“No,” Ginny breathed. She patiently waited for him to settle, before sliding closer on his lap. Right up until the tight material of her skirt prevented her from opening her legs to accommodate his shifting hips.
Maintaining their intense eye contact, she reached down tugged the skirt higher, higher, his energy turning more and more fraught with every inch. She intended to stop once her thighs were able to hug him tightly, but something rebelled inside of her and before she knew it, the entire skirt was rucked up around her waist and she was settling her panties atop the ridge in his jeans.
Both of them tested the friction and moaned.
Jonas angled his head and licked into her mouth slowly, threatening to erode her composure. “What is this little outfit you’re wearing, love?” he rasped, letting his tongue rest on her lower lip. Dragging it side to side. “Did you think by looking the part of a sacrifice, you might help persuade me to take it?”
“I’m not a sacrifice.” She shook her head. “I can’t explain how I know this, but tonight feels…inevitable. Don’t you feel that?”
“Yes,” he hissed, his handsome face contorting with pain. “I hate that you felt an ounce of this pain. It’s going to haunt me forever.”
There were painful stirrings inside Ginny, telling her another episode was approaching and while she wanted to avoid that, she wanted to alleviate Jonas’s agony just as much. She leaned in and kissed him softly, hating the tremors passing through him, knowing first hand they were unbearable.
“Ginny, I can’t have you this close much longer without—”
“I know.” She stroked his face. “It won’t…make me a vampire?”
“There’s a venom inside of us that only releases when a victim is close to…” His eyes squeezed shut. “Dying. It’s involuntary, a product of our true nature as predators and it’s the only thing that can transform a human…God help me, I won’t let it get that far. I’d never make you like me.”
Entranced by the fangs he’d exposed to her in his vehemence, Ginny gathered her long hair in a fist and arranged it to one side. “I trust you.”
And then she offered him her neck.
Green embers whipped up in Jonas’s eyes. He still seemed determined to fight his obvious thirst for her. To Ginny, his lust was intoxicating. It wasn’t only for her blood, either. With her neck exposed and vulnerable, she felt his shaft thicken between her legs and her nipples peaked in response. Her inhales and exhales grew sharp, uneven, and she could no more stop herself from rocking in his lap than she could shoot lasers from her fingertips.
“You make me wish desperately for the use of my hands,” he rasped.
“What would you do with them?”
“Hold your ass still before it causes too much trouble.”
Oh my. He definitely didn’t sound like a prince anymore—and she minded it far less than she could have imagined. “What trouble is it causing?”
“I crave my mate in more ways than one, love,” Jonas said, elevating his hips along with Ginny, who could only grasp his shoulders and whimper. “And I’ve craved constantly for days, though I’d swear it was decades.”
Their mouths surged together in a kiss that was at once rough and reverent. Being positioned on Jonas’s lap put their mouths level and they couldn’t get close enough. He transferred low growls into her mouth, licking them away with his tongue, his lips demanding and seductive and intuitive. By the time he broke away and ordered Ginny to breathe, she was dizzy and aroused. So aroused. Her hands stroked up and down his chest in worship, the word please falling from her swollen lips over and over and over.
Though she begged for Jonas to give her what they both needed, she still gasped in shock when he fisted her hair tightly, his expression nothing short of predatory. Nothing short of electric and thrilling.
He leaned down and licked the side of her neck, long and slow. “Mine,” he breathed, planting a hot, open-mouthed kiss over her pulse. “Inevitably, undeniably mine. May God help us all.”
Ginny braced herself for pain—and she got it. The shocking sting made her body jolt and twist, but a flood of numbing warmth ensued so quickly afterward, she stilled. As if on command. Stilled and felt the sharp fangs sinking into her. Heard Jonas’s muffled exclamation against her skin, followed by an exultant groan.
She’d been caught.
Possessed.
She belonged right there, in his lap, locked to his body and accepting his bite, incapable of moving. Even if she could have, she wouldn’t. That truth sang in her blood as Jonas took it into his mouth greedily, the flesh between his legs rising further to meet her. Needing her.
Ginny’s thighs started to tremble around his hips and she longed to rub herself shamelessly on his erection. Need to move. Need to move. Heat inundated her, making her skin feel flushed, her femininity restless. If she could just twist a little, she could rub her nipples against his chest and maybe get some relief, because it seemed to be so near.