Page 40 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

Heather

I didn’t know how Laith would react. He became eerily still but didn’t look shocked. He seemed more curious.

“You’d like that?” His voice took on a low huskiness, a smirk playing at his lips. “Or is this about getting even for when I saw you?”

My chest felt tight, my breaths coming in short. “It’s not. I accept your apology for that and I’m ready to put it behind me.”

Laith moved slowly, lithe like a panther as he sat up against the headboard. “So you just want to see me?” His hand moved over the front of his sweat pants, palming the thick ridge there. “You want to see how hard you make me?”

He’d barely done anything and my breath was already stuttering. I could partially blame it on my blood loss, but I knew that wasn’t the real reason.

“Will you take off your shirt first?”

An eyebrow lifted. “Oh, you’re going to be bossy about this, are you?” He leaned forward, reaching behind him to pull his T-shirt over his head.

Oh, he was into this. And so was I. A lot more than I thought I would be.

As the T-shirt lifted away, I saw wisps of dark golden hair on his stomach.

Inch by inch, he slowly revealed pale skin and taut muscles.

Long arms with rounded shoulders. Well-defined pectorals, obliques, and a flat stomach.

There was scarring on the left side of his chest, raised tissue that looked intentionally done.

That was interesting, but my attention seemed unable to focus on just one singular thing.

“Do you like being told what to do?” I asked, drinking in the long lines of his bare torso.

“Only when it’s you.” Laith inched his pants lower, exposing more of his hips and lower stomach. “I want to please you above all else, even if I’m touching myself. So tell me exactly what you want, Heather, and I’ll give you something worth watching.”

How could my heart be beating so fast if I was sitting still?

The tension in the room felt solid, like a tightly wound string between us.

Laith waited patiently, his eyes on me while his hands smoothed up and down his thighs.

He seemed almost…nervous. A little self-conscious maybe, despite being objectively gorgeous and clearly experienced.

Laith had proven that I could trust him. Now it was my turn to show that he could trust me.

“Take your pants off slowly,” I said. “And don’t stop looking at me.”

He inched the sweatpants lower down his thighs, his gaze warm and appreciating. “As if I could ever take my eyes off of you.”

“You did a pretty good job of that in the shower.”

“Because I promised you that I would.” His pants were nearly to his knees, revealing red boxer shorts underneath.

“Now those, slowly.”

Laith pulled in a sharp breath and did as he was told, eyes on me. The silky red fabric reminded me of a stage curtain lifting away for a tantalizing reveal. And what a reveal it was. His erection stretched up to his navel and the girth of him was almost more impressive than his length.

“What next, Heather?” He’d kicked the boxers all the way off and now sat fully naked, legs outstretched in front of him.

My mouth felt entirely too dry. He didn’t have to do anything to be incredible to look at. “Go ahead and touch yourself how you usually would.”

“You mean when I’m thinking of you?” He slid both palms over his inner thighs, then lightly gripped his balls and the base of his cock.

“You don’t have to flatter me.” Sure, I was cute. Even pretty when I put effort into my appearance. But I was no one’s masturbation fantasy.

“I’m not.” Laith began long, lazy strokes up and down his length, bringing himself to fully hard in mere seconds. “One taste of you and I was ruined for anyone else.”

“Slow your hand down.”

He groaned, eyes half shutting with the effort, but his hand slowed, his grip on himself loosening.

“What do you think about?”

“Fuck.” His head fell back, connecting with the headboard with a thunk.

“I figured. But tell me how.”

His chest heaved with a few ragged breaths before speaking. “I’ve thought about fucking you in front of him. Your ex.”

That was not what I expected to hear. Heat radiated from my core outward. “You have?” I stuttered out.

“So many times. It’s my biggest fantasy, actually.

” Laith released his cock for a few rough breaths, his erection bobbing stiffly before coming to rest on his stomach.

