Page 73 of Chain Me

The door slammed in his wake, but my boneless limbs kept me from chasing after him. I crawled to the edge of the mattress anyway. I was that pathetic. I’d fallenthatfar. His nearness alone could keep the thoughts at bay. The fear.

I would have done anything to extend it. Anything.

The sound of his returning footsteps made me tremble with relief. When I looked up, I found that he held more food. This time, a platter of apple slices, cheese, and fresh fruit.

“Eat,” he commanded, stopping short just beyond my reach.

I squeezed my eyes shut. In vain, beads of moisture escaped, clawing down my cheek. “I can’t…”

“Look at me.”

The gritted cadence of his tone held sway. I obeyed just in time to find him brandishing a knife in his other hand. Naked, his skin gleamed like marble, and it seemed laughable that anything could hurt him. Even the blade he dragged across his collar bone.

Crimson bubbled up in a single line, painting him in gore like a true predator. After stalking closer to the bed, he set the tray at one end of the mattress and then lifted an apple slice.

He brought the red end of the fruit to his wound, letting his blood taint the apple’s ivory flesh. Then he lowered the offering to my lips, ignoring how they twitched in defiance. “Open.”

It wasn’t fair. My body craved pleasure—distraction—but my mind only wanted an escape. Oblivion. A drop of his blood could serve both purposes.

Aware of that power, he taunted me, pressing the fruit more firmly against my mouth. “Eat.”

A drop of moisture grazed my lip. Burning. Tempting. Sweet.

My tongue darted for it, rebelling against my pride. When he threatened to draw the apple away, I finally pried my jaws apart.

“Good,” he murmured as one reluctant bite became two.

I licked my lips, ready for more. Even the hint of his blood was…

Explosive.

Warmth blossomed in my veins, battling the chill persisting in my heavy bones. With a burst of renewed energy, I drew my knees up to my chest and sat upright as my thoughts clouded, deliciously dizzy. But nowhere near high enough.

Thankfully, he already had another apple slice in hand. Fresh blood painted its milky interior, and I didn’t require coaxing this time.

“Good.”

The guttural praise resonated in my skin as his free hand cradled my cheek. He used the contact to tilt my head back and fed me another slice. Then another. With every tentative swallow, his thumb stroked my jaw in a rewarding caress.

I wasn’t sure how much I ate before I finally refused the next morsel, legitimately full. In silence, Dublin removed the platter from the bed and set it down in some distant corner of the room.

I watched him, uneasy again. I should have been high on cloud nine, giddy and detached from the world. But I wasn’t. Reality remained way too close. Even his blood couldn’t push it away for very long.

“Lie back,” he commanded as if reading my mind. “Trust me.”

Confused, I fell against a pillow, eyeing the ceiling. The slow thud of his footsteps matched my pulse, quickened by the second. Only it ceased amid a growl as his hand caught my thigh so he could drag me to the edge of the bed with no warning.

Panicked, I grabbed at the sheets, nails drawn. “W-What are you doing?” I tried to sit up, only to be rewarded with a sharp pain that flared along my knee. His fingers, pinching ruthlessly in warning.

“Lie back.”

In my weakened state, I had no hope of denying him again. My spine went limp, forcing me to crane my neck down just to see him. Like a true predator, he crouched at the end of the mattress, his head lowered as his hands pinned me in place, pressing down on either thigh. Aware of me watching, he hovered there as if tracking my pulse through feel alone.

A jealous creature, he hoarded my every reaction to him—every breath to scrape from my throat. The twitch of anticipation racking my spine, impossible to suppress.

The soft moan that escaped as his fingers bit down, melding his touch with the slightest hint of pain.

His eyes flicked up to mine once, conveying a silent warning:Surrender.Then he lunged so quickly that I could onlyfeelhim driving between my legs. My eyelids fluttered at the alarming mixture of sensations—not his hands. Not the part of him I’d barely grown accustomed to feeling inside me, either.