Page 10 of A Bond Beyond Blood (The Butcher’s Daughter Trilogy #1)

J ack

Vinny pulled back to look down at me and I gasped at the sight of him. Blood dripped from his mouth, but I hadn’t felt the bite. Was that something they could do? Make you not even feel it? My hand flew to my neck, but there was no wound, and my fingertips came away dry.

“It’s mine,” he said, his voice thick with hunger.

Or lust.

They were so closely linked with vampires; I couldn’t tell one from the other. Maybe they were one in the same.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked.

“Oh, God no,” I answered way too quickly.

Vinny’s lips pulled into a smile, bloodstained and beautiful. I ran my thumb across his bottom lip, then brought it to my mouth, and as I sucked the blood from my skin, his eyes widened and I swear to God his fangs got sharper, longer.

“Jacqueline...”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

He wrapped his hand around my jaw, his grip bordering on painful. “Open.”

I did and his grip tightened, keeping my mouth open.

Then he lowered his face to mine and drove his tongue deeply into my mouth even as he held me so firmly I couldn’t kiss him back.

Each stroke of his tongue against mine, the coppery tang of his blood, reached a deep part of my belly, tightening my groin with need as heat rushed south.

My clit throbbed; my pussy clenched around him.

When he pulled back, he shook his head in awe.

“I wish you could feel what it’s like to be inside you.

” Then he settled his elbows on either side of my shoulders and cupped my head, his body deliciously heavy on top of mine, and he rocked his hips, driving into me again with that slow, agonizing patience.

But, god , I’d waited a year for this man!

Denied my feelings, when all I wanted was to be his.

No, I didn’t want slow and tender.

“Vinny?” I whispered.

“Hm?”

“Don’t hold back.”

“Fuck,” he growled, his eyes dark with lust and rimmed with a crimson so bright I briefly wondered if the red was reflected on my face. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I don’t care.”

He growled, then kissed me senseless once more. When he pulled back, he simply said, “I do,” but then he picked up the pace, driving into me with faster, harder, deeper thrusts, and I couldn’t think of anything else past the delicious fact that Vinny was going to fuck me right into the mattress.

The headboard hit the wall with each sharp drive of his hips. The bed squeaked and creaked beneath the force of his drive. My body hummed and hurt in equal measures.

I never wanted him to stop.

I whimpered, not accustomed to this kind of beating, but he didn’t relent.

He didn’t hold back.

He grunted as his hips moved faster, each thrust a quake that rattled through my entire body. I ached with the start of an orgasm. It tingled through my veins, an almost numb awareness of something coming...

Vinny moved quickly, a hint of vampire speed apparent as he rocked back onto his heels and gripped my hips. The new position made him hit a different angle inside me, his cock rubbing against my g-spot with perfect pressure.

“Oh, god, Vinny .” My spine arched; my head tilted back. My breasts pointed to the sky and my nightshirt pooled around my neck. His thumb swiped across my swollen clit and I gasped, then he jerked it back and forth quickly to match the rhythm of his thrusts.

I shook as the first wave of pleasure tore through me.

My back arched further, and I wrapped my hands around my ankles, tilting my head away from him in an upside-down U.

His arm tightened around my hips and he continued punishing my clit even as I tried to get away, the pleasure and pain and overwhelming sensation so fucking much I felt like I might explode.

And then I did. I broke into a million pieces around him, my body jerking as each wave of my release shot through me in violent tremors.

When I thought I couldn’t take much more, he yanked me off his cock and lifted me to his mouth to assault my clit with his tongue.

I cried out and tried to pull away, so sensitive that I teetered on the brink of give me more and holy fucking shit, it’s too much , but Vinny had an unfair advantage.

With that vampiric strength, he forced me to straddle his face and held me in place while he finished me off.

I was raw and aching, So fucking spent I could hardly handle each flick of his tongue. But he lapped at me hungrily, drawing out my orgasm until I could see nothing but stars.

He moved with lightning-fast speed, growling desperately as he hauled me down his body and spread my legs over his thighs. I dropped my head to his shoulder as he drove his cock as deep as it could physically go, chasing his own release.

He roared, his fingertips tightening on my hips as he held me still, locked in place like the perfect puzzle piece while he came.

I’d be bruised tomorrow, no doubt, but when Vincenzo Ricci filled me up, his cock jumping with each spurt of his release, I knew this moment would be so worth the bruises.

So worth the tenderness between my thighs.

So worth never being able to walk again because with the way he’d fucked me, I seriously had my doubts my legs would ever be the same.

“You’re perfect,” he murmured after a few moments.

“Just fucking perfect.” His hands trailed up and down my back, switching between soft, gentle caresses and firm, squeezing kneads of his fingers.

I moaned absently as he massaged my hips, digging his fingertips into my ass cheeks and rocking me forward on his cock even though there was no way I could go again anytime soon.

One of us didn’t have otherworldly recovery abilities.

After a long stretch of nothing but our heavy breathing to break the silence, Vinny murmured, “That was even better than I imagined.”

I smiled lazily, eyes closed as I nuzzled into his neck. Same, Vinny, same.

His cock twitched inside me, reminding me of the intimate connection, and my stomach flip-flopped. I’d just.... We’d just...

Oh my god.

My pulse began to race as what we’d just done really sank in. Not only had we changed, our relationship forever altered from here on out, but something inside of me had changed as well.

For so long I’d had one goal, one purpose pushing me forward. I hated vampires, believed they were the enemy.

Somewhere along the line, that changed.

And look at me now.

I snorted and Vinny’s hands stilled on my body.

I couldn’t hate vampires with one of them buried inside me.

“Are you...” He swallowed hard.

“I’m okay.” I pressed my lips against the cool skin of his throat and nuzzled deeper. “Better than okay.”

