Black than Blue Read online

  “Camila was to sever our bond a month after graduation and hand me over to Paeno.”

  “But you’re not bound to Camila anymore. I could refuse to give you over, but then again, she could also kill me.”

  “I won’t let her. I won’t let Daddy let her. I want to be with you.”

  I touched her cheek. It had been years since I’d touched her this way, without any anger or fear making my heart tremble. “I want to be with you too, B.” I reached over and grabbed the blade and then I took her open palm in mine. “You ready?”

  “Wait.” I looked up into her eyes. “I have to say something before the bond changes things.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “I love you. I know it was hard for me to say it before, but I do. I love you with all my heart and I’m sorry I ever hurt you.” She paused, looking at our hands between us. “I have never been more scared in my life than I was the night of your accident. I didn’t know how to handle it, so I didn’t. And I know I am stubborn and difficult, but I will prove it to you. I love you.”

  “You know you were about to be mated to your aunt?” I had to get that final crack in.

  “She is not my aunt. Shut up.”

  “Okay, whatever. I must have driven you love-crazy if incest was looking good to you.” And like that, Benny smiled. Damn, I’d missed that smile so much. I bent down and kissed her. “I love you too, and if the last few weeks haven’t been proof enough, I’ve been going crazy without you. I’m never letting you go. Paeno can suck a dick. You’re mine.”

  “Will you still be interested in playing with your little bunny pet?” she asked. She reached up and pulled my tank top down so the edge of my bra was showing.

  “What do you think? Give me your hand.” She did as she was told. “Benita Tarver, will you allow me to bind you to myself?” I skipped the sister-queens and the sorority sisters nonsense. Three more months and I was taking her out of that house.

  “Yes, I will.”

  I kissed her again and then I whispered, “Will you let me fuck you so good you’ll debate whether or not you’ll be able to walk the next day? Will you bring that little bunny pet freak of yours out in the bedroom whenever I need her?”

  Benny chuckled. “Yes, I will.”

  “Will you be my wife, my partner, my mate until we both leave this earthly plane and beyond?”

  “You still want to marry me?”

  “I told you,” I replied. “I want all of it.”

  “I still want to have a baby, you know.”

  “I said all of it. What’s your answer?”

  “Will you forgive me?”

  She was talking a mighty big game. Everything she was agreeing to was so far out of her comfort zone, I knew there would be a certain amount of kicking and screaming on her part, but this was something. This was a good place to start. “Yes,” I told her. “I forgive you, if you’ll forgive me. I think I almost broke De’Treshawn’s brain, and I don’t think I made a good first impression on your mama.”

  “De’Treshawn can suck a dick and Mama already loves you. So, yes, Cleopatra Joy Jones, I will, marry you, be with you, and bind myself to you. I love you.”

  “I love hearing you say that.”

  “Well, let’s get on with this and I’ll say it again.” Benny held up her palm. I didn’t wait. I sliced open her hand. She sucked in some air through her teeth. Benny wasn’t much for certain kinds of pain, but she let me savor the taste before I sealed the wound, and boy, did she taste good. When her skin closed, I gripped the back of her head and crushed her lips to mine. She moaned into my mouth and I matched the desperate sound as our bond was made complete. I felt it through my whole body and being. We would work at putting our relationship back together fully, but now she was my feeder, my pet. She would be loyal to me and me alone. She would crave my touch and my touch only. Her pussy would weep from my bite. And I would do anything to protect her. She owned me, inside and out.

  I pulled away slightly, licking her lips, then kissing every inch of her face. “You’re mine now.”

  “Yes, Cleo.” She offered me her neck, pulling her ruby necklace to the side.

  “Not yet,” I told her. I put the knife on her nightstand and motioned for her to scoot up the bed. It was time to test the sturdiness of the bed frame.

  “Have your other appetites changed as well?” she asked as she shimmied up her comforter.

  “Not at all.” I kicked off my boots and my pants and climbed on top of her. I glanced up at the distance between the posts. They were too far apart for her to reach. “Do you think you can hold still?”

