A Vampire’s Christmas Carol(5)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Fangs. I’ve got fangs now. When in the hell had that happened?

The bed squeaked behind him. “Nothing is different for me.”

Her scent deepened. She’d risen from the bed. She was coming toward him. Ben squeezed his eyes shut.

“I love you,” Simone told him, “no matter what. I love you.”

“Please,” he’d never begged anyone before. “You should…go…” Because she was too much temptation for him.

Her fingers slid over his shoulder. He was still naked, and that one touch rocked all the way through him.

“I want to be with you,” Simone said softly. “Always.”

Those soft words tore away the last shreds of his control. Nothing could have stopped him in that moment.

Need erupted. A dark, consuming need that swept away the man he’d been. He whirled back toward her. They hit the bed together, and his hands flew out, ripping away her clothes.

Simone arched into his touch. She should have been shoving him away. She should have been horrified. Instead, she was caressing him. Making the need grow so much worse.

He licked her breast. She had full, round br**sts with tight, pink ni**les. He kissed them. Sucked them. Laved them with his tongue.

His heart raced in his ears, the rhythm fast and frantic. Wait…was that his heartbeat, or hers?

Ben pushed up on his arms and stared down at her. His gaze locked on her neck. On the pulse that pounded there. His breath heaved out.

Bite.

“Ben?” Her hands slid over his chest. “What’s wrong?”

“I could…fucking…devour you.”

She smiled at him. Smiled. When she should be running. But if she ran—

I’d follow.

Her legs shifted against him, parting more. His fingers slid into the haven there, pushing up into her sex. She was wet and tight, and she moaned when he thrust two fingers into her core. Her eyes held his. “I want you,” she whispered. “All of you.”

And there was no way he could hold back.

Ben thrust into her, driving deep in a plunge that left him balls-deep inside of her. She moaned and the sound maddened him even more. She was hot silk around his cock. So perfect. So…his.

He withdrew. Thrust deep. Again. Again.

Her fingers slid down his chest. He caught them. Pinned them to the bed. His mouth lowered over her neck. He licked her skin. Kissed her right over her racing pulse-point.

Raked her with his teeth.

Her sex gripped him tightly as she wrapped her legs around his hips. She arched up against him and that move pushed her neck against his mouth.

Her pulse throbbed beneath his lips.

His teeth raked her again.

He withdrew. Thrust. The bed creaked beneath him. He couldn’t get inside of her deep enough. Couldn’t thrust hard enough.

He wanted to claim her. Every single part of her. He wanted to own her.

“Ben!” Her sex contracted around him as she shuddered in release.

His own release pushed down on him, but he kept thrusting, not ready for that wave to hit him, not yet.

The smell of sex and sweet vanilla filled his nose. And her pulse…that racing pulse point, the fast rush of blood in her veins…it filled his mind.

His teeth sank into her throat. Blood—hot, rich, better than wine, better than anything—spilled onto his tongue. He kept thrusting and drinking from her. Taking and taking.

“Ben…” Her voice was a whisper now.

His climax hit him. The powerful surge shook his whole body, as wave after wave of release rushed through him. The pleasure was so intense that his muscles clenched. So intense he pulled his mouth from her throat and roared out her name.

But Simone didn’t move.

And…as he blinked down at her, Ben saw the blood dripping from the two puncture wounds on her neck.

“B-baby?” Ben whispered. The burning lust was gone. The physical need slaked. And the desperate need for her blood? Satisfied.

He touched her cheek. Her skin was warm and soft beneath his rough fingers. She stirred, blinking, but her gaze seemed unfocused and too weak as she gazed up at him.

“What…what did you do?” Simone asked.

He was still in her body. Flush with release. And he’d taken her blood. Nearly taken her life.

His teeth had transformed once more. Returned to a normal size. A human size. He pulled from her body. So carefully now. Using the gentleness that he should have shown her before.

But he’d been a monster then.

That’s what I am now. The blood. The fangs. The wounds from the attack that had healed so quickly. There were the all signs of what he’d become. Only Simone didn’t see them for what they were. No, she didn’t see him for what he was.

Ben left the bed. Simone reached out to him, but Ben shook his head. “I-I have to get a cloth for you. You’re bleeding.” She needed more than a cloth. The woman might need a transfusion. How much blood had he taken?

But her fingers curled around his hand. As he stood by the bed, she lifted his wrist toward her mouth. She pressed a kiss to his skin. “That was incredible,” Simone told him, her voice husky.

What? He’d attacked her. Bit her.

He pulled his hand from her. “I hurt you.” The blood was still dripping down her neck. And, as he stared at it, the dark hunger grew within him once more. He found himself leaning forward because he wanted to lick that blood away from her skin.

No.

He straightened. Backed away from her. Rushed into the bathroom and wet a cloth. He tried to suck in deep breaths, but they did nothing to calm him, and when Ben looked into the mirror—

My eyes are glowing. The gold burned. The man in that mirror, he didn’t look like Ben. Not really. His cheeks were sharper. His mouth…crueler. And when he parted his lips, Ben saw the glint of his fangs.

Vampire. Those fanged freaks were only supposed to exist in movies. Books. But he was staring at one right then. Gazing into a reflection that showed him a monster.

And here I thought vamps weren’t supposed to have reflections.

“What’s wrong?”

He spun and found Simone in the bathroom. Naked and perfect. He hurried to her. His hand was shaking when he wiped the blood away from her neck. Taste it. Take her again. The sly command came from deep within Ben.

He tossed the cloth away, but he could smell her blood. Blood and sex. A combination that seemed to be calling to a beast inside of him. “Leave, Simone,” he managed to say.

She lifted her hand toward him. Her fingers were closed in a tight fist. “I-I found this a few minutes ago,” she said, “when I was…I was moving your clothes.”