As if to drive home his point, Tegan smoothed the flat of his hand higher, up the slope of her throat. He bared her neck and bent down over her, dragging his tongue along the path of her carotid. His fangs were a subtle, but unmistakable, abrasion as his mouth moved to a tender spot just below her ear.
A tremor of uncertainty rippled through her at the thought of where this was heading, more swiftly than she'd been prepared for.
She really shouldn't be here.
Shouldn't be doing this...
Tegan's chuckle sounded cruel, darkly satisfied. He released her at once, practically pushing her out of his reach.
Go on, he said, his voice so deep she hardly recognized it. Get out of here before we do something we'll both regret.
She brought her hand up to the side of her neck, where she could still feel the lingering heat of his mouth. Her pulse was hammering now, so loud it was audible to her own ears. When she drew her fingers away from her neck, she saw that the tips bore trace stains of blood.
Dear God, had he been so close to biting her?
Tegan's hungry gaze tracked her every movement, and he looked savage enough to pounce if she hesitated so much as a second longer.
What are you waiting for? I said get the fuck out of here! he bellowed, the animal snarl jolting her into action.
Elise grabbed her sandals from the floor beside her and ran out of the boathouse as fast as her feet would carry her.
Tegan dropped into the nearest chair as soon as he heard the boathouse door bang shut on Elise's heels.
He was physically shaking from need of her, all of his Breed senses torqued off the charts with the depth of his hunger for the female. Jesus Christ, he'd been just a fraction of a second away from sinking his fangs into her.
That unintentional graze of her skin, which brought only the faintest taste of her blood to his tongue, had practically laid him out. He shuddered from the heather-and-roses sweetness that still lingered in his mouth. His fangs throbbed, along with another part of his anatomy, both equally ravenous. Both damning him for letting Elise get away.
The only thing that had snapped him back to his wits was her sudden flood of anxiety. Through the connection of touch, he felt the jolt of fear override her desire--and not a moment too soon. She'd been too pliant, too accepting, even when he was deliberately pushing, wanting her to understand just where he wanted to take things.
Where he still wanted to take things with her.
Yeah, straight to hell, with him leading the way.
He gripped the leather arms of the club chair, digging his fingers into the supple hide to keep from vaulting to his feet and going out after her. Which was the very thing he ached to do.
The part of him that was more savage than human railed at being forced to heel. He was a predator at heart, and he never felt it more than he did in that moment, with his vampire eyes reflecting back at him from the glass of the boathouse window, his fangs stretched long and sharp as razors.
Every dark instinct in him was tuned on one thing: Elise.
Barely a taste of her and he was on fire with the need for more. How lost would he be if he ever got the chance to fill his mouth with that lush nectar running through her tender veins? Ah, fuck. He was in seriously bad shape.
And he needed to feed.
Not for sustenance so much as distraction. Because if he didn't slake at least one of the hungers sticking its talons into him, he was going to have the luscious Elise flat on her back beneath him before the night was through.
Elise didn't stop running until she had circled the mansion and found the front entrance. She knew she should go inside. It was late and she was cold. Her bare feet were wet and freezing, her body trembling from the wintry night air. She knew how close she'd come to disaster with Tegan; she should be grateful that he gave her the opportunity to escape what could only prove to be a heartbreaking mistake in the end.
And yet...
She stood on the wide marble steps that led up to safety, and her hand refused to reach for the door. The fear she'd felt moments ago in the boathouse had muted into something else-- something that