Domitian resisted at first, but then conscious of the wasted blood, let his head roll back and opened his mouth for the blood to flow in. The liquid was running too swiftly though. He tried to keep up with it, but ended up choking and coughing, sending a good portion of the liquid shooting out over the woman’s face and chest.
“You guys are messy eaters,” she muttered with disgust, tossing the bag aside the moment it was empty and reaching for another.
Domitian ground his teeth and growled, “This is not how we feed.”
“Oh?” She stopped with the bag and knife over his mouth and raised an eyebrow. “How do you feed, then?”
“Unchain me and I will feed myself,” he said at once.
That brought a snort from her luscious lips. “Yeah, right, buddy. If I unchain you, it isn’t gonna happen until you’ve had at least four bags of this stuff. I have no intention of being your breakfast.”
Domitian scowled. “We do not feed on—”
“Yeah, yeah,” she interrupted. “You have rules against feeding off mortals and yada yada. Well, forgive me, but I’m a cop and know a lot of rule breakers. I have no intention of taking chances here. So tell me how to feed you properly or I’m gonna slice this bag like I did the last one and feed you that way.”
They glared at each other briefly and then Domitian sighed. “I let my teeth out and you pop the bag to them,” he said grimly, and then reluctantly cautioned, “But not too hard or the bag will rupture and splash everywhere. And not too lightly or my teeth won’t puncture it.”
“Right. Not too hard, and not too light,” she said with a roll of the eyes. And then she lowered the knife and said, “Okay, so get your fangs out. We don’t have all day here.”
Domitian spared a moment to glare at her. He had no idea who she was, but she was definitely a bossy bit of goods . . . and ridiculously sexy in that damned nightgown. Cursing under his breath, he opened his mouth. His fangs had been trying to slide out since she’d entered the room, bringing the scent of blood with her, but he’d forced them to stay where they were. Now he let them slide forward. The woman watched with fascination, and then slapped the bag to his mouth.
They both released a relieved little sigh when it landed properly, sliding onto his fangs without bursting. Domitian relaxed then, his gaze sliding over her as he waited for his fangs to drain the bag. There were splashes of blood on her cheek and neck now, but it pretty much coated her pretty breasts both above the gown’s neckline as well as through the frail cloth itself. He found himself wishing he could lick it away for her. The thought was a rather shocking one for a man who hadn’t thought about sex in centuries, at least not in regards to anyone but the life mate out there waiting for him to claim her.
Shocking enough in fact to clear Domitian’s thinking a bit and make him realize that he should have taken control of the woman and made her unchain him the moment she’d entered the room. That had his gaze rising to her forehead so that he could focus on her thoughts and take control.
Only he couldn’t.
Coming up against a blank wall in her mind, Domitian regathered himself and tried again, but it was no good. He couldn’t read this woman.
For a moment Domitian was too shocked to think anything, but then his brain began to screech.
Dear God! She was another life mate! After all these millennia alone, he now had two women to choose from; his sweet little Sarita and this . . . creature.
Domitian’s gaze skated to her breasts again as a surfeit of possibilities began to fill his mind. The most interesting one was the thought of two life mates in his bed. He had some trouble picturing his sweet Sarita naked and in his bed at that moment, but he could see this one there, her hair a wild mass on the pillow, her eyes sleepy with desire, her mouth open on a moan rather than pursed with irritation or displeasure and her breasts glistening with blood as they were now.
If the bag hadn’t been in the way, Domitian would have licked his lips as he gazed at them. They were lovely. Large and full like ripe melons waiting to be plucked from the vine. And her nipples, he breathed out slowly through his nose as he focused on her nipples, noticing that they were growing hard before his eyes.
Curious, he glanced back to her face and saw that while he’d been ogling her, her own eyes had been busy traveling down his body. They were now focused on the chains across his groin.
“Are you wearing anything under that chain skirt of yours?” she asked suddenly, her voice slightly husky. Apparently not pleased by that, she scowled and lifted her gaze back to his face. “Are you?”
Domitian merely peered at her over the bag in his mouth. It was hard to speak with a mouthful of bag.
Seeming to realize that, she said, “Blink once for yes and twice for no.”
Unsure of the answer, he stared back unblinking.
“I’ll take that as an I don’t know,” she announced dryly and ripped the now-empty bag away.
“What’s your name?” Domitian managed to get out just before she slapped another full one to his teeth.
She arched her eyebrows at him. “You should know. You’re the one who’s had a private detective following me around for fifteen years.”
Domitian stilled at this irritated announcement, his eyes examining her face. Sarita? No it couldn’t be, he thought. But now that he was looking at her face and not her breasts, or the rest of her body in that seductive nightgown she was wearing, there was something . . .
As she’d said, the private detective he’d hired had been sending him monthly reports for fifteen years. The reports had told him what she was doing and with whom. He’d read about her doing well in school, her taking martial arts, her part-time jobs as a teenager, and the large group of friends she’d had. He’d been proud as could be when she finished high school and went on to university to get a bachelor’s degree in criminology. He’d always planned to wait until she’d grown up and worked at her chosen career for two years before going to claim her. So, when she’d graduated, he’d started to plan his trip to Canada, where he’d intended to arrange to “bump into her” and then woo her as she deserved. But then Sarita had applied to and been accepted into the police college. At the time he’d been disappointed at the delay in his being able to claim her. But he’d stuck to his guns and waited.
She was well worth the wait, Domitian decided as his gaze slid over her again.
While the reports he’d received had been pretty thorough, even at first mentioning the boys she had dated, the one thing they had not included was pictures of Sarita. That had been by Domitian’s choice. He had wanted her to experience a little life before he claimed her, and it had been easier for him to resist doing that so long as he thought of her as the child she’d been when he’d first seen her in his restaurant. Domitian had feared he might not be able to resist going to her sooner if he got pictures of her at eighteen, nineteen, or twenty. So in his mind she’d remained the skinny, flat-chested child he’d first met, and while he’d often imagined what she might look like now, none of his imaginings had equaled the seductive and lush woman bending over him, feeding him blood. Damn, she’d grown up fine.
So, not two life mates, Domitian realized, and wasn’t at all disappointed. Fantasies aside, it would be difficult to please two immortal life mates in bed when you passed out after pleasuring the first. Besides, he could only turn one and would have had to choose between them if there were two.
Now he didn’t have to, Domitian thought, his eyes drifting back to her breasts. God he couldn’t wait to get his hands on them. He would feast on them, lick the blood away, and suck those perfect little pebbles between his lips, lash them with his tongue, and nip at the buds as he thrust into her and—
The clank of chains drew his attention from her breasts and Domitian peered down to see that he’d definitely been affected by his thoughts. He’d managed to work himself up to the point that he now had an erection pressing against the chains across his groin. He hadn’t thought there was a lot of give in the chains, but judging by the bulge now noticeable between his legs he supposed there must be.
Apparently he wasn’t the only one to notice his present state. Sarita said dryly, “If you have enough blood to spare it for erections, you’ve definitely had enough.”