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And then Elena’s mouth was on her. Lips soft and tongue hot while she pulled the blood from her body.

When Elena’s lips closed over the minor cut on Zuri’s chest, a shudder ripped through her body. The first pull of Elena’s mouth, the wet heat of her tongue running along the wound sent liquid fire coursing through Zuri’s veins. Even without using herfangs, Elena elicited a pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. An exquisite agony Zuri couldn’t stop craving.

She tangled her fingers in Elena’s damp hair, holding her close as if she might disappear otherwise. Having her here, safe in her home, in her arms, was a relief so profound it hurt. She had come so close to having Elena ripped away. But now, with Elena’s mouth moving against her skin, she could finally breathe again.

Elena was in every cell of her body, an all-consuming presence that obliterated thought and reason. There was only sensation, only the high of Elena’s lips and tongue and the delicious edge of her fangs grazing sensitive flesh.

Tossing her head back, a low moan escaped Zuri’s parted lips as she surrendered to the onslaught. She knew she shouldn’t want this, shouldn’t need this, but she was powerless. Elena had always been her weakness, the one temptation she didn’t want to resist.

Movement behind her forced Zuri’s eyes open, but only partly. Lids barely above her pupils, she registered Marisol’s presence. In Zuri’s tank top, fresh and clean from her shower, Marisol was beautiful. Half drunk and aroused, Zuri nearly opened her mouth and told her to join them. Without the bite, they weren’t cloaked in the shadows that appeared to trick the eye while vampires drank. They were on full display.

Marisol stood frozen in the doorway, her eyes wide. Her gaze darted between Zuri and Elena, lingering on the point where their bodies met, on Elena’s lips stained red. Marisol tugged at the hem of the tank top, her fingers twisting the soft fabric. A faint flush crept up her neck.

She didn’t look away, Zuri noted in her hazy mind. She didn’t leave.

Chapter Eighteen

Drinking hadn’t turbo-chargedElena’s healing, but it had apparently turned Marisol into a stone statue. It would make for an odd pose, a beautiful woman sitting in an armchair, her expression blank. While Zuri prepared a human meal in the kitchen, Marisol breathed the question she’d been apparently crafting for fifteen minutes.

“If I’d known you were involved with someone,” Marisol whispered without looking away from Zuri’s bed across the room. Elena sensed that her gaze was unfocused, all the energy in her body being hoarded by an overthinking brain. “I would never have kissed you,” she finished, words weighed down with unnecessary shame.

“I’m not.” Elena used the armrest to lift herself and reposition her body to face Marisol. “We were… Zuri would say we weretogether a long time ago, but time is extraordinarily relative.”

Marisol glanced at her, mossy green and bark brown eyes brimming with confusion and disappointment. It was the same chemical signal her body emitted, and Elena had to stop the feeling from invading her own chest. “So that bump and grind I walked in on was… what exactly?”

Elena concealed her amusement when Marisol’s aura flashed with vibrant jealousy. The unexpected intensity of the emotion made Elena’s heart itch to race. What else was lurking under the nurse’s kind and compassionate veneer?

“Feeding creates a profound sense of connection,” Elena explained. “Imagine the highest ecstasy you’ve ever experienced and double it. It’s sensual and close?—”

“Yeah, that much was obvious.” The words snapped like an unfurled lash.

Leaning back, Elena couldn’t suppress her grin. The energy radiating from Marisol was absolutely intoxicating. “Jealousy is… such an alluring quality.”

“I’m not jealous.” Marisol’s eyes were neon, bright and raw with the lie.

Elena’s desire roared to life. “There is truly no reason to be. You are so very Zuri’s type, even if she wouldn’t admit it until you’re writhing in her bed.” Elena glanced toward the kitchen where she could see Zuri’s thick hourglass figure. “And there’s not a creature attracted to women who is not into Zuri,” she decided.

Marisol’s attention drifted to Zuri, who had her back to them while standing at the stove. Marisol was curious. Elena didn’t need to read the chemical reactions in her body to know that. It had been plain on her face when she walked in on them earlier.

Parted lips, skin warming, arousal rising unbidden. The way she’d looked at Zuri straddling Elena’s hips, chest in her face, hadn’t been with anything but interest. Even now, looking at Zuri was influencing Marisol. Nervous excitement filled her—wild and unsure. She was a girl on the verge of a soul vaporizing crush.

“I’m sorry.” Marisol shook her head, fending off the desires she couldn’t hide from Elena no matter what she said. “Are youtrying to play matchmaker here? What the hell is this?” Her brows furrowed, doubt suffocating her cravings.

Elena rolled her eyes. “Why did you have to be raised in the puritanical mortal world?” She lamented Marisol’s undoubtedly limited view of love and relationships.

“Like what? You all are just free love sleeping with whomever, no commitments, doing whatever the hell you want?—”

“Do you have any idea how many concepts you’ve combined?”

Elena tilted her head, but her lock on Marisol’s eyes was unwavering. She didn’t really believe Marisol was close-minded. She’d barely had to exert any influence over her when she told her of the preternatural world. Probably because her subconscious had always been aware of her own gifts, even if her waking mind refused to believe it.

And even now, Elena had used no influence to get Marisol to leave the hospital with them. She’d come—and stayed—on her own. And the limited influence she’d used to keep Marisol calm when revealing her vampire nature had nothing to do with why she was looking at Zuri with lust in her pretty eyes.

Deciding that she had nothing better to do than sit there until she was healed, Elena explained, “Every pairing is different. I have had different arrangements with different partners. When Zuri and I were together, we had rules.”

“Rules?” Marisol’s judgment abated, curiosity returning like the sun cracking the horizon at first light.

“Both parties had to agree upon any additions to our intimacy, which I hope is an obvious condition.”