“I have to.”

Not a horde of vampire hunters chasing him with stakes could stop him now. Lowering his head, he moved his hands to her thighs and pushed them apart, opening her for his own pleasure.

A triangle of dark curls greeted his approach, and the tantalizing smell of youth and purity beckoned him to move farther south. He sank his face between her spread thighs and inhaled, allowing her scent to engulf him. Everything else faded into the background. The cold tile floor was suddenly forgotten. And even the soft woofing of his dog in the next room subsided. The only things his senses were able to process were her scent and the feel of her silken flesh under his hands. Her soft, almost inaudible moans provided the background music to this enticing tableau of ripe and willing woman.

Zane stroked his fingers up her thighs, allowing them to converge at the moist folds of her sex. As he brushed against the warm cleft, Portia jolted.

“I’ll be gentle,” he heard himself reassure her. Gentle? Could he really be that? Could he be tender and careful with a woman as precious as her? Or would his desire for her unleash the beast in him?

He wanted to pull back, to try to get himself under control so he wouldn’t hurt her, when her hands suddenly stroked over his skull, her fingernails softly grazing his skin. He lost his ability to move. A shudder went through him and right through his cock, making pre-cum ooze from the slit.

Zane licked his tongue over her flesh, lapping up the juices that coated it. His entire body went rigid with his first taste of her innocence.

Holy hell!

He’d never tasted anything as delicious, and he’d eaten a lot of pussy in his life. This was nothing like he’d ever had. Her tangy flavor was rich and ripe, the texture of her flesh so soft and smooth, teasing his lips and tongue by making them tingle. His pulse raced, his heart pounding through his chest as if it wanted to jump out of his body and into hers.

Portia was better than the best blood he’d ever drunk.

Need to possess her charged through every single cell of his body.

Mine, his mind screamed again, deafening him. Warring emotions battled in his heart, the need to have her on one side, and to protect her from himself on the other. In between those two forces, a third reared its head: the will to protect himself from falling for her, from giving his heart away only to have it crushed when she ran from him.

Zane pushed away the thoughts, forcing himself only to live in the moment and take what she was willing to give him: her body, nothing else. He would have to content himself with it, even though he wanted more now. He would do his darnedest to tempt her to give him more. He’d already violated Scanguards’ ethics, and one-by-one was breaking every single rule he’d ever put in place for himself: never to get involved, never to care, and never to hope for love.

It was all shot to hell now.

All because of Portia and the way he reacted to her. Just like she reacted to him. Her body twisted beneath his mouth, her pelvis rocking against him, and her hands kept caressing his sensitive skull.

For the first time in his vampire life he was grateful for the fact that he was bald. It had made his skin more sensitive to touch, and now acted as one of the most erogenous zones of his body besides the one now struggling to escape his pants.

With his tongue, he explored her beautiful pussy, nipped, sucked and licked this way, then that. When he stroked upwards and connected with her clit, she let out a breathless cry.

“So sensitive,” he mumbled against the fully engorged bundle of nerves.

But Zane gave her no reprieve. He wanted to taste her passion, her lust, and her desire. He needed to feel her come apart in his mouth, to know that he could give her something that she would remember, a feeling she would never forget and always associate with him.

While sex had always been a power play for him, never to be confused with affection or love, as Portia writhed beneath him in obvious ecstasy, he felt his heart soften, the wall around it crack. Not wanting to examine the implications of this, he doubled his efforts and pulled her clit between his lips, pressing them together.

Her moan was followed by a shudder. Wave after wave crashed against his lips as her orgasm broke.

His own release was only prevented by the tightness of his jeans and the zipper that dug painfully into his aroused flesh. Had he been naked, he would have spilled his seed onto the tile floor.

Zane groaned and kept licking over her clit, igniting her once more. Then he lifted his head and looked at her face. Her eyes were closed, her lips parted, showing the tips of her fangs, and her chest heaved. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight in his long life.

“Next time you come, I’ll be inside you.”