B Positive by Jewel Killian

Twenty-Eight

I only barely registered thegrowl before Julian launched out of his seat. The chair flew four or five feet backward, crashing into the wall and erupting into a spray of wood chunks.

He stalked closer, eyes full dark, and yanked my chair out from the table. He bent over me, resting his hands on the high back of the chair on either side of my head.

He was the picture of power, of dominance, and I stared up into his black eyes unflinching because, apparently, I had a death wish.

And my ridiculous lady cave was having the time of her life, throbbing in time with the commotion.

I squeezed my thighs together and didn’t break eye contact.

“If you’re gonna do something, do something,” I challenged. “Or you could answer my questions.”

“Who do you think you are?” Julian hissed at me. “Anything I’ve kept from you, I’ve done so for your own good, Eden.”

“Is that a fact?” I snapped back, and ducked out from under his arms too quickly for him to stop me.

I stood behind him, wall at my back, and he spun to meet me. “Answer my questions, Julian.”

A low rumble rattled in his chest and Ms. Pus was officially in meltdown mode. “You cannot expect me to do anything but make you submit when you speak to me that way.”

A thrill shot up my spine at the thought of him doing just that.

Maybe that’s exactly what I wanted.

“Answer my questions, Julian.”

“You are making this extremely difficult, Eden. We are equals, but when you challenge my authority, I cannot resist the urge to show you exactly—”

Julian didn’t get to finish his sentence.

He was too busy flying across the room.

I’d found that well of strength I’d tapped into before and shoved him away from me.

I wanted answers.

And I also definitely wanted to be put in my place.

Julian crashed into the wall at the far end of the room, putting a king-sized dent in it. The room filled with thick, choking dominance.

He stalked closer, and with every step I had to fight to stay upright. Every muscle in my body wanted to bend to him. To bow or kneel or supplicate in some way. Any way. The magic didn’t care, it just wanted me to obey.

I threw my shoulders back and held my head high as I stared into his black eyes. “I won’t bend to your will, Julian. If this is going to work, you have to be honest with me. You have to treat me like the equal you keep insisting I am.”

Julian drew close enough that I scented something new in him. A wild, untamed scent I couldn’t quite name but made me dizzy with every good feeling imaginable. I took a deep breath, relishing in it.

The king smirked and pinned me to the wall at my back with just one hand pressed against my waist. He shoved his nose in my neck and I shook under him, adrenaline, lust, and the smallest touch of fear mixing within me. He took a deep breath of me and mumbled, “I pay everyone in my employ a wage above whatever their industry standard dictates.”

His hands ran up and down the sides of my body as he nibbled on my earlobe and pressed himself against me. I groaned as that rod of hardness pressed into me. Need and frustration warred within me as I arched myself against him and threaded my hands into his hair.

Another low rumble vibrated in his chest as his lips brushed the base of my neck. “Bloodlust during the mate bond only lasts until the bond is secured. You needn’t worry about your falling into your old patterns, Eden.” He leaned into my touch before snatching both wrists in his other hand and pinning them to the wall over my head.

His dominance swirled about me, wanting me to stay just as I was, trapped beneath him.

And God above, I really wanted to stay just like that.

But a nagging little voice in my head insisted that wasn’t a good idea.

I couldn’t let him believe he’d won this battle of wills. No matter how much I wanted to let him win. So I tapped into that well of strength again and wrenched my hands free, putting them right back where I’d had them. In his hair, directing his head and, by extension, his mouth, where I wanted.

He chuckled lightly against my skin but didn’t fight me. Instead, he pressed light kisses and slow, languid tongue lashes against the pounding vein in my neck.

Ms. Puss screamed at me to let him do what he wanted, however he wanted.

I’d probably have to throw away these panties.

But I had to do this. I knew it.

“As far as the diamond and the dress are concerned, Eden,” Julian’s whispered words danced along my skin as he continued his ministrations along my neckline, “both were gifts to my mate to use however she saw fit. That they also served another purpose doesn’t detract from that sentiment.”

