“Drink,” he demanded. Begged. “Bloody hell, Charlotte.Drink!”
Suddenly, her body jerked to life, and he felt the warm suction of her lips closing around his wrist.
And then—finally, blissfully, miraculously—she drank.
She didn’t resist the taste. Instead, she sucked him hard, her velvet tongue lapping at his skin, her lips vibrating with a hum of satisfaction as she took her fill.
He felt the change move through her body, strengthening her muscles, warming her skin, bringing her back to life.
Back to him.
When she was strong enough to stand on her own again, Dorian released his hold and slid his hand down her stomach, slowly gliding between her thighs. Still feeding from his wrist, Charlotte moaned at his touch, her hips rocking as he rubbed slow, hot circles over her clit, fucking her deep from behind, bringing her closer to bliss with every long, hard stroke.
It was erotic and incredible, dangerous and seductive. But above all else, it was special. A deeply powerful, profoundly intimate bond that would eternally connect them. He was her sire now, but it wasn’t a position of power or coercion. They’d created this together. From their love, from their trust, from all that they’d come to mean to each other.
Love. He still wasn’t quite used to the word, to the taste of it on his lips.
For so long, Dorian was convinced love was a recipe for weakness and stupidity. But that wasn’t the case at all. It wasfightinglove—resisting it in all its forms—that had damn near destroyed him.
Charlotte saved him. She’d stormed the iron gates, cracked open his heart, and filled it with a light so bright, he could scarcely remember a time when he’d suffered alone in darkness.
And somehow, despite everything she’d witnessed at Ravenswood, despite all she’d learned about his past, she still wanted this life with him. She’d chosen it. Chosenhim.
She was his woman.
His vampire.
His heart.
“Dorian,” she whispered, finally breaking free from his wrist. “Don’t stop touching me. Everything is on fire and I’m… It’s so… You’re…Dorian!”
She came with a last, desperate gasp, her body clenching hard around him, trembling, pulling him in deeper, driving him right over the last fucking edge.
“Fucking…hell…” It was all he could manage before a wave of hot, pulsing intensity swept through his body, and he came hard inside her, his fingers digging into her hips, his face buried in her hair, his soul no longer broken, but whole.
When they finally stopped trembling, when the wound in his wrist finally healed, when he could finally breathe again, Dorian turned her around in his arms and pressed his ear to her chest.
Wondering.
Listening.
Hoping.
And there, at long last, it was.
The steady beat of a newborn heart.
Avampireheart.
It was the most precious, most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.
Charlotte slid her hands into his hair, gently tugging him back up to meet her gaze.
Her eyes were as red as the blood soaking her lips.
“Dorian? I…” Her lush mouth curved into a smile, and she ran her tongue over her teeth, gasping when she felt the fangs. “Holy shit. I think I’m a…”
The realization made her sway.
