Contract Bound (Blood Bound, #1)

by Elle Mae

When she pulled her fingers out of me she pulled back and made me watch as she licked my release off them. She stood, both hands placed on either side of me, and stared into my eyes.

“This didn’t happen,” she said in a low warning tone. “The rest of the party is almost gone, including my father who made his retreat after the fight.” Her eyes lowered to my mouth and she leaned forward to capture my lips in hers. I could taste myself on her. “I—” “Tell me you understand,” she growled as she pulled away from me. “This didn’t happen. We came in here and I cleaned your wounds. You and I both had reactions to the blood, but we did not take it further than that.” “I understand,” I echoed.

“Do you regret it?” she asked. I shifted my gaze to hers, but I couldn’t speak. “Because I don’t,” she said when she understood I wouldn’t continue. “I do regret how it came to happen, but I don’t regret you.”

I don’t regret you. The words circled through my head.

“I wish I never came here,” I admitted and watched as her brows furrowed. “The ...

“Because I hate you,” I answered. “No,” she said

“You hate me out there. Not here.”

“You’ll get your coffee and go back to work like a good little hunter.”

“You are not in charge of me,” I growled and glared daggers at her in the mirror. She sent me a smirk to tell me that she believed the exact opposite of my statement. She turned and left the bathroom without another word.

“Oh yeah,” she called from farther in the room. “Don’t forget to put on a shirt. Though I wouldn’t complain if you decided to walk around naked.”

As I watched her fall to the ground, blood pouring from her wounds for the second time in less than forty-eight hours, I started to understand that this wasn’t a game anymore. I had messed with her far too much, and now that I had developed a soft spot for the little hunter, I couldn’t watch as she risked her life over and over again.

And for someone who was as ungrateful as I was. . . because that was what I had been.

I let her run head first into danger, even when I had the ability to keep her from it. Everything that had happened until now could have easily been avoided if I would have just paid better attention to our surroundings. And that didn’t even go into the unspeakable thing...

I wanted to touch her. I wanted to be near her. I wanted her to want me the way I wanted her.

“I am not resigning,” she said, her tone wasn’t hard, but it had a definite edge to it, telling me this was not up for discussion. “I have a debt to pay.” “I don’t want you here anymore,” I lied, annoyance filling me. Her lips twitched before a full-blown smirk spread across her face.

“Then you should try harder to get rid of me,” she said and with a sigh pushed herself to the back of the bed and leaned against the headboard, her gaze never leaving mine.

My control was holding on by the thinnest thread imaginable. I wanted so badly to throw myself at her, cover those deliciously plump lips with my own and make her forget about every sentence she just uttered.

I didn’t want to take back what we did, I loved every moment of it. . . but to hear how bad it affected her, to know that she wanted to seek out death because of it. . .

It hurt, and no one hurts me. “It’s okay,” I forced out. “I’ll keep another one of your secrets.” My words were supposed to come out playful, but they came out s...

“It’s my fault anyway,” I admitted. Silvia met me with a shocked expression. “I’m sorry, about everything. Vance saw it as a challenge and took advantage of my laziness. I am sorry, Silvia.”

“I still hate your kind,” she grumbled. A flare of excitement ran through me at the hint of playing our old game once more. “Do you though?” I teased. Her eyes widened and quickly she placed her weapons back in their straps.

Her eyes finally met mine and I saw right through her mask. We may not have killed her family, or been the one to bite her against her will. . . but I had been hurting her, and I would do so again.

I didn’t think I could stop myself, not after we have gone so far. Not after the taste and smell of her blood still lingered in my mouth and caused heat to pool in my belly. I would hurt her again, but I couldn’t find the will in me to stop myself.

was itching to get out, but more importantly. . . I was itching to get Silvia back to her normal self. She hid it well. . . but she couldn’t fool me.

She was sitting in the passenger seat and I longed to reach over and squeeze her thigh, but

Usually by now, a wave of calmness would have fallen over me, but instead I was filled with nervousness. What would Silvia think of this? Would she think it was stupid? Would she hate it?

Silvia took another step forward, then another, then another until our arms nearly brushed across each other. I could feel the electric tension between us snap into place and all the worries I had about her hating it here drifted away with the sound of the waterfall.

I looked down at her and the world froze around me. Silvia’s silvery eyes were wide and staring out at the waterfall below us.

This place now paled in comparison to the sight before me. I didn’t care about the waterfall or the meadow, I only wanted to make sure that this sight would be burned into my memory forever.

If this was the sight that I could see for the rest of eternity, I would have no qualms about ruling. I would rule for this, for her, and nothing else.

My father, the clan, the vampires that wanted to tear us down. . . no one could take this...

How had a measly hunter been able to achieve this? How did she become so import...

“This is a nice place,” she said. I waited for the sarcastic remark or insult. . . but there was none. I turned my face away from her, feeling my cheeks heat unbearably. Running my hand over my face, I wasn’t surprised to see Gillard glaring at me from the trees surrounding the perimeter of the meadow. You’re in trouble,

“We are just fucking,” I said then shifted. “Or at least I would like to be.”

“You are courting her,” he corrected for me. “This is not what you would do with the others. I know you, Keir. You took her to see the fucking sunset!”

“I took you too,” I noted with a raised brow. If looks could kill, my head would be on the floor with that broken glass by now.

I ran my hand over my face and let out a groan. “I like this one, Gillard,” I said, ...

How much more could I lie? To myself? To her? It was be...

I couldn’t hide my smirk. I don’t wait for anything. . . not until now.

“I said I would wait,” I interrupted him. “Didn’t say that I wouldn’t try to speed things up.”

“Tick tock,” I said and tried to hold in my laugh as he glared. “Her heart rate is slowing and I need to catch her before she falls asleep.”

She acted so human in the moment, I think that was what had startled me so much, and it was all too easy in that moment to pretend that she was just another human.

Her title as heir to the world’s most powerful vampire clan fell away, and all I saw was the person Keir could have been.

Nonetheless, if she was human I probably would have fallen for her long ago.

She had a way with women, I could see it from the moment we met. She was confident, she knew what she wanted. . . and God did she have the most kissable lips.

Things were different now that I had seen it myself. Seen how human she could be. Felt how warm her hands felt, her lips felt.

“We are far enough away from the other rooms that no one would know,” she said, her eyes trailing my body once more. “Or I could force you to be quiet. You quite liked that last time.” I fucking loved it last time. It took everything I had not to close the gap between us.

“And if I wanted you now?” I asked, nervousness creeping up on me. “Would your offer still be open?”

“Do you want me, Little Hunter?” she teased, a smirk appearing on her face.

“I think you know the answer to that,” I said in a cool tone that in no way reflected the turmoil inside of me now.