Fanged at First Sight, page 4
Esme
He smells delicious, like vanilla and caramel, and I sink into him as we kiss.
I look up, meeting his eyes. They are red, like the vamps who attacked me, and a little shiver of fear makes me tremble.
“Do you trust me?” he asks. His voice is low and warm and, despite my fear, does incredible things to my insides.
But why am I really afraid? He’s a vamp, but so am I. I can feel the tension thrumming through his shoulders where my hands rest. His hands ball into fists like he’s trying to hold himself back from ravishing me, and I can’t help the smile that comes to my lips. I do trust him and am very interested in being ravished.
“Do you trust me?” he repeats, his voice betraying his worry.
I nod.
He rushes me at vamp speed, pushing me back against the wall by the door.
I gasp. I’m pinned like a butterfly, and despite his speed, he’s still holding himself back, still being oh-so-gentle. He lifts my arms above my head with one hand and then moves my hair over my shoulder with the other. Then he leans toward my neck, and I tense. “You're not going to bite me, are you?”
“It’s very intimate,” he says softly. “The sensation of being fed on is indescribable.”
“Like the alley?” I frown. “Indescribable is definitely one way to put it.” And not in a good way.
He shakes his head. “No, this is a gift, I promise.”
I bite my lip.
“And once I’ve tasted you, you can do the same to me.”
Heat floods me at his words and my fangs ache. Who knew that would be something I would be interested in? “You’ll stop if I ask you to?” I whisper.
“Always.”
“Then yes.”
He bites into my neck, and pleasure courses through me. Heat travels straight down to my core and I moan. I need him inside me desperately, but settle for the next best thing and rub myself against him. We’re wearing too many clothes and I can’t seem to get close enough. I’m wet and needy and I can’t help the plea that slips past my lips. “I need you inside me, Syd. Please.”
“Not yet, baby girl,” he says.
“Please,” I moan. I try to focus, but I can't seem to get my thoughts to line up. And all he's done is bite my neck.
Syd grabs my hips, lifting me up.
I wrap my legs around his waist, rubbing my core against him. “We’re wearing too many clothes,” I complain.
He laughs. With one hand, he grasps the top of my dress and yanks it down, ripping the fabric.
“This dress cost a fortune.” I stare down at the torn fabric pooling around my waist.
“I'll buy you another one. Hell, I'll buy you a thousand if that means I can rip them off you.”
“Can you afford that?”
“You’re asking that now?” He pinches both nipples through my bra, pressing the lacy fabric into my skin, and I moan.
I press myself against him, wanting more.
“Just so you know, I’ve amassed a fortune over the past few centuries.”
He tears off the bra, and my nipples pebble in the cool air. Not leaving them for long, though, he’s on them, nipping and sucking them into stiff peaks. He runs his fangs along my skin and I tremble with need, my pulse racing.
“Bite me there,” I say.
He meets my eyes, a question in his dark eyes.
“Yes.”
When he sinks his fangs into my flesh, I writhe in his arms. He’s so strong that he doesn’t waver, even when I’m crying out with pleasure. He tears the rest of my dress, shredding the fabric and dragging it to the floor. All I have left is my underwear and it's drenched with my juices.
“Please,” I beg. “I need you.” My hands are free now, so I reach for his pants, stroking the length of his cock.
His eyes flare but he says, “Not yet,” and moves my hand away.
“Now,” I counter. “I don’t want to wait.”
He growls.
I grasp his shoulders, pulling him closer, and feel the warm pulse of his vein at his neck. I smile. He did tell me I should return the favor. I bite into his neck, savoring the taste of him.
“Dammit, Esme!” He growls and then he’s grinding his hard cock against my underwear. “You’re playing with fire, baby girl,” he grits out. “Stop before I lose control.”
I grin around my fangs, but I don’t stop.
Ripping my underwear from my body, he slides one finger against my folds. “You’re so wet.”
I can’t help the moan that escapes my lips.
Syd tears away his own pants and, lifting me, he slams inside in one hard thrust.
I cry out, unable to continue feeding. He fills me completely, and thrust after thrust I feel myself skyrocket towards bliss. He feels so good, so perfect.
“Come for me, Esme. I want to feel your tight pussy clench around my cock.”
His words make me shatter into a million pieces. “Good girl.” He doesn’t stop. “Now come for me again.”
