Page 28 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

I should have been used to it by now. He’d already taken blood from me three times.

But something felt different about tonight.

It felt like he was asking for more than blood.

Like he was alluding to this intangible, mysterious something that crackled in the air between us.

I got the sense that he didn’t just want to drink from me, but to drink me in.

He didn’t just want blood, he wanted a connection. With me.

And I wanted to let this sad, beautiful vampire take all that he needed from me. After these brief moments together, I was starting to feel like I could trust him. He had been so open and vulnerable with me tonight, after all.

“Yes.” I almost said please .

He brought my wrist to his mouth, his lips nuzzling there for a moment as if to find the perfect spot. That was new, like the kiss on my knuckles and the tentative touches when we’d danced.

Like always, there was no pain when his fangs sank in. Just pressure that almost felt good, like his massage. I closed my eyes and gave in to the sensations of his mouth. A pulling draw and then a release. Pull and release. Back and forth. In and out.

My mind turned to the rhythm of sex, of pressing forward and drawing back. Filling and emptying. Connection and then separation.

With pleasure coiling under my heated skin and the heavy thumping of the music, it was easy to imagine the weight of a male body on top of me. Laith’s draws on my vein matched the beat of the bass, crashing over me for a stroke of pleasure that left me panting for the next one, and the next.

My thighs squeezed together and then crossed, hating that I couldn’t wrap them around Laith’s waist. Yes, his.

Not Justin’s, not any generic man in my fantasies.

I pictured slender hips with long legs moving in and out of me.

I wanted to grip that messy blonde hair and taste fangs with each consuming kiss.

He let out a soft moan against my wrist and it felt entirely wrong that his mouth wasn’t on mine, on my neck, or between my legs where my pleasure burned hottest.

When Laith removed his fangs, I almost begged him not to stop. Or to at least finish me off another way, but…I couldn’t. There was a reason why I couldn’t. A reason why I told him this could not be physical. But that reason was becoming more flimsy, my guilt evaporating every time this happened.

My breath sawed in and out of my chest as if I’d run a marathon, and Laith was breathing similarly. He turned away, clearing his throat and subtly adjusting his pants while I went for my water and gulped it down.

“Thank you,” Laith said after we’d both managed to compose ourselves. “For your blood.”

“You…I don’t think you took very much this time.” I tried to say it casually. It wasn’t like I could get mad at him for not getting me off.

He nodded and glanced at me with a small smile. “I don’t need to take as much since we’ve been seeing—I mean, doing this regularly. I’m not starving like I was in the beginning.”

“Oh. I see.”

The corner of his mouth ticked up higher. “Do I sense disappointment, Science Barbie?”

“No! I mean, I was just curious.” I flipped my hair behind my shoulder. “A Science Barbie should be curious about everything, don’t you think?”

Laith let out a genuine chuckle. It didn’t carry the same weight as his normal laugh, but I’d take it. “You’ve taken to the nickname rather well.”

“Hey, I loved Barbie as a kid. Still do. I don’t consider the nickname insulting at all.”

“Good,” he said seriously. “It’s not meant as an insult.”

He got that intense look again, the one that made me want to squirm under his gaze.

A parade of fully naked women could have strutted up to the VIP loft right then, and I was certain Laith wouldn’t glance at any of them.

It was flattering to have his full attention like this, especially since I was starting to feel things I’d never expected to feel.

I should have gotten to business and asked more general vampire questions—the type of stuff Soren would grill me about later—but I couldn’t bring myself to care at that moment. No one belonged in this moment except me and Laith.

“Hey, did I notice new ink on your arm?” he asked suddenly.

“Oh yeah.” I pulled up my sleeve to expose my whole forearm. “My oxytocin molecule was feeling a little plain so I added to it.”

He moved closer until his thigh pressed lightly to mine, taking my forearm in both hands. “Oh wow, this is beautiful work.”

I couldn’t help the giddy grin at his praise. “Thanks. I’m really happy with it.”

My oxytocin molecule was now framed by orange and red lilies, my favorite flowers. I’d had the tattoo appointment for months and finally got it done the day after I last saw Laith.

“It’s pretty fresh. I hope the ink didn’t make my blood taste weird.”

Laith licked his lips, his expression turned pensive. “Hmm, I thought I caught some undertones of ballpoint pen in there.”

“What?” I laughed. “No, you did not.”

“Mm, no, you’re right. It was more like the red Sharpie flavor.”

“Shut up.” I smacked his arm with the back of my hand, already cracking up. “Now I know you’re fucking with me.”

He grinned. “I’m back, baby. All thanks to you.”

The urge to lean in and kiss that sexy grin was so overwhelming, I had to ball my fists at my sides. “Well, I’m glad I could make you feel a bit better after such a shitty night.”

“You did,” he said softly. “Not just your blood, but you, Heather.” One fang dragged over his lip and damn if that didn’t make me want to kiss him more. “I’m glad I got to see you tonight.”

