by Janie Marie
“Me too.” He kissed her hair. “And I’m sorry I cannot roll you over on this bed right now and have my way with you.”
“You’re so horny. At least feed and let me shower.” She widened her eyes when he sighed and cupped one of her boobs. “David.”
“I know,” he said, letting go and leaning over to the side of the bed. “Let me get some blood in me so I can give you a bath and feed you again. I want to relax with you properly.”
“I love how we can argue and then quickly be okay,” she said watching him lift an antique phone to his ear.
“Is this about make-up sex?” He switched the phone to his other hand and grabbed her butt cheek. “I have heard of this before.”
Jane smiled, wincing when she felt her cheek split. “Ow!”
David released her butt and held her face as he began speaking. “Send two pints of AB Negative to my room. No, not a fucking donor.” He hung up and tilted her face to the side.
“I’m fine,” she said as droplets of sweat formed on his forehead. She gently pushed him onto the pillows. “Oh, baby, you’re getting worse.”
He grinned, but still grew paler. “That is twice now you have called me that. Does it feel the same for you as it does for me when I call you baby?”
She blushed, caressing his face as she forced him to lean back onto the pillows more. “You mean you get butterflies in your tummy?”
David laughed, closing his eyes. “Is that what females call it? Although, mine is not my stomach, the sensation I feel is farther south.”
“David,” she said, lightly smacking his chest.
“I am teasing.” He opened one eye. “No, my heart beats faster when you say my name a certain way, and it feels the same when you call me baby.”
She mentally swooned. “The boys are right about you—you make me speechless without even trying.”
He smirked, and somehow, even weakened to the degree he was, he lifted her so she straddled him. “Take care of me.”
Jane put her hands on his chest to brace herself. “David, you need to relax.”
“I am relaxed. I’m just hoping they get here soon.” He squeezed her ass with both hands.
He was sending her hormones into overdrive, but watching him get paler by the second had her freaking out. “David, do you need to feed from me right now?”
“No,” he said, smacking her butt. “I swear I am fine. Just feeling a bit useless.”
“You’re not useless,” she said, leaning forward to kiss him.
“Mm,” he said, licking her lips and gliding his hands across her ass. “My baby is the sweetest. I look forward to the day we can take turns feeding one another.”
She smiled when he didn’t seem to notice he was sucking blood from her lip. It obviously wasn’t much, but he was getting some from her cut. When his hands moved again, she moaned, pressing her breasts against his chest.
David let out a low, purring noise, still not releasing her lip, and began squeezing her ass and one of her breasts.
He’s really good at this.
She was panting and reaching between them to grab him. When she did, she gasped, surprised he could be so hard in his condition. She whimpered. He wouldn’t release her lip, and he was squeezing harder, matching the rhythm she’d begun with her hand. She was aching for him, grinding herself against his hard shaft and her hand as he shoved her panties aside and pushed two fingers as far as he could reach from her backside.
“David,” she said, pulling his erection free and rising on her knees, not caring about the sound of her skin tearing.
David didn’t seem to notice she was hurting herself. He lifted her, shifting her panties more as he lined her up above him. “Are you ready?”
Jane looked into his eyes as he released her lip. His eyes were dark, almost black, and his fangs were extended. He looked like a hungry predator. And she wasn’t afraid. “Yes.”
He pulled her into a kiss and began to lower her onto him. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, but he was there, just at her entrance. Her tummy was tight, and she was gasping as the thick tip began to stretch her.
And then there was a knock. “I have your ration,” someone said, making both of them freeze.
David blinked, looking between her eyes and then down between them. He snarled when there was another knock and began to lower her anyway.
She cried out but realized something was seriously wrong with him, and she used all her strength to stop him from entering her. He would be so upset with himself if he did, and she didn’t want him to regret their first time. “David!”
“WHAT?” He bared his fangs at her.
She widened her eyes but quickly kissed him, pushing him back against the pillows. “No, David,” she said, pressing tiny kisses over his cheeks. “Oh, I’m sorry. Please calm down.”
Again, he snarled, but she continued kissing him, not letting him lose himself like this. “Please, David, snap out of it.” She kissed his cheeks, hugging him when he roared at the door. “David, you need blood. You’re losing control.”
“I want MY MATE!” he yelled, but she watched him pale again. He blinked, shaking his head.
“Shh . . .” Jane kissed his lips and every part of his face. “You’ll have me. I want you, but you’re not thinking like yourself. Please calm down.” She ran her fingers through his hair. “Do you really want us like this?”
He released her butt and breast suddenly. “Fuck.”
She cried, feeling his arms come around her. He was definitely weak, but he was trying to comfort her.
“I’m sorry, my love.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered, pulling the sheet over them. “Let me tell them to enter, so you can drink. You’ll be okay.”
David nodded and helped cover them, but neither of them had strength to move more than that. “Forgive me, baby.”
His broken voice brought tears to her eyes. “I do.” She turned to the door. “Come in.”
The door opened and a woman wearing a dress that reminded Jane of the kind you’d see in a burlesque show entered. Her corset was tight, pushing up her breasts for the entire world to see as she wheeled in a cart containing two pitchers of blood.
