Page 83 of 'Til All the Seas Run Dry

He complied immediately, putting her down gently and stepping away, his athletic shorts tented awkwardly by his erection. She looked at him with… was that fear?

“I don’t want you to bite me.”

“Fine,” he said without hesitation, his hands held up in surrender.

“I don’t want you to bite me,” she said with more emphasis.

“I heard you. I promise I willnae bite you.”

“I don’t want you to lose control and?—”

“I wouldnae?—”

“You did.” Jory’s bottom lip trembled and she gasped for breath. “I thought I…. But I— What if you— I—” She looked around, frantic, before bolting for the steps.

26

The panic had been sudden and sharp, freezing her. He had dragged his fangs up her throat behind Hank’s shed and it had not caused her to spiral, but that was before. Before she knew what he had done with those teeth. It wasn’t a rational response. She’d told him she had forgiven him. Shehadforgiven him. But the animal part of her, the one that needed tosurvive,had felt those teeth and screamed through the fog of her lust,Run.

She made it up four steps before he caught her, wrapping his arms around her thighs from behind. She froze. His face was pressed in the space between her thighs, just below her ass. They’d been here before. The night he’d told her what had happened,everythingthat had happened. She panted.

“Jory,” he said, his voice a hoarse rasp. “Jory, mo cridhe, I cannae forgive myself for that night. I never will. But I was blood-mad, a new vampire. I didnae have any control. I—” He pressed his forehead against her thigh. “I wouldneverhurt you again. I woulddiebefore I hurt you again.”

She allowed herself to look between her legs and behind her. Beneath the thick bands of his arms at her knees, she saw his muscled chest, his stomach, the dusting of blond hair that led down into his shorts, which wereobscene.

“I wouldnae bite you unless you asked me. And I wouldnae bite you unless you asked me sober, and not in the heat of the moment. I wouldnae bite you unless we talked about it,” he said in a rush. “I swear to you. I would never doanythingyou didnae want, or ask for.”

He pushed his forehead against the back of her thighs, his head bowed. “I wouldnae bite you, mo cridhe. You have to believe me. Youmustbelieve me,” he begged.

For a moment, she thought about asking him to release her. She knew he would, that before the words were even out of her mouth, he would be all the way across the room. That knowledge was settling. Sobering. And within the safety of that knowledge, she felt her heart begin to beat more slowly, the clanging, screeching panic in her brain quieting. Because the truth was that shedidtrust him to keep her safe, to respect her.

And besides, she could not deny that his body wrapped around her was something she’d missed for almost a thousand years.

Jory bit her lip and, with a shuddering breath said, “Prove it.”

“Jory?”

“You heard me.”

He shifted back, and for the briefest second, she thought he would stop. That he would tell her no. That he would walk her to the door and say goodnight.

But then his hands skated up the front of her thighs, to the button of her jeans. He unfastened it and slid the zipper down. His big fingers hooked in the waistband of her jeans, shimmying them over her ass, her thick thighs.

“Fuck,” he whispered, and she smiled. She hadn’t planned on sex tonight, but she had worn a black lace thong anyway. Just in case.

Callum slid the jeans down to her ankles, and then his palms were on her calves, running up the backs of her thighs. He grabbed her hips and leaned in. She felt the scrape of his teeth against the roundness of her ass and her whole body tensed.

“Shhhh,” he whispered against her skin. “I’m proving myself. Remember?”

Jory shuddered, and Callum moved to the other cheek, dragging the points of his fangs gently over her skin before his tongue followed.

“I want to rip this off of ye with my teeth, but it’s too pretty.”

Jory gasped. “I have more.”

He hummed, and she felt the sound vibrate through his cool lips against her overly warm skin. “Someday.”

A breath shuddered out of her, and he reached up once more, sliding fingers into the wide lace band of the thong and stretching it over her ass and hips and thighs. Once it had passed her knees, he dropped it, and it fell around her ankles.