Page 140 of Taste of Blood

“I was careful.”

“Come on, Cord. What are you going to prove by doing this? If they say they’re going to handle it, let them handle it. They’ve got the resources. It’s not worth getting caught. If Dante wants to know what Thalium is doing, let him take the risk.”

He stops pacing and exhales loudly. “I know you’re right. In fact, I’ve been seriously considering what we talked about the other day.”

“Which is?”

“Leaving the Guild. I don’t know what I’d do, but I’m tired of being on the shit end of everything bad that happens in this city.” He looks at me. “Were you serious when you said you would consider leaving your company?”

I step up to him, wrapping my hands around his arms and urging his face down to mine. “I’d do it for you.”

Could he be serious? Is he really thinking about walking away from Dante? Would the prick even let him? I don’t know if the Crimson Guild is as strict as the human mafia about members being in it for life, but Cord has given Dante the best years of his existence. He’s been loyal since coming to the city the year after his transition. Dante was his assigned mentor. It wasn’t meant to be a lifetime relationship. I walked away from my mentor Carlyle twelve years ago. We speak maybe four or five times a year now, but we’re still on friendly terms.

“What would we do?” he asks.

“Whatever we want. We could travel, become men of leisure.”

He frowns. “No offense, but that sounds like it would get boring pretty quick. I need to be doing something. To have apurpose. Plus…” He looks away, biting his lip. “I need to hit something now and then.”

“They do have the fights,” I venture. “I know you used to frequent them.”

“It’s not the same. There’s a darkness in me, Ash. One that’ll eat me alive if I ignore it.”

“I know that.” I close my arms around him and lean forward, my forehead touching his. “It’s what makes you, you.” I brush my lips across his. “We’ve got time to figure all that out. What I want right now is this.”

I capture his mouth with mine, pressing the kiss. He resists at first until my tongue pushes its way inside, seeking his. Vodka and human blood swirl against my tongue, telling me he fed recently. That erases one worry.

I suck on his lower lip, biting down until the metallic taste of him explodes inside me. The sweetest aphrodisiac.

He moans and counters the attack, his teeth ravaging my own lips. Branding me. There’s no more need for words as we speak with our teeth and our tongues.

Devouring. Punishing.

Suddenly the need to be inside him is relentless, squeezing my veins. I tear at his clothes, frustrated when they don’t yield to me immediately. I need to feel his skin against mine.

He pushes my sweatpants down, freeing my cock, which is already straining for him. I break the kiss long enough to shed my T-shirt, then shove my hand inside his pants to palm his own rigid shaft.

The button and zipper take too long; I want to rip them apart to get at him. He toes off his boots and sheds his jeans, then his jacket and shirt drop until we’re standing flesh to flesh.

Heat to heat.

“Need you inside me,” he rasps.

Right where I want to be.

Somehow we stumble backwards into my bedroom and fall onto the bed, where I slide down his body, biting and sucking his tattooed skin. Breaking the barriers to savor his hot, thick blood.

I can’t get enough of him.

He arches his back, his fingers tangled in my hair as he urges me lower, his cock weeping for me. My tongue lashes out, tasting him, and the effect is like mainlining the best drug there is. I lick up and down his shaft until he starts to whimper.

“Fuck, Ash. Suck me.”

I close my lips around his thick, swollen head and slowly pull him into my mouth until he hits the back of my throat. And still I need more. I draw in a deep breath like a diver heading into the sea then hollow my cheeks and swallow him. Choking on him. Tonguing the veiny underside of his cock. Causing him to twitch and shudder beneath my mouth.

His moans fuel my hunger. His cobalt eyes reflect my own raw need.

This is my heaven.