His relief was evident in the way his muscles relaxed, but then he pulled out of me slowly, and the loss of him was an instant ache. Could I already be so attached to him?

I almost laughed at the absurdity of that question. I’d been attached to Vinny for months; this just sealed the deal.

And my fate.

Because, as he stretched out beside me, turning me onto my side so he could pull me against his chest and cuddle , I realized I didn’t really care about hating vampires anymore.

A year had passed with no sign of the one who’d betrayed my father.

He’d either found another butcher to keep him supplied with animal blood, or he’d been dealt the final blow.

I wish I’d been the one to deliver the final death to Eli, but I could accept the possibility that someone else had been given that opportunity.

And I could let go of my vendetta.

My eyes closed and I began to doze, wrapped up in the arms of a vampire.

“Did I hurt you?” Vinny asked, startling me from sleep. His voice was softer than I’d ever heard it. He pressed his face into my hair and I smiled when he breathed me in.

“No.” I opened my eyes, focusing on my old sticker-covered dresser, then answered honestly, “Well, yes, but I don’t want you to worry about that.”

“I can smell the blood.”

My eyes widened. “Oh.” Well, shit. That changed things, didn’t it? “Are you okay?” I paused, then added, “Do you want to bite me?”

I cringed as the words left my lips. Obviously he did; I’d seen his fangs. He’d bitten into his own lip to keep from biting me.

“Badly.” He chuckled, a mix of dark amusement and pain in the sound.

“But I’m okay. It’s not a struggle I can’t handle.

” He slipped his hand down my belly until his fingertips teased at my clit and I sucked in a breath.

“Though I may have to refrain from burying my face between your thighs until you heal.”

A sound of disappointment slipped past my lips before I could stop it.

He reached further and cupped me, his middle finger pressing against my entrance. I whimpered and he chuckled again, the sound sinking into my skin and warming me from the inside out. “There are other ways to unravel you, sweet girl.”

My eyes widened, but before I could respond, he sank his finger inside me, the roughness of his skin rubbing against my tender flesh deliciously.

He growled, a deep, guttural sound low in his throat and I shivered.

“I love your body, Jacqueline, the way it responds to me.” He drove his finger in and out of me slowly, and even after having such an earth-shattering orgasm just moments ago, another one began to build.

“The sounds you make...” He added another finger and I groaned. “I feel like a fiend for those sounds.”

I knew exactly what he meant.

In our training sessions, the way he commanded me as he kicked my ass around the mat.

The way he could make my name sound like a prayer—or a reprimand.

And now, when we were naked and wrapped up in each other, his voice was a thick, sensual rumble, and the way my body responded to that tone was carnal.

Heat gathered between my legs; my belly tightened with need.

I opened my bent and folded legs, propping one up against his hips so he could maneuver his hand with more ease.

“Mm, that’s my girl,” he murmured, his lips brushing against my ear.

And oh, that praise. This man’s approval could undo me.

He added a second finger and I tipped my head back on a moan.

Vinny sucked in a breath and I froze as he leaned down, pressing his open mouth against my neck. His tongue flicked against my pulse and it sped in response. I’d exposed my throat to a vampire and now his mouth was right there .

“Vinny,” I whispered.

He hummed against my throat, then the press of his fangs disappeared and he followed the line of my pulse with his tongue until he reached my ear. When he sucked my earlobe into his mouth, I shuddered.

“I won’t bite you until you beg for it.”

I gasped, but he silenced me with a kiss.

Then his hand twisted so he could thumb my clit, and he pulled back long enough to say, “Now, be a good girl and come for me again.”

So I did.

“I ’ll see you tonight .” Vinny’s lips curved into a sexy smirk. “I’ll be the one waiting under the big tree with a thousand other people.”

I laughed and he chuckled, then disappeared down the hallway.

I hurried from my childhood bedroom to follow him to the living room, stunned into stopping abruptly when I turned the corner and was greeted with blinking colorful lights, sparkling silver tinsel, and the unmistakable scent of freshly cut pine.

I gasped and brought my hand to my chest as my heart swelled with emotion.

Lights had been strung up across the living room ceiling, from the kitchen to the farthest wall, and a Christmas tree, big and full and decorated to the nines, stood proudly in the space beside the television.

The tree was so tall the old foil star on top nearly kissed the ceiling, and he’d decorated the branches with all the ornaments from my childhood.

“Vinny,” I whispered, my throat tight as emotion threatened to overwhelm me. “How did you...?” I looked up at him, blinking through tears.

He ran a hand over the back of his neck in the only sheepish gesture I’d ever seen come from this confident man, then he shrugged. “I don’t really sleep.”

The first tear slipped from my eye and his brow furrowed.

“Are you upset?”

I barked out something between a laugh and a sob. “No.”

Vinny blinded me with a smile. “Merry Christmas, Jacqueline.”

He turned and slipped out the front door, closing it gently behind him, but I hurried after him, overwhelmed with emotion and unwilling to let him go just yet.

For months, I’d had to pretend I didn’t want this beautiful man. Now that I’d finally given up the charade, I hated to see him leave.

I pulled the door open and stepped outside into the sunlight, warm and bright.

The first day without clouds in weeks and the symbolism felt deeply profound, like something had been lifted not just from my shoulders but from the world itself.

Sensing my presence, he stopped beside his SUV and looked up, gifting me with another heart-stopping smile. Then he climbed inside, disappearing behind glass too tinted to see through.

I missed him already.

As I stepped back inside and closed the door, the sigh that slipped past my lips was a sickening display of lovestruck teenager that made me cover my mouth and giggle into the quiet living room.

In my childhood bedroom, surrounded by posters of bands I no longer listened to and nostalgic bits of my past, I’d had sex with a vampire.

And, God help me, I couldn’t wait to do it again.