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“Now you’re mine.” He kissed the mark. “And what’s mine is yours. Forever.” He pulled out of her and turned them on their sides facing each other.
Reality came back as a bitter aftertaste in her mouth. Forever wasn’t always such a long time, and promises were made to be broken.
He traced a finger over the pleat between her eyebrows. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She nestled closer to him. “Can you hold me? Just for a while.”
Strong arms folded around her. He pulled her to his chest. “I’m going to hold you all night. You don’t have a chance at getting away.” He kissed the top of her head. “Sleep now. I’ll need you again before morning.”
She lifted her head to look at him. “More blood?”
“No more blood until next week. I meant this.” He took her hand and guided it to his groin where he was already growing hard again.
She gave a contented sigh. “You’re my kind of man.”
“Better get used to it.” He stroked her hair. “I am your man.”
Where her ear rested on his chest, she could hear his heartbeat. It was slower than a normal rhythm. His skin was cooler than what it should’ve been after the sex they’d just had, but it wasn’t cold. It was comfortable.
She hadn’t been comfortable in a man’s arms since Darren. As always, the memory conjured a sharp pain. He, also, had promised to never hurt her and to always protect her. He’d broken those promises, on both accounts, because of her. She splayed her fingers over Tim’s chest. The hard disk of his nipple contracted under her touch. Maybe she could’ve had it again, if Tim had been hiding nothing more than being a dhampir.
Maya woke with her head on Tim’s shoulder as the sun streamed into the room through a gap in the curtains. He lay on a pile of pillows, reading a tablet while stroking her hair.
He looked down when she stirred. A big smile warmed his face. “Good morning, beautiful. You’re awake at last.”
“What time is it?”
“Past ten.”
“Shit.” She hadn’t slept this well in years.
“Relax. It’s not as if we have to be somewhere today.”
“You didn’t wake me up in the night.”
He uttered a deep, low laugh. “I love how disappointed you sound. No, I didn’t wake you. You slept so soundly, I didn’t want to disturb you. You seemed to need the rest.”
“Did Ilano come last night?”
“He did. Don’t worry, Frida dealt with him.” His expression turned somber. “He’ll be back though. Sooner or later we have to face him, but once he smells my scent on you, you never have to see him again.”
Oh, she had to face him, but not how Tim imagined. “I’m not scared of him.”
“You’re too brave for your own good. You should be afraid of him. Very afraid. I don’t want you near him if I’m not there to protect you. Understand?”
He was so serious, she could only nod.
“Good.” He left the tablet on the nightstand and pulled her on top of him. When he brushed a finger over the mark on her neck, her skin tingled. “There’s something I’d like to get out of the way, something that may be uncomfortable for you to deal with.”
She interlinked her fingers on his chest and rested her chin on her hands to look into his eyes. The hazel flecks seemed darker, murky.
“I can’t feed from you exclusively,” he said carefully. “I can’t take that much of your blood. If I don’t get enough, I’ll grow weak. I can’t afford to become weak around my enemies.” He twisted a strand of her hair around his finger. “You understand that, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She waited for the rest of the speech she could feel coming.
His words were measured, holding an underlying note of warning. “When I feed, the woman who donates her blood will experience pleasure, but not like the pleasure I gave you. I will feel satisfaction, but never the bliss I have with you.”
“All right,” she said slowly.
“It may seem sexual, and some of it is. Blood will always be an aphrodisiac for me, but it will mean nothing.”
Thinking about Tim feeding from another woman was definitely not a pleasant thought. It wasn’t something she cared to analyze. She’d rather ban it from her mind altogether, but his next words surprised her.
“I want you to be there the next time I feed, to see for yourself what’s involved.”
“I don’t want to witness that.”
“That’s exactly why you have to. To dispel any misconceptions. Believe me, after a while, you’ll have them. It’ll grow until it becomes a poison in your mind. You’ll start to resent me and the women I’m with. I want you to see, from the start, that you have nothing to fear.” He gripped her ass, lifting her to let her clit rub over his hard length. “As much as you’re mine, I’m yours.”
