Blood Ties Bundle: Blood Ties Book One: The Turning / Blood Ties Book Two: Possession / Blood Ties Book Three: Ashes to Ashes / Blood Ties Book Four: All Souls' Night

His fingers raised gooseflesh on my thighs. I shivered. “You’re doing fine.”

Every inch of his body was as hard as it looked. There wasn’t a spare ounce of flesh on him, and when he pulled his shirt over his head I didn’t know where I wanted to touch first. My hands wandered restlessly over his smooth chest, his solid arms, the ridges of his abdomen.

Lying between my legs, he pushed my T-shirt up, baring my thighs, my stomach, my breasts. I pulled the shirt off and he rested his head against the curve of my stomach. When he kissed me there, I clamped my knees around his waist, my breath hitching.

With every gentle brush of his fingers, every stroke of his tongue against my flesh, he lost himself a little more in the act. His gratitude overwhelmed me.

Nathan sucked my nipple into his mouth, and I could only concentrate on his flicking tongue and the scrape of his stubble against my skin. I threaded my fingers through his hair and closed my eyes. Nathan crawled up my body, pressing kisses to my neck. “It’s the most incredible thing,” he whispered. “I can hear what you’re thinking. Where you want me to touch you. Was it like that with—”

The instant he said it, my body went cold.

He cursed. “That was probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever said.”

I wanted badly to cover myself. I was too exposed, too vulnerable. “It certainly wasn’t smart.”

“I only—” He shook his head. “You know you’re my first fledgling. This is an entirely new experience for me. I’m not used to being the one who needs information. I’m usually the answer guy.”

“I don’t know anything about being a sire, Nathan. I have no idea how it works. It’s something you’re just going to have to find out on your own.”

He rose onto his knees and it looked as though he was going to get up from the bed. His denied need throbbed painfully through my own aching body, and I reached for him. I’d never been the initiator in sexual situations. Most of the time, I’d just gone through the motions, wanting to please for the sake of approval. Now I just wanted to make him feel something other than fear or anguish. And I really wanted him.

“What are you—”

I shushed him as I reached for the gleaming button of his fly. He took a sharp breath as the button popped free. I pulled the zipper down and slipped my hand inside his pants.

Despite the interruption, he was still hard. His erection jerked as my fingers closed around its substantial girth, and his shudder passed through me. I stroked him, my head reeling from the peripheral sensations that affected me through the blood tie.

He stood beside the bed to step out of his jeans, and I slithered across the mattress to grip the tight muscles of his thighs. He groaned when I rubbed my cheek against his hip, my soft breath teasing his straining cock. I gave in to his silent urging through the tie, opening my mouth to draw him in.

He tasted salty, but not unpleasant. I swirled my tongue around the swollen head as I sucked more of him in. As his excitement built, so did mine. When he grasped my hair and gently pulled me back, I knew he’d nearly reached the end.

Laying me back, Nathan relied on the blood tie to learn how I liked to be touched. He’d rush to fulfill my requests with eager hands and lips. He reveled in my responses. Not the way Cyrus had. Nathan didn’t view my desire as a way to manipulate or control me.

This realization removed the last of my inhibitions. If I lost control with Nathan, I wouldn’t lose a part of myself. I was so relieved by this that I came as he slid two fingers inside me. From the look on his face, he was as surprised as I was.

“Apparently I’m not as rusty at this as I thought.” He sank between my legs, bracing his weight on his arms.

The movement of muscle beneath his skin fascinated me. “Watch it. I’ve got what I wanted. I could just decide I’m done with you and then where will you be?”

“Jerking off, like I’ve been for the past twenty years. But you’re not going anywhere.”

I slapped his shoulder lightly for his crude remark, and he reached between us and guided himself into the slick entrance of my body.

My lungs constricted as I stretched to accommodate him. I gasped, wrapping my arms around him. “Oh, my—oh.”

He slipped his hands beneath my back and lifted me onto his lap. I held on to his shoulders as every long inch of him slid into me.

Leaning close to my ear, he practically purred, “Told you you weren’t going anywhere.” I buried my face in his shoulder as he flexed his hips. He felt solid and real, and his skin smelled faintly of soap.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the night you came into the shop.” His voice was fueled by ragged breaths, and his words sent a shock through me.

It was nice to be wanted. Not for power or control, but wanted as a woman.

I pushed my hips down as he surged up and I bit down hard on my lip to stifle a moan. I tasted the blood my bite produced. Nathan leaned back, his eyes dark. He unconsciously licked his lip.

My heart pounded, echoing the throb of his erection that was buried deep inside me. Nathan’s eyes never left the smear of blood on my mouth.

“Go ahead,” I whispered. “I want you to.”

He hesitated only a moment. Then he caught my lip between his teeth and licked the blood away.

When I’d ingested Cyrus’s blood, I’d seen a vision of Nathan’s past death. I could only imagine what Nathan saw when he tasted mine.

Whatever it was, it tore a fierce growl from his throat. He pushed me back on the bed and stretched my arms high above my head, pinning me.

Pain. In my blood, he’d seen pain.

The tenderness in his eyes overwhelmed me. “Why didn’t you tell me what he did to you?”

I shut my eyes. “Why would you want to know?”

His lips brushed mine. There was nothing in the gesture but kindness, the love of a sire. His frustration and rage shook me to the core. “I could have made it better. I don’t know how, but I could have.”

I swallowed against tears. “You could make me forget.”

With a sad smile, he nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

He moved within me, slowly. Over and over, he withdrew almost completely, then slid back in, gaining a bit of speed each time. Soon, he pumped against me so furiously, an explosion of breath escaped from me with each thrust. I clenched the sheets in my fists and rocked in time to his movement.

The familiar spiraling feeling, the sense of swiftly losing control, gripped me. I needed only a little push to make it over the edge. Hearing my silent desperation, he slipped his hand between us and rubbed my swollen clitoris. The stimulation was exactly what I sought. I arched up from the bed.

It was his name I cried when I came, his face I saw when I opened my eyes. The relief was so intense that I almost sobbed.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he groaned against my hair. He abandoned the rhythm, plunging into me with more urgency than before.

“Come,” I urged, clutching at his sweat-slicked back. He thrust almost too hard against me as he reached the end.

“Thank you,” he whispered over and over when he could speak again. He kissed my lips, my forehead, anywhere he was able to reach.

When he laid beside me, I rolled awkwardly off of the bed, wrapping the sheet around my bare body.

Nathan frowned. “Where are you going?”

I suddenly felt cold, and oddly lonely. “The bathroom. To clean up.”

When I got to the door, he spoke. “It was good we got that out of our systems. It was probably inevitable.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. Hadn’t it meant anything to him? It didn’t have to be serious, but he had to feel something more than just relief that it was over.