Blood Entangled (45 page)
Authors: Amber Belldene
Chapter 36
S
LOWLY
, B
LOOD
F
ILLED
A C
RYSTAL
C
ORDIAL
G
LASS
on the counter. According to Lena’s cycle, it was the last one of these little rituals with Zoey. The nightly routine always reminded Lena of the night they had become friends over brandy and grilled cheese sandwiches. The ruby blood looked so beautiful dripping into the glass from Zoey’s fingertip, pierced with a little metal shunt that kept her flesh from healing.
The first time Zoey bled for her, she’d said, “I remember when Andre turned Pedro, watching the droplets fall into his mouth. I was mesmerized by it. For the first time I saw that it was life, and not death.”
It became Lena’s prayer, every time she bottomed up the glass.
I am drinking life. Zoey is sharing her life, so that a new life can grow inside me.
“Are you nervous?” Zoey spun on her stool to face Lena.
“A little. I know it can take months and months to get pregnant. This is just the first try.”
“You can have as much of my blood as it takes,” Zoey said, shaking the last drop into the glass and removing the shunt with a wince. Her fingertip healed instantly. Then Zoey reached across the counter top to pat Lena’s hand. “Really, as much as you need.”
“It’s not too late to change your mind, Zoey.” Everyone was a little on edge about the risk of an accidental bond like Uta and Bel’s.
Zoey waved her hand in Uta-esque dismissal, and Lena laughed.
Then she peered into the glass, half expecting her stomach to revolt. But the regimen of the vampire’s blood hadn’t bothered her much at all, it was pleasantly salty and metallic and very warm in her gullet. For some reason, when it hit her throat it was much warmer than Zoey’s body temperature—like the perfect cup of coffee. Lena swallowed down the blood and licked it off her lips.
Zoey grinned. “Tell me about your boy again, from the dream.”
“I’ve already told you everything—he’s got that white-blond hair only babies have. He has Kos’s eyes—blue and set a little wide. And his red lips.” Lena rounded the counter to rinse out the glass.
“Does he look like you?”
Looking up from the sink, she admitted, “He has my nose, and maybe my chin.”
“Adorable—you two will make beautiful babies.”
Lena set the delicate glass down carefully on the granite countertop. “Only one. Then I want to turn.”
Zoey’s smile told Lena she understood all the reasons for that decision.
“I’m not going to change my mind about being the godmother, Lena. I don’t know why I’m so certain, but it feels right.”
Lena stretched over the counter to take Zoey’s hand. “You do know how grateful we both are?”
“I do. Now, go get him.” Zoey offered a reassuring squeeze.
When Lena arrived in the room she shared with Kos, her turquoise flannel pajamas with unicorn print were folded neatly on the bed. “Really? That’s my baby making attire?”
“You wore those the first night you spent here with me. I remember you coming out of the bathroom, face scrubbed pink, looking so adorable.”
She giggled. “I told you my face was pink from your hot water because I didn’t want to admit I’d been drinking with Zoey—you were so worried I had a concussion.”
“Really? You little liar.” He swatted her butt, then whispered in her ear. “When I saw you that night, I wanted to lick you from head to toe.”
Between his words and the caress of his breath, her body flushed and her skin heated. “Now’s good.”
“I have something else first.” He took a box from a drawer in his dresser.
One of those small boxes. When he put the small velvet clamshell case in her palm, butterflies fluttered from her stomach to her heart. She snapped it open. The diamond was square cut and surrounded by tiny sapphires in a wide, gold band.
“Beautiful,” she rasped.
His eyes swirled gray. “I understand if you don’t want it. We can get you a new one.”
It was easy to guess at his worry. “Was it your mother’s?”
“Yes, but read the inscription.”
Inside, it said:
THIS TIME, FOREVER
“Kos, I love it. I love that it was hers, and that we get to make it true.”
“Really?” Blue eyes sparkled back at her, the sexiest lopsided dimples creased around his lush lips.
She nodded.
“Good. Now put on those pajamas.”
“Then will you lick me all over?”
“Patience, patience.”
She took off her jeans and sweatshirt while holding his gaze. There was nothing sexy about the way she undressed, but the air between them conducted electricity. She slipped into the comfy pajamas and climbed onto the bed, sitting in the middle, cross-legged.
“Close your eyes.”
What was he up to? She dropped her lids, and she was enveloped in darkness, her senses coming alive.
He began to read—a poem about a little boy who could sleep through the mightiest sounds, but who always woke up when his parents finished making love, his footsteps pattering on the floor until he slipped between them in the bed where he’d been made.
By the time he finished, tears streamed down her cheeks. “Kos, can we do it now?”
“So fast? What about the licking?”
