It’s not quite an apology, not quite an explanation—just an acceptance of his anger.
And of my own.
Chapter Twenty
Rome’s lips are bruising, and I can feel the scrape of his teeth against my tongue as our mouths open, gasps and grunts pouring back and forth between us as the kiss deepens. He tastes good, so fucking good, like warm mulled wine and the richest kind of chocolate—with just a hint of the coppery tang of blood.
As he devours me with his mouth and I do my best to consume him right back, I realize how badly some part of me has wanted to do this ever since that first time he drank from me. The way he prepared my neck and then finally bit into it was careful and almost tender, everything about it measured and controlled.
But this?
This is the opposite.
The other side of the coin.
This is Rome when he’s not holding himself back, when he’s letting both his sensual gentleness and his rage run free.
It’s addictive and terrifying all at once, and I lose myself in the weight of his lips and the heat of his breath until he suddenly pulls back, breaking the connection between us.
I let out a quiet, strangled cry of disappointment, my head lifting from the stone floor as I chase his mouth. But he wraps a hand around my throat and squeezes just hard enough to keep me pinned down, his dark blue eyes meeting mine. The look entirely black in this light, like staring up at a night sky when it’s so overcast you can’t see a single star.
My eyelids flutter as I gaze up at him, my chest rising and falling as I suck in a breath past the pressure of his hand. His fingers are long and calloused, and his palm is so broad that it covers my entire throat. I know he can feel my pulse fluttering wildly against his skin, and his nostrils flare as his jaw muscles ripple.
For a moment, I wonder if he’ll snap my neck. He wouldn’t even have to twist my head to kill me—he could crush my windpipe and the bones of my spine all in one vicious squeeze if he chose to do it.
Maybe he’s thinking about it.
Maybe that’s what’s going on behind those midnight-blue eyes of his.
I can’t tell what internal battle he’s fighting with himself. I only know when it ends.
With a low snarl, he releases my throat and drops his head again, kissing me even more savagely than the first time, as if he’s trying to punish me or himself or both of us. I barely have time to return the kiss before he’s ripping his lips away from mine again, but this time, he doesn’t draw back. He just drags them downward, over my jawline and chin and down the column of my throat.
His sharp fangs tease the throbbing pulse of my carotid artery, making bolts of sensation charge through my body, but he doesn’t bite down. He moves lower, his ravenous mouth laying waste to the lines of my collarbones, making my nipples peak in response. Then he’s moving lower still, his large hands grabbing fistfuls of my twisted, torn skirt and shoving it upward until he’s kneeling between my legs with nothing but my panties between him and my core.
My pussy clenches hard as his hot breath ghosts over my skin, and I jerk in shock as he shreds the delicate lace of my underwear with a quick slash of his teeth. One hand yanks the destroyed fabric away, tossing it to the side as he buries his face between my legs.
Just like the way he kissed me, there’s something brutal and unrestrained about it, not a single thing held back. I’m already wet as fuck from having his tongue in my mouth and his lips and teeth all over my neck, and instead of just licking me, he smells me, dragging his nose through my folds and nudging it against my clit in a way that makes me whimper.
“You smell just as good as I remember,” he murmurs roughly, and I blink up at the ceiling in confusion.
When…?
Oh. When he drank from me. I was so turned on then that even without his face buried between my legs, he could smell my arousal.
My breath comes faster, and I rock my hips against the cool, hard floor, seeking out more pressure and friction right where I need it.
Rome’s nose brushes my clit again, and his tongue delves inside me briefly, but then he pulls back. I’m whimpering, almost mindless with the need to feel him again, and when he puts his mouth on me again, I gasp.
Because it’s not where I expected it.
Instead of licking my pussy, his tongue drags up the inside of my thigh. I bite my lip at the agonizing tease, goosebumps spreading out over my skin. He laps at me again, but this time I feel the drag of teeth too, and that’s even better. Even closer to the thing I didn’t even know I needed until now.
“Rome,” I pant, clenching my hands into fists to keep myself from reaching down and shoving his face against my leg. Some part of me still can’t admit I like this so much, or that I need it so badly. “Fuck…”
He doesn’t give me what I want, and he doesn’t pay any attention to my words. He just keeps teasing me, warming me up with his tongue and his breath before pulling away enough to let the air cool my heated skin. He switches to my other leg, his teeth scraping against the tender flesh of my inner thigh, and my clit throbs wildly as I feel arousal seep from me in a gush that I can’t even control.
I keep squeezing my eyes shut and then opening them, trying to block everything else out before giving in to the fierce desire to watch him take
