Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) by Jocelynn Drake Read Free Book Online Page B

night.
    As I pulled my finger free of his mouth, I touched the tip of his fang. It was amazingly sharp, which shouldn’t have surprised me since his fangs had already been embedded in my neck. I knew the moment that he tasted my blood because his entire body stiffened. He blinked and his eyes glowed bright bluish-gray in the darkness.
    “Stefan?” I whispered, the desire I had felt disappearing in a sickening rush so that I now felt lightheaded.
    The vampire released my finger and gave his head a little shake. “Forgive me. You... you taste amazing.”
    I stared at him and the person that I was accustomed to speaking to returned to me, but there was a flicker, a heartbeat of time, when Stefan no longer seemed to be in the driver’s seat and it was frightening.
    “What’s it like?” I asked. Scooting back a little, I leaned up on my elbow while lying on my side so that I could face him.
    “What do you mean?”
    “When you drink a person’s blood. What’s it like?”
    Stefan remained quiet for a long time. I had started to think that he wasn’t going to tell me when his low voice rolled over me. “It’s intoxicating. That first taste is an amazing relief no matter how long it’s been since you last fed. It’s as if a large knot of fear and worry are finally released from your chest. At the same time, a wave of power sweeps through you. You feel as if you are the most powerful being in all of existence and that you can do anything.”
    “It’s like that every time you feed?”
    “Nearly. If you’re injured and low on blood, it eases the horrible pain.”
    “If it’s so great, why don’t you feed every night?”
    Stefan paused, shifting a little bit closer in the bed as he seemed to think about my question. His fingers lightly stroked up and down my arm, threatening to scramble my thoughts. “Sex feels very wonderful, does it not? Why do you not have it every night?” While I couldn’t clearly see his expression, I could hear the smile in his voice.
    “I’m not dating anyone at the moment,” I said because it was the most obvious answer.
    “You’re a lovely woman. I’m sure there are plenty of men around Venice who would be happy to see to your needs. Women, too, if that was your wish.”
    “I don’t sleep around,” I snapped, sitting up in bed while drawing the covers more tightly around my waist.
    Stefan stretched out across the top of the blankets, folding his hands behind his head as he lay back. “Why?”
    “You mean other than the fact that it’s not safe and I don’t sleep with people that I don’t know or care about?”
    But as I uttered those words, I wondered about my actions with Stefan. We were already in my bedroom and I wasn’t shoving him out. This didn’t feel like a one-night stand. Whether I wanted to or not, I cared about his happiness. I cared about his safety. I cared about whether he was smiling and who was putting the smile on his face. Yet even as those thoughts surfaced, I shoved them away, not ready to start working through that complication.
    “That is why I don’t feed every night,” he said simply and my anger immediately started to subside. “Feeding can be a dangerous affair. Things go wrong all the time.”
    “I can’t see how you could be hurt by a human.”
    “It is unlikely, but it could happen. But a nightwalker is more likely to be hurt by one of his own kind. We are vulnerable when we feed. Nearly all of our attention is focused on our prey. Many nightwalkers and humans have been killed this way.”
    “Oh.” I stared down at my hands, loosening them from where I had tightly balled them in my lap.
    “It is also something of a hassle.” Stefan reached out and entwined his fingers with mine, pulling my right hand to his chest. With his free hand, he traced his fingertips along my wrist and down the inside of my arm, sending chills up and down my spine. “I would assume that with all your restaurants that there are nights that humans do not