I cry out as he pushes me on to the next orgasm.
I never knew it could be this good.
When he bites into my neck again, I return the favor, and it's like we’ve merged into one being. I can feel the thrum of my blood through his veins, and the beat of our thrusting matches my heart. He drives us relentlessly toward the cliff, and I’m coming for the third time, shuddering and shaking as bliss courses through me.
He comes too and sags against me, our bodies covered in sweat.
“I never knew it . . .” I can’t even get the words out.
“It’s never been like this,” he says. “Not until you.” Lifting me in a carry hold, he takes me to the bed and lays me down on the silky soft sheets. He lays down next to me, pulling me into his arms.
“I don’t think I'll ever get enough of holding you,” he says, tucking my hair behind my ear. He traces the marks on my skin. “You’re so perfect.”
“I love you,” I say, and I realize I mean it more than I’ve ever meant anything in my life. I know we only just met, but it's like we were meant for each other.
“I love you too,” he says. “I want forever with you.”
“Me too.”
He leans over and kisses me, and I know this is where I want to be forever, in his arms.
Epilogue
Esme
We spend a blissful week together, pretending the outside world doesn’t exist, before I finally work up the courage to call my sister.
“Esme,” she answers on the first ring, her voice full of worry. “Where are you?”
My stomach sours. I never meant to worry her, but how do I even tell her all that’s happened? Will she even want me in her life after this? I know how my family feels about vamps, but Callie and I grew up together, twins in every way except for blood.
“I have some news to share,” I say, and I explain about going to Crescendo to check the records, and how I got turned. The words rush out of me and I stare down at my bare feet on the carpet. I’m starting to wish I hadn’t sent Syd away for this call. I could use his hand in mine, reassuring me.
The line is silent when I finish.
“Oh, Esme,” Callie whispers. “I’m so glad you’re alive.”
A small smile curls at my lips. “Really?”
“Of course, you dummy,” she says.
“Even though I’m a vamp?”
“Of course. You’re my sister, Esme. You’ll always be my sister, my twin. It doesn’t matter that it's not a blood bond.”
My smile widens. “I love you too, sis.”
Callie humphs. “You shouldn’t have taken the risk, Esme.”
“I know,” I say, my voice soft, though I can’t bring myself to regret it. Not when it brought me Syd. “But it brought me my soulmate.”
“Aren’t you lucky?” Callie says. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
The tension leaves my body. My sister wants to meet my not-so-evil vamp boyfriend. I tap a loose fist against my chest, then I say, “And I did finally get to look at the records.” Kit has been so busy trying—and failing—to find the rogues who orchestrated the attack on me, that he hardly cared when I asked to look.
Callie gasps. “And?”
“I’m sorry,” I say gently. “She hasn’t been here.”
“I’m fine never knowing who my blood twin is,” she says, but I can hear the slight crack in her voice. I know she’s lying. Callie loves me dearly, but she will always be missing a part of herself until she finds her true other half. A witch’s blood twin can magnify her power. Callie needs her.
“We’ll find her someday,” I say.
“It doesn’t matter,” Callie says. “All I need is you in my life.” She pauses. “We’re going to have to be careful now, meet in secret.”
“And Mom and Dad?” I ask, my voice quiet with worry.
“We’ll find a way to tell them. But no one else.”
“Not even Jeremy?” I ask, trying to make light of a bad situation. Callie had been crushing on the other witch since we were in grade school.
“Oh, Esme, you know we are only friends.” Callie seems to read my mind. She always had been able to, even if biologically we’re not actually twins.
“Right,” I tease, but my smile fades. I know that even if Callie—and hopefully our parents—can accept what I am, the other witches won’t. Not that they ever accepted me, anyway. “I understand.”
“What are you going to do about your practice? All your patients?” Callie asks.
“I passed them on to my colleagues,” I say. “I can’t run a practice for humans only at night.”
“I’m sorry,” she says.
“It’s okay,” I say, “I’ve started treating vamps. You can’t imagine how many of them need a therapist.”
She chuckles.
“It’s a lucrative business. Vamp Shrink. Except I call myself Vamp Listener or none of them will see me. Syd refers clients to me that he talks to at the bar.”
