Page 39 of Love Lives

"Maybe I just couldn't wait to get back to you."

I really wanted to apologize to him, but when he said things like that... "Why do you make it so hard to like you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. You think I'm charming."

"You can be funny at times, but you're not charming."

Aldrich grinned. "You think I'm funny."

I wanted to regret my words, but honestly? There was something infectious about Aldrich's good moods that made it difficult to be mad at him, and even more difficult not to smile along. "I'm sorry about earlier," I made myself say, just to get it over with.

"Sorry about what?"

"I should have gotten you that blood instead of Elle, but I just stood there."

Aldrich regarded me quietly for a moment before sitting down on my bed again. He shifted moods from joking to serious so quickly sometimes it gave me whiplash. "Why didn't you get the blood?"

"I just... I don't know. I wasn't thinking."

"You were shocked."

"Of course I was shocked. You looked like a total mess!"

Aldrich smiled. Not a teasing smile, and not the huge grin I so often saw on his face either. A soft but genuine smile. "Thanks for worrying about me."

"I..." I did not know how to proceed, so I deflected. "Did you get enough blood?" I studied his throat once more, but there was no sign of a wound left. If I didn't know any better, I would never have guessed that he'd been in a fight. The color of his skin was still a bit paler than usual, though.

His eyes trailed to my neck. "I wouldn't say no if you were offering more."

Was I offering that? "If you need it..." I let the sentence hang, because I didn’t trust myself. And because I didn’t want Aldrich to know how much I really wouldn’t mind.

How much I’d enjoyed it last time.

It was stupid of me to want a repeat, wasn’t it?

Aldrich ran a finger down the side of my neck, pausing just above my pulse line before moving on. The whole time, his eyes were focused on mine. "What if I didn't need it but I wanted it?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but the words got stuck in my throat. I closed my mouth, licked my lips, and started again. "It's just a bite, right? No big deal."

The vampire's fangs showed as he grinned. "I'm going to take that as permission." His head dipped toward my neck, then he hesitated. "No digging around in my memories."

"As long as you don't try to suck me dry."

"Nah, I wanna keep you around."

Before I could respond to that, sharp teeth pressed against my skin, then broke through. My eyes closed, my breath left my lungs, and all tension evaporated from my muscles. Only Aldrich's arm around my shoulders kept me from plummeting back onto the mattress. While Aldrich was drinking from me, while his lips worked on my throat, any lingering doubt that allowing this might have been a bad idea vanished like a bad dream.

This was bliss.

My body relaxed and the only thing my consciousness focused on was the point of my neck that Aldrich had bitten. His tongue lapped at the blood pouring from my wound, and my cock stiffened.

Just like last time.

I wasn't surprised by my reaction anymore, but that didn't make it any more palatable.Just a physical thing,I told myself. Something having to do with being a dhampir, probably, if I looked at the rest of my family and their vampire mates. My cock growing hard didn't mean anything.

Felt fucking amazing, though.

Felt like I wanted Aldrich to continue sucking my blood forever. And like I wanted him to shove a hand down my pants and take care of the problem he'd caused.