Twenty-five

Gabriel laid Maya in front of him on the couch, her body completely naked now. He’d ravished her like an animal, yet she smiled at him. His body still hummed from the amazing experience of being inside her and pounding his cock into her. But he felt regret, regret at not having given her the same pleasure she’d given him.

He promised himself that he wouldn’t lose control again until she was sated. A man who couldn’t satisfy his woman had everything to lose. If he couldn’t give her what she needed, she’d find it somewhere else—and there was no way in hell he’d allow that to happen.

He still couldn’t believe that she hadn’t recoiled from him at the sight of the flesh about his cock. Why was she so different from other women?

When all this was over, he would make certain she understood what he wanted from her: a blood-bond, an irrevocable bond stronger than any marriage in the human world. While he would have to continue drinking human blood, he would partake of hers mostly during sex, first to establish the bond, then later to renew and sustain it.

And Maya would only ever feed from him. The bond would allow them to know each other’s thoughts and be aware of each other even if they were apart. Everything that belonged to him would also belong to her. And he’d always be true to her. Already now, no other woman interested him, and the blood-bond would make their love for each other even stronger.

She hadn’t told him that she loved him, but he was almost sure she did—only a woman in love would be able to see past his deformity and allow him to touch her. And the way she’d caressed the ugly piece of flesh … it had been with such tenderness that he was certain she wasn’t disgusted. She cared for him, he knew that much. And even if she didn’t love him yet, he would do anything in his power to make her fall in love with him.

“Teach me,” he whispered to her.

There was a curious look on Maya’s face. “Teach you what?”

“How to satisfy you. I want to know how your body works.”

She chuckled. “Gabriel, I think you know very well how my body works. Have you already forgotten what you did yesterday?”

He hadn’t forgotten—not a single second of it. But this was different. “I’ll never forget that, trust me.” He let his fingers trail to the juncture of her thighs. She opened for him without coaxing. “But I want you to feel the same way when I’m inside you.”

She was wet when he slipped a finger inside her. Her lids closed halfway at his action. “Mmm,” she hummed.

Gabriel’s cell phone rang. “Damn!” Letting his finger slip from her tight sheath, he reached for it and looked at the number. It was a number he’d memorized over the last few days. “Sorry, baby, I’ve got to take that.” He noticed Maya’s disappointed look.

He flipped the phone open. “Francine.”

“Hey vamp— Gabriel,” she corrected herself. “We need to meet.”

“Now?” He swept a long look over Maya’s naked body.

“Now. I’ve found it. So if you want to know what ails you, you’d better come now before I change my mind.”

Excitement coursed through him. She knew what was wrong with him? “Where are you?”

“At the lab.” She gave him an address in Laurel Heights, only minutes from Samson’s house.

“I’ll be there shortly.”

As he flipped the phone shut, he looked at Maya. She didn’t look at him, and he sensed her frustration. In fact, now that he thought of it, he could sense a lot of things about her, not quite as strong as what he knew a blood-bond would do, but a strong connection nevertheless. He wondered whether the fact that she’d only recently fed from him did that and his own blood created that connection, or whether it was the fact that they’d had sex.

“The witch knows what’s wrong with me and wants to see me.”

A quiet sigh came from Maya. “Maybe there’s nothing wrong with you. Gabriel, I really don’t mind it.”

“But I do. I don’t want to be a monster anymore.”

***

“You don’t look like a monster to me.” She wanted to keep him, deformity or not. She knew not every woman would be this welcoming, especially not a human. But if he had his deformity removed, what would stop him from going out there and looking for a human woman? Maya closed her eyes, hating herself for her selfish thoughts. How could she even contemplate stopping him from finding a cure? Had she lost all good in her? Was she prepared to do anything just so he’d stay with her and wouldn’t find another lover?