In that smile, Gabriel saw the rest of his immortal life. He saw his heart. He saw his home.
“Kiss me, Gabriel Redthorne,” she said. “And don’t youdarestop.”
He didn’t need any more words after that—English, plant, or otherwise.
He fisted her hair with both hands, his mouth crashing into hers like a wave breaking over the shore, washing away all the worry and fear, all the terrible mistakes of the past, everything butthismoment, his woman melting in his arms, her soft moans filling his mouth, his hands tangling in her wild curls.
The kiss was breathtaking and epic, the kind of kiss that could start a war and end it just as easily, but it wasn’t enough.
Gabriel needed more of her.
Allof her.
He shrugged out of his suit jacket and tossed it into the dirt between the two rose bushes, then kissed his way down her throat, her chest, unbuttoning her sweater and blazing a hot trail between her breasts. He dropped to his knees, kissing the pink starburst scar of her wound, kissing her taut stomach, kissing her everywhere as his fingers unbuttoned, unzipped, and tugged.
Stepping out of her jeans and panties, Jacinda tried to hold on to his shoulders for balance, but in a swift move he swept her legs out from under her and caught her, gently laying her on his jacket. He kissed her mouth once more, then gripped her thighs, lowering his mouth to the hot, sweet flesh between them.
The scent of her desire hit him full on, making him dizzy.
He descended in a frenzy, circling her clit with his tongue, fast, then slow, dragging his mouth lower, licking and sucking as she knotted her fingers in his hair and arched to get closer.
“Gabriel,” she breathed, and he remembered that night on the beach when they’d argued and she’d first called him by his given name. He’d hated the sound of it then, but now it was a symphony that made him hard and hungry and desperate for more. He moaned against her flesh, his tongue lashing her clit, then slipping inside, hands tightening around her thighs as he fucked her with his eager mouth, deeper and faster, pushing her harder, closer…
Her thighs trembled beneath his grip, hips rocking, blood rushing through her veins as the orgasm steadily built inside her…
Gabriel couldn’t wait another moment. He needed to make her shatter, to taste her, to reclaim her from the brutal death that’d nearly stolen her two weeks back. A violent growl tore through his chest at the memory, and he thrust deep inside, taking her, marking her, fucking her until she came so hard on his tongue the earth rumbled and the trees quaked and a dozen white rose petals alighted on her bare thighs like the softest rain.
The taste of her was everything, and Gabriel would’ve gladly lingered, his tongue already drawing another lazy circle around her clit, certain he could make her come again. But the tug on his hair grew insistent, demanding, and when he finally glanced up, the look in his witch’s eyes was so fierce, he knew she wanted something much more than his mouth.
He also knew that whatever it was, he wouldn’t refuse.
“I want you to bite me,” she finally said, fire smoldering in her gaze. “I want you to feed.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I want you to feed.
The words echoed through Gabriel’s mind, setting his skin on fire. His fangs sliced through his gums, mouth already watering for a taste of her exquisite blood. The scent of it alone was enough to drive him to the edge, but actually feeding on her…Fuck. That was a pleasure he’d only ever dreamed about.
Running a hand up her inner thigh, feeling the inviting pulse of her femoral artery, Gabriel drew in a deep breath. He thought to warn her. Thought to flat-out deny her request, even after swearing to himself that he wouldn’t.
But when he looked into her eyes again, the ferocity he found there turned his hunger into a burning, fiery ache unmatched by any he’d ever felt before.
“Please,” she begged. “Don’t stop.”
That was all he needed to hear.
He sank his fangs deep into her thigh, then closed his lips around the wound and sucked, his tongue soothing the sting as she gasped and writhed beneath him.
“Holy fuck,” she breathed. “Gabriel, that’s…”
Yes, he knewexactlywhat it was. Despite the initial pain, the erotic euphoria of a vampire bite was legendary, and within seconds her heart was racing again, heat gathering between her thighs, her hips arching as she pressed herself harder against his insistent mouth.
Blood slid across his tongue, warm and sweet and devastating, his mind and body spinning with all the new sensations she unleashed inside him. The taste was indescribable—not the coppery blood of a witch, not the acrid blood of a demon, not even a blend of the two. Just a unique, intoxicating flavor all her own.
He filled his mouth, savoring every drop of her precious blood. There was an edge to it, a black smoke that made his heart beat faster, his skin tingle, his breath catch.
His cock rock fucking hard.