“Just leave the cart by the bed,” David said, turning Jane’s face to him. He seemed angrier now, not upset with himself as he had just been.
Jane tried to look at the woman again as she heard the cart come closer, but David pulled her lips to his.
“Is there anything else?” the woman asked.
David barely separated their lips so he could speak. “Leave.”
Jane smiled when he kissed her. It was a tad embarrassing to be all over him in her condition. She knew the woman had seen her face, and she knew it probably looked like they were in the middle of having sex. It certainly smelled like David times a thousand, and she was sure her scent was amplified by her hormones too.
The door slammed shut, and Jane pushed away from David. “Why are you acting like this? Are you angry at me or . . .” She looked between them and blushed. David was the most well-endowed man she’d ever seen. “Oh my God! I forgot I pulled it out.”
He chuckled, reaching between them to push his erection back inside his pants. “Let me drink this. I am struggling with both cravings right now.”
“Both?”
All he did was nod and quickly began drinking from the huge mug. He kept his eyes on her the entire time, rendering her in a somewhat paralyzed state, especially when he put a hand on her waist and began sliding it back and forth before reaching for her ass. He sighed while he drank and squeezed her butt cheek. His eyes paled to an ice-blue before shifting to a darker blue as he massaged her ass.
Jane pressed her lips together, not sure what was going on right now other than David was very aroused, and so was she. It was her worry over if she’d done something to upset him that kept her from pulling his pants back down. More importantly, it was fear she wasn’t the true reason he was this turned on.
/> He must have sensed her change in mood and let go of her when he got to the last drop. “I’m not angry with you. Why would you think that?”
She watched him lick the blood from his lips. “Because I took advantage of your hunger to make you want me.”
“My weakened state has nothing to do with me wanting you. It only makes me forgetful of the consequences of satisfying my desire for you. When I thirst, I want to please myself, and that is all I can think about. I should always put you first, especially if we are intimate. I’m grateful you made me stop. I was hurting you, not caring about that or what might happen to you if I had been too rough. I just wanted to be inside you. I might have even bled you dry if I went any further.” He leaned forward and kissed her lips, then cheek. “You were not taking advantage of me. Even now, I am very aware of how easily it would be to slide you on me.”
She struggled not to moan. “But why were you like that when she came in?”
He sighed and pecked her lips before leaning back. “That woman was hopeful I would ask her to be my donor.”
“What?” Jane almost laughed at her ‘I don’t think so’ tone.
David did laugh, and he grabbed her hand as if he were worried she’d run after the lady. She was considering it. Bitch.
“It’s something you will have to get used to, Jane. She offered when you were unconscious, and I refused her. Not too kindly, either. Still, she has not gotten the message, apparently. I was showing her I have what I want right here.”
All kinds of emotions pulsed through Jane. Jealousy and sorrow roared loudest of them all. “She was very pretty,” she whispered, watching David chug his next mug. She didn’t feel the thirst for blood even though she still desperately needed it.
“Perhaps to some men.” He shrugged. “All I see is a woman with no self-respect. There are numerous in our world, unfortunately. Actually, in the mortal world as well.”
“She’s still pretty.” Jane slid her fingers over her healing skin. She’d never have smooth, untouched skin like that woman.
“So?”
Jane snapped her head up. “You think she is, too?”
“I told you what I thought of her. The fact she returned here in a more inappropriate dress only serves to prove I was right about her motives when she offered herself as a donor.”
“But you are attracted to her?”
“No. I am attracted to you. No one else.”
“Whatever,” she said, dropping her gaze to her hand.
David didn’t reply. He simply began drinking again. Her heart was breaking. It didn’t matter what he said. That woman was pretty, and Jane wasn’t. She was a disfigured monster.
He lowered the glass before he was finished and tilted her chin up. “Don’t pity yourself because you are hurt. I just showed you what you make me feel. I do see your injuries; I am not blind, but I find you more beautiful than I ever have before.”
“Quit being sweet,” she said, tilting her face toward his palm. “I won’t see myself the way you say. That’s the problem.”
“I know, baby. Let me finish this and maybe I can show you—properly—how beautiful I think you are.”
She looked back at his face, watching as he lifted his glass again. Now he wasn’t showing much reaction as he drank. He wasn’t reaching for her to feel her up. If anything, he looked like he was forcing himself to drink something disgusting.
“Does that blood taste bad?” she asked.
He stopped drinking. “All blood, besides yours, tastes bitter.”
“But you were just chugging the other mug.” She wasn’t buying that lie.
“I was overwhelmed with my hunger for blood and to have you. Now that I have some in me, I am calmer. Before I was imagining feeding from you while making love to you.”
“You were not.” She covered her face.
He tipped the mug back and guzzled down the rest before placing it on the cart. “Have you ever had a protein shake?”
“Yes,” she said slowly.
“Did you like the taste?” He put his hands back on her ass.
“Uh, no.” She bit her lip, trying hard not to grind against him.
