Page 16 of Blood Day (Blood Alliance #7)

Lily

Lily.

My name is Lily .

Except names were only earned through immortality. His blood had done things to me, making me feel more alive than ever before. He’d healed me.

But I’m not immortal.

He’d said my name was a secret, just like his blood. So maybe he meant for this to be a name I used with him alone. Just like he didn’t want me to call him Master Cedric here, merely Cedric.

What else did he want from me here?

We were in the water, his arm around me and his opposite hand on my chin. I wasn’t sure how to react or what he wanted me to do. It was all so bizarre, so dreamlike, so incredible.

The water wasn’t too hot. Nor was it cold. It felt good. Unlike any other water I’d experienced in a shower, where it was either scalding or frigid.

And this bath was huge .

At least three more people could join us in here, maybe more.

There were red jewels everywhere.

And a window that was frosted to disguise the outside.

“Can you go under the water for me?” Master Cedric asked, drawing my focus to him. He still held my chin, my face angled toward him over my shoulder, but my mind had wandered. “I’ll hold you, if that’s easier. But I need you to dampen your hair.”

I blinked. I’d never been in water like this before, the depth going up to my belly button when I stood.

And now he wanted me to go under the surface? “Okay.”

It wasn’t like I could refuse him.

I tried to roll off him, but his arm clamped around my middle. Then he moved me through the water as though I weighed nothing—although, maybe I really was weightless because I certainly felt light in this pool—and cradled me against his chest with my legs tucked into a ball.

“Squeeze your nose between your thumb and finger. I’m going to dip you.”

Frowning, I lifted my hand to do what he said, my lips parting to continue breathing.

“Close your eyes and hold your breath,” he said, causing my heart to skip a beat.

This is dangerous.

He may drown me. End me. Kill me.

But why would he do that after healing me with his blood? Why would he do that after naming me?

Maybe because he wanted to play with his food? To give me a moment of hope before?—

“Stop thinking and focus on how you feel,” he said, his words cutting through my thoughts and forcing my attention to return to him .

Then he gradually dipped me backward just like he’d warned he would do, except the water only covered my eyes, not my nose or mouth.

He lifted me until my ears were out of the water, my hair still mostly submerged. “How do you feel, Lily?”

“Light,” I whispered, my voice nasally because of my pinched nose. “Nervous.”

His arm left my shoulders, causing me to stiffen, but his hand cradled the back of my head, keeping me afloat. “I would teach you how to swim, but this isn’t a proper pool. However, there’s one outside, so perhaps I’ll show you later.”

How long am I staying here? I wondered. He’d spoken about a tour, and now he mentioned a pool outside. What is happening?

He ran his fingers through my hair, then guided me back to the bench and helped me sit between his legs. One of his feet remained on the marble bench while the other dropped off to touch the ground of the tub. I hugged my knees, my back to his front, but there was a clear space between us now.

I didn’t feel as secure, the water a little too open.

But then his fingers returned to my hair, and a minty fragrance touched the air. Shampoo , I realized as he began running it through my strands. He’s washing my hair.

No one had ever touched me like this, not even the groomers I met with every other week. When they washed my hair, it was with harsh water and plain soap. Which was quickly followed by sharp scissors for a trim.

But Master Cedric stroked me almost reverently.

Just like he had between my thighs , I thought, squeezing my legs together with the memory. It shot a tingle up my spine, stirring the hairs along my neck.

No one had ever touched me in that way either. So masterful and knowing. Very unlike the tentative strokes of Six during our classes together.

And Six had certainly never made me fall apart like that. Not even close. I wasn’t even sure I’d ever really come until today.

Maybe it had something to do with my heightened senses, but I suspected it had more to do with Master Cedric.

His fingers fisted in my hair, dragging me back into the water and forcing me to release my hold on my knees. I yelped at the abrupt movement, then plugged my nose before he yanked me all the way under. My eyes burned, reminding me to close them, and my heart raced in my chest.

What’s he doing? Is he drowning me now?

I almost fought back, almost flailed my arms, but he lifted me to where my chin was above the water, allowing my lips to part and inhale air.

It was then that I realized my back was balancing on the thigh of his leg with the foot on the ground. He was keeping me safe while washing my hair.

Keeping me alive.

Healing me.

Grooming me.

I didn’t understand any of this or why he felt the need to be kind.

But I refused to question him.

Lily , I marveled again. He calls me Lily .

A pretty name, so short and feminine. I liked the way it sounded on his lips, too.

He combed his fingers through my hair again, this time beneath the water, then righted me once more and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “Good girl,” he whispered, the words sending a shiver through my soul .

I’d pleased him.

I didn’t really know how I’d done it, but I loved that I’d done something right.

More minty essence flooded my senses as a sponge appeared against my arm. Then he began to create suds that he worked into my skin. I watched from the corner of my eye, hypnotized by his movements.

They went all the way down to my fingertips, back up to my neck, and disappeared from view as he went under my hair to stroke my nape.

My back was next, the touch scattering goose bumps across my skin despite me being mostly submerged in the water.

I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensations.

Until the water flickered on beside us to release more liquid into the bath. I jolted, my gaze landing on the flowing faucet.

“It’s going to help cycle some of the suds from the tub,” he explained against my ear as he started on my opposite arm.

I swallowed, my nipples beading both from his touch and from his mouth being so close to my neck. He was awakening things inside me that I couldn’t define. It was overwhelming and exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

His lips brushed my throat as the sponge left my arm for my abdomen. “Straighten your legs,” he told me.

I did.

