Chapter 10
I’d never had cause to know how vampires spent their days. That they holed up somewhere and stayed out of the sun was a given. But whether they crawled into coffins and died, or played Parcheesi until sunset, I couldn’t rightly say. Well, it turned out they didn’t do either of those things.
It was daylight outside; at least that was what I reckoned based on the time. But in Miguel’s underground den, it was dark and cool. We lay tangled together under a soft blanket, snug as a pair of bugs.
I came to a few times during the night, er, day, and each time I was being held protectively, cradled within Miguel’s strong arms, my head tucked under his chin, one of his knees wedged between mine, my testicles and flaccid pecker resting against his thick, muscular thigh. I sighed contentedly and burrowed closer to my mate, ready to fall back to sleep, when he kissed the top of my head and petted my back.
“How’re you doing, baby?” he asked. “Any regrets?”
Just hearing him calling me “baby” was enough to make feeling regret nigh on impossible. “Nuh-uh,” I said and squeezed him tightly. “I’m keeping you.”
He chuckled, causing his chest to vibrate against me. “Is that right, wolf?” He tangled his fingers in my hair as he spoke, massaging my scalp.
I tipped my head back and met his gaze, wanting him to know that I was serious as sin. “Yes, sir, it surely is.”
He didn’t argue about it this time, just took in a deep breath and then let it out slowly, rubbing the back of my head and my nape all the while. When he dipped his face and kissed my forehead, my breath caught and I was flooded with a new desire. Well, maybe it wasn’t new, maybe I just finally knew it for what it was.
“You’re hungry,” I said to my mate.
“I’m fine,” he whispered against my skin, kissing me again, still petting gently.
“I know, but you want to feed. I can feel it.” I tilted my neck and stretched toward his mouth, giving him complete access to my exposed skin.
“No, Ethan. I already drained you more than I should have. Losing too much blood can be dangerous, even for someone with your condition.”
“My condition?” I furrowed my brow in confusion.
“Yes. Your body produces too much blood, right? That’s what you said. Like I mentioned, I know a healer who’ll be able to take a look at you and let us know what’s going on and what we can do to help fix it.”
“No,” I said firmly. “I don’t need to see a healer because there’s nothing that needs fixin’. I don’t produce too much blood.”
“But—” He started arguing, but I wasn’t having none of it.
“Before I met you, before I realized I had a true mate, it felt like too much, sure enough. But now”—I grinned at him—“the way I see it, I’m making enough blood to nourish my mate. That there’s just the right amount.” I beamed at him. “So you see, everything happens for a reason, just like my sister always says.”
The way Miguel smiled at me would have melted me into a puddle if I wasn’t already there. Vampires were supposed to be cold, heartless, but his twinkling eyes and gentle smile were anything but.
“Damn, are you ever sweet, wolf,” Miguel said, his voice full of longing. “Sweet and tempting. But draining you again right now would be dangerous.” He sighed regretfully. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. I’m used to being a little hungry, that’s just how it is for me. Especially lately.” He lowered his mouth and kissed the pulsing vein in my neck. Almost immediately, he gasped and pulled back, his eyes wide with surprise as he stared at me. “Can you hear that?” he asked breathlessly.
“Hear what?”
“Your blood.” He licked his lips. “It’s so loud, rushing through your veins, flowing strong and full. Feels like it’s calling to me again.” He shook his head and furrowed his brow. “I don’t understand it.”
“That’s because you’re not listening to me.” I smiled wryly at Miguel as I spoke. He really was as stubborn as a mule. “We’re true mates. Two halves of a whole. You say it feels like my blood is calling to you? Well, I say your need called to me and my body is doing what comes natural and responding.” I paused and watched his face, making sure he was absorbing my words. “Go on,” I said, tilting my neck again. “Take what you need.”
“Are you sure?” His voice was rough, his breathing faster, louder. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby. Never want to hurt you.”
My chest tightened and I blinked my eyes rapidly. “You won’t hurt me. I trust you, mate.”
Desire burned in his eyes and his nostrils flared, so I figured I’d said something right.
Miguel kissed my neck again, but this time, he opened his mouth and sucked on my tender skin, then licked at it. “You taste so good,” he said. “Never tasted anyone like you.”
A growl escaped without my permission, the knowledge that my mate had fed from another not sitting right, despite the fact that he’d been walking the earth for several lifetimes.
He pulled back and rubbed his thumb across my lower lip, the grin on his face equal parts amusement and regret. “You are a jealous little thing, aren’t you?” he said.
I waited to bristle at being called small, my size having been one of my lifelong sources of shame. But the way he said it sounded fond, not belittling. Besides, I liked how my smaller body seemed to fit so perfectly with Miguel’s bulkier frame, like two pieces of a puzzle that clicked just right.
“You weren’t complaining about my size last night,” I said cheekily. “Or, uh, this morning, I guess,” I added, my confusion over night and day ruining the intended haughty effect.
Miguel reached between my legs without a second of hesitation, like he knew he had the right to touch there. He curled his fingers around my testicles and stroked upward, pulling my prick through a tight vise before going back down and starting the process again.
“Ungh!” I moaned and raised my hips, trying to get closer to his touch.
Every inch of my genitals was touched, manipulated, heated.
“You know,” Miguel whispered into my ear, his breath ghosting over my neck and causing a full-body shiver. “Blood flows all over. And I can be very creative.” He gave my pecker a squeeze before continuing his ministrations. “Do you still want me to feed from you?”
