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He cut off her protest with a rough kiss and pulled her to him. She melted into him, her mouth opening in a delightful invitation. Her taste was sweet and complex, like the finest honey. Though his cock had turned rock hard the second her skin touched his, he took his time exploring her hot and enticing mouth, letting pleasure build and build.

Her delicate hands traced his back muscles down to his buttocks, then wrapped around his erection. Julian hissed as heat shot up his spine. His fangs elongated. He broke the kiss and leaned against the wall as she stroked, teasing him.

“Leah.” His voice was gruff, coarse.

He needed her blood. The urge to complete the mating bond was painful. The sound of her heartbeat was a loud drum in his brain, in his blood.

“Let me,” she said with a siren’s voice and kissed his neck.

Julian groaned when her teeth scraped his neck. When he raised his hands to cup her full breasts, she stopped him.

“Not yet.” Through her lust-clouded eyes, he saw that she needed this, so he dropped his hands to his side and allowed her to maneuver him against the wall.

Julian’s hips bucked when she stroked him again, his claws dug into the wall as he fought against the fierce drive to touch her, to take her. Leah’s mouth worked on his shoulder, down his pecs, lower to his stomach, licking, kissing, nibbling, exploring the ridges of his muscles. Every time his cock twitched at something, she did it again. Julian thought he might die from lust overload.

Then she was on her knees, her warm breath caressing his cock. She stroked him but didn’t move, hesitating.

“Leah.” He stared down at her, his gaze tender. “You don’t have to.”

“I want to.” She licked her lips and whispered, “But I’ve never done it before.”

Love filled him to the brim until he thought his heart might burst from it. “Whatever you do, it’s perfect.”

Her brilliant smile lit up his world. She closed her hot mouth over him, eliciting a long, tortured moan from him. That seemed to encourage her, and she moved forward, back and forth, taking him as far as she could. Julian’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his thighs trembled under her hands. In the back of his mind, he heard a crack.

Another few seconds and Julian would explode in her mouth like an untried teenager. Maybe one day. But today, he had to be inside her.

Julian gripped Leah’s shoulders and yanked her up. He stifled her gasp with a kiss and lifted her, flipping them around so that she was against the wall, her legs around him.

“You drive me crazy,” he growled and drove himself into her. “Fuck,” he groaned at the rightness of it. Leah’s warm, brilliant soul spilled over into him, filling the empty space within him.

Mate. My mate,the vampire proclaimed.

“You’re so hot, so wet.”

Julian couldn’t take it slow even if he tried. She’d already driven him to the brink with her delectable mouth, so he drove into her with all the savageness of his nature. Leah’s ravenous response, her nails scoring his back, gasping his name, pushed him toward the edge. The fire inside him built up and up until it exploded, licking his spine and then the rest of him.

He didn’t stop even after he emptied his entire being into her. Leah held him tight and screamed his name seconds after his release. They held onto each other as the whirlwind of pleasure tore through them, connecting them and binding them together.

Leah sighed, satiated and happy. Despite the aches that plagued her body, she didn’t want to be anywhere but here. Julian held her against the wall in his arms with water splashing onto his back, his head buried in her neck. She shivered, partly from cold and partly from the realization that she wanted his bite, this time fully aware of what it meant for the two of them.

It would bind them together. Forever.

She stroked his damp blond hair and said, “You can, if you want to.”

Julian lifted his head, his searing gaze lighting a fire in her soul. His irises, circled in red, were dilated. When he blinked, they returned to normal.

He sighed. Leah braced herself for what came next.

“Not now. We can talk when we return to Vegas.” Julian set her down with loving care and reached for the shampoo.

Leah took a second to compose herself. Rejected again. At least it wasn’t a straight-up no this time. Of course, he was right. They were not safe enough to discuss the future yet.

And what was her future? She mused as Julian helped her wash her hair and scrub her down reverently. How could he reject her and then do something so loving as this? If he didn’t want her, why the hell did he risk his life to save her?

When they finished and Julian carried her back to the bedroom, confusion was a heavy rock in her stomach. Not about her own feelings, but about Julian’s. Did he want to complete the mating bond? Or was it the mating bond that compelled him, that made him feel obligated to save her?

As Julian tucked her against him in bed, she refused to believe that everything he’d done was because of the mating bond. He had to feel something for her. Maybe not the same as the love she had for him, but at least some affection? Had she misread his emotions earlier?