Page 26 of Bitten & Burned

I let the words hang between us like smoke. Acidic. Undeniable.

His body went still, shoulders locked.

“I was angry.”

“No. You were angry, sure—but you meant it. You always mean what you say. You don’t waste words. You don’t use enough of them to throw away.”

His jaw clenched. “You’re not going to let me off the hook, are you?”

“You gave me that rabbit,” I said, reaching into my pocket, voice tight. “You named it. You gave me Pip. Why would you give Pip to someone who was a disease?”

“I just meant…” he ground out. “You get inside me. You dig in and stay. You’re in my thoughts constantly, and I can’t get you out. That’s dangerous. Like an infection that spreads until it eats you alive.”

“Why is it dangerous?”

His voice broke on the answer.

“Because it’s me, Rowena. I’m not Anton. I’m not Vael. I’m not even Dmitri. I’m the fucking thing that lives in the cracks. If someone like me starts thinking about someone like you…” He swallowed. “You don’t want that.”

“You sure?”

He stared.

“You’re on my mind, Rowena,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. “And if you’re on my mind… I’m hunting you.”

I stepped forward, heart hammering.

“Are you?”

“Of course I am.”

His voice dipped lower. Rougher.

“You’re the sweetest prey I’ve ever stalked.”

“So what… Pip was bait?” I asked. “And I took it?”

“No…” Quil’s voice was rough. Frayed.

He swallowed hard, like the truth cost him.

“Pip was… Pip is…”

His jaw clenched. His breath came out in short bursts.

“I’m not soft, Rowena. I never will be. And you—”

He looked at me like I was sunlight.

“You need soft. Someone who will cherish you. Not…”

His voice broke.

“Not fucking tear you apart just to put you back together…Pip’s the only softness I have.” A pause, before he continued. “Had.”

“Have.”

His eyes met mine. “And I gave him to you.”

“Maybe I want the rest of you, too.”

“You don’t.”

“Don’t tell me what I want, Quil Ashborne. I’m not that kind of girl. You don’t decide what’s good for me. You either accept or don’t. Which is it?”

He was silent once more, biting his lip. Hard.

“I won’t say no. So stop asking me. Please.”

I laughed. “There’s no way I’m going to stop asking.”

“You are… fucking impossible. Like a dog with a bone. You won’t let it go even if it’s bad for you.” The last part was hissed through clenched teeth as he walked closer to me. I could smell him now. Forest. Outdoors. Iron. Salt. Want.

“You want me to stop? Want me to shut up?” I asked—challenged. “Only one way to do that.”

He was so close now. I could reach out and touch him. Pull him. Latch on and never let go.

“You’re gonna regret this,” he muttered, reaching for my hand and dragging me close. “You’re gonna regret me.”

His lips crashed down onto mine. Sharp fangs. Hot breath. An unspoken claim that I willingly gave him.

Heat pooled low in my belly.

Fuck yes, just take me already.

My hands scrambled for purchase. Anywhere. I settled for around his neck, holding him close as he kissed me like I’d never been kissed before in my fucking life.

Kissed with desperation. Need. Frustration. Relief.

All of it in the span of a few seconds.

He growled low in his chest, and I melted into him.

“Fuck,” he ground out, pushing me back against the books behind me.

The shelf bit my back, pain bloomed right beneath my shoulder blades, but I didn’t care. I wanted to climb him. Ruin him. Ruin myself. Gods, I just wanted. He could have everything. So long as he never stopped.

He pressed himself against me. I could feel him. Hard and unyielding against my hips. My core. His hands cupped my ass, hoisting me up so my legs could wrap around his slim hips.

“Fuck… you smell like sunshine. Good. Too good,” he growled. “Too fucking good.”

I rocked against him once. Twice. A third time.

Gods. The friction.

I hadn’t felt like this… ever. Not when I was younger, letting a boyfriend rut against me in secret. Not with Vael, even through all his teasing and tempting.

Nothing had ever touched this. This need.

This desire.

This fury of lust—deep in my bones, in my blood, in the bond burning between us.

I hiked up my skirt more, removing any and all barriers I could.

Moaning into his mouth when I succeeded, when it was just the thin fabric of my slip shorts against my skin.

Rocking against the sharp ridge of his cock through our clothes.

Trying to pull him into me with nothing but willpower and sheer madness.

“Fuck, Rowena,” he panted, his voice frayed. “You’re gonna break me, sweetheart.”

I wanted more. Needed him inside me, but fuck if I was going to stop long enough to pull off clothes.

Instinct won, I let my head loll to the side, baring my throat.

His breath hitched when I tore my lips from his, his hips grinding slowly and hard against me. Silent. Waiting. He wasn’t going to say no. But I had to ask.

“Take me,” I whispered. “Bite me.”

He hesitated, his body trembling through every grind of his hips.

And then… his mouth latched on, fangs sinking deep.

The pain.

It sparked something. A fire. A fucking inferno.

I snapped.

I ground down hard, my hands holding the sides of his face as he drew deeply from my throat.

I shook. Shuddered. Came like that, rutting against his cock and his fangs deep in my throat. Drinking me.

I cried out as the pleasure took me. Quick. Hard. I felt myself clench around nothing.

I moaned his name in time with my heartbeat.

“Quil. Quil. Quil… Quil…Quil?”

My hands tried to push. Fingers tried to grasp. To yank. Pull his hair, scratch. Something.

He wasn’t stopping. His groan was deep as he drew on me again. And again. It was too much.

The bond ignited. Electric pulses that started sharp, but rapidly grew fuzzy. Slow. Lethargic.

“Quil… please… it’s too… Quil…”

I was cold.

Boneless. Floating.

Voices filtered through the haze. Muffled, like they were underwater.

“Quil—stop!”

“She’s fading—”

I wanted to answer. To say I was fine.

But I wasn’t fine.

I was dying. Inferno burnt out. Only embers, sizzling into nothing.

I felt it when he was pulled from me.

Not stopped.

Pulled.

His fangs left my neck with a wet sound and a snarl. I felt the blood, the air, the ache where his mouth had been. His eyes. Red rimmed. Dark. Black. And wet. A tear slipped down his cheek.

That was the last thing I knew.

Not falling.

Not breathing.

Just absence.

Just cold.

Just black.