Page 96 of When Night Falls
Rivian steps forward, brushes his knuckles against my skin, grazing my scar first and then moving them down to my lips.
"I've got you," he says to me out loud this time, but a whisper so soft I know only I can hear it.
He leans down slowly, his breath skating across my skin before he reaches the crook of my neck. He pushes my hair over my shoulder and nestles in right below my ear lobe, and I focus on the way his proximity makes me feel. Hot. Excited. Secure.
He wraps his hand around the other side of my neck and holds me still, he can likely feel me shaking from how nervous I am. But I have to be strong. I need to stop getting in my own head simply because a man told me he can't love me. I can do this.
I reach out and grab Rivian by his waist, pulling him and letting my head fall back to one side for him.
"Bite me like you hate me," I whisper to him, and I swear I hear him growl before he breaks skin.
I can't see them, but I hear everyone stand as their king sucks on my neck, tasting the blood he's drawn.
I don't hate you. You want me to hate you. You want me to hate you because it'll be easier for you to hate me. But what you feel for me is far from hate, little one. And what I feel for you is dangerous. You are fucking dangerous. But just remember, you are my wife now. That won't be lost on me.
Rivian's silent words creep reassurance into my head as he takes a little taste from the blood he just promised for the Society. I can feel their heated gazes on me as I listen to the things he's telling me, the words digging into the tight spaces of my mind, feeding me false hope. He's trying to make me feel better about the fact that he refuses to love me.
He removes his mouth from my skin, I feel an ache already starting to arise, and then he steps back from me and grabs the chalice, holding it up to my wounds.
I still hold onto him, though there's space between us now as he allows my blood flow to drip into the silver cup. We hold eye contact. It's intense and I wonder if our guests can see just how fucking weak he makes me. How weak I know I make him despite his words. I see some of my blood coat his lips and wetness gathers between my thighs as the cup slowly fills with my blood.
I can smell you.
He tells me silently, and I can't tell if he's talking about the metallic scent or the scent of my arousal. Either way, I feel my knees wobble when I see the lust swirling in his eyes.
How can he not love me? I give him everything he asks for. I've done everything he’s wanted and more.
Rivian removes the chalice, assuming he's got what he needs, and moves to bite his own wrist, stretching his arm out to allow the sleeve of his shirt to ride up a bit but I decide to make a move and reach out to help him do it.
I remove the cufflinks holding his sleeve in place and roll the fabric upward making sure he feels every drag of my finger as I do so. I remember he said that vampires have overly sensitive senses, and I want him to feel what I do to him so instinctually because if I have to suffer, so does he.
Once the sleeve is tucked up enough for him, I take the chalice from his hand and wait for him to break his own skin.
He leans down, keeping eye contact with me—his eyes are dark again with those little fascinating swirls of smoke swimming in them—and I hate to say that this is the first time I've really noticed the change in his teeth. I don't know how I never noticed them before, I guess when he's biting me I can't really see the change. But his canine teeth seem to turn into pointed fangs before leaning in to bite his own skin.
In what world did I ever think that seeing a vampire bite his own flesh was a turn on? Because right now I wouldn't care if he stripped me bare and took my virginity in front of all these people. I'm enthralled.
He fills the rest of the cup up rather quickly, our blood coalescing, and before I know it, the pastor grabs the chalice, holds it up and says something in Latin, and then he urges us to kiss.
My brain feels fuzzy. I don't know what's happening, but the room starts to spin, everything goes blurry and the last thing I hear before I faint is Rivian calling out my name.
My head hurts. My neck hurts.
I blink my eyes but they feel too heavy to open. So I leave them shut for a few seconds longer before I push myself up and look around.
The room is black. And I don't mean black from darkness, I mean the decor is just black. Black with silver accents and littlehints of dark gray throughout. The design looks nearly similar to my room, just darker.
That's when it hits me that this isn't my room. What happened?
I sit up straighter, seeing that I'm still in my dress as I feel my body for any signs of injury.
I feel the strain in my neck, so I bring my fingers up to touch the cramp and that's when I realize there's still blood.
"Rivian!" I scream. Rivian enters in through what I assume to be the bathroom door.
"I'm right here." He walks calmly toward me and all I can seem to think about is how I ended up in this room.
"Where am I?" I ask.