Devon Morgan [Seven Brothers for McBride 5] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) by Anitra Lynn McLeod Page B

was!”
    “Okay, fine. It was your fault. But you couldn’t help it. I should have remembered that doing something like that would frighten you.” Devon paused in his mopping of the floor with the towels. “I don’t know what happened. I’ve never had a thirst for blood like that before.”
    “Because you’ve never been with someone. Or have you?”
    “No. Never.” Devon looked up. “Did they…” He wasn’t sure how to ask.
    “They had me bound up with my back to the wall. If they could have reached, they would have.”
    “But they didn’t.”
    “No.”
    “I’m glad.”
    “Me, too.”
    Devon turned away before Karsten could read the concern in his face.
    “You don’t have to look away. I know what you want to ask.”
    “Nothing. I’m good.” Devon took out the last towel and stood in the kitchen for a moment. Mercifully, his cock was soft now, so he didn’t have to remind Karsten of what had happened. But his blood hunger. That was not going to go away so easily. His teeth pushed out from his gums for the first time in his life. The spot where they emerged was raw, and the teeth themselves itched to the point he was sucking at the tips with his tongue.
    “It’s okay.”
    Devon jerked his head up and found Karsten in the kitchen doorway.
    “I know you can’t help it. From what our thrall master said, it’s instinctual. Blood and sex will always be inextricably linked in your body.”
    “I can control it.”
    “You can’t.”
    “I’m not going to bite you against your will.” Devon would put something over his teeth or Karsten’s neck—a guard of some sort—if he had to.
    “I didn’t say you would do anything against my will. It’s instinctual for me to let you. I even tilted my head, but then...” Karsten didn’t need to finish. They both know what happened next. He remembered being bound and bitten. Karsten was holding a ducky in his hand, his fingers stroking over the plastic almost like he was petting it. Devon realized he wasn’t comforting the toy but attempting to comfort himself. “But I need you to bite me somewhere else.”
    “What?” Devon figured he’d have to settle for a lifetime of no blood at all. While he was playing the dedicated hero, that sounded possible, but when he was himself and the lust kicked in, everything changed.
    “I know the urge to bite my neck is strong because that’s the most convenient spot when we mate.”
    Devon wanted to interrupt him, but he had nothing to say. Part of him didn’t want to hear what Karsten would say because Devon still clung to his view of himself as the lofty hero who always did the right thing and never made his lover scream in terror.
    “You could bite me here.” Karsten extended his arm, offering out his wrist.
    “I don’t understand. You want me to bite you?”
    “I’ll show you if you come back into the tub with me.” Karsten turned but didn’t move forward until he was certain that Devon was following. In the bathroom, he stepped into the tub and turned off the water. It was filled back to where it had been before they’d decided to wash the floor.
    A little hesitant to be so close to Karsten again when he now realized he couldn’t trust himself, Devon entered the bath only because Karsten smiled and pointed out he and the ducks were lonely. That made Devon grin and get back into the tub. After his body cooled off cleaning up the floor, the water felt almost too warm, but slowly he grew accustomed.
    He and Karsten sat across from one another for a long time, simply sailing ducks toward one another.
    “I just now noticed that they are all different.” Karsten picked two up and compared them.
    “I’ve been collecting them for a long time.”
    “Why?”
    “Ah, you’ll think it’s silly.” Devon’s brothers certainly had.
    “I won’t. I’ll probably think it’s cute. Like you.”
    “Aw. Okay, but you can’t laugh.”
    “I won’t.”
    “I read a story once about this rubber duck that went