Page 16 of The Midnight Order (The Thorngray Vampires Duet #1)

Silver

Parking the Bugatti, I inhale deeply as I see Jasper pull in beside me in the Thunderbird.

Sneaking a look at the review, I take in my kiss-bruised lips and still-flushed cheeks, fighting not to relive how Jasper’s kiss made me feel.

Fighting the urge to smile while I rub my lips with the tip of one finger, I get out of the car, shutting the door behind me as Jasper closes the garage door and looks over at me from near the door that leads into the house.

“I think you and I should chat,” he says, the stern wall that usually encases his face falling back into place.

If I am the key to their curse, I’m to be with each of them, or that’s how I took what they told me. So, I don’t understand the issue with the kiss we shared.

I’ll admit, it felt life-altering on a cellular level.

The entire drive back, however, was spent wondering: What if I’m not the key?

That’s likely what Jasper’s worried about.

I’m no more in the door of Jasper’s room when he grabs my arm and whips me around to face him.

“What—”

“Tell me again you want me to test you from your vein,” he all but snarls.

His red eyes glow behind his mask, and thrills race through my veins like a Formula 1 car barreling straight for the finish line.

“Jasper.”

“Tell me,” he growls.

These rules are his, judging by how he looked at Asher in the basement. I should talk sense into him.

However, I recall the way I felt in the basement with Asher in a flash, and I lick my lips.

Jasper backs me into the end of the bed, and I topple onto it, bouncing as he drops to his knees between my thighs, grabbing my wrist.

He growls, running his nose the length of where my veins are blue against my skin’s surface. It sounds fiercely inhuman, and I shudder.

“You said…”

“Fuck what I said.”

“You’re thinking with your body. Maybe we should get one of the others.” I swallow thickly as he lets a fang graze over my wrist.

Warmth spreads through my center, seeping into my panties.

Fuck.

I want to let him lose himself in my vein, which is crazy talk.

“Do not give me my logic,” he says, feral eyes flicking up to meet mine. “Give me permission, Silver.”

“Are you asking, or is that an order, Master?” I tease, having heard Milly call him such a few times.

He shifts off his haunches and onto his knees as he presses his face into my space, fangs gleaming. “Don’t taunt me.”

“I’m not… I?—”

His eyes watch my lips as they fall open, and a heavy breath expels. “I won’t do anything you don’t want. Tell me you don’t want it, and I’ll use every ounce of power I have to leave this room.”

I can’t, I realize.

Even if fear is twirling through my veins like an intoxicating drug, I can’t tell him no.

“Drink from me,” I tell him, my heart racing away as I flip my hand he’s never let go of.

He falls back on his haunches, rubbing his face over my exposed wrist. “You’re certain?”

“Not really, but I can’t deny you for some reason. Will it feel like before… with Asher?”

I don’t want to mention another man in front of him and risk anything close to jealousy, especially given how things between us felt earlier in the gazebo, but I have to know to be prepared.

“It will,” he breathes, his eyes growing heavy-lidded. “Do you still want me to bite you?”

The way he’s said it…

I nod.

“It will hurt a bit because I’m using your wrist.”

Using my other hand, I shift my hair from one side to the other to offer my throat, and Jasper immediately shakes his head.

“I don’t have enough control to be at your neck, Silver. Your scent… I can’t.”

I nod, shaking my head to shift my hair back into place.

He lifts my wrist to his mouth, opening it wide as he locks eyes with me.

I give him another nod to confirm I’m all right with it as my heart nearly plummets to my feet with fear and anticipation.

When he strikes, he doses me with venom.

Lust billows through me like ancient magic, curling and wrapping me in a warm blanket. It’s overwhelming.

My other hand finds his hair, fisting it as my legs fall wide and my head falls back.

“Jasper,” I moan.

He grips my wrist tighter with both hands, and I feel he’s fighting with himself. With the need to stop and the willpower to do so.

The fact that he’s having trouble pulling off my vein has my moans deepening and my panties getting wetter and wetter.

“God,” I breathe, tightening my grip on his hair as his red eyes close.

I lock in on his throat, where he’s swallowing my blood down, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

“Hey, Jasper, I was wondering…” Lowell barrels into the room, and my eyes flick over as my body writhes on the bed, trying desperately to rub out some of the need on the mattress. However, my frustration has me pleading with Lowell for help.

Someone has to help me.

Lowell takes a moment to assess the situation before his face falls into a deadly serious expression.

He moves behind Jasper, placing a hand on his shoulder.

A snarl rips from Jasper, only intensifying the intense craving inside me for more. More him. More touching.

More.

An ignorant part of my brain wants him to bleed me dry.

I don’t want him to stop.

I know it’s the venom. It’s what keeps their victims complacent.

The thing that keeps them under their spell.

I’m electrified. I feel like something in me is waking up that’s been slumbering for a lifetime. Like I can see color when I’ve only been able to see gray for so long.

“Jas, you have to be stronger than the pull of her blood. You’ll kill her.”

Another inhuman sound comes from Jasper as my body inclines toward him, arching as waves of sparking lust leave me even more greedy to be touched. To be sated.