“Did you ever imagine drinking something you love, say, an ice cream shake?”
She nodded, staring at his lips with only the desire to taste them.
“You are my ice cream shake, Jane.” He gently lifted her by her butt and kissed her. “My shake with gummy bears on the side.”
“I’m not your shake. And I know you drank blood before me, so you had to enjoy it.”
“Baby, you sucked Gareth’s blood, so don’t try to throw that in my face.” He slid a hand up her side. “Trust me, after feeding from you the first time we met, I have craved only you.”
“So, if you drank from a donor, you think you wouldn’t like it?”
“First, I would not request a donor if there was no need for one. Second, it would be the same as forcing an unpleasant meal down my throat.”
“But I saw Apollo—”
“Apollo does not have an Other. The act of feeding on a person brings those two individuals close together. It’s difficult to not make the act sexual—but I am in love with you; the idea of feeding on another disgusts me.”
“Do you think your attraction to me is because my blood is your favorite?”
“Your sweet blood is a bonus. Would you say my blood is your preferred blood to drink?”
“Of course!”
He grinned, sliding a hand up her back. “Is that what attracts you to me?”
She realized what he was getting at, but she wasn’t attractive like him. “It’s not the same. I’m not . . . Never mind.”
“Hm,” was all he said as he glanced at one of the doors. “Do you feel well enough to bathe?”
“I guess so.”
Before she could even process anything, she was being carried to the bathroom. David kissed her head as he sat her on the stone countertop. “David, that’s fucking cold!”
He squeezed her sides as he leaned down and kissed her shoulder. “For some reason, your use of foul language arouses me more.”
Jane chuckled but froze when she turned and saw her reflection in the mirror. The entire side of her face was discolored with red and purple patches. Her eye was puffy and partly closed, reminding her of how a boxer looked after a fight. She whimpered, raising her equally disfigured hand to touch the split in her cheek. Her hot tears were impossible to hide, and she flinched when David tried to wipe them away.
“Stop!” She shoved him back and covered her face while also trying to cover her breasts.
He hugged her. “Don’t do this.”
She sobbed against his chest. “How could you say I’m beautiful when I look like a monster?”
“Jane, you do not look like a monster.” He rubbed her back, kissing her hair. “I meant everything I said.”
“You lied, and you know it.”
He let her go and walked away without saying anything. Jane cried harder. She knew he’d leave.
“Do you think warm water and soaps will hurt you?” David asked as the rush of running water sounded.
She lowered one hand enough to see that he was standing by a tub. He was looking through the different containers, smelling them and seeming to find one he liked.
“What are you doing?” she asked, trying to hide her face when he glanced over.
“I’m drawing you a bath.” He began pouring some powder in.
Jane sniffed, wiping some of her tears as he stood there, testing the water temperature. The muscles in his back tensed. She studied the scars across his back. They were a pale white, almost silver color next to his golden skin. Somehow, even though his skin was no longer perfect, she still saw him that way. The scars meant something to both of them, and he was more beautiful in her eyes because of what he’d done to get those scars.
David turned off the water and shook out his wet hand as he walked to her. She didn’t know what to say. She knew he was t
rying to show her he felt the same; he would always find her beautiful, but she couldn’t see past her marred reflection. It had not been one she’d ever enjoyed seeing, and it was hard to see his perfect face next to hers.
He stood there, not saying anything. He was just staring into her eyes. Jane didn’t know what he was expecting. She felt like she should apologize, but she didn’t want him to see her anymore.
David suddenly gripped her thighs and forced them apart.
Her eyes flew open as he slipped a hand under her good leg and tugged the back of her knee so she slid to the edge of the counter. The quick movement made her grab onto his shoulders. She stared up at him, no longer able to hide her face since she was holding on to him.
He didn’t say anything as he let go of her legs now that he stood between them and lifted his hands to her face. Carefully, he moved her hair back, exposing every inch of her face to him. She felt two tears slip down her cheeks and watched his eyes follow the one on her damaged side. It stung her cut and got stuck there, making her cry at the knowledge her face was so disfigured a tear could no longer glide down her cheek.
David caressed the edge of her cut with his thumb, never letting his eyes leave the spot where her tear stayed. And then he kissed it.
She cried silently, closing her eyes as his lips ghosted over every part of her injured face. He was so soft, but they felt like the most powerful kisses he’d given her. His lips pressed gently against her eyelid before kissing his way to her trembling lips.
A sob left her mouth as he kissed her lips just as softly. Her heart was beating so fast, and it hurt, like it was cracking into a million pieces, but he was there, refusing to let it fall apart. Jane shook, her throat aching as he kissed her again. She didn’t want him to, but she couldn’t find the will to push him away, not when he was trying to put those broken pieces of her back in place. Not fixing them, just holding them—holding her—together, warming them so they wouldn’t freeze and die.
“My Jane,” he whispered, kissing her cheek. “I see my Jane.”
She swallowed as he took her hurt hand from his shoulder. Again, he kissed each part of her damaged skin, up her forearm and back to her fingers that looked like they had nearly been torn off.