Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“I did! Isn’t it great?” He jumped off and landed beside me. I shrieked when he scooped me off my feet. “I overheard their little plot to break our most sacred rule and defy an Elder, but I couldn’t act until they actually defied me.” Radu tsked at me. “Vampires aren’t barbarians, honey. We don’t go around killing each other just because one wants to break a rule. They have to attempt to do it first.
“I mean, after all...” Eyes flashing black, he licked his lips. “We all want to swallow you whole, honey girl. You can’t blame a man for having good taste.”
“Yes, I can!” I kicked out of his arms, stumbling away. “And I can also...” I sighed. “Thank a man for saving my life. So thank you for stopping them, even though you’re the one who told all of hell that I’m a mortal, so when you think about it, all you did was save me from the danger you put me in. It’s like tossing me overboard into shark-infested waters, and then rowing up in your dinghy and wanting to play the hero for fishing me out.
“So I guess what I really want to say to you now is”—I flashed him twin middle fingers—“screw you, jerk.”
Radu howled, doubling over and gasping on the air he didn’t have in his lungs. “I missed you too, honey.”
“Did you hear a word I just—?”
Grasping my wrist, Santino snapped me to his chest, and planted one on me.
“Hmpf!”
Radu swallowed my cry and stole his chance, slipping past my lips.
He kissed me with fierce and reckless abandon—sweeping up my desire and blowing it through my body, waking up every nerve and sensor, and ravaging my nervous system with an explosion of fireworks bursting behind my eyes.
Cupping the back of my head, Radu lifted my leg and dipped me backwards—the windswept brooding hero fresh from the moors—ready and willing to have his way with the princess.
Tongues battling, lips swelling, core melting—my cries of protest faded into moans so quickly, I forgot what I was protesting about.
We broke apart gasping. The room was spinning again, but this time the knot in my stomach wasn’t motion sickness.
Hand moving of its own accord, I grasped Radu’s chin with my thumb and forefinger, and drew his lips back down for—
“Feed me.”
Heavy lids tossed off the weight, and I snapped my eyes open. “Wow.” I shook him off and fell, plopping down on the chaise. “Way to kill the mood, Prof! I can’t believe you’re trying to seduce me for my blood. I’ve had a lot of guys pull a lot of crap to get something from me, but that’s a first.”
Santino’s smile went nowhere. Dropping to his knees, he grasped my thighs—sending ripples up my body.
I hated that my resolve was already breaking, and all he did was draw my knees together and rest his chin on them.
“Feed me, my sweet, my honey, my love,” he whispered—a grin dancing on his perfect, pale lips. His strange color-changing eyes had settled on an oddly enchanting gray. The man and the monster—yin and yang—in perfect harmony. “I want you in my mouth. Sliding down my throat. Filling my body, my veins, the hole that was once my soul.”
I swallowed hard.
“I want to be all you, Charlotte Hunter. I want to be the black rose you pollinate. I want to survive on your mercy and whims alone. If you deny me your blood, then I deny my existence,” he murmured, dropping kisses on my bare, sensitive thighs. “For I only want to live if you allow me to.”
“I— I—” Gods, help me, why is this working?! “But I can’t,” I stammered out. “Ronin did this to me.” I showed him my shoulder. “He said he doesn’t want me having anything to do with you, and then he said a little something about killing you when he removed the fang marks from my thighs.
“I know we have a deal, but that bastard can make my life”—I shook my head—“he can make Dora’s life very difficult if I go against him. I can’t put her at risk to save myself. I just can’t.”
“You also can’t protect her if something happens to you,” he said softly, stopping my arguments before they left my lips. “It’s not just my kind who are a threat to you. Just the other day you were almost killed by the shade. If your life is lost down here, Ronin Belphe will have no reason to continue extending his protection to your sister.”
I shook, nails pricking my palms. I wanted to deny it so badly, but not a single thing Radu was saying was untrue.
“Do you know how I knew of their plot to take you, even though they went to great pains to hide it?” He flapped a hand at the headless corpses. “It’s because after weeks of sharing your blood, I’m once again at full strength. Every single other vampire is weakened and slowed by three hundred years of hunger. Not me. I am now the strongest and fastest that I’ve ever been. Without the screams for blood ringing in my ears day and night, I hear more and farther than I ever have.