I pulled my neck away and forced eye contact. “The hell it doesn’t. A gift isn’t a gift if it has ulterior motives, Julian.”

“A gift always has ulterior motives, Eden.”

“It does not.”

His dominance pressed into me, and I was tempted to let mine free of its safe. I didn’t, though. I wanted to win this without resorting to using Julian’s power. That felt like the bigger victory.

“No gift is purely selfless. Even if it’s just the nice feeling that accompanies giving a gift, the giver still gets something from it.”

“Feeling warm and fuzzy because you did something nice is totally different than using a gift to gain an advantage with an enemy.”

Julian smiled at me. A full, radiant smile. “On that, we will have to agree to disagree, mate.”

A feral growl that I had no idea my throat was capable of producing passed my lips. “Do not call me that, Julian. You haven’t earned that right. Not yet at least.”

His smile grew even brighter. “Of course. I’d expect nothing less. Now, as for your final concern.” He leveled a sultry stare at me and pushed my head to the wall, exposing more of my neck.

My mind went blank as his tongue traced up my jugular. My vision tunneled as fireworks of pleasure exploded throughout my body. “I haven’t allowed you to reciprocate yet because I knew that once you began touching me, I wouldn’t allow you to stop.”

“And the problem with that is?” I eked out between explosions of light and pleasure.

His growls turned to purrs against me. “That once we’re together, once I’m inside of you, I’ll want to drink from you. And I won’t do that ahead of the marking stage. I must do this by the book, or I fear the bond won’t take. If it doesn’t, then you’d be fair game for Titus at the incursion. I won’t risk that, Eden.”

My body hummed with renewed desire. Not just because pushing each other’s buttons turned me on. This was a deeper sort of desire rooted not only in the physical.

“Eden, I can’t hold out much longer.” Julian’s words were muffled as he licked and sucked at my jugular. “May I feed from you?”

I shivered beneath him.

“Only if I may feed from you.”

Julian pulled back, eyes wild with desire. In one fluid motion he’d ripped off his tuxedo jacket and unfastened the French cuffs. He held his wrist out to me. “I’ve waited for you to say that.”

My mouth flooded with saliva, fangs bursting from my gums as another feral growl tore itself from my throat.

I cradled his wrist in both hands before sinking my fangs in deep. Julian’s blood filled my mouth, hot, sweet, spicy, and somehow familiar. It slid down smooth as liquid silk and I greedily sucked for more.

At some point, Julian’s groans of pleasure turned to groans of frustration. I tilted my head and let him have access to my neck. He wasted no time, piercing the flesh with expert precision and letting his venom flow into me before taking his first sip.

I hadn’t been so thoughtful. In fact, I’d probably ripped through a few tendons, my mind was onlyfocused on drinking him in.

Drinking, groaning, and writhing against each other, I’d hate to think of one of his server vamps stepping through the panel and seeing the debauchery about to go down.

I tore myself away from Julian’s wrist, sated with blood, but wanting his body. Julian still sucked at my neck and that was just fine by me. I could rip his shirt off with him on my neck and sending rivers of ecstasy through me just fine. I shredded the back of his shirt, once again leaving it in ribbons around his arms as I dragged my nails up and down his smooth, hard back. My hands explored the chiseled muscles of his obliques as I worked my way down his sides and to the front of his trousers.

I ran a hand up the front of his pants and, holy Bloody Mary mix, he really was huge!

I did some quick Starbucks math and he was at least as long as a reusable cup.

Not as wide, thank God.

What the hell would I have done with that?

Julian pulled away from my neck. “Eden, if you keep rubbing up and down my cock like that, I’m going to take you against this wall.” The thread-like veins by his eyes and temples were red and angry, like he was in the throes of bloodlust as well. But beyond that, beyond the blackened eyes and the room practically seething with dominance, clear as day on Julian’s face was how much he wanted me.

Me.

I stretched up and kissed him, right on the end of his nose as I gave his cock a squeeze. “Then you’d better mark me because I have no plans of stopping.”