Demon Night

tightened at that, but he didn’t respond except to nod.
    “So I want them to be separate, so that it doesn’t seem— to me —like I’m trading sex for blood. Because if that’s the only thing I’m giving you back…” She spread her hands and dropped them to her sides again. “I just don’t know how they wouldn’t get mixed up.”
    “That would be just fine, Charlie, save for one thing.” Ethan stepped forward, cupping her cheeks. He tipped her head back and held her gaze as he said, “You’re a vampire now. They are mixed up and they always will be. When you’re feeding, I can prevent us having sex, but not the bloodlust that makes us want it so bad. And when I bed you, you won’t be able to finish without blood. You can use yours instead of mine, and control when you’ll let yourself go, but it’ll always be there with us.”
    She searched his eyes. He was laying it out straight for her, but she wasn’t certain she understood the last part. It seemed unbelievable. “Are you saying that I can’t have an orgasm without it?”
    He leaned in, his voice lowering. “I’m saying that I could work at you for hours, and it won’t matter how much you beg or moan, how fast or slow we go, whether I use my fingers or my mouth, or if you take me as deep as you can. Without blood, you’d just stay riled up.”
    She was suddenly breathless. “But I can control it?”
    “Yes.”
    At least it was something she could choose, then. Her gaze dropped to his mouth. She reached up and brushed her thumb over the scar on his lip. “Ethan,” she said huskily, and watched as desire flared in his eyes. “I think I’m in too close.”
    “That’s a damn shame.” He slid his hands back to palm the wall beside her head. “I reckon you ain’t got no choice but to kiss me, then.”
    “No choice,” she agreed. “You probably shouldn’t move, because I don’t have much practice.”
    He closed his eyes, his lips curving beneath her thumb. “I’ll stand real still.”
    She eyed the six inches between her and those lips; Ethan was already leaning in a little—just not far enough. But his arms were braced on either side of her…and she was incredibly strong now.
    Her hands curved over his shoulders. Lifting her own weight was nothing, and he didn’t seem to feel it either. She wrapped her legs high on his waist so that her feet weren’t dangling above the floor.
    Ethan was solid and hot between her thighs, the wall hard against her back.
    His breathing quickened. She held her mouth close to his, let his exhalations brush her skin. His lashes cast short spiked shadows below his eyes, and she thought it would be so easy to lose herself in the play of light and dark across his face. Until her gaze fell to his mouth, and looking wasn’t enough.
    She trailed her tongue across the width of his bottom lip, then lifted her head and waited.
    Ethan squinted one eye open. “That was just plain mean—”
    Her mouth caught his. He tensed, his hands fisting in her hair, holding her in place. The pressure increased between her legs and against her back as he leaned into the kiss.
    Then he offered her the lead, his lips softening.
    Practice. But it didn’t feel like it; her mouth learned his too easily, as if she’d been doing it this way forever—or as if she had been made to kiss him with fangs. His tongue teased their sharp tips, and she felt the echo of that caress in her nipples and her sex, in the sensitive bud pressed tight against his abdomen.
    And losing herself in this came easily, too. The inside of his mouth was slick and hot. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders as she licked deep. Her fangs clicked against his teeth, and she shivered with pleasure.
    Ethan released her hair, and it tumbled heavy over her shoulder. His big palm curved down her waist, then burned a line of fire beneath her shirt hem to her breast.
    Her lips left his, and she let her head fall back when his heated fingers circled the taut flesh.
    His voice was harsh. “Do we stop, Charlie?”
    The choice was hers. But she couldn’t focus long enough to work it over, to think; he was dropping openmouthed kisses into the hollow of her throat, his thumb dragging roughly across her nipple. Just the gentle flexing of his stomach muscles threatened to make her lose control, and he was all around her, surrounding her. So much texture, so much heat.
    “I don’t know,” she gasped.
    Ethan stilled. Then his mouth captured hers with scorching