Page 40 of Bought for Blood

“Locks are a courtesy between equals.” He says it mildly. “I’ve never met one.”

I look for my wolf and find her sitting up in my chest, ears forward, watching him. Her hackles are down. She’s curious. She’s been curious about him since the start.

Some help you are.

“The card reader works for you,” I say. “Good to know the bolt was decoration.”

“The bolt keeps out the others. It was never going to keep out the man they answer to.” He pauses, then: “I’m not here to hurt you. That’s finished.”

“Which part is finished?”

“All of it. What happened while I was away won’t happen again. No one touches you. No one moves you. If a guard raises his voice to you, I want to hear of it.” He turns his head and looks at me across the dark. “You’re under my protection, Serenity.”

My name again. This time I let it stand.

“Until when?”

“Until I choose otherwise. I won’t offer you promises. But you can trust me.”

For now.

He doesn’t have to say the words for me to hear them.

I set the knife on the nightstand and push my hair back off my face. My hands stay steady doing it, which surprises us both, I think.

“You came to feed,” I say.

“Yes.”

“Then feed.” My head is high, my shoulders squared.

He crosses the room without a sound and sits on the edge of the bed. The mattress dips under his weight. The cold reaches me off his skin.

I take the hem of my shirt and pull it off over my head. That’s different from how we do things, but I don’t care. Tonight, I get to choose at least one thing in this picture.

The window gives gray moonlight, and he looks at me in it. He takes his time about it. I hold still and let him look, until I realize I’m holding my breath and let it out. My chest lifts with it, and he watches that too.

He’s never touched me. Not in that way.

And I want him to.

God, I really want him to.

And maybe that’s twisted and sick, but no part of my life has been normal or healthy in the past year.

He reaches out and moves my hair back over my shoulder. He leans forward, and I’m holding my breath again as his cheek brushes my jaw. His lips find my pulse. His teeth press through.

“Oh!” The jolt goes straight through me, and my eyes fly wide. I suck in a gasping breath that shudders down my throat.

He draws long tonight, and every pull lands deep between my legs, hard enough to bow my back. The sense of my own blood rises, warm salt and iron. My wolf lifts her nose to it and stays easy.

Then his hand comes to rest on my waist. Bare skin. His palm settles there and waits.

I could lift his wrist away. Instead I cover the back of his hand with mine and press it harder against me.

“Touch me,” I whisper.

His hand moves up my ribs. By the time it closes over my breast, his palm has gone warm; I don’t know if it’s my blood or my body heat, but it’s coming back to me through his skin.It builds again, and now it’s matched by the sensation under his hand.