Page 20 of Blood Moon Bound

It was terrible. “Is it supposed to be salty?”

“What? No!” She took it from me and bit into it. A wail of despair followed.

“Delphine?”

“It’s horrible.” She covered her face and another sob burst from her.

What the hell was going on? “It’s not that bad,” I lied.

She shook her head and didn’t look up. “I used salt instead of sugar, Constantine. It’s awful. God, I’m an idiot.”

“It was just a mistake. Why are you so upset?” I asked, dumbfounded.

She dropped her hands, her face streaked with tears. “Because I want you to like me. It’s always just been me and my maid, and she wasn’t allowed to talk to me about anything other than her duties. I thought now that I’m free…that I’m here, that we could be…” She shook her head, her lips trembling as her pretty lavender eyes met mine. “That we could be friends.”

Something inside me cracked down the middle. This was my fault, all of it. I’d always thought the practice of claiming your mate when they were still so young was barbaric, locking the female away until the male was ready to claim her, so fucking wrong. I’d vowed never to do it. Then I’d felt Delphine. I’d followed the feeling inside me, the connection to her, and it had taken me right to her.

There was no walking away after that.

But after what happened to Samara, then learning Douglas’s connection to my mate, I’d stopped planning for the day I brought Delphine home. She had no longer factored. I hadn’t allowed myself to think about her, or imagine what she was like. I certainly hadn’t allowed myself to think about what this would do to her. She’d paid a price because of my hunger for revenge, not just her piece-of-shit stepfather.

I swiped the frosting from the cupcake and ate it. “This part’s good. It’s sweet.”

She blinked rapidly. “Is it?”

I swiped more and held it up. I meant for her to take it from me, but before I knew what she was doing, she gripped my hand, wrapped her lips around the tip of my finger, and sucked it off. My cock, already hard just from being in the same room as her, stiffened to painful proportions. And all the while, those big eyes were on me, completely innocent to what she was doing to me.

“Oh, that is good.” She licked her lips. “Do you like me?”

The sudden change of topic took me by surprise, and the desperation to her voice caused a weird pain in my sternum.

I didn’t know what it was that this tiny female had done to me, but I couldn’t find it in me to hurt her. “I like you just fine, little one.”

“I like you too,” she whispered.

What the hell was I going to do with her? This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I was supposed to be avoiding her—but I couldn’t. And it was only a matter of time before I fed her again. How the hell would I keep my control then?

“You should go to bed,” I said, because I was hard and achy and hungry for her and being alone with her right now was testing every bit of my restraint.

She didn’t say anything for several seconds, reluctant to go, I fucking felt it.

“Will I see you in the morning?” she asked.

“Yes.” How was it that this tiny female had made cracks in the dark armor I’d surrounded myself with in such a short time, and was finding ways to slip through?

She stood to leave—her stomach rumbled.

My hand shot out, wrapping around her wrist, stopping her, the action controlled by another part of me, the base, demonic part utterly focused on its female and her needs.

Feed your mate. The predator inside me, the male who felt the connection to this female, roared through my head, to bear the notion of her wanting for even a moment. “You’re hungry.”

Her cheeks turned pink and she nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“After this morning, when I…” She shook her head. “I wasn’t sure you’d still want to.”

Possessiveness tore through me. “And what would you have done instead?”