“I want to show him how you should have been treated the whole time. Fucked into oblivion every night. I want your screams of pleasure from another man to haunt him until his dying days.” Laith thumbed the head of his cock and spread the bead of precum down his length.

“In my mind, he’s jealous and pissing himself in fear. ”

“Fear?” I choked out. “Fear of what?”

Laith grinned, his eyes flashing as he dragged his tongue along his fangs. For a moment, I saw the same predator I first noticed in the club.

“Because you’re a bloodied, beautiful mess and he doesn’t know how to handle it.

He’s freaking out over watching you come as I bite you and fuck you and drink your blood.

Every bite is a claim on you that he was never man enough to take.

You don’t even realize he’s there because I’m fucking you so well and making you delirious with pleasure.

You’re begging me for more, harder, and I’m giving it all to you.

All the sad little human can do is watch and listen. It’s my heaven and his personal hell.”

At some point while listening to Laith’s fantasy, I realized I was soaking wet. My thighs pressed together and I squirmed. My vampire’s nostrils flared, inhaling deeply as he gripped the headboard, arm flexing as he anchored himself. His other hand jerked roughly at his cock.

“Why do you fantasize about that?” Maybe a better question was why did I find it so hot.

Laith made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a groan. “Because he should know what he lost and I won.” His heavily lidded eyes met mine. “I don’t have to fantasize to know he’ll figure out that first part soon enough.”

“Are you sure about that?” Before he could answer, I added, “Stop stroking.”

“Fuck…” Laith slapped his hand down on the bed next to him, balling it into a fist. Then he quickly abandoned that idea to grip the headboard with both hands, as if bracing himself.

“Feels like you’re gonna kill me,” he panted, grinning.

“And yes, I’m certain he’ll be full of regret soon if he isn’t already.

I see you squirming. I can smell how turned on you are, and it’s fucking delicious.

You can edge me until my balls are as blue as a daytime sky.

You’re a prize, Science Barbie. And you’re mine.

” His grin broadened through his heavy breaths. “I. Won.”

My original idea was to be purely a viewer from beginning to end.

It wasn’t a hard and fast rule, but I’d never intended to touch him while he pleasured himself.

But I couldn’t stop myself from crawling across the bed.

I planted my hands on either side of Laith’s hips and kissed him with all the torrential emotions I didn’t know how to put into words.

He kissed me back with equal force, a rough scraping of lips and fangs and tongues. The wooden slats in the headboard creaked under his punishing grip.

“You can let go,” I whispered in the breath between one kiss and the next.

“Never.” He tugged on my lip with his fangs, just enough for a nip of pain without drawing blood. “This is forever.”

“I think we’re talking about different things.”

“Are we?”

I removed one of his hands from the headboard and wrapped it around the base of his cock. “Now show me how you make yourself come.”

He kissed me again, swallowing my gasp as he wrapped my hand around his thick shaft, holding my fist closed around him. “Like this.” Another nip of his fangs as he stroked my hand upward. “This is the only way I come from now on. By what you do to me.”

Our hands moved together, his skin burning hot and velvety under my palm. Meanwhile his tongue surged across mine. He dominated the kiss, making my pulse fire rapidly until my lips tingled.

“Your taste,” he groaned between one kiss and another. “Your scent. Your touch. Your existence . All my pleasure comes from you.”

He swelled in my hand, hard as iron and slick with precome. Our hands became a blur and his breaths grew shorter, panting through his kisses.

“If you edge me again, I might actually die,” he warned with a tight smile.

“No. I want to see you explode.” My own breath came in short bursts as if I were the one on the edge. “I want to see how good I really make you feel.”

“Fuck, Heather…” His forehead leaned on mine, his entire body wrought with coiled tension.

His release came with an animalistic growl and a spray of come that coated his chest and stomach.

I heard a crack and wondered distantly if he’d broken the headboard, but my main focus was stroking him to completion, watching the utter bliss on his face as he reached the peak and came back down.