“Spread your thighs,” he added in a low tone, his lips brushing my ear.

My heart skipped a beat, but I complied.

“Good girl,” he said again, nuzzling my throat as the sponge ventured downward beneath the water .

He focused on my upper leg first, massaging my hip bone before skating along the top of my thigh.

Then he went inward, drawing the sponge upward to my intimate flesh.

I jolted as he touched my clit, pleasure zinging through my veins and forcing a gasp from my mouth.

“Sensitive?” he hummed against my ear.

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Hmm.” He did it again, then switched to my other leg, leaving behind an ache that felt oddly unfulfilled.

An ache that only increased as the sponge continued upward to my abdomen and breasts.

My eyes fell closed again, lost to his touch.

It felt like a dream.

A fantasy I hadn’t realized I desired.

Another hint of the minty fragrance followed, the sponge coming alive with more suds that he worked into my skin. My nipples were so hard, his touch making my pulse race.

He circled my taut peak, then pinched one with his bare hand while he massaged soap into the other one. I leaned back against him, unable to hold myself upright. My chest felt tight, just like the area between my thighs. Like I was on the verge of another explosion, one that might just kill me.

But Master Cedric didn’t appear to be in a hurry to coax it along.

Instead, he continued to torture me with that sponge, using soap as a distraction from what my body craved.

Until the bare hand on my breast ventured downward.

Pausing to trace a circle around my belly button.

Then all the way down to cup me between my legs.

I sighed his name, melting into him and his decadent touch .

His lips were on my neck, his tongue tracing my pulse, his voice a growl of sound I didn’t fully understand. He could be saying he wanted to bite me, and I wasn’t sure I’d react. Not with the way his touch felt against my intimate center.

He chuckled, the sound vibrating my back. His teeth skimmed my throat, whether from his grin or as a threat, I couldn’t say.

I was too lost to him.

Too engrossed in the pleasure his touch evoked.

Too focused on his thumb circling the spot I wanted him to stroke most.

But his fingers entered me instead, the abrupt penetration causing me to flinch. Except he curled his touch upward, turning my flinch into a vibration of pleasure.

Pleasure he stoked by pressing his thumb to that place I desired.

“Cedric,” I breathed, arching into his palm.

His other hand cupped my breast, the sponge having disappeared.

And his mouth sealed around my pulse.

Oh, Goddess…

The pinch of his incisors sent my heart into a chaotic rhythm that reverberated in my ears. A moment of panic sliced my consciousness, only to be swallowed by a volcano of heat that blanketed me in dark oblivion.

My orgasm wasn’t gradual; it was immediate, ripping through me and spiraling me into a climax even more intense than before.

I lost the ability to see.

The ability to think.

The ability to breathe.

I became a liquid being thriving on ecstasy alone .

Throbbing. Pulsating. Dying .

But I couldn’t even be mad or upset by it, not when it felt like this.

He was killing me and I didn’t care.

Drinking me dry while wringing every ounce of rapture possible from my form.

The perfect death.

The perfect final moments.

The perfect end .

No more pain. No more wondering about my fate. No more fighting for an impossible future.

This was it, the darkness finally engulfing me for one final time.

I smiled. “Thank you.” The words were a breath in my ears, but I wanted him to hear them, to know I appreciated him making this pleasurable.

“No, Lily. Thank you,” he replied against my ear before returning to my neck and piercing me again.

Harsher this time.

More violent.

His hunger was a whiplash to my senses.

But the world had already begun to fade.

Into a perpetual darkness that I welcomed more readily than I probably should.

Until it all stopped.

The sensation.

The heat.

The pleasure.

And the sound of water draining followed.

Then I was wrapped up in a fluffy cloud of cotton and carried against a hard masculine chest to the bed I’d been in what felt like hours before.

My eyelids lifted, allowing me to meet Master Cedric’s dark gaze. “Consider that your first lesson on relaxation,” he said as he laid me in the bed. “I’m going to find something for you to eat. Just rest and recover.”

He pressed a kiss to my forehead, leaving me confused and oddly cold.

He didn’t kill me.

He bathed me. Pleasured me. Drank from me.

And now he’d just left me in his bed again.

Wrapped in a towel.

Gaping at the space he’d just occupied.

A lesson on relaxation .

Why?

To what purpose?

What lesson did he have in store for me next?

I shivered. Something about this game felt more dangerous than any I’d ever played. And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to win.

Because passing these lessons might just end in the biggest failure of all.

A dangerous sense of optimism.

A desire to live.

A desire for more .

With Master Cedric.

A future that could never truly be mine, no matter how much I dreamed or fantasized about it.

“Try not to dream. Fantasies don’t exist in your world anymore.”

His words from the other day haunted me as I closed my eyes. This was all a game to him, a way for a predator to play with his food.

I pressed my fingers to my neck, feeling the already healing punctures in my skin. It grounded me in the present, chasing away my hope.

I might have enjoyed the sensations.

But that was all they were—pleasurable reactions to a predator’s bite .

I sort of hoped the marks scarred my skin. I could use the constant reminder.

Because something about Master Cedric made me want to fall.

And if I gave in, I would truly drown.

It wouldn’t be a quick death, but a slow and agonizing torment.

The kind of end that would chase me into the afterlife and haunt my soul.

Maybe that was his goal.

Maybe he wanted me to suffer.

I won’t let that happen , I thought at him, my jaw clenching. I refuse to be easy prey, Master Cedric. If this is a game, then you chose the wrong girl to play against. Because I will fight your mind games until my dying breath. I vow it.