Page 123 of This Blood that Bonds Us

With feather kisses, he teased the skin on my neck and nuzzled into my jaw. Every touch was intoxicating.Closer. Closer. Closer.

“I’m so in love with you I can’t stand it.” He leaned over me. “Especially the way you taste.”

With eyes full of lust, he lifted my chin to meet his gaze, and I watched in silent acceptance as he kissed my wrist, then sank his teeth into my skin again. It was hungry. Frantic. Like every second he needed more of me and even blood wasn’t enough.

My attempts to remain levelheaded around Aaron Calem were excruciatingly difficult.

Everything he did was exactly what I wanted. Blood on blood. We were whole, and I didn’t know if anything could be thatperfect ever again. My head felt lighter, and I welcomed the tingling and weakness in my body.

His tongue licked at my wound on my wrist, and his attention went to the droplets that had fallen on my chest. In long strokes, he licked them while sucking softly on my skin.

Aaron wasn’t holding back anymore. Every stroke of his tongue and bite felt like a promise that he wasn’t afraid. His teeth sank into my skin lightly, over and over with just enough blood to lick away.

He wasn’t as nice to my other pieces of clothing when stripping me. In one motion, he turned me around and pulled me to the edge of the bed. His tongue teased down every vertebra as I arched into him. Like every time before, his touch was gentle and calculated. He made sure I was ready and took his time. Even with the sounds coming from me, pleading for more.

Aaron’s lips caressed my neck, and he offered me his wrist again.

As my teeth tore his skin, he moved into me slowly. Gentle. Always gentle. The friction. The blood. It all tore me from my calm, soft state to something more desperate and wild. Our bodies rocked in harmonious rhythm, and I couldn’t stifle my moans. The tension tightened in my core until I was on the edge of release. It was so fast, so intense.

“Wait.”

Aaron stopped. “Are you okay? Is this too much?”

I shook my head. “Lay on the bed.”

His eyes widened at my advance, and he complied, crawling back onto his forearms to face me. I moved up to pin him this time and straddled his torso. He was studying me with soft eyes, like a precious piece of fine art.

“Can I bite you again?” I asked.

There was no thirst. It wasn’t like the strange ravenous feeling when it was time to feed on human blood. This was a need forhim that overwhelmed me. To feel the warmth of his blood in my mouth and his heartbeat in my head. Human me might have thought the whole thing very morbid, but we weren’t human anymore. There was something in each of us that dared to consume, but we consumed each other. It was bloody, slow, and perfect.

He smiled, grabbing the side of my face softly. “You don’t have to ask. I’m yours. I’d let you drain me dry right now if you asked.”

I smiled. “Don’t.”

“Drink your fill.” He pulled me to him until my lips touched the vein in his neck. I bit down and savored the feeling of his blood surging within me. It was intoxicating how natural it felt.

He kissed me, with his blood still on my lips.

“I don’t know why I ran away from this for so long. Why didn’t we do this before?” His soft laughter filled the cool area around us. His words were filled with elation and . . . relief. Like all the fear he’d once held had dissolved in front of his eyes.

“You were too busy not listening to me.”

“Haven’t we learned you have all the best ideas.”

“You do. I was scared, but I’m not anymore.” He squeezed my cheeks in his palms. “I never had to be afraid of loving you like this. You were always meant to be mine.”

My cheeks heated with the adoration in his soft gaze. And I moved myself to take him in, in every way possible. I was stretched and full but needed more. I kissed his wrist before biting him again. With a circling of my hips, I felt him everywhere. Deeper and deeper. Fuller and fuller.

“I’m not going to last with you doing that,” he breathed.

“You don’t have to.”

He stopped me with a hand on my hips. “No. You first.”

“Together.”

Our bodies moved in a not-so-gentle cadence that sent pleasure rolling from my hips into my abdomen. He kept his firm grip on my waist while we rode out wave after wave of pleasure as one. I shattered completely with a soft cry, but he mended me with his blood, then again when he pulled me down to lay on his chest.