The worst part about my pulse speeding up right then was knowing he could hear it. “Me too.”

“And don’t worry. Whatever ink is in your bloodstream did not affect your taste in the slightest.”

I swiped a hand across my forehead. “Phew.”

He laughed dryly. “What kind of flowers are those?”

“They’re lilies. The design is based on the tiger lily, which is probably my favorite variety.”

“They’re the same kind that grow at your place, right?”

“Yeah, they—“ My words stopped abruptly as a sudden thought hit me. “How do you know about the lilies at my place?”

Laith lifted a brow at the abrupt change in my expression and tone. “I’ve been to your apartment, remember?”

“You stood guard outside my front door.” A little nervous laugh escaped me. “The lilies grow outside my bedroom window. In the back of the apartment.”

I fully expected him to brush it off with a, “Oh yeah, I did a perimeter sweep,” or some similar answer. I’d feel silly for my initial jolt of alarm and we’d carry on having a normal conversation. But that wasn’t what happened.

Laith’s mouth tightened, his eyes going dark. He didn’t say anything for several long seconds. The longer the silence stretched on, the more my alarm grew.

“Laith?”

“I’m sorry.”

Another long, uncomfortable silence stretched between us. “What exactly are you apologizing for?”

“I…was at your bedroom window.”

“That same night you came to my front door, or…?” I realized I was trying to give him an out, give him an opportunity to lie to me.

“No, a different night.”

I didn’t know what to feel, physically or emotionally. My body felt numb, disconnected from the words floating out of my mouth. “You came to my house a second time without telling me? And watched me through my window?”

Laith nodded, his expression solemn. I waited for that grin to split his face, for his eyes to light up with amusement as he said, “I’m just messing with you,” but it never came.

“I’ve followed you home several times,” he admitted. “And from your apartment to work.”

I was reeling. There was no ground beneath my feet. I was in free fall off the side of a cliff with blood rushing in my ears. “You followed me to work ?”

“To make sure you were safe,” he said firmly, as if that justified it. “I only watched you through the window that one time, and make no mistake, that is the only thing I’m sorry for. That was a private moment and it was wrong for me to intrude without your knowledge.”

My whole body turned to ice. “What did you see?”

He was quiet for a moment, but his gaze was unwavering. “I think you know.”

On a dime, my body went from frozen still to heated with shame.

If he had seen me doing something mundane like sleeping, playing on my phone, or getting dressed after a shower, he’d say so.

But if it was as private as he implied, like the one night in weeks I’d decided to touch myself because Justin turned me down again…

The night I’d said Laith’s name as I made myself come.

“Don’t feel embarrassed because of me.” Laith made it sound like he could read my mind. “What I did was an invasion of your privacy and I regret doing it. I want you to be able to trust me, Heather.”

My shame boiled over into anger. He was sorry for being a peeping Tom but not for following me? For stalking me?

“Fuck. You.”

Laith had the gall to look surprised as I stood abruptly, shouldered my purse, and headed for the stairs.

“Heather, stop.”

“Don’t follow me. If you can fucking manage that, for once.”

He didn’t listen, because of course he didn’t.

I heard his footfalls on the steps behind me, heard his mumbled apologies as he slid through the crowd of people on the ground floor.

When I burst through the front door, finding myself on the quiet street and cool night air, he killed that moment of peace in an instant.

“Heather, please come back inside.”

The slight touch on my arm had me swinging out of his grasp.

I wanted to follow through on the swing with my fist and hit him, I was so beyond fucking angry.

So fucking betrayed. Just when I felt I could trust him.

I was done. The dam had burst and everything I’d be shoving down for weeks was unleashed.

“I said, stop fucking following me! ” My scream was so loud it echoed off the buildings and Laith actually stopped in his tracks.

“I am sick of people, of fucking men , walking all over me, feeling entitled to me, and invading my life. Just FUCK OFF!”

Laith lifted his palms slowly. “That’s not what I want to do, Heather. That’s not how I feel about you at all. I’m sorry if I?—“

“Stop. I’m done, Laith. I don’t want to hear any more.” A few ragged breaths sawed out of my chest. The anger continued to surge. “If you follow me again, you will not have my blood anymore, understand? Not a single fucking drop. Just leave me the fuck alone.”

His mouth fell open, then closed into a tense line. “So, what? You’re going back to him? The guy who doesn’t give a single fuck about your safety or your pleasure? Do you want to know what he was doing while you were in the bedroom, alone? Are you ready to face that reality, Heather?”

The last thing I wanted to do was defend Justin. He was one-third the source of my current anger, after all. And there was still so much rage flowing through me, I didn’t have the words for coherent argument.

I made my voice as calm as I could as I said, “If you follow me, I will never step foot in Sanguine again.”

Then I turned, heading for the hill and the woods, leaving Laith to make his own choice.