Page 12 of Desired for Her Blood

I stroke her damp hair, holding her head against my chest. “Don’t be afraid. You’re safe.”

“You don’t know that.” She sucks in a ragged breath. “How can I ever be safe if I don’t know what I can do, what I even am?” Her head shakes under my palm. “What if I’d hurt you, or the others?”

“I don’t think you’d hurt us.” The words slip out of me without thinking, but I mean them. I don’t know with certainty that my belief isn’t fueled by magic, but I meant it.

She sighs. “Maybe you’re right. I can’t imagine hurting you or Ryker or Zuben, but…”

“But what?”

“What if I’d collapsed the cave?”

My body tenses. “Can you do that?”

“I have no idea.” Her tears start again, damp on my chest.

Holding her head, I tip her face up toward me.

She blinks, still unable to see in the darkness and I move my mouth slowly down toward hers.

Her breath quivers, as if she senses my movement, or anticipates the kiss. But I lightly lick her tears, drawing my tongue along their salty wet trails, and her body trembles under my touch, her heart rate accelerating, her breaths ragged.

“Did you know you had magic?” I ask her softly. “When we talked about your mother. Did you know?”

“No.” Her wet hair brushes over my chest as she shakes her head, still softly inside my palms. “Istilldon’t know. I don’t understand… Ryker and Zuben said that I did something to stop Octavia. And that maybe I did something to stop Psycho the other day, but I have no idea what or how.” Her voice breaks.

I pull back and look into her eyes, once again full of tears. “I believe you.”

She blinks, and the tears stream down her cheeks. I catch them again with my tongue, and she sighs at the touch, arching into me, but backing her hips away as if she’s trying to restrain herself.

“I’m not a witch,” she says. “Wouldn’t I know if I was one?” She closes her eyes and shakes her head.

“My mother refused to evenmentionher magic, she said it had nothing to do with me. I don’t know how magic works, just like I have no idea why Ryker could take sunlight after he drank my blood, or why I couldn’t.”

Turning slightly, she leans her shoulder against my chest. “It’s so overwhelming. Terrifying. All these feelings I can’t control.” Her hips swivel again and the scent of her arousal nearly makes me growl.

Her intense need—she’s confused by it. She doesn’t trust her own body, just like I don’t trust mine.

Sensing her turmoil, my heart thuds and my own arousal throbs. Holding her head in my hands, I shift my hips, hoping to prevent my stiff cock from touching her body. But she shifts along with me, both of us inhaling sharply as my rod makes accidental contact somewhere on her belly.

“Axe…” My name comes out of her on a thready exhale.

I close my eyes. “What I almost did…What Octavia told me to do to you…”

“Hey.” Her hand reaches up to caress my cheek, and I open my eyes. “Don’t do that to yourself. Please.”

It moves me how she instantly knows how I’m feeling.

Her fingers drift into my hair, stroking toward my ear, and I swear it’s like her hand is on my cock, like her motions are replicated there, even though I know her other hand is softly on my chest.

“She was controlling you,” Ember says softly. “You couldn’t help what you were doing—and besides that…” Her back arches and her eyes flutter shut along with a thready inhale.

“Besides what?” I ask softly.

“I want you.” Her hips press against me. “Not likethat, not with someone forcing you, but…”

Gathering willpower, I back away from her. “We can’t.”

“I know you think that. I know you think that you’re too big and will hurt me, but what if wecan?” Her tongue darts out to lick her lips in such a subtle and delicate way that I doubt she even noticed she did it.