“That’s awesome,” she says. “I’m so glad you’ve found a way to make this life work for you . . . or rather, this undead life.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. I could always count on Callie to make me feel better. Even when the other witch kids made fun of me and wouldn’t let me play with them, she’d been there. And I’d done the same with my mortal friends. They all thought the witches—though they didn’t know what they were—were stuck up and rude, but they’d accepted Callie because she was with me.
“And Esme?” she says. “I have news too.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve been summoned by the secret library.”
Shock flutters through me. “The legend is real?”
Before they realized I wasn’t a witch, my family had told my sister and me stories and legends of their world. One of them was about a magical library that housed countless treasures and books, but would only appear when you had need of it. But sometimes, others tried to attack the library and it would call defenders—a coven of chosen witches whose duty was to keep its treasures safe. My brow furrows. “How are you telling me this stuff? I thought witches weren’t allowed to reveal magic to humans?”
“Well, you’re not human anymore,” she says.
I blink. “Oh, yeah.”
“Anyway, I’m a chosen witch,” Callie says, though she doesn’t sound too happy about the whole thing.
“It’s a huge honor, isn’t it?” I ask, just in case I’m missing something. Because since the moment my family found out I was human and switched at birth, they haven’t mentioned the witching world once—so it’s been over a decade since I last heard the tale.
“It is. But how am I supposed to open my own bakery when I’m running around protecting ancient spell books . . . Oh!” She gasps. “Do you think there might be baking spells in there?”
“Might be,” I say.
“I hope so.” She sighs. “And, well, at least I’ll have company. Jeremy was summoned too.”
I grin. “I know you’ll both be fantastic. I’m so excited for you.”
“Thanks, sis,” she says.
I smile wider. My sister still loves me, and hopefully my parents will come around. That’s all I need to be happy, well, that and Syd. The door opens and I glance up.
Syd gives me a thumbs up or thumbs down gesture, and I respond. He grins.
I pat the bed, and he comes over and sits next to me, entwining our fingers together. I instantly feel more at ease. Our life won’t be perfect and we’ll have challenges ahead, but I’m sure that we’ll meet them together.
***
Thank you for reading FANGED AT FIRST SIGHT. If you'd like to see what other hijinks the cowriting duo, Mia Harlan and Cali Mann, get up to, grab RECKLESS: Stranded on an island with four hot rock stars, I fall hard... but will I be the reason they learn to share more than their music? One-click to read RECKLESS: books2read.com/RecklessRockstars
Looking for more feel-good romance?
Peppermint by Cali Mann: "My men are trapped in the underworld and all I've got is a pair of ice skates and a letter." Read PEPPERMINT today: books2read.com/PeppermintSilverSkates
Her Pastry Shifters by Mia Harlan: "What's more delicious than three hot men who shift into pastries?" Get your copy of HER PASTRY SHIFTERS now: books2read.com/Her-Pastry-Shifters
About Cali Mann
Cali Mann is the USA Today bestselling author of the Thornbriar Academy series. She writes paranormal romance, the sexy kind with why choose, hunky shifters, sexy vampires, and women who stand up for themselves. She learned romance by reading through her mother’s entire Gothic romance collection in her teens so she and romance go way back. When she’s not writing, she spends her time streaming shows, playing video games, and pestering her two tuxedo cats.
Say hello to Cali online:
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Also by Cali Mann
Thornbriar Academy series
Lost
Found
Bound
Saved
Bloody Lucky (a Thornbriar Academy side story)
Beautiful & Deadly (boxset)
Misfit of Thornbriar Academy series
Infiltrate
Destroy
Shifter Island
Uncursing Her Bears
Finding Their Mermaid
Hell-Baited Wolves series
Cowritten with Freya Black
Guarded by Hellhounds
Called
Scorned
Unleashed
Charming Her Wolves (boxset)
Silver Springs Shared World
Peppermint
Cowritten with Elena Gray
Mars
Standalones
Dark Magic
About Mia Harlan
Mia is a USA Today & International Bestselling Author who writes quirky romance guaranteed to make you laugh.
A librarian by day and author by night, she lives in Canada with her husband (who's definitely NOT a vampire) and their Mini Mortal (who doesn't have fangs).
Sign up for Mia's Patreon for exclusive content and early access to future books: miaharlan.com
Also By Mia Harlan
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Cali Mann, Fanged at First Sight
