Excerpt #1
Greta ended up with her back pressed against the supplies cabinet, my forearms flat against the glass, her chest heaving and her cheeks flushed as she gazed up at me with wide eyes. 

“Are you alright?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

There was no way to miss the way her eyes tracked my mouth, the way I was steeped in her scent or how my heart kept trying to reach for her directly through my chest. It had been the sweetest torture to spend the day pressed up against her from behind, able to smell her hair and feel the curves of her body line up with the planes of mine. And now, with her dressed in my clothing, after what we’d been through earlier, I hardly had any restraint at all left.

“Greta,” I warned.

“It’s okay. I want …” she swallowed, my eyes following every movement of her throat and the way her tongue dipped out to wet her bottom lip.

I cupped her cheek with one hand, warring with myself as every impulse in my body screamed at me.

Her eyes became glazed, half closed … and I lost all hold on my control.

I dove in like a man starved, plundering her mouth with my own. I swallowed her noises of surprise, growling back as she pressed herself further against me instead of trying to run away. 

She tasted like the berries we’d had with lunch, and I marveled at the softness of her body under my hands, my lips. I teased at her bottom lip with one fang, swiping at the tiny droplet of blood I’d made rush to the surface with my tongue as she sucked in a breath. To my great pleasure, she didn’t pull away as a brief collage of her here at the collegium danced across my mind.  If anything, she hovered closer, asking for more in the way her eyes lingered half-closed, her hands fisted in my shirt.

“Vassago …” My name was music on her lips, speaking to the darkest parts of me. The neediest.

The most dangerous ones.

“Greta.” I pressed my lips to hers again, but gently, taking my time exploring. I mapped the way her cupid’s bow formed perfect points in her lush upper lip and a tiny scar caused an imperfection in her bottom one. The way she was reaching for me the way I was for her. The way she hesitated, but just barely, when I requested she open for me by swiping along her lips with my tongue. As I drank from her lips she followed my lead, making another of those incendiary sounds.

I lost myself in her, and it was glorious.

Excerpt #2
I took one step inside, then froze. “What …” Tears filled my eyes as I took in the room.

Placed neatly on the square coffee table were things from all over the market. The emerald scarf made by the special worms. A box full to overflowing with several of the treats I’d sampled. Another book I’d regretted leaving behind but had wanted slightly less than the two I’d chosen. A new hairbrush with bristles spaced far apart that wouldn’t pull so badly through my curls. Some delicious varieties of fruit I’d never seen before. A braided bread I remembered having during the solstice holidays as a child but hadn’t seen in years. A dozen little things I’d lingered over for barely a moment, or maybe briefly touched.

I spun, finding Vassago still standing in the hall right where he had been.

“What have you done? And how? When?” I asked, though the questions came out on a laugh. Shock warred with pure elation at the novel experience of receiving gifts. He’d been a wonderful companion the whole day, following along patiently, explaining something here, holding something there. But he’d done so much more. 

He’d paid attention. To me. To everything. The whole time.

“These are just some trinkets, Little Dragonfly. Take them as mementoes of your first visit to the city. Inconsequential, frivolous perhaps. But they brought you joy.” His brow furrowed. “I worry that you’ve had far too little of that in your life. The coin I spent today means nothing in the grand scheme. I would spend a hundred times that to see you smile like you did while we walked around the market. I would take you back tomorrow, and the day after, stopping only when you’ve had your fill. You need only ask.”

My throat clogged with emotion, rendering me speechless. Instead, I stepped right up against him, and threw my arms around his waist. He pulled me in close, both of his hands splayed wide along my spine. He breathed deeply, his mouth lingering in the curve of my neck.

I pulled back only enough to put my hands on his face and kiss him. He grunted in surprise, his grip on me tightened as he tasted me slowly right there in the quiet hall. 

The way his lips moved against mine was intoxicating, and time was of no consequence as we mapped one another’s mouths. One of his hands slid to grip my ass as he pressed me against him, his sharp fangs pricking my bottom lip. He followed the sting with a swipe of his tongue before diving back in again, his other hand cradling the back of my head as he took everything he needed from our embrace. It was like he was drawing out my very essence, drinking from my lips as he rumbled a soft groan and caused every nerve in my body to stand at attention.

When we finally broke apart, he ran gentle fingertips down my cheek as I remembered how to breathe, eyes bright red and canines vicious. “Get some rest, Greta.”

He kissed my knuckles as I moved away, still able only to nod. 

I wondered if I would survive this man or if that was even necessary as long as he was going to keep kissing me like that.