“Look at her,” Lowell says, crouching. His eyes are full of craving but also full of awareness. “You see that beautiful rouge in her cheeks, Jas? What if this was the last time you saw it? You can do it. Let her go. That’s a direct order!”

Jasper finally listens, pulling his fangs from my wrist, and I cry out, fervently begging him to keep going.

It’s insanity.

There’s a hunger in me that’s ravenous, avaricious, and I don’t know if it’ll consume me.

It feels as if it will devour me whole, if not depleted, it’ll vehemently chew me up and spit me out like the bones of discarded prey.

“Please,” I choke out, tears rolling down my cheeks as Jasper’s wild eyes take me in.

“Lick her wound closed,” Lowell tells him, his tone dropping huskily as he watches me writhe.

My hand slides over my belly, causing ripples of bliss to maneuver through the small cavities in my body and the branches of my synapses.

Jasper licks the tip of his tongue over my bloody wrist, his eyes never once dropping mine.

“She’s too high, Jas. You can’t leave her like this, but I don’t trust you with her.”

“Stay,” Jasper says. It’s choked and biting, but Lowell doesn’t take offense.

He only nods.

Jasper unbuttons my jeans, working them down over my skin, which is simultaneously too hot and too cold.

My center is sopping, soaking through my panties, and the cold air hits it and makes me greedier.

I moan as Jasper shoves my panties to the side, his eyes acutely taking me in like I’m a succulent fruit waiting to be devoured.

My eyes flick to Lowell, who then assures me I’m not alone with an answering touch on my hand.

I flip my wrist, intertwining my hand with his, as waves of venom swell in my veins, causing ripples of longing to overcome me.

Jasper presses me back, his hand on my stomach.

I lie back, arching as he spreads my folds before hesitating.

“Please,” I beg, my heart rattling and my skin itching the longer desire holds me tight in its grip.

“Jas,” Lowell adds, coming to my side, still holding my hand.

It feels odd, being so bare before two men, but I can’t think about it now.

I know I will later, but now, all I can think about is Jasper’s tongue on me and the salacious way it’ll feel to be touched finally.

“Close your eyes, little lamb. I’ve got you. We’ve got you.”

Listening hastily, I slam my eyes closed the moment Jasper’s tongue collides with my center.

A feral snarl comes from me as every bit of yearning races through my body like it’s got no idea how to behave.

“Fuck!” I groan, entirely aware of how unladylike I sound right now.

“Let Jasper make you feel better,” Lowell says low in my ear, causing whitecaps of goosebumps to crest on my skin.

Turning my face, I look deep into Lowell’s eyes. There’s reassurance in them. Solace floating on their outer surface as a reminder that I’ll be alright.

Even when it feels like pleasure is going to swallow me whole.

Tingling worms deeper into my body, burrowing into my bones as a burning ache takes up in my lower belly, and my moans roll through the room like decorations being hung around us.

“That’s it, let go,” Lowell tells me.

Jasper works a finger around the rim of my entrance, and I pray to whoever will listen for him to sink inside me.

This is madness, and the thought nearly breaks through the haze of venom in my body to set me free.

Nearly.

When Jasper sinks a finger deep inside, I come off the bed, losing Lowell’s eyes but gripping his hand hard as I use the other to lock onto Jasper’s hair.

“Don’t stop,” I plead. “Fuck, don’t stop.”

My legs fall open wider as an orgasm pulls to the surface, feeling so close yet so far as my mouth drops open, and I hold my breath, hoping. Praying.

“Come, little lamb.”

Lowell’s soft command in my ear breaks my resolve, and my body shatters.

My scream is unending as my pussy pulses around Jasper’s fingers. He sucks my clit, and it seems to continue my orgasm until it rams into another.

Just when I think it might kill me, it’s over.

I fall back on the bed, and Lowell leans over the edge, his hand splaying on my stomach, as my breathing is erratic.

Lolling my head to the side, I stare at him.

No words pass between us, but my thanks are received.

He nods, a smirk on his face as he stands, passing Jasper and patting him on the shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up over this, Jas. I think the girl had fun.”

I can’t help but laugh as I cover my eyes.

I feel the air shift around me and pull my arm back.

Jasper and I look at one another for a drawn-out moment before I see it.

Regret.

Cracks of remorse break through my contentment because I pleaded for what he’d done.

“I’m sorry,” I offer, my voice cracking and raspy.

“No. I am. That shouldn’t have happened.”

Every single thing I wanted to say dissipates and falls to the wayside as I cover my panties back over my slick center and reach down for my pants.

He paces the room as I get myself back in order, feeling my cum with his spit mixing between my legs as I stand.

“I’ll go,” I say, and he doesn’t respond.

When I slip into the hall, my chest is burning, and my eyes are leaking hot tears. By the time I’m in the shower in my room, I’m sobbing and not entirely sure why.

That was the best orgasm I’ve ever had, but I also know it’s unattainable ever again. Not with any mortal man.

Old me never would’ve let that happen. Shit, now me wouldn’t either.

However, I don’t know if I can entirely blame it on venom since the kiss earlier in the day, I started.

I’m spiraling and don’t know how to stop.

I can only hope that this will all be over soon.

Because I’m no longer sure if I’m having fun.