an act of pure selfish need.
Forgive me, Claire, he murmured. Sick with himself for how deeply he wanted her, with or without the drumming intensity of a blood bond, he drew farther away from her. He drifted backward, inching toward the door. Ah, Christ Please, forgive me.
CHAPTER
Nine
A ndreas, wait.
He didnt wait. No, he wouldnt even look at her. Spinning around, he was at the door faster than her human eyes could follow the motion. He threw the door open to the cold night. Stepped onto the concrete stoop outside.
Andre
The brief glance he cast at her over his shoulder was feral and hot. His fangs gleamed stark white, frighteningly large. Claire could still feel their sharp points at the tender spot on her neck. If she lived a hundred more years, she didnt think she would ever forget the shocking, sensual pain of his bite. Or the pleasure.
God, the searing, wondrous rush of pleasure to feel Andreas suckling from her vein.
It had damned them both in an instant. She knew it, and so did he; the truth of it had been written across the taut lines of his face, and was now, in the tormented glow of his gaze as he paused to stare at her under the light of the streetlamps.
She was not his to claim. Claire had to remind herself of that fact when her legs started to move instinctively toward him. She belonged to another by blood and vow, if not by love.
Another who would have felt the emotional spike in Claires body as if it were his own. According to Breed law, there was no greater sin than to betray the sacrament of the blood bond.
But as Andreas wheeled around and leapt off the stoop, and Claire ran to the door only in time to see him disappear into the night, she knew a far worse sin. The sin of having given herself to someone as his blood-bonded mate while her heart still yearned for another.
Thirty years ago, she had been a young woman barely into her twentiesnaive about so many things, not the least of which was the existence of another race of beings that thrived on blood and darkness, incredible beings that were somehow human yet far from it.
She had been a student abroad on her own for the first time when she was assaulted by a vampire in this very district of Hamburg. Shed been spared from the bite by another like him, not a crude beast who lunged at her from the shadows but a tall, golden, sophisticated gentleman named Wilhelm Roth.
He took her into his homehis Darkhaven, as she would learn it was calledand offered her his protectionwhile she was in the city. Claire had liked Wilhelm Roth and his mate, a timid young woman named Ilsa who bore the same odd birthmark on her ankle as Claire had on the side of her neck. Claire learned a lot in those first few weeks of living among the Breed as Wilhelm Roths ward, including the fact that it was entirely possible for her to fall in love with one of their kind, which is exactly what happened once she met Andreas Reichen.
After four months together, shed been devastated when Andreas had abruptly vanished from her life. Wilhelm Roth had given her a strong shoulder to lean on. Not long afterward it had been Claires turn to offer him support, when he lost Ilsa to a Rogue vampire attack. Claire had known even then that compassion and sympathy were hardly the same thing as love. Wilhelm hadnt seemed to mind that her heart was still broken and bleeding for Andreas when he pressed her to be his mate later that year. Then again, it wasnt even a week after they were blood bonded and mated that Wilhelm moved her out to the country while he remained in Hamburg.
What a terrible, foolish mistake shed made. She knew that nowa bitter lesson when her head was filled with doubts about Wilhelm and her heart was breaking all over again for Andreas.
Claire was still reeling from that understanding as a black SUV screeched to a halt at the curb below her. Two
Forgive me, Claire, he murmured. Sick with himself for how deeply he wanted her, with or without the drumming intensity of a blood bond, he drew farther away from her. He drifted backward, inching toward the door. Ah, Christ Please, forgive me.
CHAPTER
Nine
A ndreas, wait.
He didnt wait. No, he wouldnt even look at her. Spinning around, he was at the door faster than her human eyes could follow the motion. He threw the door open to the cold night. Stepped onto the concrete stoop outside.
Andre
The brief glance he cast at her over his shoulder was feral and hot. His fangs gleamed stark white, frighteningly large. Claire could still feel their sharp points at the tender spot on her neck. If she lived a hundred more years, she didnt think she would ever forget the shocking, sensual pain of his bite. Or the pleasure.
God, the searing, wondrous rush of pleasure to feel Andreas suckling from her vein.
It had damned them both in an instant. She knew it, and so did he; the truth of it had been written across the taut lines of his face, and was now, in the tormented glow of his gaze as he paused to stare at her under the light of the streetlamps.
She was not his to claim. Claire had to remind herself of that fact when her legs started to move instinctively toward him. She belonged to another by blood and vow, if not by love.
Another who would have felt the emotional spike in Claires body as if it were his own. According to Breed law, there was no greater sin than to betray the sacrament of the blood bond.
But as Andreas wheeled around and leapt off the stoop, and Claire ran to the door only in time to see him disappear into the night, she knew a far worse sin. The sin of having given herself to someone as his blood-bonded mate while her heart still yearned for another.
Thirty years ago, she had been a young woman barely into her twentiesnaive about so many things, not the least of which was the existence of another race of beings that thrived on blood and darkness, incredible beings that were somehow human yet far from it.
She had been a student abroad on her own for the first time when she was assaulted by a vampire in this very district of Hamburg. Shed been spared from the bite by another like him, not a crude beast who lunged at her from the shadows but a tall, golden, sophisticated gentleman named Wilhelm Roth.
He took her into his homehis Darkhaven, as she would learn it was calledand offered her his protectionwhile she was in the city. Claire had liked Wilhelm Roth and his mate, a timid young woman named Ilsa who bore the same odd birthmark on her ankle as Claire had on the side of her neck. Claire learned a lot in those first few weeks of living among the Breed as Wilhelm Roths ward, including the fact that it was entirely possible for her to fall in love with one of their kind, which is exactly what happened once she met Andreas Reichen.
After four months together, shed been devastated when Andreas had abruptly vanished from her life. Wilhelm Roth had given her a strong shoulder to lean on. Not long afterward it had been Claires turn to offer him support, when he lost Ilsa to a Rogue vampire attack. Claire had known even then that compassion and sympathy were hardly the same thing as love. Wilhelm hadnt seemed to mind that her heart was still broken and bleeding for Andreas when he pressed her to be his mate later that year. Then again, it wasnt even a week after they were blood bonded and mated that Wilhelm moved her out to the country while he remained in Hamburg.
What a terrible, foolish mistake shed made. She knew that nowa bitter lesson when her head was filled with doubts about Wilhelm and her heart was breaking all over again for Andreas.
Claire was still reeling from that understanding as a black SUV screeched to a halt at the curb below her. Two
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