  “Yes.”

  I don’t know why I was shocked. I knew exactly who I was dealing with, but still, after all this time, without even being asked, Benny slipped right into her role. She bit her bottom lip and stared up at me with the most sinfully innocent look in her eye. Even the pitch of her voice changed a bit. I loved it when my little bunny pet came out to play. I leaned down and licked the seam of her mouth.

  “Good. That’s good to hear. We’ll get to that in a minute. Lift up your arms.” She did as I asked, giving me the room I needed to pull her sweater and her T-shirt over her head. After I did away with her bra, I couldn’t hold in my purr of satisfaction. My clit jumped at the sight of her bare skin. Centered around hard, peach-colored nipples, her large breasts spread out under their own weight. Soft, milky-white skin covered the expanse of her stomach. It drove me crazy that she ever called herself fat. She was juicy in all the best ways.

  I started at her belly button, kissing and licking my way up and across. She was ticklish, and even though she held perfectly still, her breathing grew harsher. It was a perfect distraction from where I was headed.

  I reached her breasts, more than enough to fill my hands, and pushed them together. She gasped, but again kept herself from squirming. I went right for the tips. Benny arched her back and hissed through her teeth.

  “Don’t move or I’ll stop.” For now, it was an empty threat. I was way too horny to stop, but I wanted to see how she handled the command.

  She swallowed and forced herself to relax. “Yes, Cleo.”

  I attacked her breasts with my tongue and lips again. One, then the other, sucking on the tip as she shivered beneath me, looking up the entire time as Benny’s eyes squeezed shut. “Look at me,” I told her. Benny’s eyes opened. I barely pricked her left nipple with my fang, then soothed the spot away with more gentle sucking. Benny moaned, a loud, strained noise in the back of her throat. I knew I had her.

  I sat up on my knees and went after that same nipple with just the tip of my tongue, quick, light flicks over and over. Soon, because she couldn’t control it, Benny came apart, my name forced from her lips lost in the willowy canopy above. I purred in response, feeling her pleasure rush through my body like it was my own. For good measure, I dropped my hips to her stomach and coated her skin with the proof of what she had just done to me, how hot she had made me.

  I covered her body with mine and again, I kissed her, long and slow. She sighed into my mouth.

  “How are we doing so far?” I asked, but I captured her lips again before I let her answer.

  “Good,” she eventually replied. “Can I stretch a little?”

  I rubbed my nose against hers. “Yes, bunny. You can.” But instead of stretching, she reached up and ran her fingers under my tank top. I let her pull it off me. I let her get away with taking off my bra too. When I was completely naked, she leaned up and kissed me.

  “You’re gonna pay for that. So bad.”

  “I’ll take my punishment whenever you’re ready.”

  “For now…” I whispered as I slid my fingers into her underwear. I smiled down at her. “Come on my fingers.”

  “Yes, Cleo,” she whispered back.

  My fangs dropped further from my gums and I bit into her succulent skin. Oh, it was so much sweeter this time. She didn’t pass out, for one thing. I got to enjoy the taste of her blood. I drank deep
, so deep I knew I would have to give her some of my blood to keep her from feeling loopy in the morning. But I enjoyed it now. Her blood was so good, so different from my other feeders, spiked with a hint of her vanilla scent.

  She came instantly, her pussy clenching around my fingers and soaking my hands. And again, I came with her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cleo

  Early in the morning I woke Benny up. I’d just planned to tell her we needed to talk some more. There were other things we had to straighten out, but the moment I looked down at her I changed my mind. I didn’t say anything, just kissed her neck and rubbed her belly until she finally responded with a light moan. She turned in my arms, facing me so I could kiss her properly. I had no orders, no commands. I just wanted to enjoy being with her before the sun and the real world pulled us apart. It was something I would have to get used to, no doubt, but I wasn’t looking forward to it. Our bond was different from what I felt for my other feeders. The unconditional affection was there. I longed to protect her and provide for her, but there was this element of lovesickness that permeated all of those other emotions.

