Brant couldn’t deny it. He wanted to. The lie was on the tip of his tongue. He ground his teeth instead of releasing it.
“Drink from me or there will be no sex. The choice is yours.” Her eyes widened like she was shocked at having offered her blood to him. He knew better though, neither of them would be able to deny the attraction. Even though he had offered her time, he knew it wouldn’t take long. They had been made for one another.
Brant raked a frustrated hand through his hair and strode towards his dresser. Agreeing would place her in danger, there was no choice to be made. “I can’t.”
Brant turned to watch her enter the room after him. Tanya closed her eyes. The disappointment was easy to read on her face.
“Fine by me.”
He cursed. “You would taste too good. I don’t know if I would have enough willpower to hold back.” Just the thought of tasting her blood made excitement rush through his veins.
“Excuses, excuses.” She made a noise of exasperation and walked out of his quarters. Brant heard her door slam.
As tempted as he was, he couldn’t do it. Her life meant everything to both him and his coven.
Chapter 4
Tanya paced from one side of her spacious suite to the other. What an asshole.
Brant wanted to get to know her better, yet he expected her to turn a blind eye every time he sank his teeth into the sexy female vampire. The brunette clearly would do anything to get him into her bed if she hadn’t already.
She paced faster. Chances were good that they had been lovers. Would he remain faithful once they were mated? This wasn’t going to work for her. No freaking way. She so didn’t want a mate, but if she had to have one then he would need to be completely monogamous. Fangs and all.
“There you are.” Stephany entered her room, she smiled as she walked towards Tanya.
“Listen, I’m so sorry. I hope I didn’t dump you in the shit…”
The other woman reached out and touched her arm. “No biggie. Brant will get over it. I shouldn’t have said anything anyway.”
“No, I’m so glad you did. I still know so little about the ways of your people, of what’s expected of me.” Tanya sank down onto the edge of the bed. “I don’t know what to do. I never expected to be here. If it were up to me, I would leave.” The vampire people were not her own, yet she couldn’t just leave knowing that their future survival rested on her shoulders. It irritated her but she was also drawn to Brant in a way that scared her. It was as if their lack of knowledge of one another didn’t matter. Like they were being brought together by unseen forces. It was weird and it freaked her out just a little.
“Brant is a good man. Please give him a chance. ”
“Except he isn’t a man is he?”
“No, he isn’t but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a successful union .” Stephany sat next to her.
“We can’t have much of anything if he keeps seeing Alexandra. This is so messed up.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that”—she tilted her head—“It wasn’t…like that between them…you do know that don’t you?”
Tanya sighed. “Yeah, right. If it was up to Alexandra it would so be like that.” Her jealousy felt like bugs crawling over her skin. Tanya detested the feeling yet couldn’t manage to shake it. No matter how many times she mentally swatted, there were plenty more vile bugs to take the place of the dead ones.
“Don’t let her get to you. I shouldn’t tell you this, but Brant hasn’t had sex with anyone in months. That includes Alexandra.”
Great. Confirmation. So the two of them had some sort of a thing in the past. The bugs crawled faster.
Stephany must have seen or sensed her reaction because she quickly added. “It wasn’t like that. Vampires are highly sexual. Since males are not permitted to take humans it is accepted that all unattached males and females are free to fornicate at will.”
“Alrighty. I understand.” Like hell. Another thought entered her mind. “That means you…”
“I’m celibate. Brant and I have never…” She blushed. How strange. Even though Tanya was fully aware that most known facts about vampires were myths, she shouldn’t be so surprised at normal bodily functions. Vampires were not the undead. Far from it. They were just another species. Like humans or shifters. They were very much alive. As far as she knew, they could age. It was said that they lived twice as long as humans though and were tough SOBs, they could be killed but it wasn’t easy.
“What’s with the whole blood drinking thing anyway?” So far, this seemed to be the only semblance the species had with the myths that surrounded them.