Page 7 of The Curse Trilogy

“With our kind,” I murmur with pause to add suspense, “you have to find out what they enjoy the most. Is it food, kinky sex, or a dirty, scandalous blood fuck,” I crudely remark, and I can see Hale’s humor fading as he squirms beneath my very light eyes staring fearlessly into his as if he’s my prey.

“Fuck,” he whispers to himself.

My menacing smile grows darker as the games get closer to starting. I step over to him to cuff his hands to the protruding posts designed for restraining. The touch of skin on skin still sends that unwelcome shiver, but I brush it off before he notices my reaction.

“This feels like our third date,” he seduces when I secure the cuff into place.

I almost feel flustered now that he has said such a personal remark in front of so many, but I’ll pay him back for his slip up when I humiliate him in front of everyone. I refrain from looking into the eyes that are burning down at me while I cuff his second hand. That stupid, unbidden fire that courses through me with one accidental graze of his skin is almost painful this time - a longing within me growing, growling, and begging me to straddle him right now.

“With hybrids, you have to use whatever their strongest desire to seduce a confession or valid information,” I say to the very silent students on the other side of the glass.

I sit down on top of the table to be in front of Hale, and my feet dangle just in front of his pants that seem to be fitting a little tighter, making his arousal apparent.

“Normally I use blade cutting cuffs lined with uranium, but since I don’t want to leave my ex handless, I’ll just stick with the reinforced steel cuffs for this friendly demonstration,” I explain, and his devious grin grows.

“Now what?” he smolders, and I lean over to be just inches from his lips, keeping mine just out of his reach.

“Now we look for your weakness to extort,” I murmur softly, hypnotically… the way he likes my tone to be when I’m seducing him. My shirt falls open a little more to reveal the spot between my neck and shoulder - the spot where his blood bringers constantly broke the surface.

He frowns when he sees the cruel game I’m playing. His body stiffens, and he leans back to escape the scent I know I have to be exuding right now… my scent - the hybrid scent of lust.

“I don’t think this is fair. You know your suspect’s weaknesses a little too well,” he grumbles, and he stares at the place he once bled me from before taking me in the most surreal, mind-blowing ways.

His breath hitches, but he can’t look away. I can feel his desire to take me here and now. I can taste his desire through his rasp breaths that are growing coarser by the second.

“Then you manipulate their lust for their coveted choice, and you find your answer,” I murmur very softly while staring into the entrapping eyes.

“How do you do that?” a voice says through the glass, and I smirk when I hear Clay.

“I told you not to ask questions. Araya has always been a bigger fan of show than tell,” he admonishes.

I climb down to straddle Hale’s lap. He exhales slowly, his lips tightening as I go in for the first bit of the ploy, playing with my prey before going for the kill. His neck is inches from my lips, and I intentionally let the heat from my breath stroke it. His breath hitches again upon my sudden descent, and I feel the desire he has for me begging to burst free from his pants. With a slow caress, my hands begin to run up and down his chest, drawing out the moment of allure. I rip his shirt open to reveal his incredible body, and it’s all I can do to stay with this charade now.

His golden abs and toned chest shine under the dim lights of the cold room, and I feel my temperature rising from its normal temperature - one hundred and five degrees - to at least one hundred and ten A sizzling sound emerges to remind me I’m overheating. His temperature rises too, making his clothes start to singe.

“This isn’t fair,” he whispers in a nearly muted tone.

“I’ve never played fair in this room,” I say with an enigmatic smirk, and he shows the excited fear in his eyes as I lean over to let my lips graze his chest.

His hands try to move, the steel cuffs rattling against the metal of the poles as he does.

“Damn it,” he groans, and I smirk against his chest as my lips trail up to be just below his collarbone - the place I bled him most.

My blood bringers unsheathe and graze against the pressure point I know gets to him, and he almost gasps for air when I threaten to break the skin. Very teasingly, I pull back and move to my second favorite spot on his shoulder, and again my teeth bear down just enough to threaten his strong, almost impenetrable skin - our sharp blood bringers being one of the few things strong enough to offer penetration.

“Oh, this is torture,” he exasperates in a tormented tone.

His lips seek mine, and I pull back to be just out of reach again.

“I need the name,” I smolder out.

I see him wanting to cave. His eyes tell the truth, his secret barely hanging on.

“I don’t think so, Ms. Crush. You’ll have to work harder than that,” he mocks, but I can hear the shakiness in his tone he’s trying to mask with confidence.

My lips scale down his neck again and back to his chest to bear down once more. I press too hard and a small drizzle of blood expels from his chest. I pull back instantly before the taste enters my mouth. The erotic trickling taunts me, and I almost feel compelled to end the game that has promised to go awry.

Fuck. That could have been so, so, so bad.