  I’d felt this way before, in the first weeks we’d been together, back when I was human. I’d think about her all day, during my classes. I would stare at her during chapter meetings, wondering if she felt the same way I did. During classes, I would text her, hoping she was alone so she could read the short love notes I’d sent her, and smile or blush without feeling like she had to explain herself. I ran to her dorm on our free afternoons, pumped out of my mind to find her waiting for me on her bed. At the time, I thought what we had was perfect, but now I looked forward to fulfilling both sides of our relationship.

  I rolled onto my back and pulled her with me. She straddled my hips and went to work. In bunny mode or not, she knew what I liked. Our clits rubbed together as she ground against me. It had been so long since I had enjoyed something so simple. With Tokyo, it was always hanging from the rafters. With Andrew, well, with Andrew my clit served a whole other purpose, and with the girls, I was their sexual jungle gym. But with Benny, I could be myself. This was the part I wasn’t willing to let go, even after we broke up. I hated that we kept our relationship a secret, but in every other way, she’d given me everything I needed. She knew exactly how I liked to be fucked and when I wanted to make love, and I’d learned to read her the same way.

  It was that familiarity that made the lovesickness even stronger, and the taste of her blood just compounded its potency. My demon had definitely found its mate. I felt the animal inside me prowling on the fringes, ever vigilant, just waiting for some fool to try to come between us. I knew how Camila felt for Ginger now. Rodrick and Natasha’s intense bond now made complete sense.

  I grabbed her waist and helped thrust up to meet her every movement. She shifted against me, and just to make her desires clear, brushed her nipple over my lips. I licked and sucked her breast until she shuddered and whimpered above me, her hips grinding in a fiercer charge as she chased another orgasm and another. I joined her, calling out her name, fighting the urge to sink my fangs into her throat. My willpower wasn’t enough. My demon would not be denied now that my human side had had its pleasure.

  I flipped us so I was on top and rubbed my thigh between Benny’s legs.

  “Cleo,” she whined as she offered me her neck. “Please.” Benny wouldn’t be denied either.

  I bit her, hard and fast. Her legs clamped around my thigh in a viselike grip, and I felt her wetness cover my skin as her sweet blood rushed down my throat.

  *

  I let Benny doze a while longer, but when I sensed movement around the house, I woke her up. She used the bathroom, and when she came back to bed, I pulled her back under the covers. I needed a few more minutes. She let out a sigh as she looked down at my chest for a moment as if she was considering something.

  “Tell me.”

  “What are your plans with Andrew?”

  I sighed this time as I propped my head on my arm. He had always been a major problem between us, but my feelings for him hadn’t changed. “I want to keep him after graduation,” I told her. “He doesn’t have anyone, and he was with Moreland for too long. He trusts me, and I don’t want to send him off to someone else after we built that trust.”

  “I’m okay with that, but…”

  “You can say it. You don’t want me to fuck him anymore.”

  “I know over time, things will happen. I understand how feedings go, and he’s a natural submissive. I know how much you must like that, but for now, I was just hoping it could be us together in that way. I’ve heard a lot about how you fuck him, and—”

  “You have?”

  “Yes. For some reason, Tokyo thinks she exists in a vacuum. She goes on and on about your dick and how you fuck her and Andrew. She’s said stuff in front of me plenty of times.”

  Note to self, punch Tokyo in the face the next time you see her.

  “It’s interesting, at least I think it is, but I just want to have you to myself for a while before you’re that physical with him again. If I can.”

  Another first. Benny was asking, not just demanding. I pulled her closer and kissed her lips. “I don’t have to fuck him ever again. That’s not why he and I are close. It’s why Tokyo and I are close, but Andrew doesn’t rely on me for my cock-slinging skills.”

  Benny chuckled. “Cock-slinging?”

