Shannon took a sip. It tasted fruity and was actually quite good. “You said, for now.
What about later?”
He gave her a look that she felt right down to her bones. “Everything, my love. I want everything.”
Shannon tried to look away and couldn’t. His gaze pulled her in until she felt like she was falling. Her field of vision tunneled down. All she could see was the black of his eyes.
Then Nikolai blinked, and she was free. She sat there for a minute, disoriented.
“Come here.”
She looked at him stupidly. “Where? I am here.” She was kneeling right beside him.
What more did he want?
Nikolai didn’t bother answering. He reached out and removed the glass from her hand, placing it to the side. Then he grasped her under her arms and lifted her onto his lap. She clutched his shoulders, afraid he would drop her.
“Never. You are too precious to me.”
I really wish he would stop reading my mind, she thought.
Intimate laughter flooded her mind in response to her wish. “Why would I wish to do that when your mind is so intriguing?”
“It’s unnerving, having someone else in your head.” Nikolai’s Wolf
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“It’s intimate,” he countered. “Having someone know your thoughts and sharing yours with them.”
“Yes, but I can’t read your mind, which gives you an unfair advantage.”
“You can if you choose. My mind is always open to you. It is the privilege of all chosen, the ability to read their mate’s thoughts.”
“You mean you can’t do this with everyone?” Shannon looked at him suspiciously.
“No, I am not that powerful. This is a gift given to us because of the blood that we exchanged.” He held an appetizer to her mouth. It reminded Shannon of the first time he’d fed her while immersed in his tub.
When she finished chewing, she said, “I’ve given you blood. I’ve never taken any of yours, other than that first night when I bit you. That’s not enough to be a true exchange.” When he said nothing, she became suspicious. She would know if she’d drunk from him, wouldn’t she? Vampires were powerful, but so were shifters. Of course, of the two, vamps had shifters beat, hands down. “We haven’t exchanged blood, have we? I would know if we had, wouldn’t I?”
Nikolai gazed at her unrepentantly. “We have completed all but the final blood exchange.”
Shannon’s mind spun with the information. She was one blood exchange away from being a vampire’s mate. She opened her mouth automatically in response to the food he placed there. As she ate, she considered the ramifications. “Why did you stop? Why not do all three?”
“For the last one, you must agree.” He poured more wine and handed her the glass.
“So, if I don’t agree, you’ll let it go? You won’t do the final exchange?” Shannon gazed at him over the rim of her glass as she sipped the wine.
Nikolai didn’t answer. Shannon wasn’t sure what his silence meant. She decided not to push, sure she wouldn’t like the results. “You aren’t eating,” she said after a while.
“First you feed, then me.”
She felt the blush that suffused her body as she remembered what happened the last time he’d spoken those words to her. Her nipples hardened as her arousal scented the air. She took another sip of wine in an effort to hide her reaction to his words, draining the glass dry.
Nikolai refilled her glass. He fed her until she was unable to eat another bite. Once she was finished, he placed all the items back into the basket and laid it to the side. Then he tumbled her back on the quilt and lay beside her, his leg over hers, holding her in place.
Leaning over her, he took his time studying her face. He examined her feature by feature, until she was squirming in embarrassment, uncomfortable with such close attention.
“Do you know how beautiful you are?”
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Shannon opened her mouth to protest, and Nikolai planted his finger against it to silence her. “I speak not of outward appeal, though you possess plenty. I speak of inner beauty, of the soul.”
She shook her head silently in disbelief.
“Have the wolves not spoken to you of such as they tried to woo you into their beds?” She remembered her earlier thoughts. “No,” she responded after a moment of silence.
“Wolves on the prowl speak only of strength.” The more cunning ones waited until she was in heat and attempted to use her body against her. None of them had ever tried appealing to the woman in her, as though she were her beast and nothing else. Even Rory tended to speak to her in terms of her wolf.
Nikolai captured her gaze again, distracting her from her depressing thoughts. “I see you.” “I see you,” he repeated in her mind, “and all that you are. I see your very soul, and it is beautiful to me.”