Feeling the rough jerks and twitches as the aftershocks hit him.

Laith slid down until he was fully reclined on the bed. One hand remained stretched above him on the headboard, which he just now seemed to notice. “Yeah, I definitely broke that.”

The busted slat was a hair’s breadth from being completely ripped in two.

“Oh shit. I’m sorry.”

He snorted. “For what? Making me come within an inch of my life?”

“Hey, you did most of the work. I just feel bad that your stuff got broken.”

“It’s nothing a few nails can’t fix.” He panted through a lopsided grin. “Can you get me a towel?”

I grabbed him one from the bathroom. Once cleaned up, Laith propped up some pillows and held his arms out. “Come here.”

There were truly no words to describe the sensation of laying my head on his chest, feeling his arms fold around me while his heart beat under my ear. Especially after what we’d just done. It was everything I hoped for in a post-sex cuddle. Every part of me melted, and I felt completely at ease.

We didn’t speak for several minutes, but the silence was relaxed. Intimate. Laith’s fingers drifted through my hair. I felt his breaths slow and deepen. My own fingers started to explore, tracing across his chest.

“What’s this?” I asked when my fingers found the raised texture of scar tissue directly across from where my head rested.

“My vow to Blood ‘til Dawn.” Laith’s head turned, his lips brushing softly across my forehead. “We take vows and loyalty very seriously. Silver is the only substance that can scar a vampire, so we carve our vows into our skin as a permanent reminder.”

“What vow did you make?”

“It’s a coming-of-age ritual we do. When we turn one hundred, we’re considered adults.

The vow to the clan is part of the ceremony.

” He moved my finger over the characters, speaking each one in a language with rough, but beautifully rolling consonants.

“My life belongs to my family, whether found or by blood. I am shelter to my kin and the vulnerable.”

“That’s really beautiful.” I let my palm cover the markings. “Sounds painful, though.”

“It was.” I heard the smirk in his voice. “That’s how you know I take my vows seriously. We are willing to endure anything to protect our people.” His hand came over mine, fingers lacing together. “You know I’ll be carving a vow to you during our mating ceremony, right?”

“Jesus.” My fingers lifted, running over the raised tissue again. “And if I say you don’t have to do that?”

“Doesn’t matter. It will be looked down upon if I don’t. People will question how committed I am to you if I’m not willing to put a little silver to my skin.”

“ I won’t question it.”

“Mm, maybe you should,” he teased. “Maybe there wouldn’t be so many human divorces if you had to sacrifice a little more.”

“Do not go there, sir.” I brought a finger up to his lips, which he promptly took into his mouth. “We already argued about human marriages. We don’t need to hash it out again.”

Laith chuckled while chewing affectionately on my finger like a teething puppy. “I’ll be proud to carve my vow to you into my skin,” he said. “Besides, I can’t let Cyan show me up. His vow to Tavia goes from like nipple to bellybutton.”

“Oh my god, that sounds terrible.”

“I am kind of surprised that he didn’t pass out.”

“Do I have to carve vows into my skin too?”

“No, of course not.” Laith removed my finger from his mouth and kissed my brow.

“Your sacrifice will be your human lifespan. You’ll be giving up what is natural to your kind to spend forever with me.

” His face drew back, his expression suddenly apprehensive.

“I guess I never actually asked you. Is that something you’re willing to do? ”

Honestly? I couldn’t comprehend living hundreds of years.

It would probably be amazing in some ways, detrimental in others.

But it seemed I wasn’t the only human living past my natural lifespan, and all I really cared about right then was that I had Laith, and that he would be with me throughout those years too.

We were already off to a hell of a start. So why not see it through?

I leaned in, closing the distance again as I grabbed his lower lip with my teeth. “What do you think? There’s no Science Barbie without her Vampire Ken.”

His grin lit up his whole beautiful face. And the joy and lightness in my chest as we melted into more kisses felt like a sure sign that I made the right decision.