Blood and Kisses(33)

His eyes found Thalia’s sober face. Her eyes were huge with concern, her soft bottom lip pinched between her teeth, her breathing irregular.

“I’ve taken a bit much, but he should be okay. I’ll meet you at Mina’s. You’ll be safe there.” He didn’t want to leave her alone, but after what she’d done to Akos, his adversary would also have to feed before he went to ground at dawn.

“Your wounds?” Thalia protested.

“Almost healed. I need more blood, but I don’t have much time left before dawn.”

He could see the reluctance in Thalia’s expression, but she agreed, and he led her back to the car. “Where did this car come from?”

Thalia looked abashed. “I stole it. I took it from the emergency department parking lot and it’s only for the people who drive themselves.”

“Why didn’t you take one from the parking garage?”

“I don’t have any money.”

Despite his weakness, Gideon smiled.

He left the older man in the alley and followed Thalia back to Mina’s car, watching over her while she wiped her prints off the stolen vehicle. The sky was turning an ominous gray. Gideon left her and flew to one of the few places he could find prey in Rochester at this hour—the local Perkins.



Hours later, Gideon awoke in the dark room. He looked around, disoriented for a moment, and saw a glimmer of light shining around the edges of the curtains. Memory flooded back. He was in a spare bedroom at Mina’s.

His feeding the previous evening had gone smoothly, but he’d cut it close—the first rays of sun had begun to burn the back of his neck as Thalia had let him in. She’d led him to the nearest bedroom, and he’d gone straight to sleep.

A faint shaft of light from the hall pierced the darkness, and he knew why he’d awakened.

Thalia. He could tell by her scent, the rhythm of her breathing, even the beating of her heart. “Come in,” he said gently, as if to a wild creature.

She slid into the room and closed the door softly behind her. The latch fastened with a whisper and a click. “I can’t sleep.” She walked further into the room, her arms wrapped around her body as if she were cold. She wore a floor length wrapper of chenille, borrowed from Mina, no doubt. She was wound tight.

Nervous.

Reasonable when he considered she was about to face the most difficult challenge of her life, but he didn’t think that accounted for the wide dilation of her pupils and the skittering cadence of her heart. Her sweet, fresh scent held a hint of musk.

She hadn’t come to him to talk.

He should send her away. Nothing had changed. The reasons he’d broken it off earlier still remained and they were still good, solid reasons. But somehow he couldn’t seem to remember them.

Not with her standing here, her breath coming fast, the heady scent of her arousal in the air.

He held a hand out to her.



At that minute, nothing seemed more important to Thalia than having this time with Gideon. Not the challenge, not the community, not the rogue, nothing. She didn’t know where the courage had come from, but when she’d finally given up on sleep, she knew she had to be with Gideon. Their time together was running short. No man had ever called to her as he did. Maybe it was because he was a vampire. She didn’t care.

She’d almost lost him last night.

And maybe he didn’t want her, maybe he’d turn her away, but she needed to try. To be with him was worth the risk of rejection.

She could barely see him in the dark room. He was just a shadowy figure on the bed. She could see his eyes, though. They gleamed in the dim light seeping around the window shades.

She took his hand. He pulled her toward him and she went into his welcoming arms. He simply held her for a moment and though she savored the warmth of his embrace, she feared he intended no more than that. But then he cupped her cheek in his large hand. His thumb caressed her cheekbone, the slightly callused surface scraping her smooth skin and sending a flare of heat zinging though her. His eyes held hers for a long intoxicating second, and he lowered his lips to hers.

Her eyes closed as his mouth worked a dark magic as smooth as melted chocolate and just as sweet. The rough velvet of his tongue glided past her lips and delved into the inner recesses of her mouth. The touch of his tongue against hers ignited a spark that scorched her nerve endings, leaving them tortuously sensitive. She gasped for air, but her breathlessness had nothing to do with lack of oxygen and everything to do with the sorcery of his touch.

