Page 154 of Infernal Bonds

His fingers twitched against mine before squeezing. “I’ve always been yours.”

I couldn’t hold back a groan, and my eyes rolled back.

“If you want me.”

My eyes flew open.

Insecurity flickered in his eyes before he looked away.

“No.” I reached for the sides of his face and forced him to look at me. “Let me make one thing clear right now.”

He swallowed.

“Every single inch of me belongs to you. It always has. If you don’t believe me, I’ll do whatever it takes to prove that to you.”

“But you don’t like guys,” he murmured, trying to pull away. I refused to release him.

“Zeke, I had your cock down my throat. Think I’d do that if I wasn’t into it?”

He shrugged.

I laughed. “What about my tongue on your asshole?”

His face flushed, making me laugh harder as I released him.

“But didn’t you say you hate those women you sleep with for blood?”

I groaned, turning and rubbing a hand down my face. “Okay. Fair point.” I turned back to him. “But come on, no. I got something out of that. It was transactional.”

His expression shuttered. “You didn’t get anything from what we did?”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it was like buying something at a store. Only, instead of money, I paid with my cock.”

I realized the truth made me sound like a worker from the Dens in the Jinphni District, but I supposed it wasn’t far off. Only I didn’t need money. I needed blood. I saw no problem with it, though, not if both parties understood the exchange and respected each other.

“So you really didn’t like any of them?”

“Not in the romantic sense.” I shrugged. “Good sex is good sex, but if I hadn’t wanted blood, I’d have done it a lot less—if at all.”

He stepped across the room and looked out the window near the bed. His voice sounded far away when he said, “I hated it.”

“What?”

“I hated knowing what you were doing. Where you were. I almost hated you for it.”

I froze at his confession.

“Whenever I knew you were at the palace getting your fix, it hurt. I hated those lucky enough to be with you, and I felt terrible about it. They didn’t deserve my anger. You did.” His fists clenched. “But not really. You didn’t deserve it either. Because you weren’t mine.” His breath trembled. “But now you’re saying you’ve always been mine.”

My chest tightened when he turned to me with tears in his eyes.

“Then why? If you were mine, why’d you give yourself to someone else? Why wasn’t my blood enough?”

I took a step back, using the wall to support me as my legs threatened to buckle, as his words pierced deep.

“Why wasn’t I enough for you?”

His gaze remained steady. He didn’t even fidget. His sparkling blue eyes held mine, showing me the pain I’d caused him, and I couldn’t look away.