“Possessive, are you?”
“Extremely.” His voice was nearly agrowl.
“Why am I not surprised?”
“I do not even like the idea of your friendtaking blood from you,” Corbin continued. “Though I realize it wasa necessity since she is too incompetent to feed herself any otherway.”
“Don’t talk that way about Taylor. She wasalways the best at everything she did before she got turned,” Iprotested. “She’s extremely intelligent—she just isn’t cruel enoughto adapt to being a vamp.”
“So you think cruelty is the mainprerequisite for becoming one of my kind?” he asked blandly.
“I think it helps, yes.” I frowned at him asI unbuttoned my jacket and took it off. “I mean, you’re not exactlyall hearts and flowers and warm fuzzies, now are you?”
Corbin shook his head. “We do what we mustto survive. That is not always easy in my world.”
I had a feeling I was going to learn a wholelot more than I wanted to about his world in the near future but Ididn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Here,” I said, rolling upthe sleeves of my white silk blouse and holding out a wrist. “Howare you going to heal me?” I hoped it didn’t involve him trying toget inside my mind.
But Corbin simply cupped my hand in his palmand brought my wrist to his mouth. “Like this,” he murmured.Bending his mouth to my scarred wrist, he began to lick and suck.My breath caught in my throat at the feeling of his hot, wet tongueagainst my flesh and my heart immediately began to pound.
“How is that supposed to hel—” I started toask and then I felt a cool tingling sensation that began at mywrist and seemed to travel up my arm and down into my chest. Itfelt strange at first and then really good—too good, to behonest. My nipples were suddenly stiff and achy and I could feelthat I was getting hot and wet between my thighs.
I squirmed uncomfortably, wishing I couldpull my wrist away from his mouth. Corbin’s gaze met mine as hecontinued to lick and kiss the flesh of my badly scarred wrist. Hissilver-blue eyes were half lidded with lust. It was as though thissimple act of tasting my flesh was extremely erotic to him. Ishivered from the way he was looking at me as much as from thetingling that was spreading through my entire body.
It occurred to me that I shouldn’t have beenable to feel anything at all. I had been feeding Taylor for almostsix years now and I’d lost a lot of sensitivity in that area—nodoubt her badly placed bites had caused some kind of nerve damage.But now I could feel everything, every tiny movement of his lipsand tongue against my skin—it was as though I was suddenlyhypersensitive to his touch.
“How much longer?” I finally blurted outafter what felt like an eternity of his mouth on my skin.
Corbin straightened up—he’d bent down toreach my wrist—and smiled at me. “See for yourself.”
I looked at my wrist in disbelief. I washealed. And I don’t just mean that the scars Taylor had left on myskin had faded—they were completely gone. It was as though they hadnever been in the first place.
“How did you do that?” I demanded. “I’venever heard of a vamp that could heal before.”
He shrugged. “Many of us have specialabilities we don’t share with your kind. Are you ready for me toheal your other wrist?”
I thought of the strange, hot feeling I’dgotten when the healing tingles traveled through my body andfrowned. “I…guess so.”
Corbin arched an eyebrow. “You don’t soundvery happy to be healed. You cannot tell me you enjoyedhaving such disfiguring scars in such a prominent place.”
“No,” I admitted, shifting restlessly fromfoot to foot. “I’ve been wearing long sleeves for what seems likeforever so I don’t have to explain them to people.”
“When I am finished you will no longer haveto worry about such things,” he said reasonably.
“I know. I just…” I frowned at him. “Why didthat…why did having you heal me feel so…so strange?”
He gave me a sharp look. “You had othersensations than just my mouth against your skin?”
“It felt like…cool tingles running up anddown my arms and all over my body,” I said.
“What else?” His eyes were as penetrating asa laser beam.
“What do you mean, what else?” I saiddefensively. I wasn’t about to tell him how my nipples had gottenhard or my…other symptoms for want of a better word.
“You know very well what I am talking about.If we are going to enter into this partnership, you need to betruthful with me.” Corbin sounded positively stern and his eyesflashed angrily, reminding me for a moment of why he was consideredthe most powerful and ruthless vamp in the entire state.
“Fine.” I lifted my chin. “I felt…how can Iput this without feeding your already massive ego? I felt somesymptoms of…of sexual arousal.”
“Such as?”
“You’re really going to make me say it?” Ilooked at him in disbelief but he simply nodded. “God…” I couldfeel my cheeks burning. “All right, fine. I…my nipples got hardand…and…”
“And you got wet. Here.” One large handbrushed lightly over the sensitive V between my thighs and was goneagain before I could stop him.
I glared at him and then looked away,embarrassed. “If you already knew, why did you make me say it?”
“Because it is time that you startacknowledging what is between us—that there is a connection waitingto happen. I am standing on one side of the chasm, holding out myhand to you, yet you refuse to reach for me.”
“And I’m going to keep refusing,” I saidthrough tight lips. “All the cheap vamp tricks in the world won’tchange that.”
“Addison.” Corbin lifted my chin with onefinger, forcing me to look at him. “There is no trick to this. Itis simply the way your body reacts to mine. If you had noattraction to me at all, letting me heal you would have felt muchthe way allowing your friend to drink from you does.”
I knew he was referring to the weird,bugs-crawling-all-over-my-skin feeling I got when Taylor bit me.The way I had felt