He ran his fingers through the silky skein of her hair. The brush of his digits against her scalp sent a shivery thrill down her spine. Her hand found the back of his head. His hair was soft. She stroked his nape. He groaned. The sound hummed within her chest. That she could elicit such a response from this man evoked an answering moan. His lips played over hers, the tiny, stinging nip of his teeth, hot alchemy. She discovered the sharp points of his fangs with her tongue and drew back. His eyes glowed red in the dark.





Chapter 19



The demon rose strong in him, but he couldn’t stop. His body cried out for hers. He had to have her. He took her mouth again before trailing tiny kisses from the corner of her lips to her chin and down her neck. He bit lightly at the sensitive base of her throat, careful not to break the skin. She clutched his head to her and her excitement fed him, inspiring him to greater heights.

He opened her borrowed robe. The room was as bright as day to him, and he relished the sight of the intimate curves and hollows of her body, the dark rose nipples, the downy hair guarding her sex. He struggled from his clothing, leaving it in a heap upon the carpet. He could tell by the way her eyes grazed his body that her eyes had grown accustomed to the dark. Her breathing was heavy and uneven. She liked what she saw. There was a hint of fear there, too, and he remembered she was a virgin, but he had forgotten why he cared. He burned.

Nobility forgotten, he took her in his arms and brought her bare body against his. He rubbed his rough cheek on her satiny shoulder. The exquisite press of her nipples against his chest was more than he could stand. He drew her back to the bed and picked her up, setting her on top of him. Her moist center kissed his thigh, calling to his hand. He gently parted her damp folds and found her small nub. Her head fell back and she cried out. He stole the sound with his mouth, swallowing it when he recaptured her lips.



She’d thought his mouth magic, but his hands. Heavens. His hands.

He rubbed her, and she thought she might explode with delight. She liquefied. There wasn’t a bone or a cartilage left in her body. The swollen recesses of her body yearned for more, and he didn’t disappoint, easing a finger inside her. The vibrating touch of his thumb and the slick stroke of his finger threatened to send her staggering into a mysterious world of sensation unlike any she’d ever known. She ripped her mouth away from his and offered him her breasts. His feverish lips found the pink tip of one full globe, and she glimpsed that other world for one heavenly moment.

His hands fell away. Deprived of her goal, she clutched at his shoulders, unwilling to let him back away now, as he had before. “No,” she said. “Don’t stop!”

“I won’t.” He rolled them over until she lay beneath him and his erection found the throbbing ache his hand had left. She felt her eyes widen as he filled her. He was so hard, so thick. There was a tiny stinging pain, but it dissolved in the sea of pleasure he roused as he began to move.



Gideon rested on his elbows so he could see her face; her eyelids were half-lowered over her sparkling eyes, her full lips open in a blissful smile. Her gasping moans were music to his ears. Her head rolled back exposing her neck. Gods. How he longed to drink from her.

Do it, the monster hissed. Gideon forced him back. He would not hurt her.

At least not now. The demon got in one final word before Gideon conquered him, stuffing him back in his iron cage.

Thalia sighed and moved her slender hips, pulling him into the cradle of her thighs and he forgot his struggle. Nothing existed but the joy of their union. He took his time, reading the expression on her lovely face. Taking her to the apex of pleasure and then bringing her back, again and again. Finally he could hold back no longer, he lost control, driving into her as the tight clench of her muscles impelled him over the edge.



Thalia rested her cheek on Gideon’s sleek chest. She resisted the impulse to nibble his golden skin. Aftershocks still rippled through her, and already she wanted more. She felt her face heat and buried it in Gideon’s side. She’d never even imagined it could be like this. She leaned up on one slim elbow to look at his amazing face, and opened her mouth to tell him how much joy he had given her, then stopped. He was asleep.

She grinned, nestled into the shelter of his strong arms, and slept as well.

The brown eyes in front of him were wide. The expression in them shocked, as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened. Her startled cry still died away in the hot, parched air. Gideon pulled free his curved blade. Inanna grabbed her stomach.