He was parting the lips of her sex and rubbing her aching flesh before she could catch her bearings or her breath. Vibrating with the ferocity of her arousal, she shattered into climax with a drawn-out moan of relief, her body clenching and rippling around his spurting erection.
Then his wrist was at her mouth, offering his franticly throbbing vein. Stil shuddering in orgasm, Vash turned her head away. “No…”
Elijah buried his face in her hair. “I’m sorry.”
She sincerely wanted to reply, but her synapses were fried. And he was stil massaging her clitoris, keeping her hot and needy and so damn ready to come al over again, if she’d ever stopped coming.
“Couldn’t get a grip.” His teeth ground audibly together. “You ran. I couldn’t think…You have to know, I’d cut off my arm before I hurt you.”
Something vital wel ed up inside her, twining with the understanding of what he was apologizing for—he’d lost control. She shouldn’t have been pleased that his beast responded by marking her in the basest, most animalistic way possible, but apparently she was perverse in that way. Oh wel . If their fights always ended with him coming inside her, she could live with it.
But his guilt had to go.
When he pushed his wrist at her again, she shoved his arm out of her face, insulted. “Stop that.”
Elijah lifted her careful y off of him, no easy task when he was stil hard and thick. She let him. Let him throw himself backward into the leaf litter with a forearm tossed across his eyes. Let him ramble hoarsely about her needing to eat and him finding some way to let her do that, since she wouldn’t drink from him…not that he blamed her…he was out of control, losing his mind— As he muttered to himself, Vash swiftly and silently pul ed off her boots and her clothes. Until she was naked. In the woods. With a lycan. What the hel was the world coming to?
“Elijah,” she purred, crawling over him. “Shut the f**k up.”
She watched his breath catch, then heard it leave him in a rush as she sank back onto him, seizing the intimate connection she craved. His c**k was slick with se**n cooled by the air, making him cold and hard as marble inside her. He jackknifed upward with a growl, and she caught him with her arms around his neck, meeting him eye to eye.
“I see shrinkage isn’t a problem for you,” she said drily, noting how his eyes were stil feverishly bright. He was savagely gorgeous. Flushed and disheveled and glistening with sweat. She could stil smel the animal on him and her sex tightened in primitive appreciation. It was so similar to the scent she’d loathed viciously for so long, yet none of her painful past touched him. She stopped debating why and just…accepted it.
“Vashti, I—”
“—offended me. Oh, not with the wild animal sex,” she assured him, seeing the torment that crossed his features. “For offering me your wrist, which—if you didn’t know—is the most impersonal way to give blood to a vampire. I’d like to think we’re beyond that. And if we’re not, we need to work on getting beyond it.”
His arms tightened around her like steel bands. “Beyond ditching me when you’re scared? Beyond apologizing for some stupid shit instead of the real issue?”
“Wow.” She pushed her fingers into his hair because she knew how much he enjoyed it. Also because she needed to soothe the beast so she could work things out with the man. “You bounce back quick. I think I liked you better contrite.”
“Al or nothing.”
“Do I have a choice? I’m thinking you’l just chase me if I run.”
His gaze narrowed, studying her. After a moment, his nostrils flared and he accused, “You liked it.”
“I never said I didn’t. You’re the one who kicked me to the curb.”
“Who started it?” Elijah’s voice was ominously neutral.
She swal owed, her eyes sliding away to find the powerful y steady pulse in his corded neck.
“Vashti.” He shook her a little. “Talk to me. What are we doing here?”
Her gaze shot back to his and she scowled. “Are you kidding?”
“If sex is al you want, I’l point out that there are other options that aren’t such a pain in the ass.”
“Like Himeko?”
His grin was slow and purely male. “Feeling territorial?”
“How fabulous that you’re enjoying my confusion and misery,” she groused. “Listen, I’ve already screwed this to hel and back trying to pick my way through on my own. You need to tel me what you want from me. Then I can tel you if I can give it to you.”
“A commitment.”
There was a fluttering panic in her stomach. “What kind of commitment?”