Page 69 of A Trial By Blood

“Do you want that? To drink from someone else?” The very idea made me sick to my stomach.

He flashed his fangs. “No.”

We’d made no declarations, or at least he hadn’t, but there was no holding in my next words. “If you feed from anyone else, anyone but me, I’m not sure I’d ever forgive you.”

His hand grabbed mine, resting on the table. His was shaking, strain lining his handsome face. He brought my fingers to his mouth and kissed them, his fangs peeking out from his upper lip, and he shook his head. “Hurting you, Rose, would destroy me.”

God, the things he said to me. “When you need to feed next, you promise you’ll come to me, and no one else?”

He gripped my hand tighter. “Yes.”

We stared at each other for long moments. The tension was thick, pulsing between us. When it became too much, I scooped up more cake. “Will you try it?”

He glanced down at it on the fork.

“You can eat human food, can’t you?”

He nodded, and his throat worked.

I had no idea what he was thinking. “Will you?”

He nodded again, and I held the fork to his lips. He opened his mouth, and I slipped it inside, then watched him eat for the first time ever.

“You like it?”

He swallowed and licked his lips. “It’s very good.” His gaze dropped to my mouth. “But now all I can think about is how it would taste on your lips.”

I leaned forward. “Taste and see.”

He stilled for a moment, then gently placing his fingers below my chin, he tilted it back and dipped his head. I held my breath, then his lips were on mine, and as soon as they touched, the world seemed to spin around me.

He slid his tongue over my lower lip, then sucked it gently. A rough groan escaped him, and I had to stop myself from climbing in his lap and straddling him.

“Good?” I murmured against his lips.

“Yes.” He licked and sucked at my mouth some more. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop.”

“I don’t want you to.”

He deepened the kiss, and I felt one of his fangs scrape my lip. The taste of my blood hit my tongue, and Ronan’s arm banded around me tighter before tugging me forward.

“Fuck,” he grunted against my mouth.

His lean, muscled body, so strong and powerful, trembled against mine. His voice was full of wonder, of heat and need and hunger. It hurt my heart and filled it at the same time, that he’d been denied what he was feeling for so long.

“Take it outside,” a deep voice said. “No one wants to watch you parasites suck face.”

Ronan froze, swiped his tongue over the graze his fang had made, and lifted his head. He kept me tucked in tight to his side and turned to face the big cat shifter staring down at us. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.” He smirked. “Parasite.”

Ronan stood. They were about the same height, but the cat was definitely more heavily built. “I’m faster than you, stronger. I have powers that your small mind couldn’t dream up. If I chose to, I could tear every throat out in this room before you realized that I was doing it.” Ronan stepped closer. “I’d start with you, then your brother, then your very unpleasant mother.”

The cat hissed and pulled back a meaty fist.

One moment Ronan was in front of him, and the next, he was behind the cat shifter, his head wrenched back by his hair. “So you chose to die today, cat?”

I stood frozen, stunned. The other male opened his mouth, then closed it, while his brother, who had shot to his feet and their mother, who stood with her hands over her mouth, watched on.