11. Luke

Xander and I spent the better part of two hours talking, mostly about the mundane, and definitely not about vampires vs. humans. He’d opened up a little more about the life of a vampire since we first met hours earlier, but I could tell he had no interest in diving any deeper than we already had.

As the night wore on, I felt myself growing drowsy. I could usually stay up later than this, but the time we spent in bed together had worn me out, and I would be lucky if I made it to 3, maybe 4, in the morning.

Xander lay next to me in bed, still in his robe, which he refused to take off so we could cuddle, and eventually, my head lolled to the side and my eyelids got too heavy to keep open. I wanted to keep talking, but I couldn’t form words anymore and before I knew it, my head was against Xander’s chest and his arm was around me, pulling me closer.

When I woke up, it was still dark in the cold bedroom. The covers had been draped over me, and as I sat up, I shivered and pulled them up to my chest to keep the chill from creeping in any deeper.

“I guess I didn’t sleep that long, did I?” I said, looking over at Xander, still lying next to me and wide awake.

Xander raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t you?”

“Well, it’s still dark out.”

A thin smile spread across his lips and he stood up, making his way to the window. Stepping to the side, he pulled open one of the curtains just enough to let a sliver of light in.

“This house can be deceptive,” he told me. “You were asleep for hours, my dearest Luke. I would imagine that by now you’re quite well-rested.”

He came back to the bed, but he didn’t lie down again. Instead, he knelt over me, looking down at me like I was some kind of prey to him. I probably should have been scared if my fight-or-flight instincts had anything to say about it, but I couldn’t work up any sort of fear right now.

I shivered again, not from the cold this time, and sat up in bed. “What are you going to do to me?” I asked.

“Tear you apart limb from limb and suck every last drop of blood out of you.” He slid his tongue over his fangs and my heart dropped straight into my stomach.

“B-but you said–“

Xander cut me off with a laugh. “Relax, I’m joking. I wouldn’t do any such thing to you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. ‘Cause for a second there, I thought you were being serious.”

“No, of course not. But I do want to leave you with something to remember me by – aside from those cuts on your neck, that is. Something to dream about when you’re lying awake, unable to sleep.” He placed a hand on my chest, curling his fingers into a claw-like shape. “Something like this.”

He dragged his short nails down my chest, raking into the skin enough to leave bright red marks in their wake.

I inhaled sharply, nearly grabbing his wrist to stop him before letting my hand go limp. I didn’t want to stop him. I wanted him to keep going. I wanted to see what else he could do to me.

He stopped just above my belly button, removing his hand and letting it drop back to his side. If I had been hard before, I was stiff as a tree trunk now, and even the feather comforter couldn’t hide it. Xander’s skimpy robe did a poor job of hiding his own arousal, and wild thoughts began to race in my mind as I pictured where this morning might lead.

“Turn around,” he told me.

I quickly scrambled onto my belly, leaving myself vulnerable to Xander’s discretion. I couldn’t see anything except the pillow in front of me, white and fluffy.

Xander’s hand landed on my back, tracing first my shoulder blades, then my spine. He curved his fingers under again and scraped them down my back in the same way he’d scratched my chest. This time it felt harder, and I wondered if he’d made it bleed.

Of course, if he had, he probably wouldn’t still be kneeling over me. I’d probably feel his hard, sharp fangs against my skin, his lips making contact so he could lick all the stray blood off before it went to waste.

He wasn’t doing any of that, so unless he was showing remarkable strength, the cuts weren’t as bad as they felt.

The room was eerily silent. The darkness permeated every corner, every crevice, and it should have been the least sexy place to be. Xander’s body, which should have been warm as it touched me, was as cold as death. And I loved every second of it.

His breath tickled the back of my neck as he leaned in closer. Then his lips brushed against my skin. Then the very tip of a fang pressed in just enough to leave a small mark, nothing more.

I took a shaky breath, waiting for him to bite me. I’d given him permission to last night and to me that permission carried over into future encounters. I didn’t know if he understood that, but I suspected he did.

Still, one dent was all he left before lifting his head and climbing on top of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a wisp of black fabric floated down to the floor. A shock of cold washed over me as Xander tore the sheets away from my body and off the bed.

I thought he would penetrate me right then, or maybe grab that bottle of lube that still sat innocently on the nightstand from last night, but he didn’t. He straddled me silently, stroking his long, elegant fingers down my back, tracing the curve of my spine.

The only sound now was a branch scraping against the house. It must have been windy outside, and it probably wouldn’t be long until a draft filled the room as the breeze wafted through the cracks.

His hand came down hard on my ass, the sheer surprise making me jump. The initial jolt of pain spread like a hot iron across my skin. He brought his hand down again, and again, and again. This was going to leave a mark too, maybe even more apparent than the teeth marks to anyone lucky enough to see it.