She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans when the door closed with an audible click. The hallway light cut off, and with the drapes pulled over the windows, she couldn’t see him.

She was in this room with a predator who required her blood and would take it from her. Any sane person would flee; she didn’t move as she listened to Aiden prowling closer. If she escaped into her room, she believed he would let her go, but her feet remained planted on the ground. She couldn’t deny she was terrified, but she also couldn’t deny she’d been desperate to experience this with him again.

When he stopped before her, he stood so close his body warmed hers and his breath whispered against her face. His hand encircling her nape caused her to gasp. She hadn’t heard him move.

“You can change your mind,” he said.

The husky tone of his voice sent a shiver down her back. “I won’t.”

He pulled her gently forward, and she braced herself as she waited for him to strike as he had in the ambulance. Instead, his lips moved over her forehead in a tender caress. The rigidity of her muscles eased as he kissed her cheek before his lips settled on hers. Standing in the hallway, he’d appeared starved, yet now he seemed more concerned with putting her at ease.

She opened her mouth to his tongue and sighed when it slid inside. He kissed her with the leisure of a man who had all the time in the world. He tasted of whiskey, but beneath that, she detected the faint hint of clove. When his hands slid around to grip her ass and he lifted her, she wrapped her legs around his waist. The rigid evidence of his erection sent delicious shivers down her spine when it rubbed between her thighs.

I didn’t expect this to happen. But as she thought it, she knew she lied. She’d known when she offered her blood this is where the night would lead them.

Aiden groaned when Maggie’s legs locked around him and she rubbed against the head of his swelling cock. He continued to kiss her, delving deeper into her mouth as she rose above him before sliding back down his erection. His kiss muffled her sensual cry. When she repeated the motion, her nails bit into his nape.

In two strides, Aiden carried her over to the dresser and set her on it with the mirror at her back. Breaking the kiss, he pulled back to take in her flushed face and swollen lips. She stared breathlessly up at him, looking so enticing it took everything he had not to tear her clothes from her.

Take it slow; savor her.

He traced her bottom lip with the tip of his finger before bending to nip at it. She didn’t flinch when a bead of blood formed there. He slowly licked her blood away. That small influx of blood calmed him more than all the beatings, sex, and death he’d received and given over the years.

Minutes ago, his body had been waging war with itself, but she gave him peace. Having done nothing to deserve her, he would do everything he could to keep her.

He nipped at her lip again and swallowed another drop of her blood. Releasing her bottom lip, he kissed his way over her skin and down to her throat. Maggie braced herself for the brief pinprick his bite brought with it, but he still didn’t strike. Instead, he ran his tongue over her vein before gripping the bottom edge of her sweater and lifting it to reveal her stomach.

He stroked her flesh in a slow, teasing manner from the bottom of her bra to her jeans and back again. Her skin came alive where he caressed, and every part of her screamed for him to ease her torment as he sucked on her throat, but still didn’t bite.

When Aiden pushed her sweater higher, she lifted her arms for him, and he pulled it over her head. Her lacy black bra revealed more of her flesh than it hid as her nipples were visible through the material. He circled one of his fingers around her dusky areola and growled when her nipple stiffened beneath his ministrations. Her breast was slightly larger than his hand when he cupped it and bent to flick his tongue over her hardened nipple.

Maggie’s eyes had adjusted enough to the muted light filtering around the drapes for her to watch him as he teased her. One of his fangs scraped her breast before he lifted his head to gaze down at her. She could see the outline of his fangs against his lips as he undid the clasp at the front of her bra.

He inhaled sharply when her breasts spilled free. His fingers skimmed her shoulders when he pulled the straps of her bra back and slid it off her. She had no doubt he’d slept with many women over the years, yet he gazed at her as if she were Aphrodite come to life. Maybe he made every woman feel like that, but she didn’t think so. Whatever this was between them, she sensed it was unusual.

“So lovely,” he murmured before cupping her breasts in his hands and bending to kiss one nipple before turning to the other.

A growing wetness spread between Maggie’s thighs; her head fell back as he ran his tongue over her breast. His fangs scratched her skin before he sank them into her, just above her nipple. Arching her back, she thrust her breast deeper into his mouth as the brief pain of his bite faded and ecstasy rose to replace it.

Releasing his bite on her, Aiden rose, yanked his sweater off, and tossed it aside. Her heavy-lidded eyes opened to watch as he stroked her belly before lowering his hand to the button of her jeans. He slid the button free and pulled the zipper down.

Maggie traced the dips and ridges of his abdomen. His skin rippled beneath her touch as she learned his body, memorizing every detail of him. When she cupped his erection through his jeans, he pushed his hips into her grasp and planted his hands on the dresser next to her as she stroked him.

Releasing him, she undid the button and zipper of his jeans and slid them down his hips a little. Without any underwear to hold it back, his erection sprang free to stand proudly out from his body. Unable to resist, she took it into her hand. Hard and hot, she marveled at the size of him and grew wetter with her need to have him inside her. She stroked his shaft before tracing the supple skin on the head of his cock and the thick vein running up the side of it.

He seized her wrist, halting her movements. Maggie froze, she didn’t know if she’d somehow pushed this supernatural being too far. Tension radiated from him, his vast aura of power rippled across her skin. Then, he closed her fingers more firmly around his shaft and guided her hand over him.

“Fuck,” he groaned.

After another stroke, Aiden pulled her hand away from him before he came in her palm. He bent to lift one of her feet and pulled her sneaker off. He let it fall before removing the other one. Her hips rose off the dresser when he tugged her jeans and underwear down her thighs.

