I lingered in Julian’s room, feeling increasingly silly as the seconds ticked by. I didn’t particularly like feeling trapped; however, not wandering around a house of vampires felt like a pretty solid strategy. But the longer Julian stayed away, the harder it was to ignore a new awareness. I woke up feeling like a sex goddess, even if things hadn’t gone that far. Now I couldn’t help but feel hurt by his absence.
Had I been ghosted? By a vampire?
Surely he would have told Celia to have me leave.
After another twenty minutes, hurt transformed into indignation. Maybe he had all the time in the world–he was nine hundred years old, after all–but I didn’t. If he had gotten what he wanted from me, he could be man enough to say it to my face.
I opened the door and walked straight into him.
“Where are you going?” he asked harshly.
“I was looking for you.” I crossed my arms over my chest and raised my chin to show just how unimpressed I was with being left to wake up alone. Considering he was practically twice my size, I doubted he noticed.
“You found me. Come on.” He strode back into his room without so much as a second glance. He stepped inside the door and called over his shoulder. “Are you coming?”
Julian Rousseaux wasn’t just a grouch in the morning, he was a total asshole.
Fine. I would go back into his room, but only so I could tell him off. I walked inside and slammed the door behind me.
Julian pivoted, one eyebrow raised. “Something bothering you, pet?”
“You!” I exploded. “First, I wake up alone, which is no big deal. I don’t even know if vampires sleep. Or maybe you needed to find a coffin or something. But then, you just leave me up here forever with no clothes. And after all that, you come up here and practically order me back into your room. If you think this is how our arrangement is going to work, then allow me to clear a few things up.”
Julian’s eyebrow smoothed back into its usual position, but he said nothing.
“Well,” I prompted, “aren’t you going to say anything?”
“I was waiting for you to clear things up,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. It was only then that I noticed that his eyes were darker than usual. Crap on a cracker. Had I just pissed off a vampire in a blood-rage? Even in my feverish state last night I’d seen enough to know that any mistake might be the last I ever made.
He continued to wait, his eyes growing darker with each second of silence that passed between us. That left me with two problems. Something was definitely wrong with Julian, and I didn’t actually know how to clear things up. I knew what I was mad about. That part was pretty damn clear. I just wasn’t sure that making demands of him was the best idea, especially right now.
I decided to switch tactics. “Where were you?”
“I assume Celia told you I was speaking with my parents.” He didn’t move. At all. It was like a statue had spoken and then returned to its solid form.
“Yes, I mean, she said you were talking to your mother.”
“My father arrived this morning,” he said but offered no further explanation.
Now I was beginning to feel a little silly, but that didn’t change certain facts.
“What are you really upset about?” he guessed when I remained silent.
“It’s just…” I screwed up my courage and decided to let it all out. We were keeping enough secrets with our arrangement. We didn’t need to keep them from each other. “I didn’t expect to wake up alone.”
There was a pause. Julian remained eerily still. He’d never looked more like a vampire to me than now, and I’d seen him attack more than one vampire. Then, he’d looked like a warrior. Now? He wasn’t breathing. There was no sign of movement, but somehow, a brutal energy radiated from him. Then, he finally blinked, but the darkness in his eyes remained. “I apologize. It was thoughtless. I hadn’t expected to be away so long.”
I swallowed his apology and finally nodded. “Is everything okay? With your family?”
“I think it’s best if you steer clear of my mother,” he said with a laugh that sounded less than amused.
I thought of what Celia had said earlier about not everyone in the house being my enemy. Maybe it was time to start making a list of whom I should avoid. “And your father?”
“I won’t know until he meets you.”
My heart dropped into my stomach, but I forced a quiet, “Okay.”
“But he’s not meeting you today,” he said to my relief. “I need to get you home.” He stopped and studied me for a minute. “Where did you get those clothes?”
“Celia,” I said nervously.
“Of course.” He managed a tight smile. “She’s better at being considerate than I am.”