  “Yes. I sling a mean cock. I would think you would remember.” Benny put her head on my chest and her hand between my legs. I purred, low and deep, as she stroked my clit hard.

  “I remember you slinging a strap-on pretty well, but that thing I saw in your leather pants, that was different. I don’t know how skilled you are with your super clit.”

  “Is that what you’re calling it?”

  “Sure.”

  “Does it weird you out?” I’d taken Benny’s virginity. At first, she wasn’t on board with being penetrated at all even when we’d moved on to other things. But we worked up to it slowly, and after a few weeks, she was into it. Way into it.

  “It scares me a little, but I have been curious.”

  “Well, later I’ll show it to you and you can tell me how you feel about it then.”

  “Okay.” Benny stopped moving her hand. “And what about you and Tokyo?”

  “I won’t sleep with her anymore,” I replied.

  “No, I mean, are you still going to stay with her in her quarters? I don’t think I can feed you in there.”

  “No. I’ve been staying with Omi for a while.”

  “That’s nice of her. She’s a sweet lady.”

  “She is. What happened with the fingers? I liked what the fingers were doing.”

  “Oh,” Benny said with a cheeky smile. “I’m sorry. You mean like this?” Her fingers started moving again between my legs.

  “Yes, like that. Fuck, B.”

  She leaned closer and kissed me this time. “Have you met her wife, Mary?”

  “No.” I groaned and wrapped my fingers around her wrist, pushing her a little harder against my clit. “She doesn’t talk about her much.”

  “See? I’m not the only person who likes their privacy.”

  “Yeah. I know. Don’t stop. I’m really close.”

  “She’s Mama’s best friend, ya know. Mary,” Benny said.

  “She is?”

  “Yeah. They’ve been really close for years. They live on our street.”

  “Hmm. I’d like to meet her sometime, if it’s okay with Omi.”

  “She won’t mind.”

  “But for now…” I moved Benny’s hand and hopped off the bed. After a quick hunt, I dug up Benny’s T-shirt and tossed it to her. Then I scrambled into my tank top and my underwear.

  “What is it?” she asked. “I thought you were really close.”

  “Your mama is walking down the hall. She has breakfast.”

  “Oh.” Benny quickly pulled on her T-shirt, then fished her underwear out of the covers just a
s her mama called through the door.

  “You girls decent?” Being a little distracted by Dalhem’s grip on my life, I had forgotten how Southern Benny’s mama was. Her twang nearly slapped me in the face as she shouted through the door. It made me suddenly homesick.

  “As decent as we’ll be. Come on in, Mama.”

  Mrs. Tarver nudged her way into the room, carrying a tray loaded down with French toast and fruit. “My Lord. You two had fun last night. It smells like blood and booty in here.”

  Benny blushed like crazy and covered her face. “Mama.” I wanted to hide under the bed, but managed just to shake my head as I sat back down next to B.

  “Oh, hush, angel. You know I have to tease you. Here ya go.” I leaned over the foot of the bed and took the tray from Mrs. Tarver. As I settled it over Benny’s lap, her mama made herself comfortable in the chair. “Well, Cleo, darling, it’s lovely to finally meet you. Though I wish we’d met under different circumstances.”

  “I agree, ma’am. Likewise,” I said. I sounded as nervous as a teen boy with his pants around his ankles and a shotgun in his face.

  “Now, none of that ma’am nonsense. You call me Leanne.”

  I chuckled at her admonishment. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I take it the deed is done,” she said.

  I looked to Benny to answer that one.

  “Yes, Mama. We’re bound now. There’s something else we have to tell you.” I looked at Benny. Her voice had changed, suddenly heavy with a drawl that matched her mother’s. I had never seen her this relaxed before. Even when we were alone, being honest with each other and sharing our secrets, she always seemed like she was holding back a little. She always seemed a little guarded, but when she was talking to her mama, she seemed like she was in her safe zone. She sounded really happy. I gently squeezed her thigh under the covers. She scooted closer to me. “Maybe we should tell her what else we decided last night.”