did as he asked, my body laced tight with anticipation as he fastened the blindfold around my head and tied it tight.
“Darius, are you—”
He cut me off with a violently passionate kiss, fangs scraping across my bottom lip, drawing blood.
“You will not speak again unless I command it,” he said, licking the blood from my lip. “For the next hour, I will decide what you feel, when you feel, and most importantly…” He shifted away from my mouth, and seconds later, his hot breath misted at the apex of my thighs. “…whereyou feel. Is that perfectly clear?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but then shut it, nodding instead. The domineering alpha side of Darius’s personality had always been there, simmering just beneath the surface, but he’d never unleashed it on me in the bedroom. Not like this.
And oh holyhell, was I onfirefor him right now. My body had erupted in goosebumps, my nipples tight beneath the T-shirt, begging to be sucked.
Darius pressed a hot, wet kiss between my thighs, his tongue lingering, heat emanating through the silk of my underwear. The teasing pressure of his lips hinted at the devastating kisses to come.
Groaning softly, he bit the fabric and tugged it down, exposing my bare flesh to the cool air and the all-too-brief brush of his mouth. His silky hair tickled my inner thighs, and my hips arched closer, demanding more. But the restraints left little room for maneuvering, and the harder I fought for control, the quicker it eluded me.
Darius pulled back and released the fabric from his teeth.
“Naughty little vamp,” he teased, clearly enjoying the game. “I believe you need a lesson in manners.”
I groaned in delicious frustration, but didn’t dare speak out, didn’t dare break his rules. My senses had never been so sharp, so attuned to every little movement, every current of air, every stroke of his tongue, and he’d never teased me so relentlessly before. He was going to bring me to pure ecstasy, but first, he was going to torment me to within an inch of my life.
And I was going to love every impossible, crazy-making, panty-melting second of it.
“Would you like to watch me, love?” he asked. “Watch me taste you, touch you?”
I nodded emphatically, but this only made him laugh.
