whimpers in that high-pitched, pleading tone that drives me wild.
And then it’s too much for me. I lose my battle with lust, with control. With deSire. I dig my fingers into her flesh and fuck her so hard, the room spins.
I roar.
I come.
Something in me opens. Uncorks. A flood of emotions pour out of me—tangled ones that feel like love, heartbreak, grief, commitment.
Everything I’d experienced so long ago.
The last time I loved and lost.
The pain of watching the woman I loved die, and knowing I must live on.
Dammit. I can’t do this again.
Gwen
I had no idea sex could feel this good. I definitely need to make up for lost time.
Dimitri eases out of me, and everything’s perfect. Or so I think.
He climbs off the bed and walks swiftly to the window.
I look over my shoulder at him, still holding the position he put me in. His brow is knit, his closed fist rests on the wall.
For a moment, I think he’s going to be sick or something. Why did he race away?
I swing my legs off the bed, and he puts up a hand.
“Stay there, babygirl. Stay in bed.” He’s still not facing me.
I don’t follow orders. I scramble after him “What happened? Are you hurt?”
“No.” His chest rises and falls. He’s magnificent in the moonlight; a lean giant with a perfect profile. As I watch, he tosses his head back, groaning as if he can’t take in air.
“Dimitri?” I’m close enough to touch him, so I do.
His head snaps towards me.
I fall back a step. His canines are really long. Too long. “Dimitri, what’s happening?”
“Come to me, little one.” He opens his arms. I’m helpless in his thrall. I go to him. He half lifts me, easily cradling me against his chest.
“I knew this was a mistake.” He sounds mournful.
I open my mouth in a silent cry. First Chad, now him? The rejection hurts so much. “Did you not want me?”
“I want you, Gwen. I want you too much.”
His head moves so fast, I don’t quite follow it. I’m still processing the blurred motion when I feel a prick on the side of my neck. And then golden liquid pours through me, warm and delicious, like honey simmering in my veins.
“Dimitri,” I cry out as my orgasm crashes over me like a giant wave, carrying me away. I thrash in his arms, practically fighting, but he grips me tighter, his lips still fastened on my throat.
After a moment, he carries me to the bed and lays me down, licking the side of my neck.
“Did you just… bite me? What's happening?” I cup his face and turn him to face me. I need to see.
Sure enough, there are his canines, white and long and dipped in blood. My blood.
“You're not afraid,” he says with wonder, and reality comes crashing down.
I drop my hands from his face and straighten. “Are you going to hurt me?”
“No, little one. You won't remember.”
“But I want to remember.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he says. “You won’t remember me.”
It’d hurt less if he’d stabbed me in the heart. I move back, my hand on my chest. “What?”
“You can’t know this. You can’t know what I am. You can’t know me.” He continues in a low voice, as if talking to himself, “This can’t work. This isn’t meant to be. I can’t fall in love again.”
I’ve lived too long. I’ve loved and lost.
“You had to watch the woman you loved die because you live on,” I blurt, desperate to hold onto something. To snatch at the threads of this thing unraveling between us.
A deep sadness settles in his expression. “Yes,” he admits.
“We were together before, weren’t we? Last night? Did you make me forget?”
“You can’t know what I am,” he repeats, as if that explains everything.
“But I remembered,” I persist. “It didn’t work.”
“I’m sorry.”
He sounds like he’s apologizing for what he’s about to do, not for it not working last night. I swallow. “So, what are you going to do?” My voice comes out a lot more serene than I feel.
“Nothing terrible. Just a trick of memory, to make you forget.”
“How is that not terrible?” I come to my knees beside him. “Dimitri, I want to remember. Why would you send me away?”
He cups my neck. I lean into the caress until I realize what he’s doing. With a tug, he undoes the ribbon, the makeshift collar he gave me.
“No!” I grab it before he can toss it away.
“We can’t be together, Gwen. You’re human and I’m… I’m not.”
“You're