Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(23)

His back stiffened as our breath mingled together like a forbidden cocktail.

“I want you to kiss me.” I reached up and took his face in my hand, angling it so that he had nowhere else to look but at me. His skin, while cool against my fingers, was as soft as a feather and completely entrancing. My body swayed to him like a pendulum, and I followed it freely, bringing my lips to his like an offering.

His hand came up to my neck, stopping me just before I could land the kiss. “You don’t know what you want,” he said, his fingers still wrapped loosely around my neck.

“Yes, I do,” I insisted.

He looked down at me, his smoldering eyes looking as though they were at war within themselves, like he was desperately trying to restrain himself. To do the ‘right thing’.

I never thought I’d see the day, but it only made me want to kiss him more.

“Go to bed, angel. For your sake and mine.”

“Kiss me goodnight and I’ll go to bed.” Did I just say that?

He licked his lips at my words, his eyes moving down to my mouth as though he were thinking it over. My heart picked up its thrum as his hand moved from my neck to my face, cupping my cheek with his palm as he stroked my waiting lips with the pad of his thumb.

I shivered again. This time, the really, really good ones.

“Go to bed,” he said in that strange voice I’d come to love and despise all at once.

His words crawled through my mind, overtaking my own free will.

I lay down on my pillow and glared up at him. “You promised you wouldn’t compel me.”

“It’s for your own good, angel.”

“I think I should be the judge of what’s good for me and what isn’t.”

“Unfortunately, you aren’t equipped to handle that task right now.”

I shot him a doubtful look. “And you are?”

“Barely,” he said under his breath as he looked back at the door.

I huffed out a sigh. “Well, do you want to feed at least?”

His eyes snapped back to mine, rounded and stunned. And he wasn’t the only one.

Apparently, my body wasn’t the only thing I’d lost control of. I’d also lost my damn mind. Although it wasn’t a secret that I’d come to enjoy his nightly visits—that I longed for his special brand of medicine that chased away all the un-pleasantries in my life, I certainly never thought I’d actually ask for it.

Out loud.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Since when?” I whined, knitting my brows at him.

“Since now. You’re starting to crave it. This is dangerous ground you’re treading on.” His words were a warning, but there was something else in his eyes that seemed almost…pleased by it.

“I’m not craving it,” I lied. “It just helps me sleep.”

He licked his lips again as he looked down at me, thinking it over—debating it in his mind.

“Please.” I picked up my hair and moved it over my shoulders, exposing his favorite spot on my body. “Just one more time…to help me sleep,” I said, running my fingers along my neck. It was merciless and I knew it, but I didn’t care. “You might not get another chance after tomorrow.”

His jaw muscles tightened as he stared down at my neck longingly, and I swore, I felt the exact moment he made the decision—the moment he gave in to me. I could feel it deep down in the marrow of my bones.

Darkness filtered in over his eyes and in the next breath, he was hovering above my body. My head was swimming and my heart was pounding recklessly in my chest, but I’d never felt more alive in my entire life. Anticipation electrified my skin as he moved my hand out of his way and then lowered his mouth to my neck.

“Forgive me,” he whispered—to himself, or me, or some unknown master in the sky.

His teeth clicked out and plunged through the soft skin just below my ear. There was no pain, no fear, no anything; only rapture and an instant sense of wellbeing. Of bliss. He groaned against my neck and bit down harder, taking more.

It occurred to me just then that he may not be able to control himself, that without the prison door separating us and gravity pulling me away from him, he might not be able to stop himself from bleeding me dry.

It was a brief, fleeting thought, of course, and it disappeared just as soon as the darkness began painting everything in shades of black. I was slipping away from this world again and I couldn’t wait to be gone. My eyes rolled back into my head as my heart slowed down its steady thrum. It was that familiar moment right before the world evaporated from my consciousness, and I waited for it each time with bated breath.

Dominic stopped abruptly, drawing his face away from me, though his body still lingered above mine. He wiped the corner of his mouth and stared down at me, his dark eyes swirling with smoke and fire.

I wondered how he’d been able to control himself? To stop himself from going too far. I tried to speak up and ask him the questions that were burning through my mind, but my words came out as a whimper.

“Sleep now, angel,” he said, stroking my cheek again and then disappearing from my view.

I wanted to get up and find him. To chase after him and make him stay with me. But my lids were too weighty and my exhaustion too heavy to fight away. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.