Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
For a single moment, he let himself imagine the immense satisfaction of Kaira’s lips at his throat, her tongue coaxing his blood into her mouth, her body clinging tightly to his.
His cock punched at the zipper to his jeans and his fangs stretched out against his bottom lip. And that reaction was another consideration. Could he feed her and not make it about sex? He wasn’t even sure it was possible.
Kaira gasped, her eyes trained on his mouth.
He almost turned away. But then he thought better of it. It would be good for her to see his true nature now and have the time to wrap her head around it.
At first, looming panic filled her expression. But then it shifted into what he would’ve sworn was abject fascination. Her respirations quickened, her heart rate thrummed, and the rich scent of her adrenaline filled the air—along with something else.
Something hotter, sweeter, more feminine.
She was aroused. By the sight of his fangs.
He was merely a shadow of the male he’d once been. No delusions about what he looked like here. Was it really possible that someone as beautiful as Kaira could find him attractive?
“Kaira,” he said in a rasping warning.
If she didn’t stop looking at him like that, he wouldn’t be responsible for his actions. She blinked and licked her lips. Which didn’t help his restraint one damn bit. He pushed onto his feet and braced his hands on each of the bedrails, a predator stalking her, boxing her in.
“You need to understand how weak my restraint is, kjære.” Dear. The term of endearment was out of his mouth before he’d thought to say it. He pulled away.
She cupped his cheek in her hand, and her touch was like an anchor. Holding him. Steadying him. “So, you need blood to survive?” Her thumb stroked across the skin under his eye.
Warm. Soft. Captivating.
“And my blood might be the only blood that actually…works for you?” She said this softly, like she was trying to work out the problem by talking about it out loud. Still, he nodded.
The questions unleashed a rising tide of hope. Was she finding her way to being all right with this? And how long had it been since someone had touched him with such gentleness? Momentarily overwhelmed, he couldn’t speak, and he didn’t want to interrupt her thought process anyway. While vampires were capable of ingesting rare meats and spirits, blood provided sustenance like nothing else.
It was the one thing he couldn’t live without.
And since Kaira’s blood was the only blood that had nourished him in eons, it seemed like she was the one thing he couldn’t live without.
Kaira’s gaze dragged from his eyes to her own thumb moving over his flesh, and then she looked lower. She shifted her hand until she cupped his jaw. Her thumb caressed the corner of his lips once, twice.
Henrik’s heart tripped into a sprint. “Kaira.”
The next slide of her thumb brushed the surface of his fang.
He sucked in a breath and every muscle went rigid. Kaira quickly withdrew her hand, but he shook his head. “Touch me. I want you to.”
A little shakiness traveled through her touch when her hand returned to his face again. His hands fisted on the bedrails, attempting to hold himself in place for whatever exploration she wished to conduct. She began again with his cheek, his jaw, his lip. And then she touched his elongated canine, less tentatively this time, a purposeful drag of her skin against the most visible outward manifestation of what he was.
The sensation lit up his entire central nervous system.
Adrenaline and arousal poured off her, and her heartbeat fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings. Her lips fell open. She swiped her thumb under the point of his fang.
He wasn’t sure who gasped louder.
Henrik could already taste her. Given how razor-sharp his teeth were, he already knew.
She examined her thumb. A thin ribbon of red bloomed on the pad. Her eyes went wide.
His cock went rock fucking hard.
The bedrails under his fists creaked and groaned. He couldn’t look away from her intrigued expression, from her breasts heaving under the thin hospital gown, from the smear of her life’s blood turning the air so fragrant he could barely maintain rational thought.
“If I…let go…I’m going to be…all over you,” he growled. “Get rid of it.”
She hesitated for only a moment, then sucked her thumb into her mouth.
What the hell are you doing, Kai? she thought as she sucked at the cut on her thumb. The cut made by his fang. You have no idea what you’re playing with here. He’s not like you.
She knew that was true, felt it down into her very marrow. Some of it was her own fascination with the man—the vampire—before her. But it also felt like there was an unseen force at work here, too, as if a part of her psyche was being drawn to him against her will.