"You ask for death — yet you offer me life."
"I'm human. We're confusing like that."
His smile felt good against my lips.
"Kiss me harder," I begged, hooking my legs around his body.
"I'm old… go easy on me." He returned my frantic kiss with a slow torturous one of his own. He licked my lips then pierced the bottom, sucking away droplets of blood.
"You don't want easy." I sighed.
In a flash, I was on my back, my shirt completely gone. "You're right." He tongued the curve of my ear. "Mine."
"Yours."
My jeans went flying. "All. Mine."
Cold air bit at my skin. My heartbeat sped up as Ethan's body hovered over me, his lips hot on my neck. With a growl, he tugged my hair, forcing my head back, exposing my neck completely to his lips.
His fangs slid across my neck. "I'm going to mark you forever. You still have a choice, Genesis."
"No," I breathed, squeezing my eyes shut, "I really don't."
"You do," he urged. His body was scorching hot behind me. "Tell me no."
"I can't," I repeated, tilting my head back further, arching my back.
With a growl, he pierced my skin. I felt each drop of blood leave my body.
I reached for his shirt, but he slapped my hands away, pinning my wrists above my head as his mouth nipped my neck again. My body almost bucked off the bed when he drank more. It was different than before.
His tongue scalded me — in the best way — almost like he really was forever marking me, making it so anyone who looked at me knew whom I belonged to.
"Ethan—" I almost choked on his name, stunned I could even remember it after all the emotions swirling inside me — fear, excitement, lust, and something else, something bigger than me, bigger than him, having him pressed against me, his hot mouth on my skin. It was right, even though I couldn't explain anything beyond that.
He drank deeper.
The room exploded into a burst of light.
I gasped in response. His mouth left my neck and moved along my chin.
He released one of my hands. I immediately dug it into his hair and pulled his mouth to mine. Our mouths met with such aggression — almost violence — that I was sure more blood would be drawn.
He chuckled against my lips. "Is the need for me greater than anything else?"
"No," I lied, not wanting to admit to him that my need was so great I didn't even want to survive without him — couldn't.
His eyes darkened as his tongue slid across my mouth. "I can taste the lie on your lips."
"Really?"
"God, you're beautiful." His eyes were so black, so inviting.
I tugged his head again then moved my hand down his chest. He closed his eyes; a hiss escaped between his teeth.
He lifted the shirt over his head and grabbed my hand, holding it firm against his muscled stomach. "Touch me."
I really didn't need an invitation.
I don't know what possessed me to lean forward and lick his stomach — but that's what I did.
A guttural growl erupted from him as soon as my tongue licked along the thick lines of muscle along his stomach. "I said touch me. Don't kill me."
Laughing, I traded licks for kisses; he tasted sweet — scalding. Power surged through me with each tremble of his body, each moan. His hands dug into my hair, tugging me closer to his chest. I reached for the button of his pants, expecting him to slap me away or say something.
He went very still.
Too still.
Nervous, I pulled back and looked up at him.
His eyes were back to green. "There's no going back, Genesis."
I kept my gaze trained on him as I slowly undid the button and slid my hands inside.
Green turned to black as his fangs dug into his bottom lip. His head tilted back. He was like a god… in that moment more immortal than I'd ever acknowledged or realized.
Ethan
Her hands stopped moving.
I'd killed her.
That was my first errant thought — because at that point, I'd stopped thinking rationally and had moved past logic, straight toward possessing Genesis and marking her beyond recognition.
With a groan, I touched my forehead to hers gently, so as to not scare her into realizing that she was, in fact, ready to give herself fully to something not human.
Her breathing picked up speed again.
I smirked and moved her hands down the side of my hips. When her fingers came into contact with my length, she let out a tiny gasp.
"Care to explore?" I taunted. "Or does the human not like playing with fire."
She gripped me — hard, almost painfully so — considering I was ready to impale the poor thing.
"I can handle it," she whispered in a husky voice.
"Prove it," I smirked, licking her lips again, needing that taste more than I needed anything else in my existence.