I raised my hand, placed my palm over Malik’s heart and lifted my gaze to his. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I am very much willing.’

He grasped my shoulders, fitting his mouth to mine gently and carefully, then more insistent and demanding, then hard enough to bruise. His tongue thrust against my teeth. A part of me reeled, stunned, not at the kiss but at his rapid loss of control, as though my answer had unleashed him to take what he wanted. I parted my lips instinctively, eagerly, surprised as his dark spice blood invaded me, quickening my pulse and drowning me in a wave of heady desire. My body responded as if a switch had been flipped. I pressed against him, insides swirling in giddy anticipation, nipples budding to aching peaks, molten heat slicking between my thighs. Gods I wanted this. Wanted him. Needed him. I had for so long. And now we could have it. Have each other.

I tangled my tongue with his, pleasure sparking as a sharp fang pierced my bottom lip. Sweet honey and copper-tasting blood exploded in our mouths and someone groaned: me, him or both of us. I slid my hands over his silky skin, rewarding my fingers with the lean, defined muscles of his back, the beautiful indentation of his spine. He sucked hard at my swollen mouth, the rhythmic sensation resonating in my core.

The pashmina fell away, quickly followed by my briefs, leaving me naked, open.

He groaned, a harsh desperate sound, and grasped my hair, trailing rough kisses down my jaw as I tipped my head back to offer him my throat. His hand roved over my breasts, pinching and pulling with brusque touches, bringing forth inarticulate cries for more. I pressed against him, fumbling at his leather jeans, impatient to free him, his fervent growl matching mine as the thick satiny length of him sprang into my eager hold. His hand caressed lower, long elegant fingers parting me with perfect skill, sliding over the throbbing bundle of tiny nerves and pushing deep inside, their marble coolness a glorious overwhelming counterpoint to my own wet heat. For a long moment, time stilled and he held me there, a willing captive on the very edge as the pressure spiralled tighter, and tighter, and tighter . . .

Mine!The shout reverberated against my throat as his fangs pierced my flesh, his will commanding my release. I screamed, arched against him, and the orgasm rolled me over and over in a tsunami of pleasure, fluttering my heart, stealing my breath and plunging me headlong into soft black-velvet darkness laced with delicate patterns of gold.

Chapter Thirty-One

Distant voices dragged me from the darkness.

I pushed them away, enjoying the warm weight of the leather coat covering me with a familiar dark spice scent and the sated haze swirling through my mind and body. But even if I was sated, Malik wasn’t; I’d passed out before we’d really got down to it, an annoying hazard of donating blood during orgasm. But now there was more to come. I grinned at my unintended pun. Oh yeah, so much more was to come. My body perked up, obviously appreciating the thought, and I stretched out under the coat, searching for the beautiful vamp so we could continue what we’d so gloriously started.

He wasn’t there. Something neither I, nor my body, was too thrilled about.

I opened my eyes. Above me, I expected to see the night sky. But the view was hazed, as if I were looking through thick plastic. I squinted uncomprehendingly. Then blinked. A dome of magic rose high above me. A blood-Ward circle. And judging by the golden-pink tinge to the magical dome, it was my blood and power fuelling the protection it offered. Either I’d started doing magic while unconscious – unlikely – or something weird was going on.

I looked sideways, vaguely aware my neck felt like someone had chomped on it—

Malik sat a couple of feet away on the sandy grass, leaning against a lump of rock, forearms resting on bent knees, hands loose between his leather-clad legs. His head was tipped back, his eyes closed. Unease slipped down my spine. He didn’t look like a happy blood-bunny basking in the aftermath, but more like he was waiting with weary resignation for me to wake up. I glanced back up at the moon; it didn’t appear to have moved across the sky much, so I couldn’t have been out of it long. I looked back at Malik to find him staring at me with an unnerving blank expression.

Out of eyes gone solid gold.

‘What happened?’ I said, or meant to, instead I croaked ‘Whahp—’ thanks to the killer sore throat.

His eerie gold stare didn’t flicker.

Fuck. Had I trapped him in my Glamour? Only he’d said it wasn’t possible. Gut clenching, I threw off the leather coat and leaped up—

The ground heaved like I’d jumped on a storm-tossed boat, my stomach roiled, darkness spotted my vision, and I faceplanted again. This time into his arms. He lowered me gently to my butt and pushed my head between my knees.

‘My apologies, Genevieve.’ His not-quite-English accent was formal, his tone empty. ‘I fear I took too much blood.’ Cool fingers on the back of my neck eased the rapid onslaught of a hammering headache.

‘’S’okay,’ I whispered past the thudding pain in my head. ‘Body’ll replace it soon. Red cells’re turbo-boosted – 3V, remember.’ Though why I was explaining all that to him, a vamp . . . Only, beneath his empty tone, he’d sounded like his heart was breaking.

His wasn’t the only one. Mine felt like it was cracking into tiny pieces too. We finally get together and things were supposed to be mindblowing. And they had been mindblowing, and amazing and glorious and any number of other wonderful adjectives, for all of what felt like five seconds . . . then I’d woken up. Now, for some unknown reason, everything seemed to be going horribly, heart-wrenchingly wrong.

That bastard Cupid must truly have me on his shit list.

My nausea eased, the ragged tufts of grass and sandy earth beneath me coming into focus, and I realised the pain was muting. I raised my head carefully, grateful for Malik’s soothing touch at my nape.

I slanted a look at him, crouching elegantly next to me and started with something simple. ‘How come we’re in a circle?’

His golden eyes flickered. ‘The kelpie wished to take you from me.’

Huh? ‘When was Tavish here?’

‘He appeared while you were . . . sleeping.’

Had to be the voices I heard.Annoyance flashed through me. Damn kelpie. One thing for him not to trust Malik, but he should trust my judgement after all this time. Though perhaps I should’ve expected the interfering wylde fae to turn up; I’d known he wasn’t thrilled about me seeing Malik. But that didn’t explain why we were in a circle.

I asked Malik again.

Briefly he closed his eyes. When he reopened them, the gold was duller. ‘I castthe circle.’

‘You?! But you can’t do magic.’ I frowned. ‘Can you?’

He held out his hand. A can of Blue Bat juice, emblazoned with the Blue Heart logo, appeared in his palm. ‘It appears I can.’

I frowned. Had he just done some kinetic vamp trick? Or—‘Where did that come from?’

‘The Blue Heart.’ He offered me the can with a flat, eerie stare. ‘Drink it, Genevieve. It will assist with your recovery.’

I took it and chugged back half the drink before I realised he’d given me an order. The stuff tasted like goblin piss (Beater goblins in Sucker Town have their own peculiarities when it comes to subduing rogue vamps, as I’d discovered once when I’d been wearing Rosa’s body as my vamp disguise). As I started to splutter, Malik clapped a hand over my mouth, pushed my chin up and ordered, ‘Swallow. Then drink the rest.’

I glared at him, promising retribution. If he thought giving me an orgasm, no matter how freaking fuck-tastic it was, gave him permission to order me around like some junkie blood-slave, even if it was for my own good, then he was sucking on the wrong sidhe.