I pushed myself up. “Go home, Eddie.” I didn’t mean for it to sound so harsh.
With a grunt, I braced my hand on the desk…and I fell back into the chair. My legs just wouldn’t hold me up. My head was spinning.
It was Eddie’s scent. It made me drunk. I knew I had the strength to move; I just needed fresh air.
“How can I help you?” Eddie’s whisper sounded terrified.
“Go.” It was supposed to be an order, but the word just fell from my lips, barely audible.
I didn’t want him to leave.
Eddie stepped closer instead and put his hand on my forehead.Fuck. His wrist was right there. The warmth of his blood pulsed through the thin sliver of air between us, right against my lips.
“You’re ice cold, and you can’t even get up,” he said indignantly.
I forced my eyelids up to look at him.
He was so lovely. All of him. So earnest and sweet. Just beautiful.
Eddie pursed his lips, his expression hardening with determination.
“This won’t be sexual. I’m just helping you out, okay?”
Before I could comprehend what he meant, his arm was extended toward my face, his exposed veins in front of my mouth. He parked his butt on the table and gripped the edge with his other hand.
“C’mon. Do your worst.”
Heavens.
If you were crawling through the desert in the baking midday heat but weren’t allowed to drink from the sacred lake in the oasis in front of you, would you obey the rule? Or would you dive in headfirst?
I cradled Eddie’s wrist in my hands, opened my mouth, and sank my fangs into his buttery skin. I made an involuntary noise, just a sinister hiss. Feeling Eddie shudder, I tried to suck gently at first. But then the molten heat trickled into my mouth.
Colors clashed on the insides of my eyelids, like butterflies and autumn leaves spiraling in the wind.
I cut the wound open wider, no doubt making it painful, but I couldn’t help it. Eddie’s blood flowed faster, and I gulped it down. My moans and growls must have scared him. I felt him shake, but I could only hold his arm tighter.
There was nothing like it. Nobody had ever compared, and nobody would ever come close.
Eddie’s blood was the most potent drug.
When it filled the hollow pit in my stomach, the familiar satisfaction easing my pain, I glanced up at him.
He stared back, wide eyes pinned on my lips, his pupils huge. He breathed with his mouth open, the tip of his tongue visible. I swallowed and sucked harder, not taking my eyes off his face. He panted, his expression full of fear and wild, reckless desire.
He was breathtaking.
I drank too much. Surely more than a pint.
Eddie’s chest was rising rapidly. With my stomach full, I regained control of my body and maybe even a little bit of sense. I licked the wound several times, lingering, making sure it closed properly.
Then I pressed a kiss to the spot.
“Thank you, Eddie.”
He didn’t move. He gazed at me with raw hunger, no hint of self-awareness in his features. His panting breaths came faster and louder. It didn’t matter that I’d bitten him only to feed; some of my venom still made it into his system.
His erection was right there, tenting his slacks.
