fed from her, both of them holding her down, liquefied her insides and destroyed her effort to sit still. She squeezed her thighs together, offering the tiniest, tormenting relief to her immense need for friction.
She met Jakob’s eyes. And knew it wouldn’t be right.
Beautiful as he was, he wasn’t the one her lips yearned to taste.
Henrik was. He might not have possessed his brother’s physical perfection, but she wanted him. Simple as that. Impossible though it seemed, some sort of bond had formed between them in the short time since they’d met. Maybe it was the understanding their shared illnesses created. Or the fact that the aurora had captured both of their fascinations. Or that he’d saved her life, and now she was saving his. Tingling erupted on her left hand again and she jerked. He drank deeper, held tighter, and wrapped himself around her calf and thigh more completely.
Something hard and long pressed urgently into her shin.
At the proof and feel and size of his desire for her, she couldn’t hold back from moaning his name. “
“Jesus,” Jakob groaned.
Henrik growled, and the vibration rocked through her arm and against her leg.
Hot pressure grew within her core. Without meaning to, her hand fisted hard in his hair. He rocked his hips, a sinuous writhing that painted pictures in her mind’s eye of what he would look like moving over her, in her.
She was going to come. She was going to come so hard. And she wanted him in her when she did.
“Henrik,” she whimpered. Words hung for a long moment on the tip of her tongue. And then she shoved the fear and uncertainty and debate away and gave them voice. “I want you.”
It was only because he was so acutely aware of Kaira that he heard her speak over the roar of the white noise driving him to feed.
And then the words sank in.
The answering growl that rolled out of his chest was pure sexual instinct. And he was so fucking ready. From the moment his fangs had penetrated her flesh, he’d been all sexed up.
But his physical hunger waged war against his sexual hunger. He couldn’t stop drinking. He couldn’t make himself pull away. The taste was too sweet, the relief too great, the fundamental satisfaction of nourishment too overwhelming. He told himself each swallow would be the last, but then he sucked again, and again.
Panic skittered down his spine. He was going to kill her. He was going to bleed her dry.
After a decade of virtual starvation, his body was trapped in the stranglehold of survival mode. He unleashed a desperate whimper stifled by a thick swallow of blood.
“Tell him again,” Jakob rasped. “Again, Kaira.”
“I want you, Henrik,” she whispered, a note of fear entwining with the arousal roughening her voice. Her fingers carded through his hair, her nails scratching his scalp. “I want you.”
It was more than he’d hoped. Not just her acquiescence, but her desire. Not just her willingness, but her eagerness. Warm pressure filled his chest.
But he still couldn’t stop.
Even now her blood was rebuilding and reawakening him.
“It’s like before, Kaira,” Jakob said, panic lancing into his voice. “You have to convince him. You have to bring him back to you. Tell him.”
Under his touch, she was shaking now. And the intense scent of adrenaline joined the sweet smell of her arousal.
“Okay, okay.” She slid her hand under his hair, massaged his neck, and leaned in as close as their position would allow. “You can have more. I’m not going anywhere. But right now, I need you. I want you, Henrik, so you have to stop.”
His breathing and heart rate picked up their pace at the promise of her words.
“Show him,” Jakob urged.
She rained kisses down everywhere she could reach. His head, his temple, his shoulder. He clutched harder to her, the need for sex beginning to outweigh his need for blood. Grasping the hand pressing down on her forearm, she said, “Let me.” Tentatively, he gave in and allowed her to pull his right hand. He twisted just in time to see her kiss the backs of his fingers, the Magnusson crest ring.
“Use your teeth,” his brother said.
Henrik growled, a warning to Jakob, an encouragement to Kaira.
She heeded them both, sucking his middle finger into the wet heat of her mouth and lightly scraping her teeth against his flesh as she withdrew.
“Harder,” Jakob said, his voice heavy with arousal. Henrik was going to kill him, he was going to fucking—
Kaira sucked his pointer and middle fingers in to the second knuckle. And then she sank the sharp edge of her teeth into his skin. She bit and nibbled at the fleshy pads of his fingers until Henrik was shaking and moaning and sweating.
“Jesus Christ, Henrik, this woman is fucking phenomenal. Either you take her or I will.”
Henrik’s eyesight went red with rage. He extracted his teeth, licked her wound closed in a single swipe, and launched himself at his brother, taking them both to the ground in a tangle halfway across the room. Kaira shrieked as they rolled and fought to pin one another. Jakob was saying something Henrik couldn’t hear over the angry static his brother’s words had unleashed.
For just a moment, he pictured it. Jakob removing her clothes, laying her beneath him, opening her legs...
A lightning bolt of power surged through him and he slammed Jakob to the floor and wrapped both hands around the younger vampire’s throat.
Jakob looked up at him...and smiled. “
Henrik released him and shoved to his knees, breathing hard and glaring at the smug-ass expression his brother wore. Then the vampire’s face shifted, something more like awe settling onto his features as his eyes scanned over Henrik’s face.
“Welcome back, brother,” Jakob said.
The king got to his feet and hoisted the other male up with him. Even though his rational mind knew his words had been a ruse, the primal part of his brain had its hackles raised. “Thanks. Now get the fuck out.”
Jakob grinned, looking happier than he’d seen him in a long time. “You sure?”
“Out.”
He held up his hands. “All right. All right.”
They turned to find Kaira standing not far behind them, eyes wide and hands pressed over her mouth. “I thought he was going to kill you,” she said, dropping her hands and glaring at Jakob. “That was stupid.”
Henrik barked out a laugh. Laughter. Something else she brought out in him.
His brother scoffed. “Just some good-natured rough and tumble.” He threw a wink over his shoulder, then paused next to Kaira. Pressing his hands together like he was praying, he bowed his head and whispered, “Thank you.” And then he left.
The closing of the door behind him left a ringing silence. That suddenly flashed hot.
His eyes meet Kaira’s for a long moment, their whole lives hanging on a knife’s edge.
He wasn’t sure who moved first. Next thing he knew, they were all over each other. Devouring each other’s mouths. Clutching skin. Tugging clothing. She was warm and writhing and rubbing herself against him. She sucked on his tongue like she was ravenous, and the thought that she was enjoying the taste of her own blood in his mouth made him harder than he’d ever been in his life. He tugged her T-shirt over her head, only breaking their