“It feels right to do it now.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” He unbuttoned the pajamas she’d worn for all of three minutes. Distracted, his hands strayed to her breasts and she kept unbuttoning. She pulled her top off and her pants down in an instant.
He released her breasts to pull his T-shirt over his head and unfasten his jeans. There was nothing underneath but that magnificent, always-ready-for-her erection.
Gripping her shoulder, he pushed her back toward the bed. When she bumped it, he nudged her to sitting and dropped between her legs. “I know you’re in a hurry, baby, but we need to start with a little licking.”
“If you insist.” She opened her legs. He caressed every fold with his tongue, and then flicked her most sensitive spot until moisture ran from her core.
He mumbled into her thigh. “I don’t know if I like your honey or your blood better.”
She laughed. “No need to decide.”
He lifted her all the way onto the bed and lay alongside her, propped on his elbow.
“Want to know something else sneaky?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“Our first day together, when you were giving me the anatomy lesson, I already knew about my g-spot. I just really liked the hands-on demonstration.”
He laughed from some place so deep in his gut that her heart nearly burst.
“I believe it’s time for the advanced tutorial then.” He slipped two of his fingers into her and found the exact place.
She groaned as he began to stroke her. “How will you…”
“I’ll take care of it. Just relax. I’ll know when.”
He kissed her then, as he built her tension with his fingers inside her and his thumb circling. Her orgasm approached quickly, sending pulses through her core. He withdrew and was back again before she had time to miss him filling her.
The thrust of his fingers was more awkward with the steel shunt in one. But it didn’t matter—she could feel his blood filling her, hotter even than when he ejaculated inside her. In spite of the uneven thrusts, the tingling blood brought her an orgasm so deep that she knew her womb would open wide to draw his blood inside. When she grew sensitive and wriggled away from him, he slipped his fingers back out of her and yanked out the shunt to stop his bleeding.
His hand was covered in his blood and her slick moisture.
Some new instinct caught hold of her. “I want to taste your blood.” She drew his hand to her mouth.
His blue eyes grew wide, and as she drew his fingers between her lips, he said, “Sweetheart, I need to be inside you, now.”
She opened her legs and angled her hips. He slid into her and began rocking them in a perfect beat. His fangs sunk into her neck. Sweet and salt and metal mixed in her mouth. With her eyes closed tightly, she imagined the day she would taste his blood and bond with him. The electric current between them would grow even stronger.
But first there would be Mirko, and now she had found her destiny, and there was love and pleasure beyond what she ever imagined.
Acknowledgments
Sometimes it worries me how utterly dependent I am on others to write a book, but then those others assure me it is supposed to be this way and I feel better. I honestly could not do this without my faithful beta reader Emily Mellott, who reads everything I write first just so I don’t make a fool of myself. Secondly, I am deeply grateful for the insights of my writing friends Celia Breslin and Jessica Russell, who always ask just the right questions or suggest just the right tweaks, precisely when I need them.
This book benefitted from the insights of the “Mud Puddle,” the online critique group of the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of Romance Writers of America. I’m so thankful for what I’ve learned in that group, and especially for the help of Zrinka Jelic, who helped me with Croatian in her native Dalmatian dialect (all mistakes made and liberties taken belong to me alone!) and Ed Hoornaert who kept me laughing as we traded chapters.
I also owe thanks to the Omnific team of editors, designers and publicists who help get this book into readers’ hands looking beautiful, and to my mom, who is the best amateur PR person an author could ask for.
And lastly, I owe my husband the greatest thanks of all for the many ways he supports my writing and puts up with my endless obsessing over vampire plot points when we go out to dinner.
About the Author
Amber Belldene grew up on the Florida panhandle, swimming with alligators, climbing oak trees and diving for scallops…when she could pull herself away from a book. As a child, she hid her Nancy Drew novels inside the church bulletin and read mysteries during sermons—an irony that is not lost on her when she preaches these days.
With a B.A. in comparative religion and an M.A. in theology, Amber is a Christian minister and student of religion. She believes stories are the best way to explore human truths. Some people think it is strange for a minister to write romance, but it is perfectly natural to Amber. She believes the human desire for love is at the heart of every romance novel and God made people with that desire.
Amber is addicted to vampire stories, but loves to read all kinds of romance and literature. Her favorite books examine history and cultural origins, like Neal Stephenson’s
Baroque Cycle
, Anita Diamant’s
The Red Tent
, or Salman Rushdie’s
The Satanic Verses
. And, yes, she was named after that Amber, of the classic romance novel
Forever Amber
.
From the wine country of Sonoma County to the foggy neighborhoods of San Francisco, all of Amber’s fiction is set in Northern California, where she lives with her husband and two children.
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