Dinner With a Vampire (The Dark Heroine #1)(72)
Author: Abigail Gibbs

He was inside my head …

‘Noon?’ I glanced at the clock on the wall as it inched around, far later than I thought, the hands striving to touch one another at twelve. Arms ensnared my waist and the cool of his chest against my back sent chills of a very different kind racing along my spine and around my ribs.

‘I will never let anyone hurt you.’

I drew a sharp breath, hardly daring to believe my own thoughts but knowing that what was sending silky tendrils dancing along my skin was right, and as I spoke I fought to keep my breathing from becoming ragged.

‘But you’re the one that hurts me.’

He withdrew a little, loosening his grip and I felt his pain. Seizing the opportunity I whipped around, knowing this was my last chance before everything changed.

Never thought I’d see this moment, my voice said, full of the same breathlessness I felt as I looked up at him.

Neither did I, I replied.

‘Girly?’

‘I give up.’

‘What?’

I took a deep breath. ‘I give in to you.’

FORTY-FOUR

Violet

He said nothing. For one agonizing minute we remained frozen, paralysed, the only movement the rising and falling of his chest. For one agonizing minute, I could only hear the ticking of the clock, nearing midnight. Tick, tock. For one agonizing minute, I thought he would say no. But I could see the restrained desire in the way he tried to control his breathing, and the way his eyes warred between emerald and red.

‘Kaspar, I want you. Right here. Right now. And I won’t ask nicely more than once.’

He didn’t reply, but his lips crushed to mine, ferocious, anxious, with urgency incomparable. I was thrust back into the counter, the small of my back pressed painfully against the edge, hands instinctively breaking my stumble with an ominous click. He moved with unrelenting force, pushing me further into the marble; yet I returned every movement he made, drawing his lips to mine until I let out a soft hiss against his flesh.

‘You’re crushing me,’ I winced, trying to free my arm as his body pressed to mine.

Breaking away he muttered an awkward apology, allowing me space to breathe as I slowly massaged my wrist. I let out a giggle, the pause allowing the desire to fade and uncertainty to creep in. But that quickly wilted as he reached up and brushed a single strand of hair from my eyes, tucking it behind my ear. His unusually feather-light touch sent tingles dancing to the very tips of my fingers, ridding any previous doubts.

This is what I want. And this is my last chance to get it. After noon … that’s it.

‘Sorry, I forgot you’re not … built for … this …’

I chuckled nervously. ‘No one is built to be smashed against a solid object.’

He cocked a half-smile. ‘Then I’ll make sure,’ he rested his hands on my outer thighs, ‘That you’re out of the way of the solid object.’ Lifting me up and gently placing me onto the countertop, his lips claimed mine once more. Somewhere in the back of my mind I registered that the metallic taste of blood still lingered on them.

His tongue traced my bottom lip, begging for entrance which I gave gladly. My tongue traced the tips of his fangs, sharp, pointed, slightly curved like the thorns of a rose and he growled longingly; his carnal desires barely restrained by the little control he could exercise. I felt the pressure as he began to bite down and yanked away. But he just smirked, following me back until I lay flat to the counter; he jumped onto the counter, straddling me. I could see the rippled strength of his muscles even through his shirt, and I fought hard not to lift the material and run my hands across his skin.

He seemed to pause halfway to my lips and my heart leapt. The longing, the lust, the need had been suppressed for too long; but that was overshadowed by my heart, giddy and drunk, like a girl soaking up the eyes of her first crush. There was a huge satisfaction as well: I was kissing Kaspar, yet there was none of that fake floating; those soaring high feelings I experienced every time Fabian had kissed me … no, this … this is more than that. That feeling was designed to lure prey and to take control of rational thought. But this was rational. I want this.

I took in his eyes, emerald, flecked with red, fighting his desire on so many levels. He took in mine, violet; violet as always.

He leaned down and I thought he would kiss me once more, but instead his lips brushed my ear and he whispered: ‘Do you trust me?’

I smirked. ‘Not in the slightest.’

‘Then that …’ I felt his weight shift, and he pressed into me further. His full weight now rested on me, and though not small or brittle, it hurt. But I smirked nonetheless. I could detect a definite bulge in the crotch of his trousers, and his breathing was only becoming shallower. ‘… could be a problem,’ he finished, purring, actually purring, like a cat indulged by a new owner.

So quickly that I could not see, only feel, my arms were pinned above my head, both wrists grasped in one of Kaspar’s hands. He smirked like a child that had been given a new toy (in fact, I was rather worried that was exactly what he was thinking) and began to trail the other hand down my side, tracing the indent just below my rib cage. The corners of my mouth twitched and I squirmed away.

‘You see, because you have so adamantly resisted me for so long, I would like to have my own way. And twelve hours is not a very long time to have my own way … certainly not long enough to show you what you have been missing out on.’

His fingers brushed my side and I bit on my lip. ‘Cocky much?’

He arched an eyebrow. Gently pressing me further into the counter, the hem of my top slid up, the cool marble chilling my skin. His hands skimmed across the exposed skin, the smile fading from his mouth. He ran his hands in slow circles, higher, caressing my skin in taunting strokes. My breathing was becoming ragged. I was not even sure if I was breathing – he wasn’t.

His cold hands urged the grey material higher, until they slipped under, so close to my bra now I felt my cheeks redden. Abruptly and without warning, he hooked a finger under the wire; my breathing hitched expectantly.

A devilish smile that I mistrusted far more than his fangs appeared and I immediately felt uneasy, temporarily forgetting all functions relating to my lungs. His hands creeped back down and suddenly, he was tickling me.

I shrieked with laughter, throwing myself around and gaining a few bruises, trying to avoid the onslaught of his hands as he tickled every inch of skin he could get to whilst wrestling me so I would hold still. I thrashed and writhed, squirming under his touch until with a bang I landed in a heap on the floor, gasping. I gulped great mouthfuls of air, and sprang up, tripping my way across the room with exaggerated awareness until I stopped at the doorway, turning back.