“Only me,” I panted, intense desire for the man next to me causing my air to come out in short, fast bursts.
He cupped my cheek with one hand and traced my eyebrows with the fingers of another. “After four hundred years, I didn’t think anything could surprise me, but I didn’t see you coming, wolf.”
I tangled my fingers in his long, silky hair and looked into his eyes. “Can you do that? Can you feed just from me?” I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before adding, “Can I be enough for you?”
He searched my eyes, hesitating before answering my question. “It’s been done,” he eventually answered. “Not often. And those who have tried it usually…” His voice trailed off and he swallowed thickly. “But, yes, I can feed from you alone, Ethan.”
Miguel didn’t bury his fangs in me right away. Instead he rolled me to my back and lay on top of me, nipping at my lower lip, then dragging his lips across my jaw and nibbling on my earlobe. All the while, his hands were just as busy as his mouth, tugging and twisting my nipples, rolling and caressing my testicles, stroking and squeezing my prick. I moaned and writhed beneath him, feeling so right in that position, with a vampire, my male vampire, that I couldn’t conceive of it being wrong.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked me breathlessly. “Are you sure you want to stay with me? Don’t you want to go home?”
“They’re one and the same,” I answered without hesitation, my voice husky, want and need and something else—something deeper, stronger—coursing through me.
“Okay,” he said. “All right.” He cupped the sides of my head, petted my scalp with his fingers, and caressed my face with his thumbs. “And, Ethan? I didn’t expect you. I don’t understand what’s happening to me, what’s happening between us. But as long as you want to stay with me, you’ll be all I need. You are enough for me. Don’t ever doubt that, okay, baby?”
I trembled as I nodded and clung to him, digging my fingers into his shoulders. He was talking about more than just feeding, I knew. Then again, I’d been asking about more than just feeding.
“Just a little bit now,” he whispered into my ear, still running gentle circles over my head with his fingers. “I’ll get you good and relaxed and then you can sleep some more.”
It wasn’t a question, which was a good thing because I was too overrun with unfamiliar feelings and emotions to answer. My heart felt full to the point of overflowing, but not in the painful way to which I’d become accustomed. This was like a warmth that glowed and beamed from the inside out.
And though he’d fed from me only once, I already missed that pulling sensation of my blood being drawn out, like a caress underneath my skin, and the glorious release that came with it. I arched toward Miguel, whimpering and begging without words, feeling empty without his mouth on me, his fangs in me.
The sharp teeth on my neck were an expected, welcome relief. I sighed and felt the tension leave my body with every drop of blood Miguel took. He pulled back shortly after he’d started, lapping at my skin to quickly close his marks. I whined in protest, blinking my eyes open in confusion. But before I could formulate words, Miguel nipped the sensitive skin above my areola with his sharp fang.
“Ah!” I cried out in surprise, lifting my chest, legs bucking.
Without removing his mouth, he ran his tongue around the perimeter, and then sucked my nipple into his mouth with a deep, hard pull.
“Oh, oh, oh!” I stuttered, panting furiously, grasping my mate’s hair and humping my hips up, trying to find friction.
Miguel clasped my wrists and pinned my arms to the bed. He pushed his thigh between my knees and ground it up against my testicles, the pressure on the edge of too much but somehow feeling just right. And all the while, he continued suckling at my chest, eventually swiping his tongue over my right nipple to stem the flow, before moving on to my left, biting and then suckling and feeding.
Both nipples were red and swollen by the time he released them and kissed his way down my belly. He lifted my legs onto his broad shoulders and looked up at me, his face hovering just above my erection, his gaze wicked.
“Are you ready for one last bite, wolf?”
Anticipation was tinged with a hint of fear as I thought about how to answer. Surely it would hurt to be bitten there. I looked down at Miguel, settled between my legs, his gaze glued to mine as he licked my pole, leaving a swath of glistening, slick skin. A corner of his mouth turned up in a barely there grin, and then he sucked each of my testicles into his mouth. Where before he’d been rough and demanding, his passion a palpable thing, now he was gentle, making love to me with his mouth.
“Yes,” I said, trusting him implicitly, willing to give him whatever he wanted and trusting he’d make it good for me.
After another few seconds of sucking and licking, he released my testicles and blew a trail of cool air along the length of my rod.
“You’re so damn thick,” he said as he traced a prominent vein with one finger. “All this blood pooling together, making you swell, making you hard.”
“For you,” I said, my voice coming out rough with need.
His eyes burned as he stared at me and took hold of my erection. His red lips opened and curled back and then he dipped his face, just barely piercing my vein before swallowing my prick down to the root.
“Miguel!” I shouted, bucking up reflexively.
It didn’t last long; it couldn’t. Not with my mate’s wet, welcoming mouth taking me in, giving me tight friction as he sucked my hard length and swallowed the hot blood flowing from my vein. He took me higher and higher, relentlessly pleasuring my rod with his mouth as he rolled and fondled my testicles. When I finally came, crying his name and shaking, he sucked harder, swallowing my seed down with my blood as he moaned in pleasure.
My eyes were closed, chest heaving, when Miguel finally released me from his mouth and crawled up my body, peppering me with kisses. He wrapped his arms around me and curled me into his side, tucking my face under his chin and securing one leg around my thighs. I was held tight, protected, wanted.
“Sleep,” he ordered.
So I did.