Jocelynn Drake - Dayhunter

The first touch of his hands on my skin sent me scrambling off his body. Crawling to the top of the bed, I sat with my back pressed against the wood headboard. With my head tilted back, I ran my tongue over my teeth, taking in the taste of him. His heartbeat and heavy breathing were the only sounds in the room. I hadn’t taken much blood from him, nowhere near as much as I needed. I would have to feed again later, but his blood took the edge off my hunger and gave me back a measure of control.

Nicolai shifted on the bed, and I opened my eyes to find him lying on his stomach looking up at me, a wide grin playing on his lips. My eyes drifted to his neck to find that the wound was already healing on its own. That was one of the nice things about feeding on lycans—they healed so fast there was little chance of leaving behind any evidence you were ever there.

“You’ve not fed enough,” he said, his voice a low, husky rumble.

Shoving my right hand through my hair, pushing it back from where it fell around my face, I smiled at my companion. “I’ve had enough to get me to my next meal,” I murmured, feeling a little more relaxed for the first time in several nights. “I’ll not drain you to satisfy my cravings.”

Nicolai chuckled. “I’m not offering all of my blood,” he said, a smile lightening his features, easing back some of the worry lurking around his eyes since I’d first met him. He slid his right hand up to lightly wrap around one of my ankles. “But I can take more than that little snack.”

“For some reason, I get the impression you’re offering more than just a meal,” I hedged, my eyes pointedly slipping down to look at the long fingers wrapped around my ankle. This hadn’t been a part of my plan when I sank my teeth into his neck.

“And you’re opposed to the offer?” he inquired, making no effort to keep the sarcasm from his voice. Pushing to his knees, Nicolai sat up and pulled his shirt over his head, revealing acres of tanned skin and muscles pulsing with warmth and life. I think he dropped the shirt over the side of the bed, but I honestly couldn’t drag my eyes from his chest or his arms.

I’d been with my share of handsome men during my extended lifetime; human, lycan, and nightwalker. I’d been with enough to think that my head couldn’t be turned by a nice body or a handsome face. But Nicolai was putting my resolve to the test. He didn’t have the same, almost frightening beauty that Valerio possessed. Nicolai had his flaws. There was a long white scar on his chest, stretching above his heart. His stomach seemed almost too thin for his frame, making me wonder if his meals recently had been too sparse or infrequent. But it was this perfect combination of frailty and strength that was intoxicating.

With considerable effort I closed my eyes, but the image of his chest seemed to have already been burned into the insides of my eyelids. “I don’t want your body in exchange for your life.” I had to force the words from my mouth because something in me simply ached to run my tongue over his chest.

His laugh caused my eyes to open my eyes and focus on his handsome face again. Slowly, he reached down and took both of my ankles in his hands, making me feel very small. With a quick jerk I slid down the bed toward him so I was laying flat on my back with my knees brushing against his hips. Planting his hands on either side of my head, he leaned down until his lips were inches from mine.

“The blood was in gratitude for my life,” he whispered, his lips brushing against mine with each word. He moved his head, running his lips along my jaw as he spoke. “The sex is as much for me as it is for you. We’ve both had enough death and violence during the past few days to last a lifetime. And it’s not over, is it?”

His question gave me pause, waking me up from the spell his husky voice was weaving. I met his eyes and found those large copper-brown orbs asking me the same question I had seen in the eyes of Tristan, Sadira, James, Alexandra, and, for even a fleeting moment, Danaus. Were we going to survive? Was I going to protect them? Was there a hope to cling to? And for some reason, they all looked to me to be their savior. A pariah among my own kind. The Coven’s anathema.

Threading the fingers of my left hand through the golden wave of hair that cascaded down to frame his face, I pulled him closer so that my lips brushed against his. “It doesn’t matter. There is only now,” I whispered. Nicolai smiled against my lips as he leaned in to kiss me.

My eyes fell shut and there was only the feeling of his lips and his warmth wrapping around me like a wonderful cocoon, smothering all thoughts of the rest of the world. My tongue easily slid between his parted lips, and the taste of him reminded me of honey and fresh bread, memories of a home I was forced to leave years too early. My fingers left his hair to slide down along his massive shoulders, taking in skin that seemed impossibly soft. I turned my head and trailed kisses along his neck as I ran my hands down his back, lightly scratching him with my nails as I dragged my hands back up to his shoulders.

“Still looking for a bite?” he chuckled, nuzzling my neck before his lips finally settled on my earlobe. A sigh escaped me as the tip of his tongue ran along the edge of the sensitive piece of flesh. Tension that had hummed throughout my body for so many endless nights was beginning to unravel from each one of my muscles.

“Hmmmm…There are far more interesting places for me to snack,” I teased. Planting my heels in the bed and wrapping my arms around his waist, I rolled us over so he was lying on his back and I was straddling his hips.

Surprise lit his eyes, but he quickly recovered. He didn’t seem willing to relinquish control that easily. His hand shot out to snake around the back of my neck, pulling me back down so his mouth could reclaim mine in a long, deep kiss. His tongue slid along one of my fangs until finally pricking it. There was no fighting the moan that swelled up in my throat at the taste of his blood. Stretching out my legs on either side of him, I pressed the length of my body into his as I sucked blood from his tongue until the tiny wound finally healed on its own.

As a shiver ran through me, I broke off the kiss and slid my mouth down along his jaw near his ear. “You’ve done this before,” I purred.

“Been with a vampire?” he asked, running his hands down my back to cup my rear end. As he pressed my body closer to his, he arched his hips, grinding his hardened body into mine. “Oh, yeah. Surprised?”

“No,” I laughed, pushing up with my hands braced each side of his head so I could look down at him. But the laughter died when I thought about it. He had been held to Jabari’s side while at the court. I knew the horrors the Coven’s court were capable of. “While you were here?”

Nicolai cupped my cheeks with both of his hands and tried to pull me back down to him, but every muscle in my body had stiffened and he couldn’t move me. “No,” he said in a firm but gentle voice. “No one’s touched me while I’ve been here. My experience came well before Jabari.”

I sucked in a cleansing breath of air, trying to wipe away the moment of tension. I agreed that we both needed to heal, and sex would at least give us a moment of that. But doing something that mirrored anything he may have been forced to do with another nightwalker would not help him.

Nicolai pulled me back down and we got lost in another series of drugging kisses that only left us needing more, needing to be closer. The scent of his blood just below his warm skin beckoned to me. His blood was wonderful, better than pure human. It was richer and more potent, but my hunger for his blood was steadily being overpowered with the need to know every inch of his long body.