I stayed on my hands and knees, thinking this was not weird, and not because there were men who got off on this kind of shit.

No, because the slow, sweet, gentle, reverential way Abel was doing it meant it was meaningful, meant it was profound, meant it was important in a way I didn’t get, maybe he didn’t get, but we felt it all the same.

Both of us.

His lips at the small of my back, he murmured, “Thank you, bao bei.”

I had no idea what bao bei meant, I just knew it sounded very sweet.

“You’re welcome,” I whispered back.

Then I was not on my hands and knees but on my back, head to the pillows, Abel on me between my legs, yanking the covers up over us.

He was naked, which surprised me, but I guess with inhuman speed that meant a man could undress in the blink of an eye.

Good to know.

I focused on his face just as he finished with the covers and his hand came to the side of mine, middle finger trailing my hairline, his eyes watching it.

“You okay now?” I asked, then stilled completely, even my heart and breath, when his two-colored eyes looked into mine.

And I didn’t still because I saw in the light blue one dark brown spikes gliding out from the iris, obliterating the blue, making them both a rich, warm chocolate, and that was weird and wonderful.

No, I did it because everything was in his eyes. The answer to the meaning of life. The truth about whether or not love was real (it was, very much so). Inalienable proof that nothing was more important than family. The knowledge that he would die for me. The understanding that he would kill for me (though, I already knew that).

Everything.

Before, I’d thought his eyes were enthralling.

Looking at them right then, I knew I could lose myself in them.

For eternity.

“Yeah, Lilah, I’m okay now,” he whispered.

Oh man.

“Though, I’m gonna take this opportunity to be a lot more okay, doing it repeatedly from now until about two o’clock this afternoon,” he went on.

I stopped being moved by what I saw in his eyes when they lit with humor.

I smiled before muttering “Give a werewolf vampire an inch, he takes a mile.”

He grinned at me, and if he hadn’t showed all his cards two seconds before, making what I gave him worth it (beyond the amazing orgasm he gave me), that would have done it.

His hand slid down to my neck and I sensed it moving there, but I didn’t feel it.

“This okay?” he asked.

Shit, I forgot he fed from me.

But I didn’t forget it was awesome.

“Yeah, do I…I mean, am I bleeding?”