Page 6 of Bite The Terror That Feeds

“We aren’t together—”

“Yes, we are.”

She looked angry.

“If I fed on someone else, you know it would hurt. Don’t pretend it wouldn’t.”

“You’re a vampire. This is what you do, feed on people. I take no offense.”

“It was a lot more with us, and you know it.” She could try to rewrite history, but she couldn’t rewrite my memories. “So I’ll wait…until I have no other choice.”

She wouldn’t look at me, picking a random spot on the wall to focus on.

“What did he do to you?” I whispered, knowing I should have kept the question to myself.

Her gaze moved back to mine involuntarily, and the color that rose in her cheeks showed her discomfort. Her eyes flinched back and forth, her entire countenance different at the perverse question. There was a hesitation, as if she decided to keep it to herself.

“Tell me.”

Her eyes steadied on my face.

A long stretch of silence passed as she debated with herself. Then her lips parted, beautiful, plump lips that should be smothered with my kisses. “I was a maid in the castle. We exchanged looks. Exchanged whispers. And then…it became something more. A clandestine affair that lasted for months…”

It made me sick to hear it, but I clung to every word.

“With an older brother, he knew the throne would never be his, which was fine for him because he didn’t want the responsibility. He decided to forsake his royal ties so he could have a life with me. A simple one. But then the sickness spread. His father died, as did his brother…and then the responsibility fell to him. He took his place as king to lead our people. But then he did something I didn’t expect.”

I already knew what idiotic decision he’d made.

“He married a suitable partner, because I wasn’t suitable. Dirty blood…as he put it.”

Ironic, considering she had the purest blood I’d ever tasted.

“He claimed it was for duty, but I could feel his attraction for her. The second she walked in there, he forgot about me.” She kept a straight face, but her eyes were heavy, like they were about to fill with tears.

It was hard to listen to, and not because I was jealous that inferior man had had her, but because I hurt when she hurt.

“He was willing to forsake his royal ties because he assumed he had no chance to be king. But once he did, his priorities changed. I was a good option at the time, but then something better came along.”

Asshole.

“He told me he loved me…asked me to marry him, and then it was as if none of that had ever happened.” She still didn’t cry, like she had no tears left to shed. Her face looked blank, like she couldn’t feel anything anymore.

I’d made her a promise and then revoked it—and now I understood. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

Her eyes continued to glaze over as if she didn’t hear what I said.

“But I would never hurt you like that.”

Her eyes found mine again. “You already did, Kingsnake.”

That was a slap in the face. “Not the same thing.”

“If you’d never made me that promise, I wouldn’t have allowed you to taste me.”

“And then everything we’ve been through wouldn’t have happened—a relationship neither one of us regrets.”

“Maybe you don’t, but I do.”