“Do y—” My fecking voice cracked, and I had to clear my throat before I could start again. “Do you have an aversion to bedrooms now?”
She draped her sweater over the chair closest to the fire, casting a glance over her shoulder. “Not in particular.”
“What’s all this, then?”
“I have an aversion to you. You sleep there.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, Caleb.” She slid her hands behind her back, staring me down as she unhooked her bra. “But from the looks of things, you sure don’t have an aversion to me.” She dropped her eyes purposefully to the bulge in my trousers.
“I never said I did. I’ve always been honest about wanting you.”
She smirked, flinging her bra at me as she turned and headed into the bedroom. “How’s it feel to want?” she called over her shoulder before slamming the door in my face.
I let out an agonized groan, scrubbing my hands over my face. “Like fucking hell.”
ChapterTwelve
CALEB
Even in the dark of night, my homeland was beautiful. It always had been. But try as I might, staring out into the prison I’d created for us both couldn’t ease the ache Sunday had caused in my body, my heart, my mind. Punctuated by another sort of pain.
Unsatisfied lust.
She knew exactly which buttons to press and when.
Though to be fair, when I was around her, lust always simmered just below the surface. There was very little she need do other than breathe to send desire careening through me. Part of me wondered if it was a mate thing. If the others felt this way when they were with her too. The rest of me didn’t care. All my primal side focused on was sating the urge to be inside her, filling her, claiming her.
I let out a soft grunt as my cock throbbed. My fecking trousers were shamefully tented. I couldn’t walk around the house like this. On display. Showing her exactly how she affected me. Reaching down, I adjusted myself until it was at least a little less obvious how hard I was.
The snick of the bedroom door unlocking had my shoulders tense and jaw tight. So she was coming out to play after all.
“Shower’s all yours,” she called, sailing past me and into the kitchen where the leftovers sat waiting for her. Yes, I’d already heated them for her. Yes, I was pathetic.
I debated going to her, pushing her down onto the table, spreading her legs and making a feast for myself out of her body. But she’d drawn the line between us, and I wasn’t ready to surrender to her terms. Instead, stubborn arse that I was, I remained rigidly turned away, forcing myself to keep control.
“You’re really going to ignore me?” she asked, her tone petulant.
“Aye.”
She scoffed. The sound of a chair being pulled out followed by her soft sigh as she sat raked across my nerves. Everything about her called to me, luring me like a siren to my demise. I counted her breaths, savored her sighs. And with each passing second, I lost a little more of my fragile will. Not just to stop myself from fucking her, but to resist devouring her. My thirst for her was akin to a flame's unquenchable need for oxygen. Without her, I’d die.
I could hear the rush of blood through her veins with every beat of her heart. I was starving in more ways than one, and my fangs responded, lengthening in my mouth.
“Good. I needed some peace and quiet.”
“Happy to give you what you want.”
She let out a small huff of laughter. “That’s a first.”
My palm itched to crack against her round arse. She just couldn’t help herself. “Perhaps you don’t always know what you want, Miss Fallon.”
“And you do? That’s hilarious. You can barely admit to what youneed. You’re starving, and yet you still refuse to hunt.”
“Tell me, who should I feed on?” I turned to face her then, giving in to my body’s desperate desire to feel a connection with her. “You?”
I would have missed it if I hadn’t been looking so intently at her, but her pupils flared and her breath hitched. She wanted me to drink from her. As if by its own will, her hand lifted, and she lightly stroked the mark I’d given her. My cock jerked as if the echo of the caress ran along its length.