The excitement building within Maggie became a tumult she could barely contain as he tossed aside her jeans and stepped closer again. His body warmed hers as he trailed his fingers up her inner thighs, his eyes following every move he made.

Aiden discovered two freckles marring the creamy perfection of the skin on her inner thigh. Those freckles looked to be spaced about fang width apart, beckoning him to bite her there. Between her legs, her neatly trimmed auburn hair did nothing to hide the fact she was already wet with her want for him.

Lowering himself between her legs, he placed a kiss against the two freckles before sinking his fangs into them. Maggie’s legs slid over his shoulders and drew him closer.

“Aiden,” she breathed as he drank deeper from her thigh than he had from her breast.

Releasing his bite, he kissed and licked his way up her thigh to the juncture between her legs. Maggie’s head fell back when his tongue flicking over her clit sent a current of ecstasy through her. She gripped the edge of the bureau as he slid a finger in to stroke her in an unrelenting motion that matched the demands of his tongue.

Her hips rose and fell, matching his pace as every nerve ending in her body came alive. Then, her body came apart, and she cried out as an orgasm rocked her. She’d experienced orgasms before, but she’d never truly experienced one that made her toes curl, her nerve endings sing with pleasure, and her entire body bow before going limp.

Aiden rose over Maggie, his control fraying as he tugged impatiently at his jeans. She’d calmed him before, but now the taste of her blood and her release on his tongue were pushing him to the brink of madness. He had to be inside her, possessing her.

He kicked his sneakers off, yanked his jeans down his legs, and threw them aside before stepping between her legs again. She smiled lazily as she reached for him. Aiden captured her wrists before she could touch him and pinned them to the mirror behind her head. Maggie’s eyes widened, but she didn’t thrash against him or tell him to stop.

She couldn’t touch him; touching was not for him, not during sex. It didn’t matter this was Maggie, that she was far different and more important than anyone else he’d been with, he’d waited too long. His darker inclinations had clamored to life within him and were moving beyond his control.

He kept her wrists pinned as he held her gaze and pressed the head of his shaft against her wet center. Then, he drove forward until her wet heat enveloped him. Sheathed deep inside her, all his malevolent impulses vanished as he experienced the tranquility she gave him.

“You feel so good,” he said and lowered his head to rest it on her breast. She was incredibly wet and ready for him, but the tightness of her muscles gripping his cock made him realize, if he moved too fast with her, he would hurt her.

A feeling of completion stole through Maggie as she adjusted to the size of him inside her. Needing to touch him, she jerked against his restraining hold.

His hands briefly clamped on her wrists as old habits surged to the forefront. However, this was not some stranger he didn’t want to touch or be touched by. This was Magdalene. When he released her, she lowered her hands to cup his face. He turned his lips into one of her palms and she cupped his cheek.

“My Magdalene,” he murmured as she ran her fingers over his cheekbones.

It had been years since he’d been touched with care during sex. Even before his maturation he’d stopped wanting affection from his partners. When he’d been in high school, he hadn’t offered promises of future calls to the girls he slept with. Once he started having sex, he’d avoided dating anyone from his school because there would be too many complications, and he’d known none of them was his mate.

As he’d gotten older, there had been less contact between him and his partners. Some women touched him to hold onto him, and he’d handled them when he had to, but there had been no caring in those caresses, only necessity. Over the past six months, the contact had become rarer.

Their touch had disgusted him.

No, he realized, he’d been disgusting. He’d been as unworthy of any kindness from them as he was of his family’s understanding and support for him. If those women knew the things running through his mind while he’d been with him, they’d have run screaming. Often, he’d considered giving in and tearing their throats out so he could bathe in their blood.

He didn’t deserve for anyone to care for him, especially not Maggie, but her hands on him soothed his ravaged soul in ways he’d never known possible. No thoughts of killing or inflicting pain went through his mind; he only experienced the wonder of her. She made him crave more of her caresses as her fingers moved over his shoulders and down his back. Unable to stop himself, he withdrew his cock partially from her before sinking inside again.

Maggie hadn’t expected her recently quenched passion for him to return so fast, but it sparked to life until it became a wildfire. One of his arms locked around her waist, and his other hand cupped her nape as he took possession of her. Despite his total control of her body, and the strength of this supernatural being, she felt like she held him in the palm of her hand, as if he was somehow more vulnerable than her right now.

His face turned into her neck, he inhaled her sweet scent and shuddered when her hands ran over him again. “More,” he breathed. “Touch me more.”

Unexpected tears bloomed in Maggie’s eyes at the hoarseness of his voice. She sensed he was showing a side of himself he never revealed to anyone and that he needed her more than she’d ever realized.

With her hands, she learned every flex of the muscles in his back and felt the faint scars crisscrossing his flesh. She sensed those scars were part of what drove him, part of why he craved her touch more than her blood right now. His ragged breath warmed her flesh, his fangs abraded her neck, but he didn’t bite. She kissed his throat and ran her hands down to grip his firm ass as a growing sense of possessiveness for him grew within her.

“Aiden,” she breathed, and his fangs pierced her neck.

Maggie cried out as her nails raked his flesh. Everything in her became centered on him as endless waves of pleasure crashed over her.

Aiden drew her blood until it coursed through his body and doused his hunger as she climaxed again. The muscles of her sheath gripped him, milking his seed from him. Thrusting into her again, he growled against her throat as he came inside her, something he’d never done with a woman before. His orgasm went on with every pull of her blood until he had to withdraw his fangs or risk hurting her.

Never in his life had he come as hard as he had inside of Maggie, and he wanted more of her.

Maggie smiled lazily at him before closing her eyes. “I don’t think I’ll have to go for a run tonight to sleep.”

Aiden laughed and held her closer.