Shannon’s heart melted. She was appalled at how easily he breached her defenses with pretty words. How starved must she be for compliments that the first man to offer them was building a gateway into her very heart? Unable to cope with his flattery and unable to think of anything else to do, she attempted to redirect his attention.
“Didn’t you say you were going to feed when I was finished? I’m done.” His gaze narrowed on her. “Are you offering to feed me? Are you asking me to partake freely of your blood?”
There was something about the way he phrased his questions that Shannon found disturbing, but she couldn’t think of what it was. Not with his eyes gazing directly into hers.
It ruined her ability to think. She nodded her head.
“You must say the words,” Nikolai proclaimed.
“Take what you need. I offer it to you freely.” The words surged up from somewhere deep inside. At the surge of triumph that blazed across Nikolai’s face, Shannon wondered exactly what it was she’d done.
“Since you offered, I can do no more than oblige,” Nikolai said huskily, his voice causing shivers to run up and down her spine. His hands slowly glided down her body to her knees. There he gathered her gown until it bunched in his fists, and began to draw it upward, slowly revealing her body beneath.
When it reached her hips, Shannon planted her feet and lifted, assisting him with the removal of her gown. Nikolai dragged it over her breasts and off her body before tossing it casually to the side. “A veritable feast,” he proclaimed, allowing his hand to sweep over her bare body. “From where shall I feed? Shall I feed from this spot?” He lifted her wrist and kissed the delicate skin there.
“Or here?” He lightly ran his finger from her earlobe to her neck, causing the hair to rise on her body.
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“What about here?” He cupped her breast, molding his hand to its shape before pinching the taut nipple.
Shannon arched into his hand as fire streaked from her nipple to her womb.
“Or shall I feed from here?” His hand glided over her stomach to her mound, bypassing her needy clit, and stroked down to her inner thigh. The skin there was coated with her juices. Shannon was so aroused that the moisture was flowing down her thighs.
Nikolai skimmed his fingertips along the fluid on her leg and followed the stream back to her slit. He rubbed his hand back and forth, coating his fingers liberally before bringing them to his mouth for a taste.
He moaned, and his fangs dropped into place. “Spread your legs, love, so that I might feast.”
Shannon drew back her knees until she was wide open as Nikolai settled between her thighs. “You don’t mind if I play with my food for a while before eating, do you?” he asked wickedly.
“God, no,” she burst out as his mouth closed over her clit and began to suck. Within minutes, she was a babbling fool, totally out of her mind with the pleasure he brought to her body. The clearing, with its almost-full moon shining down around them, faded from sight as her focus narrowed down to Nikolai’s mouth on the most intimate part of her body.
His fangs scraped her, causing her to buck against him. He clamped a hand over her hips, using his strength to hold her still. His tongue lapped at her as though she were an ice-cream cone and it was a hot summer day. When her vision faded to black and her back arched up off the ground in climax, he turned his head and sank his fangs into her thigh, feeding deeply. Shannon screamed as her orgasm rocketed to another level. He fed until she was a trembling, shuddering mass of nothingness, barely hanging on to consciousness, her body unable to handle any more pleasure. Her heart hammered inside of her chest.
Nikolai licked the puncture wound closed and laid his head on her stomach. “Thank you for your generosity.” His cock was long and hard, and she was ready and willing for him to plow into her softness, but he restrained himself. Apparently this wooing was not about sex. Obviously Nikolai was smart enough to know that while sex had the power to bring her to him, it wouldn’t keep her by his side. He needed to win her heart.
He lounged quietly while she recovered. He held still, barely breathing when she tentatively stroked his head with her hand. When he didn’t protest, the strokes became more confident, and he purred in contentment. She breathed in the night air, her hand buried in his thick hair as she slowly drifted off to sleep.
* * * * *
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The next two weeks went by in a sensuous haze. By day, she worked on the accounts for the stores and caught up the books for Rory’s construction business and the pack. The nights belonged to Nikolai. He romanced her. There was no other term for it.
