Page 29

Unfortunately, I’m not the only one who appreciates him.

There are always a lot of comments about him and Nikolo but no one has ever been as overt as the being currently pushing themselves into my personal space.

It’s not even like there isn’t plenty of room at the bar—he simply hasn’t registered that I exist and am currently occupying this physical space. Or he just doesn’t care.

“Gods, he is just so hot. Fuck.” The being isn’t too bad looking himself—tall, fit, conventionally handsome. Intimidating. I retreat on instinct, allowing him to take up even more space. “I fucked him once, you know?”

My formerly-delicious martini is now curdling in my stomach. It feels roughly like the time I ate that steak post-change. The pretty guy's friends all fawn with the correct amount of admiration apparently owed for hooking up with Kai and the guy preens under the attention.

“That’s it! Tonight. I’m gonna fuck him again. I don’t usually do repeats but, ugh, his ass is definitely worth it.”

Oh Gods, I think I might actually be sick.

This is it. I realise. It’s like a blow to the stomach, visceral and crippling. This is how it’s always going to be.

Seeing men and women—beings and humans hit on Kai is not a new thing. But tonight I’m feeling extra fragile and it hits in new, even more painful ways. The moment weasels under my skin to poke and prod at every insecurity I have.

It burns me from within, clawing at my insides while I listen to Pretty Boy and his friends talk about Kai and Nikolo with increasing vulgarity.

Some masochistic need to torture myself keeps me rooted to my stool. I don’t move. I don’t speak. I don’t think.

Pretty Boy and his equally pretty friends have boxed me out of the bar, cutting me off from my drink in the process.

When Kai comes back to serve them, all I can see is the back of his head in the bar mirrors.

It doesn’t matter that I can hear him shutting them down—albeit in a friendly and flirty kind of way.

All I can see is them and their hungry eyes all over him, like salivating dogs.

How can you compete with this? What do you have to offer him? How do you even compare?

My circling thoughts have them becoming bigger in my mind, monstrous in their sheer beauty.

Bloody Temptations no longer exists. It’s just these obscenely beautiful beings and Kai, my imagination throwing them together in scenes, each more outrageous and salacious than the last until I want to hurl.

I’m so caught up in my own twisted imaginings I don’t even notice they’ve gone. Kai shakes me roughly until I become aware of my surroundings once again.

Wincing against the resurging pounding of music in my ears and the headache piercing my skull, I meet Kai’s worried eyes. His thumb traces a delicate circle on my hand. Sweet and comforting.

Just like him.

“You okay?” He asks, brows furrowed.

My mouth opens and closes a few times while I try to find my voice. Everything tingles.

“Uh, yeah. I think I probably had one too many of those blood-apple martinis. I’m a bit tired.” Licking my lips, I try to give him a smile, but it feels uncomfortable on my face. His fingers squeeze mine and I know he has to go back to work. “I should go.”

His fingers tighten around mine, not letting me slip away. “Why don’t I sneak you out the back? I finish in a couple of hours. You can rest here and come home with me?”

“Ugh.” I groan—genuinely disappointed, because there is nothing I want more than that .

Our schedules really do suck. It’s one of the reasons why that job would have been perfect.

“I really can’t. I have an early tomorrow, and won’t be able to get to work on time from yours.

I just came by to see you. And apologise for being a massive twat and running out the other morning. That was super shitty of me.”

He looks away when he nods, and this time it’s me squeezing his hand, not letting go.

“But the night after tomorrow, yeah? We’ll get together?” I add, desperate to not leave him feeling as shitty as I feel.

“Yeah, of course. I can wait two nights to have you alone again.” He cocks his head to the side, eyes falling to half mast. “Maybe.”

Gods, whose life did I steal to have him look at me like that?

“Well, if you get inspired to make another video…”

Oh boy. That does the trick. His eyes flare and his fang digs into his lower full lip.

“Oh, Finn, I thought you’d never ask.”

“Yo, can I get three beers and a half a dozen vampire kiss shots, thanks?”

And just like that the moment’s over. I wave goodbye but he’s busy juggling three bottles of liquor in the air.

It’s a long bus ride home, with just me and my thoughts for company. I spend the whole time replaying the night, mentally kicking myself for getting in my own head and for disappointing Kai, for not being able to be… better.

