“Don’t make me repeat myself, Lord Nightingale.”
Her cry of pained surprise cut through the silence as he struck. The sharp stab of his fangs as they pierced her tender flesh felt hot and dizzying. The strong pull on her vein and Lucian’s guttural moan of ecstasy that followed, made her knees buckle. His hand gripped the outside of her thigh, securing her to his ravenous mouth, while the other hand splayed across her hips, pinning her to the wall. His eyes shot up to hers and the unbridled pleasure she saw within the black depths made her groan as another orgasm built.
Lucian’s hand dipped down lower and with his thumb, he urgently began to strum on her clit. Each little swallow his mouth made as he drank from her seemed to pulse in time with her pounding desire. With one long, hard final pull at her vein, her climax rolled over her in blinding waves of hot pleasure.
“Lucian, yes!”
His teeth retracted and he quickly sealed her wound with a smear of his own blood, the tingle it caused making her slump against the wall as another orgasm ghosted its way through her. Lucian stood and cupped her face tenderly.
“I’m sorry my beautiful darling, I took too much, I-”
“Don’t you dare apologise for that. That was incredible,” Katherine whispered, her eyes shuttering closed for a brief moment while she came down from her euphoria. A week ago, if someone had dared to suggest she would enjoy being bitten and fed upon by a creature of the night, she would have questioned their sanity. Now? She was already wishing that she could experience the sweet, luxurious release again. Maybe not right away, but she definitely wanted Lucian to sink his teeth into her again. The fresh memory of the raw hunger and ecstasy that she had seen in his eyes made her tremble with hot shivers of anticipation.
“Come, let me take you to bed,” Lucian turned off the shower and gathered her into his arms.
Katherine found she didn’t have the energy to protest. She didn’t think she’d give him an argument if he wanted to carry her everywhere from here on out. As the softness of the mattress hit her back she murmured out a protest. She wanted more. She wanted to see him lose control but everything felt a little slow and hazy now and the bed was so comfortable.
“Hush darling. Sleep now,” Lucian’s voice was still laced with regret and she frowned.
“Don’t go, stay.”
“Whatever you want, darling.”
“Hold me,” she said lazily, her voice sounding far off even to her own ears. “Do vampires snuggle?”
“This one does, for you,” Lucian replied as the warmth and firmness of his body came to envelop her in a safe cocoon, the blankets could’ve been the softest satin and they would’ve been dull in comparison to the feeling of his skin against hers.
Katherine remembered sighing and the moment her beaming smile relaxed from her face, right before she dropped into the abyss of exhausted slumber.
Chapter Sixteen
Lucian
Strength pulsed heavily in his veins. Her blood was a powerful and intoxicating rush to his senses.
O negative. Lucian cursed.
It had been so long since he had tasted the forbidden nectar. As soon as blood types had been identified and a name given to the blood, it had been banned by the elders. It was illegal to harvest from O negative donors. The blood being both medically invaluable to humans and addictively sought after by vampires. Rare and luxuriously smooth, full of complexities, and capable of flexing its effect to suit the mood of the drinker. Lucian had been in the throes of passion when he had tasted it and the amplification of his pleasure had become euphoric. Drinking from Katherine had been divine. He already wanted another taste.
But he shouldn’t. It was illegal. If it was discovered that he had drunk from her she would be taken from him and placed under strict protection. Humans with O negative blood were on a watch list from birth, they had protective charms and spells cast upon them to shield them from being identified by vampires. The fact that no-one or nothing had intervened to prevent Lucian from getting close to Katherine, let alone tasting her, made him believe she had somehow slipped under the radar.
A shiver of fear for her swept through him. There were those who would drain her for their own pleasure or would keep her locked away and bleed her regularly to sell her blood to the highest bidder on the black market. She didn’t deserve such a fate, none did. She needed to be protected. But the thought of reporting her to the authorities made his chest twist in pain.
He didn’t want her taken from him. And that is most assuredly what would happen. The council of elders would keep them apart. Now that Lucian had tasted her, he would be considered a threat. He could easily covet her and keep her locked up for his own personal gain. Regardless of his own intentions to protect and cherish her, the council would seek to mitigate the risk by removing her from his care. And then what would happen to her? Lucian would have no means of helping her pursue her dreams, no way of showing her how important and capable she was. She might fall into the same routine of being exploited by her father time and time again.
Lucian ground his teeth in anger. They wouldn’t take her from him. He would keep her existence a secret and would protect her, even from himself.
He looked down at her quiet sleeping form, sprawled out on the bed beside him. Her damp hair tangled around her head in a messy halo, her mouth slightly open. She looked so at peace and unguarded, a rare moment