He took her on moonlit picnics. She lay with her head in his lap while he recited poetry to her. He danced with her beneath the stars. On one memorable occasion, he took her flying. Every night he fed her, making sure her hunger was satisfied before fulfilling his own.
Nikolai did everything except have actual intercourse with her, and it was making her crazy. She wanted to feel his cock in her sheath. Feel him deep inside. She could feel his desire for her. The way he denied himself frustrated her even as it increased her respect and admiration for him. He had a goal in mind and could not be swayed from it, no matter how much she tried. She alternated between sensuous satisfaction and sexual frustration as he satisfied her on every level but one.
She craved him. Craved his body and his presence. She felt complete only when his mind and his body merged with hers. Otherwise, she felt empty and alone. She couldn’t imagine being any more connected to him if he were her mate. But then, he couldn’t be, because if he were, her wolf would accept him.
As promised, Rory had brought a crew with him to repair the damage he’d done to the basement. He was abnormally quiet, moody even. She thought it was the situation with Nikolai, but after that first night, he never mentioned it. Never questioned her. She was surprised, and a bit suspicious. It wasn’t like him not to pry into her business, especially about something like this.
He was like a wolf with a sore paw, or a man who’d lost his woman, but that couldn’t be. Rory wouldn’t pine over a woman. Besides, the only women he’d been around lately that she knew of were Shayla and herself. He hadn’t lost her, and the idea that he might be yearning for Shayla was…well, laughable. The two were more likely to kill each other than mate.
The ringing of the phone interrupted her musings. “Hello?”
“Did you forget our appointment?”
She looked at the clock. “Oh, shit. Alex, I’m sorry. Do you want to reschedule?”
“No. I want you to get in your vehicle and come to my office. I’ll be waiting,” he said shortly and disconnected the call.
Shannon was a little stunned by his manner until she realized that it wasn’t her doctor commanding her presence. It was her alpha. Good thing too. She hated going to his office, and given a choice, she would have simply canceled. However, this thing with her blood was too important for her to play around with.
She shut off the computer and a few minutes later raced down the mountain. She made excellent time and within fifteen minutes walked into his office. When she signed in, the Nikolai’s Wolf
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nurse took her straight back to the examining room after taking her blood pressure and weight.
In a surprising twist, Alex was already in the room waiting. She didn’t know whether to be annoyed or alarmed. Usually she had to twiddle her thumbs until the doctor arrived.
That he was already there spoke volumes about his concern for her health.
“Hop up on the table, and hold out your arm.” He rolled a tray containing his bloodletting instruments of torture closer to the examination table.
Shannon watched as Alex filled four tubes. If she had to donate blood, she much preferred Nikolai’s way of acquiring it than Alex’s.
As he untied the band from her arm and pressed a clean cotton ball to her wound, she tried to read Alex’s expression. It was a useless attempt. He’d gone into full-blown doctor mode and wouldn’t be revealing any of his thoughts until he was good and ready to do so.
“While I run tests on these, get undressed. I want to do a full pelvic exam.” He gathered the vials of blood and pushed everything out of his way, his mind obviously focused on his next task.
“Why? Is that really necessary?”
Alex stopped like he’d run into a wall. He turned slowly to look at her, and his power filled the room, making her skin itch. Damn, he was back in alpha mode again. “Because I’m your doctor, and I said so. If that’s not reason enough, then do it because your alpha commands you.”
Shannon lowered her eyes in submission and nodded her head. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
You do not challenge your alpha, even if he is the mate of your good friend, she chastised herself as he left the room. She felt a gentle nudge on her mind.
“Is all well, my love?”
“Yeah, just dandy.”
“You seem troubled. What’s wrong ”
?
“Just angry with myself. I did something stupid.”
“Aaah!” She felt his smile. “Call if you need me.” He caressed her gently and then withdrew his presence from her mind.
Twenty minutes later, Shannon was vividly reminded of why she hated office visits.
They made you put on these stupid paper gowns that were never large enough to cover what you wanted covered; then they left you sitting in a room cold enough to raise goose bumps, even with her shifter metabolism.