Page 22 of Bite Me

“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“Sure, I do.” She shrugs. “Let’s just get it over with . . . Bite me.”

Something that once felt so far, nearly impossible, is now ripe for the taking. Suddenly, her smell is unbearable again. I step closer until I’m towering over her.

Oh, I hate her for this.

“So, let me get this straight. You’d rather make a hasty deal with me in an abandoned classroom than admit defeat?”

“It must be hard for you to deal with someone who won’t bow to you.”

“That’s what you think I want? Some submissive subject, bending to my every whim?”

“Isn’t that why you’re so angry all the time?”

Angry? She thinks I’m angry?

“No. It’s because you have no regard for your own safety, and it’s maddening.”

My words echo in the empty classroom, and she takes a step back. Good. She should be afraid of me.

Then I feel it. The shift in her pheromones. The dilation of her pupils. I’m standing a hair too close. I was so busy trying to scare her that I let her into my space, in an enclosed classroom with poor ventilation.

I hold her gaze. Just run, Emma. But it’s as if she’s cemented her feet to the floor. Is she—

She swallows. I hold my breath. Her arousal is thick in the air.

“You’re not ready for this,” I say.

“No, I’m ready.” She moves the hair from her shoulders, and I have a perfect view of her neck, with its soft, milky skin. Flawless. Without a single blemish or mark. I inch closer because, fuck, she smells really good. It would be so easy to brush my fingers over her neck and take her blood right here, right now.

I lean close to her face, and she doesn’t flinch.

“You would really let me bite you, wouldn’t you?”

“If it gets me what I want.”

Her lashes flutter. For the first time, I can’t read her. Is she attracted to danger? I knew she was reckless, but this is on another level. I need a little longer than five seconds to adjust to this.

“We’ll need a contract,” I say slowly.

A lot of wealthy families make deals for what they consider premium blood. I’ve had the same source since I was a child, and their family has been in a relationship with my family for multiple generations. I’m going to have to top up with my source immediately after this.

It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to satisfy that prickle of curiosity spreading across her skin in goose bumps. It’s almost as if she wants me closer, and I’d love to test that theory. Would she really let me? More importantly . . . Could I make her like it?

“Fine.”

“I’ll have my lawyers draw it up tonight, along with an NDA.”

“An NDA? Why do we need that?”

I scoff. “You sure you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

She huffs, her golden eyes darkening. “I do. Do you?”

No. Not even fucking close.

Chapter Eight