Page 89 of A Trial By Blood

Not even close.

“Ronan?” Rose said into the silence.

Her hand covered mine, and I hissed and pulled it away. “Don’t. You can’t…touch me. Not yet.” Her hands on me were stimulus overload. One more touch and I’d break. I’d pull the car over and sink my fangs into her without restraint.

She pulled her hand back, curling her fingers on her lap, and I instantly wanted her touch back. The predator wanted an excuse, any excuse to have what it craved more than anything.

Since regaining my emotions, I’d felt that part of me more and more. The vampire part of my genetics had become my most dominant side in almost every way. “I’m sorry,” I gritted out. “I’m…barely hanging on.”

“It’s okay,” she said.

Her voice whispered across my flesh, lifting goose bumps, causing pleasure to fire through my synapses, igniting every nerve ending in my body. I was about to make the turn and head to the hellhound clubhouse, but at the last moment, I turned in the opposite direction.

Rose turned to me. “Where are we going?”

“My home.” When I had her for the first time, it would be behind walls that I’d built, in my bedroom, in my bed. It wasn’t completely finished, and I’d only been back there once since I’d regained my emotions. The quiet of the place had given me nothing to focus on but the thoughts and memories filling my head. But I didn’t feel that way anymore, not when I had Rose with me.

“Your home? I thought you lived with the hounds?”

“I do most of the time, but I have somewhere else. Somewhere I plan to move into permanently soon.” I made several more turns, the urgency inside me growing with every second. Rose’s heartbeat raced, and it was all I could hear, the rush of her blood through her veins, the scent of her arousal.

I’d told her why I shouldn’t do this, why I wasn’t good enough to feed from her, and she wanted me anyway. My control, my willpower had shattered in that club, and there was no going back now.

We pulled up to a large steel gate, and I clicked the button on the remote to open it. The tall gates rolled open. As we drove in, Rose would see only an empty lot.

I felt her turn to me. “Ronan?”

I surrounded her with my powers, pulling her into my world. A place that no one could see or enter unless I permitted it. A place that had been only mine and now Rose’s as well.

She gasped beside me.

The warehouse had been in good condition when I bought the property, but it was only a shell. I got the idea from the knight’s compound. But instead of multiple levels, this was one large open space. I’d insulated it and built a mezzanine, turning it into a bedroom, and sectioned off another area for the garage. I hit another button so the doors would roll up as I approached.

There were several cars already parked in the space. Azel had occasionally needed human money, and it’d been my responsibility to get it. I found I enjoyed the stock market and had become extremely proficient. I’d taken it all when my sister ended Azel. She’d refused when I’d tried to give her half, so now I had more money than any one human could spend in their lifetime, and still, it grew.

“This is…it’s incredible,” Rose said as I shut the engine off.

An image of Rose living here with me—her things on the bathroom counter, her clothes in the closet, her scent on my sheets—filled my mind, and a snarl of possessiveness escaped me. She spun my way, and I tried to form the words to apologize or the strength to find an ounce of control—I couldn’t do either.

I was in my domain. My female was here with me.

Right then, I was all monster.

All need.

All hunger.

I got out and rounded the car. Rose opened the door, and I tugged her out before she could and scooped her off her feet. Her legs locked around my waist instantly, her arms around my neck. I shoved my fingers in her long blond hair and took her mouth, kissing her hard and deep. My fangs were out and so were hers. The points nicked her lips and tongue, hers grazed mine. Our blood mingled in my mouth, and Rose moaned as I sucked on her tongue, wanting more.

Her arms tightened around my neck as I carried her through the garage. I shoved open the door to the main living area and kicked it shut behind me.

Striding across the polished concrete floor toward the stairs to the mezzanine, I took them two at a time and walked across the wide space to my bed. Lowering her to the mattress, I came down on top of her. Her legs wrapped around me again, and her hips lifted, rubbing the heat between her thighs against my erection.

I pulled away from her mouth with a hiss.

Her eyes were heavy-lidded but widened when they moved over my face. I knew what put that alarm there. My eyes would be glowing now, bright purple, like nothing from this world. My fangs, longer than she’d ever seen at the prospect of feeding, like an animal. And my face—it changed as well when I was starved like this, becoming all vampire, more angular, my chin and cheekbones sharper, my brow heavier. I could usually control it, but not with Rose, not with her.

My precious Rose was seeing the real me, the monster I transformed into when I fed, the male I truly was underneath it all. “Don’t be afraid, petal.”