it this way - you'll be weaker if you don't, and frankly, I'd rather have you brimming with health when we have to deal with Kristjana, especially if the ritual fizzles. That woman is just not right in the head."
He grunted an assent.
"So stop being stubborn, and eat. I had breakfast, you didn't. Eat." I shoved my wrist in the direction of his face.
"I don't like to drink from wrists," he muttered. "It's so cliché."
"Oh, for god's sake... fine." I hauled myself onto his lap and half turned to face him, letting him have the inside of my upper arm. "Better?"
His breath was hot on my arm, sending little pinpricks of pleasure along my back and belly.
"I don't think that would be wise," he said, his voice sounding oddly choked.
I couldn't help myself. I leaned into him, his curls brushing against my mouth. That faintly smoky scent that seemed to be uniquely his seeped into my pores, making my stomach tighten with anticipation. "It's all right, Kristoff. I don't mind feeding you, I really don't."
"You know what happened last time," he warned, his voice getting rougher and rougher. I heard him swallow. "I told you before that to a Dark One, the act of feeding can be arousing."
"You said there had to be a shared attraction." My heart was beating madly. I knew I should stop, knew I should back off to the farthest corner of the tiny cell and let him go hungry. I knew that what he was saying was absolutely true - not only was the proof growing beneath my right hip, but I was tingling just from the nearness of him. The scent and feel of him filled my mind, and more than anything, I wanted to taste him, wanted him to taste me.
"Yes." His voice made me shiver.
"It's all right," I repeated, too overwhelmed by emotions to listen to my common sense.
"Alec - " he said, choking to a stop.
"I don't think Alec and I are meant to be," I said, realizing with surprise that it was true. It was a dream, a pleasantly enticing dream, but a dream nonetheless.
"If you're his Beloved, your blood will be poison to me," Kristoff murmured against my arm, his lips caressing the suddenly sensitive flesh.
"We won't know until you try," I whispered into his hair, unable to keep from pressing little kisses along the top of his ear. I shifted on his lap so that I was straddling his legs, undoing the top couple of buttons on my blouse so it sagged open. "If it is, we'll have the answer, and we'll stop. If I'm Alec's Beloved... well, I'll deal with that."
"He'll kill me for this," Kristoff said hoarsely as I arched my back. His head dipped down, kissing a hot line along the upper slopes of my chest. He stopped for a moment, his breath coming fast as I pulled off my shirt and reached behind to unhook my bra, his groan of pleasure echoing mine when his mouth descended again. "To hell with it. You taste too good..."
"Too much talking, not enough biting," I said, moving restlessly against him. I wanted more, wanted him inside me, wanted him drinking from me, wanted that amazing sensation of sharing that we had the previous time he fed off me.
He kissed a path over to my shoulder, moving a bit down my upper arm, his tongue painting a hot brand along my flesh.
"You're sure," he asked, his voice sounding as rough as his breathing in the confined space.
I thought of Alec, locked in an identical room just a few yards away, thought about what he meant to me, and what I apparently meant to him. I thought about how he made me feel wanted, cherished, even loved. Kristoff didn't want me, didn't want anything from me but satisfaction for the sexual itch that we seemed to share, and he certainly didn't need me. He was bound to his grief, and I suspected that I simply filled the role of physical relief, and yet, I felt closer to him than I did to the man with whom I might very likely spend the rest of my life as his Beloved.
I thought about all of that in the space between heartbeats, and wrapped my arms around his head. "I'm sure."
The pain was fleeting, a momentary burning sensation that was quickly lost in sweeping pleasure. Kristoff moaned as he drank deeply, the sensation of that winding me up tighter than I had