“Lucien, please.”

His mouth left her breast and his smile was evil. “Not yet.”

Infuriating man!

The relentless lips drove her to madness. He teased her neck again, licking out over her pulse and pressing his chest against her breasts. He sucked hard at the tender skin of her neck, and Makeda let out a small scream of fury and hunger. Her fangs, already long and throbbing, sank into Lucien’s shoulder and he roared, driving into her with one hard thrust.

Yes!

Makeda’s head fell back and she released a harsh breath. She felt him, hot and full within her, the relief and the madness sweeping any rational thought away. She couldn’t think. She only knew his driving possession fed the relentless hunger that had stalked her since the night they met.

“Again.” He released one hand and pressed her face to his neck. “Here, Makeda. Bite.”

She bit and sucked his blood, the hot surge of his life filling her mouth as he filled her body. He groaned and kept his hand on the back of her head as she fed from him. He tasted of salt and red earth spiced with the scent of cedar and coffee. Lucien filled her senses until she was mindless and surrounded. As she drank, his amnis enveloped her, entering her blood until she was intoxicated.

Makeda licked her lips, her head swimming. “Too much.”

“No,” he grunted. “Take more.”

“Lucien.” Her back ground into the earth as he thrust. “Too much.”

He lowered the hand holding her mouth to his neck and pressed his forehead to hers. His eyes were closed and his face was incandescent.

“I can feel you,” he said. “I can feel myself in you. My cock. My blood.” He cursed in some ancient language. “Yene hiwot.”

He sounded desperate. She threw her arms around his shoulders, replete with his power, and wrapped her legs around his hips. The new angle drove her closer to the release that had been building since she’d driven her fangs into his skin.

Lucien flung her over the falls again, and she cried out when she came, dragging him with her into the rush of madness and release.

They lay in the grass sloping up from the falls, the stars wheeling overhead as the moon sank under the horizon and night birds sang. Lucien played with her curls, spreading them out on the lush grass as they dried. His eyes were intent on his task, fascinated by her. Makeda glanced at the rough bite on his neck, which was almost healed. It was still an angry red but closing before her eyes.

“You didn’t bite me,” she said.

He paused, his hand hovering over her hair. “Did you want me to?”

“I suppose… I just assumed—”

“A bite is never assumed, Makeda. It’s a very intimate act. More intimate than sex. I would never bite you without asking.”

Her mouth dropped when she remembered her first violent night as an immortal. “You mean the night I woke when I bit you—”

Lucien stopped her mouth with his, crushing the apology from her lips.

“I wanted it,” he said when he came up for breath. “Even if I couldn’t admit it then. The tie between us… I wanted your bite, Makeda. If I hadn’t, I would have stopped you. I wouldn’t have even let you close to my neck.”

She couldn’t ignore it. “I violated a boundary even if I didn’t know it, and I am so sorry.”

“You didn’t know. And I’m the one who is sorry. I didn’t know what to say to you that night. You were so angry—with good reason—and I was thrilled and guilty at the same time. Ecstatic that you were alive and guilty that you’d been changed without your consent.”

“You were so cold.”

“No, I wasn’t.” He played with her curls again. “Trust me. If you’d had a civilized turning, Baojia and I would have talked to you before it. You would have had time, like Natalie, to come to terms with the transition. Understood what exchanging blood can mean.”

“What can it mean?” She propped herself on her elbows. “I bit you tonight, Lucien. You told me to—”

“I told you to”—he looked away—“because I’ve never experienced that pleasure before. And I wanted it with you.”

“Never?”

“No.”

Makeda blinked. Lucien was over two thousand years old. She had a hard time imagining there was any type of sexual pleasure he hadn’t explored with that many nights lived. He’d demonstrated more than a few mastered skills in the previous few hours.

“Didn’t you ever have vampire lovers?”

“Not many. And never the kind who…” He ran his hands through his damp hair. “Do we have to talk about this?”

“We just did things that are probably illegal in this country, and you’re reluctant to talk about your past biting history?”

He fell back on the grass with a rueful laugh. She crossed her arms and laid her head on his chest.

“Makeda…” He twisted a lock of hair around his finger. “Biting can be extremely pleasurable. During sex it’s otherworldly. But exchanging blood, taking my blood while I take yours, is also a tie. A very long-lasting one.”

“And you don’t want that tie with me?” It stung. Even though it was too soon. Even though they’d never talked of commitment. It stung.

He scowled. “Did I say that? Exchanging blood like that is equivalent of marriage for our kind. Mating.”

“Wait. That’s what vampires mean by mating? It’s an actual blood tie?”