Hunted (The Tinder Chronicles) by Alexa Land

all so
new to me, so I just whispered, “Thank you,” because that was what felt right. Bane
pulled back to look at me. Most likely, he was searching for sarcasm or insincerity.
He wouldn’t find either one. After a moment’s hesitation, his arms came up to
embrace me.
    We held each other for
a while, and then I kissed him gently. When Bane deepened the kiss, it felt
like an ‘on’ switch had been flipped inside my body, every part of me awakening.
It was far more than just arousal. I spent so much time with my emotions
disengaged, just doing what I had to do – hunting, surviving, and the next day,
repeating the process all over again. I usually didn’t allow myself to feel, not
really, because if I did, loss and sadness and loneliness would just swallow me
whole. But I let myself feel everything now, and it was amazing, like waking up
after a dark winter’s hibernation.
    “Please fuck me, Bane,”
I said softly as I tangled my fingers in his dark hair and rested my forehead
on his.
    He kissed me tenderly before
pulling back to look at me and saying, “You’ll just regret it if we have sex
again.”
    “No I won’t.”
    “It’s a bad idea,” he
said, lifting me off his lap and setting me on the kitchen table as he got up.
“You really will regret it, and you’ll end up despising me as a result. I think
it’s best if I go.”
    “No!” I hated how
pitiful and desperate that single syllable sounded. But still, I grabbed onto
his sleeve as I jumped off the table, then put my arms around him, holding on
tightly.
    “What are you doing, Tinder?”
    “Begging you not to
leave.”
    He grinned a little.
“You’re going to hate yourself for that later.”
    “I don’t care.”
    He kissed the top of my
head. “I’ll call you in a few hours and let you know if I’ve made any progress
tracking down the vampires that came after you.” He untangled himself from me
and left the kitchen.
    “Please stay,” I said
as I trailed after him.
    “No. I’m not going to
add to your regrets.”
    “I wanted to
regret it last time we slept together, Bane. And it really did throw me off at
first, maybe because it was just so far from anything I’d ever imagined myself
doing,” I said as I followed him down the hall. “But since then…since then it’s
all I can think about. I haven’t been regretting it, I’ve been craving it. I’ve been going out every night, giving myself to whoever will have me,
chasing that feeling I had when I was with you. But it’s never right. It’s
never enough. None of those other men could give me what I needed, because none
of them are you .”
    He’d reached the front
door, and turned to look at me, brows knit. “You said you’d rather kill
yourself than sleep with me again.”
    “I’m really sorry I
said that.” Conflict churned in his eyes, I could practically see his rebuttal
building, and I pre-empted it by saying, “Please let me make it up to you.” I
dropped to my knees, still maintaining eye contact, and quickly unfastened his
belt and his jeans, then mouthed his bulge through the thin fabric of his sexy
black briefs. A moan escaped him, and I tugged down the front of his underwear
and took his heavy cock in my mouth.
    The moment I started
sucking him, Bane visibly relaxed, exhaling slowly and reaching out to touch my
hair. I kept looking up at him as I worked his cock with my hands and mouth,
feeling him swell between my lips, the connection between us so powerful as I
held his gaze.
    When I slid my hands to
his butt and deep-throated him to his balls, that was enough to turn him from
controlled and calm to fiery predator. He actually growled as he grabbed me and
pulled me up to him, crushing my mouth in a demanding kiss as he shoved my leather
jacket off my shoulders and onto the floor.
    He carried me to the
bedroom and threw me on the mattress, then started to reach for my waistband,
but I said, “Wait.” He paused, watching me warily. I fumbled for the buttons