“Thank God.” Later she’d think about her impulsivity. Maybe even chastise herself for it. Right now there was a very aroused male draped around her body. He might be feeling a little under the weather—okay, maybe a lot under the weather—but his readiness suggested it’d take more than illness to stop him in his tracks.
But what of the illness? What could make him sick like this? “No drugs, right?”
He held her chin. Twisted them both so his lips moved to the hollow of her throat. “None.”
“Contagious diseases?”
“Never.” One hand slid beneath the clinging shirt, splayed flat over her belly. “Now, shh...I need to get you warm.”
“But what about you? The f—”
Bast whisked away the word fever when his mouth captured hers. Her eyelids fluttered closed and she knew this was wrong. Not just wrong, but nonsensical. He moved too fast, the heat flaring between them burning too hot.
Complete strangers didn’t do this. Men like Bast didn’t lust after nobodies like her.
The moment his tongue slipped into her mouth though, she reconsidered.
Red heat swam from him into her and she swallowed it down. Felt the burn spread through her belly and ricochet through her extremities. She fed the fire back to him, sweeping her tongue to his. But for as much as they should have gone up in smoke beneath the water’s spray, Bast was gentle. Teasing.
* * *
She tasted so sweet. Like a delicacy. He treasured moving his lips over hers. Pulling into him her scent. The heat had pooled in his belly, but the moment he opened her mouth beneath his, it flared and then extinguished.
Moving his thumbs to her slender neck, he caressed the supple skin. Marveled in it. So feminine. So fragile. Alice moaned when he stroked along her beating pulse, and he heard and felt the thrum quicken.
“A kiss, sweet Alice,” he murmured, his lips moving to brush next to his thumbs. Blood roared so close to the surface. The song as seductive as her moans. Stepping beneath the icy spray of the shower had done nothing to the fever boiling him alive. But being so close to feeding his hunger, reveling in the way she clutched to him, the ache became mollified somewhat.
“Sebastian...”
His cock thumped, his name never before said with such want. He licked his lips, pleasure searing him when he touched sensitive incisors with the motion. “A kiss right here. Please.”
“Yes, kiss me. More.”
She didn’t know what permission she’d given him, but it couldn’t be his concern right now. His need had grown frenzied. His appetite about to consume them both. Sebastian lowered his mouth to her neck, to the rapid beat lifting her skin ever so slightly, and let his nature take over.
Alice arched into him when he pierced her flesh with teeth elongated and hurting. Her whimpering moan became an orgasmic cry when he pulled. He heard the pleasure in it, felt her shudder ripple into him. His hand stroked over the soft skin of her belly, trailed to the rounded curve of her breast. Her nipple beaded beneath his fingers, and he used it to elongate her orgasm. He teased the tip, pinching it when she twisted beneath increasing pressure. And all the while he fed.
Growling into her neck kept him focused. Kept the tug at the base of his spine from turning into an all-out loss of control. His dick became steel, trapped between their bodies, throbbing in tune with the teeth sunk deeply into her flesh. He would not come like this, not from a simple feeding, but never before had blood tasted so good to him. Felt so good. Velvet on his tongue. For every tug, his mind cleared. The heat cooled. The sexual appetite hadn’t abated, but he could think now. Every ounce of her blood warmed through him, healing and soothing.
He didn’t want to take too much; this human deserved more than to be food, but he’d become an addict to her taste. Hearing her throaty moans, her breathy cries as she shuddered, he knew the very essence of her.
She’d become a thing he needed as his own.
Bast growled.
No. This he would not allow to happen.
Withdrawing from her when he wanted nothing more than to drink until she surrendered her life to him almost pained him as much as the hunger previously had. But he licked over the wound, sealing it closed. He knew that when she looked at the spot, only a faint bruise would be visible. One created during the heat of the moment and understandable to her confused senses.