They were quiet for a long time, but despite her own exhaustion, she couldn’t silence her mind long enough to fall asleep. But it wasn’t memories of her bloody mouth or bolt shots or even the chaos of the Games that kept her up.
“Luis,” she whispered, almost too softly to be heard.
“Hm?”
She hesitated. He was obviously desperately in need of rest and it went against something fundamental to disturb him. But no matter how hard she tried to stifle it, her mind kept jumping back to the same topic.
“What did Felix mean when he told you to just get on with it?”
Luis squeezed her a little tighter. In a rough voice he answered, “He meant that you need to become an Amauri. Officially. You have to take my bite.”
“Oh. Yeah. That makes sense.” She rubbed her cheek against his thick hair, her thoughts tumbling over each other.
Her friendship with Maxine had taught her a lot of the things they left out of public school sex ed, and the days of going over the contract had taught her more. She knew what taking a vampire’s bite meant. It wasn’t just another form of intimacy. There was a reason it came with such a steep price tag in her contract — if she even consented to it at all.
To be bitten was to be tied to a vampire. It was to be chemically and physiologically changed. It was an agreement to stay with them or else suffer through the horrors of withdrawal, supporting them in the most foundational way a creature could.
That bond didn’t happen instantly, of course. Maxine told her it took a few bites before the venom truly “settled” and began its work, but it wasn’t an act done casually. For a vampire to give their bite was to mark their territory. It was an exchange of something primordial, no matter how ephemeral the bond might prove.
She’d never truly considered letting the winner of the Games bite her. The risk and intimacy of it didn’t sound at all appealing to her, even with a two thousand dollar price tag attached.
The only person she’d ever imagined biting her was Luis.
Francesca’s arm drifted upward. She smoothed her fingers over the shell of his ear and back, feeling the fine sweep of hair that led to the base of his neck. Dreams of touching him like this had haunted her for months. It was a shock, almost, to feel him let his guard down so completely that he’d let her stroke him gently, with infinite care.
“You’ve never bitten someone before, have you?”
She wasn’t sure where the conviction in her voice came from. It was entirely possible that biting someone was a bit like losing one’s virginity to a vampire. Maybe you only did it once, but itwas generally agreed upon that you ought to get it over and done with to truly enter adulthood.
But something in her sensed that wasn’t entirely the case. At least not with Luis, a man who tried his hardest to know people without them ever truly knowing him. Intimacy wasn’t his strong suit. Trust was given to him but never returned in kind. That didn’t seem like ideal conditions for a man to explore the possibility of a lifelong bond.
“No,” he answered.
She traced the cord of his neck with her fingertips to find the jumping pulse beneath his skin. “But you want to bite me.”
It wasn’t a question, but he responded like it was. His voice came out almost guttural when he confessed, “Yes. More than anything in the world. I want it so bad it feels like my fangs are on fire. It’s always been like that when we’re together.”
“You never said anything.”
“I was scared of running you off. You were always so skittish, and I liked that you were getting comfortable with me. I thought I had time to figure out how to win you over like you deserved to be.” He huffed. “I didn’t expect you to quit, let alone volunteer for the Blood Games. If I’d known you were that brave?—”
“Wait, hold on.” She pulled back a little to give him an incensed look. “You didn’t make a move because you thought I was tooshy?Or— or scared?”
Luis wisely took a second to consider his answer. “Well… You were always so sweet, and you were from a small town. It’s what Ilikeabout you.”
“Ugh!” Outraged, Francesca pushed on his shoulder until he rolled onto his back. She climbed on top of him.
Setting her fingers to unbuttoning his shirt, she tartly informed him. “I may like being told what to do in the bedroom, Mr. Amauri, but that doesn’t mean I’m a pushover or someone you have to coddle. I’m as brave as anyone else.”
Luis framed her bare thighs with his hands. Watching her from under heavy lids, he chuckled, “You don’t think I’ve learned that? You surprise meconstantly,Frankie. It’s one of the things I love about you. Fuck, watching you spit out a bite of that vampire was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Working on his belt, she leaned over him to whisper, “What if I told you I want you to take a bite out of me?”
TWENTY-SEVEN
His claws bitinto the skin of her thighs just enough to make tingles rush through her and settle heavily in her lower belly. “Frankie…”
She reached into his briefs. His cock, hot and rapidly stiffening in her grip, filled her palm. Francesca stroked him slowly, the end of the rope tied around her wrist slithering across his chest with every pull.