She was being given life; she knew this in that primitive part of her mind. She had been near death, maybe close enough to touch it, but this warmth--this dark elixir--had pulled her back.
"More," she croaked. At least she thought she had spoken. The voice she heard sounded distant and weak. So desperate. "More... "
Tess shuddered as an abrupt absence of warmth answered her demand. No, she thought, a dark panic rising with the loss. He was leaving her now. Her protective angel was gone, along with the font of life he' d given her. She moaned weakly, forcing her listless hands to reach out and search for him.
"Dante... "
"I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."
The chill vanished as a heavy weight settled in alongside her. Heat warmed her entire length, heat from him as he pulled her up against him. She felt strong fingers at her nape, guiding her head closer to his voice, pressing her mouth to the firm column of his neck. Warm, wet skin met her lips.
"Come here, Tess, and drink from me. Take all you need."
Drink from him? Some fading part of her consciousness rejected the idea as nonsensical, unthinkable, but another part of her--the part that was still spinning wildly in the tide, grasping for solid ground-- made her mouth seek out that which he so willingly offered.
Tess parted her lips and sucked long and hard, filling her mouth with the roaring force of Dante's gift.
Holy. Hell.
As Tess locked her mouth down over the vein he'd opened for her in his neck, Dante's entire body went as taut as a bowstring. The hungry suction of her lips, the silky caress of her tongue as she drew his blood into her mouth and swallowed it, made his c**k stand up at attention, a fierce, stone-hard erection like he'd never experienced before.
He hadn't known how intense it would be to let her drink from him so intimately. This was the first time in all his existence that he'd ever given his blood to another. He had always been the taker, feeding out of necessity and often for pleasure, but never with a Breedmate.
Never with a woman who moved him the way Tess did.
And the fact that she fed from him now out of pure survival instinct, because his blood was the very thing--the only thing--her body needed in this moment, just made the act all the more erotic to him. His sex throbbed, hungry and demanding, a heavy pressure that he wanted to ignore but couldn't.
Christ, but it felt as if she were sucking on that very male part of him, each pull of her mouth ratcheting him up tighter, nearly sending him straight over the edge. With a groan, Dante fisted his hands in the silk sheets of his bed, holding on as Tess fed from him in primal need.
Her fingers started twitching where they clutched his shoulders, kneading his muscles in a mindless rhythm as she continued to draw his blood into her mouth. Dante felt her strength coming back to her with each passing minute. Her breathing grew deeper, no more the rapid, shallow compression of her lungs but a cadence of long, healthy draws.
Feeling her vitality return was the greatest aphrodisiac he had ever known. It took Herculean effort not to catch her in his arms and press her beneath him so he could slake his own thundering need.
"Keep drinking," he told her, his mouth full with the presence of his extended fangs and a tongue gone thick with his own thirst. "Don't stop, Tess. It's all for you. Only for you."
She moved up closer to him now, her br**sts crushing against his chest, and her hips... God, her h*ps were rubbing along his pelvis, undulating in a subtle, instinctual motion as her mouth continued to work feverishly at his neck. He rolled onto his back and held as still as he could for her, his eyes closed in exquisite torment, his pulse raging.
Restraint was not something he was accustomed to practicing, but for Tess he would endure the agony all night if necessary. He relished it, actually, as much as his desire for her shredded him in pieces. He lay back on the mattress and absorbed every nuance of her body's movement, every soft mewl and moan she made against his throat.
He might have lasted longer if Tess hadn't crawled up over him, her mouth still fastened to his vein, her hair falling loosely onto his chest. Dante's spine arced beneath her, rising up off the bed as she sucked deeper now, her slender body feeling hot to the touch, moving all over him in slow erotic waves.
She started riding him, her thighs spread across his hips, her sex grinding on his as if they were na**d together and making love. Even through the nylon warmups he wore, he could feel Tess's intense heat. Her panties were wet from desire, the sweet scent of her arousal slamming into his brain like a hammer.
"Christ," he gasped, reaching up to grab the headboard as her feeding rose to a frenzied crescendo.
She rocked on him, faster and harder, her blunt human teeth latching on to his neck as she sucked deeper than ever at his vein. He felt her cl**ax swelling, breaking loose. His own was roaring up on him fast as well, his shaft surging, leaping, ready to blow. The second Tess came, Dante surrendered to his own release. The orgasm crashed into him, laying him low, wringing him out. He was lost to it, unable to stop the fierce pulsations that seemed to go on endlessly as Tess settled on top of him in a sated, heavy sleep.
After a while, Dante unclamped his hands from the headboard and brought them down gently on Tess' s slack body. He wanted to be inside her, needed it like he needed air to breathe, but she was vulnerable right now and he would not use her. Now that she was out of danger, there would be other times for them to be together like this, better times.
God, there had to be.
Chapter Thirty-one
Tess came awake gently, her face breaking through the surface of a warm, dark wave that floated her body toward a welcoming shore. She took a breath and felt cool, cleansing air rush into her lungs. Her eyes blinked open, once, twice, the lids feeling heavy as though she'd been asleep for days.