“She’s nice,” I agreed, earning a chuckle I didn’t quite understand. “I can be ready to go in a minute.” I looked around the room, trying to remember what I’d done with the small purse I’d been carrying yesterday. By now, my cell phone had to be dead. Panic began to set in when I realized that I’d failed to text Olivia at all. She was probably freaking out, and if she was freaking out, she might have called my mother and–
“Wait,” he interrupted the runaway train of thoughts in my head. “I’d like to give you a proper good morning.”
“A proper what?” I asked in confusion. He gave me a meaningful look that turned my core into molten lava. Suddenly my arousal and my anxiety were dancing around each other. I had no idea which would win. “Oh. I mean, that’s not…I…”
“That’s not what, pet?”
“You don’t have to. I’m not mad anymore,” I said quickly.
His jaw clenched, and he turned away from me. When he finally looked back, his eyes were the color of midnight.
“Oh!” I took a step away.
“I’m going to have to insist.” His teeth remained clenched together as he spoke, and I couldn’t help noticing that his fangs had lengthened.
It was what happened last night, but this time I had no idea what had set it off. That’s why he’d been so annoyed when he came into the room. Was he going to do this every time I saw him? That would get old fast unless he followed it up the way he had last night.
I bit my lip, torn between needing to check in with my friend and wanting him to erase all thoughts of anyone but him from my mind.
“It’s very hard to resist you when you do that, pet,” he seethed.
“Huh?” I asked, and he relaxed a bit as I released my lip. Oh, that. He took a step closer, but I held up a hand to stop him. “Is this…normal? The blood-lust, I mean?”
He shook his head.
Somehow I already knew that. “Is there something I can do to help?” It was hard to even ask, because part of me selfishly wanted to keep him in this primal state, where he cared only about pleasuring me. But underneath the predator, I sensed pain. It wasn’t just something he couldn’t control. Staying in this state was hurting him.
“Only three things can sate blood-lust,” he said in a strained voice.
I was thoroughly introduced to the first method last night, but I wouldn’t mind a refresher. “Do whatever you need.” I cleared my throat, trying to sound less emotional about the idea of offering myself to him completely. “I’m yours.”
“That’s a dangerous invitation to give a vampire,” he growled.
“What will it take?” I asked, edging closer to him. “To make you feel better?”
He shook his head, but as soon as I was within reach, his hand shot out and grabbed my sweater. Drawing me closer, he pulled me roughly against him. With one swift motion, Julian lifted me from my feet and carried me to a chair. I felt a flash of disappointment he didn’t take me back to his bed, but he quickly distracted me. Sinking into the seat, I found myself straddling him. If there was any doubt this was blood-lust, the rock-hard erection pressing into me erased it. A strong hand wrapped around my neck and guided my lips to his.
The kiss was full of a hunger so achingly deep it made my soul hurt. I couldn’t kiss him hard enough or deep enough to satisfy the need I felt. Was this what he was fighting? Did he want me this badly? Could humans experience blood-lust, too?
He continued to explore my mouth even as his hands crept under the cashmere covering my breasts and found my nipples. I moaned into his mouth as he began to massage them. He did it gently at first. Then his touch became rougher until I was gasping with pleasure. He twisted and played with the sensitive buds, earning me jolts of pleasure that suggested there was so much more to come. Julian pulled away and yanked the sweater over my head. Tossing it to the ground, he bent and took my left breast in his mouth. His tongue flickered possessively over the hardened tip, and I felt myself spiraling inward. When he dragged a fang across my tortured skin I found myself bucking against the hard bulge in his pants.
“That’s right,” he coaxed as I ground against him. “Show me how beautiful you are when you come, pet.”
A strangled cry escaped my lips, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. He returned to worshipping my breasts, and I felt my release build. If it was like this with most of our clothes still on, how much better would it be if he were inside me? I knew all the reasons I shouldn’t ask him for that, but I couldn’t deny how much I wanted it–how much I wanted him.
“Don’t stop,” I urged him as he moved to pleasure the other one. He clamped his mouth over its peak and sucked so hard that I felt his fangs needling my skin.
“Come for me, pet,” he ordered, grabbing hold of my hair and jerking my head back to extend my neck. His lips moved up and hovered over the exposed flesh.
Without thinking, I asked for the only thing that could make this moment better. The only thing I wanted more than this. “Julian, bite me.”
