Grave Sight | A Reverse Harem Romance

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝔽𝕚𝕗𝕥𝕪 𝔽𝕚𝕧𝕖

My ass was stinging even ten minutes after he finished his twenty six lashings. When I asked why he didn't stop at twenty five, he told me it was because he liked to keep it even.

What a gentleman.

I sat at the edge of his bed, looking around his room in the least suspicious way possible. If he came out of the shower and saw me walking around opening drawers, I was afraid my ass wouldn't make it through the night. I needed my ass for things like sitting, and it was hurting enough in that moment that I almost couldn't do that. Twenty six more and I'd be lying face down at dinner for the next week.

He came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. His eyes ran the length of me, like he wasn't sure I'd actually still be sitting where he'd left me. He used another towel to dry his hair, scrunching it in the white cotton.

When he dropped the towel around his waist, my head snapped to the nearest thing that wasn't his ass.

"So," Kieran said, "about the vampire."

I raised my eyebrows at my knees. Wow, they were so interesting. Not as interesting as what I'd see if I looked up, but for some reason my head remained tilted downwards.

"Which one," I asked. "The master vampire who just dropped his towel in front of me and gave me an eye-full of ass, the one on a killing spree that is most likely my father, the one who I think wants me dead but doesn't want to anger the master vampire, or another one I'm not remembering?"

He laughed. "One you're not remembering, apparently. The one from the movie theater."

Oh, right.

"He just gave off a weird vibe, I guess." I finally looked up and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw he had sweatpants on. "He came in halfway through the movie, and stopped me when I went to leave."

"And he looked at your neck?" He continued to towel-dry his hair.

It was quick, but I was pretty sure his eyes dipped to my neck at some point in the conversation.

I nodded.

"What did he look like," Kieran asked as he went back into the bathroom to hang his towels up. 

I told him what I could remember. The guy wasn't really all that memorable. There were no special features that I could recall, and he looked about as average as an average person could look. I didn't even think he was a vampire until he appeared behind me as I was leaving.

Kieran's face was calm as he exited the bathroom, taking in every word.

When I was finished, he sighed. "That would be Paul. He's one of Mateo's friends. Harmless, really. Though he should know not to bother you."

Why would he know not to bother me? Besides the mark - which he would have seen before he started the conversation - nothing would have told him I was off limits. But he did see the mark, and he still continued to try and frighten me. And for what? For Mateo's amusement?

I shook my head and fell back into the bed. "As should Mateo, but here we are."

Kieran was silent, so I looked at him. His eyes trailed down my sprawled body, then raised back up. When his eyes locked with mine, there was something I didn't want to place shining through.

He was feeling protective, I believed. But what I saw was possessiveness. Something he had no right to be feeling. Maybe the mark was making him feel those things, or maybe he was feeling them all on his own. If it was all his own emotions, how long had he been feeling them?

I couldn't pinpoint exactly when his emotions shifted from just some vampire showing me the ropes to whatever this was. I didn't even know how to explain our relationship.

Hell, I didn't know how to explain my relationship with him, Lucian, or Kyler.

"What are we," I asked before I could stop myself.

"What do you want to be?" The returned question caught me off guard. I was expecting an answer. 

I sat up slowly. "I don't know."

He still didn't move. "If you don't know, how do you expect me to give it to you?"

I didn't know if I wanted the answer to my next question, but I asked it anyway. "What do you want to be?"

If I thought he was motionless before, he completely stopped moving after that question. I didn't even think he was breathing. Those light violet eyes seemed to stare deep into my soul, as if he was trying to pull out the answer I wanted to hear. He wouldn't find anything there. I had been telling the truth when I said I didn't know what I wanted - not with him, or the two werewolves.

"I don't care," he finally said. "As long as I have you in some way."

My eyebrows furrowed.

"I haven't accepted the fact that I've lost to two werewolves," he continued. "But that's because I haven't. You still continue to submit to me, even though you've submitted to them as well, and will probably continue to do so. I won't rush you, Nova. All I have is time. I can wait."

He stepped towards me then, pushing my thighs open so that he could step between them. He leaned forward, forcing me to fall back again.

When he was hovering over me, his hair cascading around us, he opened his mouth to show his fangs. "I can wait for you, and your decision on what you want us to be."

I let out a slow breath, staring into his earnest eyes.

"Just know that everything that I do," he leaned down and hovered his lips over my neck, "I do it to either protect you, or to give you pleasure."

My hands came up and rested on his bare chest. If he had a heartbeat, I wondered if it would beat fast against my fingertips as he grazed his lips across my skin.

His fangs pierced my skin without warning and I jerked against him. My legs came up and I trapped his hips against mine with my thighs, even as I dug my nails into his chest.

He hummed against my skin, rolling his hips against me in a way that made me shudder.

He raised his head and looked into my eyes. "You have no idea what you just started."