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“Oh.” She thought about what he said, trying to understand why this was such an issue for him. “Tried?” If the opportunity presented itself, he should have done much more than try. If he did, he wouldn’t have been starving. “When you gotta eat, you gotta eat.”
He turned on his side to look at her, propping his head over his elbow. “Drinking from someone else is usually a lot more involved than just eating.”
Eva began grinning as the memory of him sucking her blood resurfaced.Oh, it certainly is.The thought of his mouth on her had her growing wet again, craving his bite. He must’ve sensed her arousal, because his eyes drifted for a moment, as if in recognition, before he looked back up.
No shame.
“I was upset with you, and I went to a nymph I often drink from. I’ve been drinking from her for years. No, that’s wrong. I’ve been drinking from her for centuries.”
“So?” It wasn’t like the two of them were exclusive. They didn’t even like each other when they met. How could she be upset with him about that?
“I don’t think you understand what I’m saying.”
“You slept with the nymph, right?”
His brows furrowed in confusion. “I never went through with it. One whiff of her scent after having been so close to yours… I couldn’t imagine drinking from her.”
Like drinking piss,Eva thought, remembering what Kelly told her. Hopefully he would find a way to enjoy drinking from others after she died. He’d have no choice but to.
“What if I’m not around whenever you’re hungry? You’re going to have to drink from others without guilt.” Because she wouldn’t be around much longer.
He laid on his back, looking up to the ceiling, seeming to contemplate her words. “You’re acting as if you’re not upset by this.”
“Because I’m not. We weren’t - wearen’t -exclusive or anything.” As much as she wished they were, she knew it could never be.
He rolled back over, reaching a hand for hers and squeezing it. “I don’t want anyone but you, Eva. And that has nothing to do with you being my lifeblood. Our bond runs so much deeper than that. From this point on weareexclusive. I won’t try to drink from anyone else again.”
Wrong answer.
Earlier, her intention was to give him the opportunity to feed on her while helping him to hate himself less, layer by layer.Her intentions were to help him, but they ended there.
She didn’t intend for his feelings toward her to grow deeper.
Did hers grow deeper for him? Undoubtedly. That didn’t matter. She wasn’t the one who had to live with his death. He was the one who would have to live with hers.
She needed to shut him down now. The deeper he fell into imagining a life with her, the more he’d be hurt in the end. Right now, she’d do everything in her power to lessen his hurt. “I don’t think the whole exclusivity thing is a good idea.” She bit her lip. That wasn’t easy to say.
“What?”
Shereallydidn’t want to repeat herself. It hurt too much to say it the first time.
She wished she could tell him how much she wanted to live a long, happy life with him. He meant everything to her, more than anyone had before.I’m falling for him, and he can never know,she realized, working hard to keep her eyes dry.
“The two of us will never work.” If she was given the opportunity to live, they might’ve had a chance at working.
Unfortunately, her life didn’t have happy endings. Her father died before she knew him, her mother despised her, and now the man she loved could never know how she felt about him.
There was no other way.
The confusion on his face was replaced with something much darker. His tone turning threatening, he said, “If you refuse to understand what we have by now, then I’m not asking you. You’re mine by right. I’mnotgiving you a choice.”
She couldn’t even be upset with him for what he was saying. He was hurting because of her. What reason did he have to believe the two of them couldn’t spend forever together? Not only did fate pair them together, but they worked well together. They really did. Their connection ran deeper than what fate forced on them. Even she knew that.
And she wanted nothing more than for them to work out.
Life was so cruel.
She needed to save his heart. “We can’t be, Darius. Maybe we should stop this before either of us falls too hard for the other.”
