"Did you come here to f**k him?" With both of his hands grasping her head, he shoved his lips to her hair. "Do you want to see me snap? To kill? Why would you think I would let the mortal live if he took you?"
"Sebastian, just wait - "
He gave her a hard, punishing kiss as he pressed his palms against her thighs. Her body was tensed, but then, slowly, she began to respond to him - against her will, against reason.
Her breaths were quick. "Don't do this."
Though he was shaking with rage and lust, his fingers were gentle when he skimmed them up her thigh.
"Do you want my touch, Kaderin? Do you want to feel?"
This shouldn't happen - not now, not here. Hell, not at all. Even as she commanded herself to remember the task, she found herself responding.
Fury burned in him and his fangs sharpened with the undeniable need to mark her, to claim her as his in some way. The blooding was working on him once more.
His fangs ached to pierce her neck, and he knew he couldn't resist for much longer, knew that soon he would take her flesh savagely.
Why should he resist? If she wants to leave with another man, she'll carry my mark...
He kissed up from her delicate collarbone, lips easing higher as his hands did on her thighs. He nuzzled her, fondling her sex, teasing her wetness again and again. When he pressed his finger inside her, she cried out, hands gripping his shoulders, clutching as her claws sank into his skin. He thrust a second into her, and she rolled her h*ps into his hand, f**king his fingers.
No more - he couldn't take this any longer.
He sank his fangs into her neck in a frenzied bite, almost coming instantly from the unbelievable pleasure. He was lost in the warmth of her blood, in the richness that was unique to her taste. He was lost in how tight her flesh was around his aching fangs - until he felt her body tensing around his fingers in a sudden orgasm.
From his bite.
He barely remembered to put his hand over her mouth, muffling her screams.
Her sex continued to tighten around his fingers so furiously he snarled against her skin, sucking her hard. The feel of drinking her was perfect. As if instinct was rewarding him for doing something that was unavoidable anyway.
But he stopped himself from drinking too deeply. Later, when he had her in his bed, he was going to take his release from her body while he drank her blood.
He slowly withdrew his fangs, licking the marks on her neck as he removed his fingers. When she shuddered as if with loss, he realized the bite he'd despised had made her his - even if only for a moment.
Eyes wide, lips parted, she brushed his mark with her fingertips. He'd shocked her. Good.
Then she seemed to wake up, drawing back from him. She hurriedly pulled her hair around to cover her neck, then yanked her skirt down.
When she gazed up at him, her eyes passed over his face as if she'd never seen him before. Her expression told him she was disgusted with what she found. "I don't care if you'll turn or not. You had no right to take my blood."
"Ah, Kaderin, you didn't seem to mind."
"Thank you," she murmured.
He scowled. "For what?"
Her tone was quiet, grave. "For making this so easy. For making me see that there is nothing about you to tempt me to accept a vampire."
"You wanted to know why I desired to die?" he grated. "Because I saw myself as you see me. You hate me for reasons I can't control. Reasons I'd hated myself for. But now, seeing your reaction to me makes it clear I was wrong. At least, you've saved me from my own self-loathing." After tonight, he would no longer be ashamed to walk down the street. He refused to look at himself the way she saw him.
"Do you think this is only about your thirst for blood? Give me one reason that I should choose you over every other man I've met in millennia and every one I'll meet in the eternity to come? You can't." She caught his eyes. "It's more than your being a vampire."
This struck home. Why would she see him any differently than other women had throughout his mortal life?
Because she was his Bride, he would be seduced into wanting her again and again, seeing things in her that didn't exist. Then her true nature would betray his hopes like this in an endless cycle.
He could not win her.
I'll be fighting with her for eternity. That's what faced him. The thought exhausted him.
"I'm weary of this. Of you." He put his hand above her against the wall, leaning over her. "You're right. About everything. There's no reason for you to accept me. And you were right in saying that I've been compelled to want you simply because you're my Bride. My desire for you has been forced on me. I've had no choice in the matter."
"You act as if I gave you reason to think differently," she said. "I told you all along that you shouldn't bother with me."
He clutched the back of her neck, forcing her face up to him. "You also told me on more than one occasion that you never wanted to see me again. I'll oblige you. I was the first vampire to trace to a person - and I'll be the first to forsake my Bride." Human females had begun gazing at him with open yearning, a marked contrast to the revulsion currently obvious on his Bride's face. He would take one of them. Or several.
He gave her a harsh, scalding kiss. "I will forget you, if I have to f**k a thousand women to do it." When he released her, there was nothing in her expression, infuriating him even more. "Perhaps I'll start with a female in the Lore."
Did he imagine the flicker of silver in her eyes? "Have fun with that."
"If you leave with the human, I won't leave alone, either."
As Kaderin marched back to the booth, she pulled her collar higher, feeling Sebastian's eyes on her. He'd bitten her. Not by accident. Not gently. Worse, in her position, she hadn't exactly been able to disguise her intense reaction to it.
Sebastian had bitten her.
And she'd delighted in it, coming with an intensity that staggered her.
She hated him for that. For her entire long life, she'd gone without being bitten, and he'd taken her neck in a phone booth in a sordid bar. She was disgusted with the situation and with her wanton response to him. She was sick of the entire night and eager to end it.
When she reached Gamboa's table, she found Cindey had taken her place beside him.
And that wouldn't do.
"You." She pointed at Gamboa. She knew that because of Sebastian's touch, her voice was husky, her hair tousled, and her ni**les hard beneath the thin material of her blouse.
Gamboa stared, seeming dazed, then shrugged from Cindey's arm as he stood. Cindey shot her a bitter look, recognized defeat, and drained her drink.