My laptop is still sitting on my dining table when I get in the door. It wakes up when I bump the table, moving the mouse. The email is still open, taunting me with its rejection. I stare at words on the screen for the Gods know how long before I delete it and snap the laptop shut.

The black out blinds are already secure from this evening, so there is nothing to worry about.

I curl up on my couch, pulling a blanket over my legs, tucked to my chest, eyes focused in the direction of the TV.

There’s infomercials on, I think. My blood is cold, directly from the fridge.

It’s the ogre blood again. But I’m too numb to taste it.

The seconds tick by, along with the commercials until finally dawn comes and the night is over.

***

“I feel like I should have taken you somewhere else,” Kai says, leaning in so close his lips brush my ear. “You’re going to think I’ve only got one move.”

Naturally, my flustered laugh means I snort a little. Kai chuckles at the sound, and the throaty sound reverberates right down to my balls.

“Don’t worry, I am very aware you have moves, Kai. Plenty of them.” Is that my husky voice flirting back with him?

It is, because the other night was nothing more than a blip.

A teeny, insignificant blip. Kai’s nose trails along my cheek, his hand coasting down my chest and over the fullness of my groin to grip my hip.

I can’t help but sink back on the arm of the couch, as Kai’s lips tease me with torturous butterfly kisses over my face.

His other hand cradles my head, fingers massaging my scalp.

In the pseudo-privacy of the little booths of ReSanguinated, it is getting really hard to control the impulse to let him do what he wants with me, right here.

Though the patrons on the other side of the cane walls may not appreciate it.

It’s not exactly like the sheer, drapey curtains are there for soundproofing.

Though the wards should keep them from hearing…

Nope, no, absolutely not.

“You been thinking about my moves, Finn?” Kai pulls back just enough to look at me. This close, he is all I can see. Which is pretty apt, all things considered .

“Maybe once or twice.” I shrug, and roll my lips over my teeth to stop from smiling. Or admitting the truth. Because I feel like I think about his moves all night long. I probably think about them when I’m dead too.

He chuckles again, his lips ghosting over mine. His hand squeezes my hip as he presses down onto me. We’re on an awkward angle here, so I can’t feel his hard length, but fuck, I want to.

I need it.

“How about we go back to your place?” His suggestion has the horny brain mush in my head solidifying and hitting the panic stations. My place? Abso-fucking-lutely not. I can’t even picture him in that place. What would he even think? Definitely not.

There is a slight flex in his brow when he feels me tense beneath him.

“Your place is closer,” I rush out. Things are still fragile in the wake of my last two cock ups—leaving in the evening like I did and then my weird freakout the other night at the bar.

I’m determined to not strike out with Kai.

“We’ll get there quicker that way. And I don’t have work tomorrow so I don’t have to rush off in the evening. ”

Kai’s lips claim mine again and negotiations cease while his tongue invades my mouth, tasting the remnants of the catuvezo blood and chocolate. I whimper against him, and he swallows it down, grunting and deepening the kiss until we are completely lost in it.

I wrap my arms around his shoulders, tugging him up higher over me. Just as I feel the weight of his hips against mine, his knees pressing my thighs further apart, a loud crash comes from somewhere in the cafe. The sharp sound drives us apart.

“We’re leaving. Now,” Kai growls. He’s upright and pulling me with him before I can even get my brain online to figure out what’s going on .

How he has the presence of mind to drive us back to his place, I don’t know, but in a blessedly short time our mouths are fused together again, as he grinds his hard cock against my thigh on his bed.

“Still–all–good?” Kai mumbles between kisses.

All good? I think we’ve surpassed good when it comes to Kai and me. Good can’t even begin to cover how it feels to have him against me. His lips leave my mouth to kiss along my jaw, his tongue laving at my neck.

Between the front door and his bedroom we lost most of our clothes, meaning I can paw at his incredible ass with only the thin layer of his briefs between him and my hand.

Nearly naked is not nearly naked enough, so I tug clumsily at the waistband, trying to shove them down.

He can leave the sock on. I don’t care about that, I just want his underwear off.

My frustration is starting to bubble over. I need more. I need everything.

I need his teeth to stop pressing into my throat and just fucking bite me already.

I need his fucking underwear off and him completely naked against me.

I need him as burning up and needy as I am.