Sensual Sunday – Hot Snippet from Blood and Snow, a vampire romance novel

Sensual Sunday is brought to you today by Blood and Snow, which is a stand alone vampire romance novel crammed with action, passion and emotion. Sensual Sunday’s always feature a hot excerpt from one of my paranormal romance books. Read on for this Sunday’s sensual snippet… it’s a long one today. I hope you enjoy it!

Moving over to Scarlet, Corazon got down on his knees and carefully removed her hand from her stomach. There was blood coating her palm and he could smell it was hers. He would never forget that sweet enticing scent. He resisted the temptation to lick his lips and frowned instead as he parted the cut in her top to reveal the wound. It wasn’t deep, but it was long and bleeding enough to worry him.

She sucked in a sharp pained breath when he ran his fingers lightly along both sides of the cut.

His hand drifted to her shoulder and he motioned for her to turn and lean forwards so he could get a better look at the wound there.

Corazon removed her cape, careful not to hurt her, and placed it close to the fire so it would dry out. The snow had soaked into her clothes and they were freezing to the touch. He wondered just what she would do if he ordered her out of them. He didn’t think that she would obey that one, not even if he threatened to discharge her if she didn’t do it.

His frown grew heavy when he saw the wound on her back. It was over her right shoulder blade and needed attending to the same as her stomach. She couldn’t seal it herself, so he would have to do it for her.

He didn’t have a problem with that.

He only had a problem with whether he would manage to keep control and restrain himself.

“These need to be sealed,” he said and her eyes darted away from his to fix on a spot on the floor.

He could see how awkward those five words and the prospect of him touching her had made her. Didn’t she want him to touch her? He had sensed the pleasure she’d felt when he’d bitten her wrist. She had to want this too.

“Come,” Corazon said and offered his hand.

Amazingly, she slipped hers into it and stood with his help. He kept hold of her hand, feeling it shaking in his. Was she simply cold, or was she shaking because of him?

And if it was because of him, was it from fear or excitement?

He hadn’t missed the fear in her eyes when they had been in the forest. It twisted in his gut like a knife, writhing there like a deadly viper that whispered words to his heart that he couldn’t ignore. They pained him, hurt him more than she could ever fathom, and he had to do all in his power to reassure her and show her that he would never hurt her—not ever, not even when he lost control.

If healing her wounds and sharing a moment more intimate than any they’d had so far would help her see that, then he was willing to let go and ignore his better judgement.

“Corporal Scarlet?” he said in a hushed voice.

Scarlet looked at him with a different kind of fear in her eyes and he realised something. She was more innocent than she appeared. The pressure the knowledge of her lack of experience with men put on him was tremendous but it released the base urge he had always had with her—he wanted to protect her.

He held back, not letting himself hold her as he wanted to, or speak soft words of tender reassurance.

He would be gentle so her first touch from a man wasn’t an experience to ruin all future ones, but he couldn’t break his restraint and allow himself to be intimate with her in the way she might want. His place in her life was as her superior, no matter how much his heart cried out to be her lover.

Taking hold of her hands, he thought about bringing them up and placing them on her top to encourage her to undress but instead dropped them again. He raised his own hands as she stood mute before him, her own dangling limp at her sides as she stared at him.

He slowly unbuttoned her black tunic and opened it with caution. His stomach flipped and his chest burned with fierce passion when he saw the curve of her breasts. She wasn’t wearing a shirt. He glanced at her to see she had her eyes closed now. Her breath trembled and quickened.

Swallowing hard, he reined in his feelings of desire, and focused on his task. She was a soldier. He was her captain. It was his duty to ensure that she healed and survived to fight another day. That was what this was. That was all this could be.

He removed his cape and felt it. It was dry. He placed it around her shoulders and brought her hands up to it. She held it as he opened her top but he noticed that she made no effort to cover her breasts at first. He ached at the sight of them and fought to contain the stirring in his trousers. They were beautiful soft mounds, perfectly pale and round. Her nipples were dusky and taut, standing out like small pebbles. He glanced at her face to see she still had her eyes closed and then licked his lips. He would die to feel the satiny skin of her breasts beneath his fingers.

Snapping himself out of it, he lowered her top down her arms and cursed the fact he had to lean towards her to remove it. He stared at her breasts, his own breath coming quicker now as he struggled to tear his eyes away from them and maintain control.

He turned away and put her jacket with her cape, hoping it would be drier by the time he had finished healing her. The thought of her sitting with him half naked was too much to bear and he knew that he would lose the fight against his feelings if it happened. He had to get her back into as much of her clothing as he could, for the sake of his sanity.

Turning back to her, he saw that she had made a little effort to cover herself now. He wondered why she had waited so long. Had she wanted him to see? He burned at the idea of that and the visions it inspired in his head—images of touching her, tasting her, and showing her how gentle he could be for only her.

He clenched his fists and went back to her. She looked up at him through her eyelashes, a glance that hit him hard in the chest and made him ache. There was such innocence in her look, but such blatant want and seduction too.

Pulling the cape across her breasts, he shut them away. He would never be able to focus if he allowed her to stand there with the delicious curve of her bosoms showing.

“This may hurt,” he said and she nodded, drawing in a sharp breath as he kneeled before her.

He stared at her stomach, studying the flat plane of it and the hollow of her navel. She would be wondering what he was waiting for. Focusing on the wound that dashed across her abdomen, he leaned towards her and slid into his vampire guise.

She gasped at the first touch of his tongue against her flesh and desire shot straight to his groin. It overruled his sense, shutting it away and claiming a victory over him as it began to control his actions. He closed his eyes and breathed her in as he ran his tongue along the length of the wound. He kept his hands locked at his sides, not willing to surrender completely to his desire to caress her, hold her. This was enough. It didn’t have to go any further.

He lapped at the wound, the sweet taste of her bringing back how good it had felt to bite her. His teeth itched with the idea of doing it again, of standing right now and biting her neck and taking her for his own. He frowned and clenched his jaw, stopping healing her. It would be a foolish move to bite her. It would confirm his feelings for her and show them to her, and it would turn her against him. She would never forgive him if he took advantage of her. She had always looked to him for guidance and he had always set the example. He couldn’t fail her now.

Opening his eyes, he looked at the subtle curves of her body as his tongue caressed her with soft gentle sweeps. She tensed beneath him, causing more blood to spill, and he cleaned it away, swallowing it down and savouring it. The fire crackled and snapped, filling the silence as clearly as her staccato breathing had been. He loved the sound of it, the reaction she had to him. He grazed her with his lips as he licked, almost a kiss but not close enough that she would realise what he was doing.

He was almost thankful that she had been hurt.

To have her like this, trembling because of his touch, aroused and hungry for him, was something out of his fantasies.

Realising that she would grow suspicious if he continued much longer, he stopped and immediately stood.

He was doubly thankful that his tunic was long enough to cover his crotch. The aching erection pressing hard against his trousers would be more of a giveaway of his feelings than anything else he might have done.

“Turn,” he said, not trusting himself to move without making a fool of himself.

Scarlet did and he stepped up behind her. He ghosted his hands down her arms, swallowed the dry lump in his throat, and stared at the back of her neck. His teeth itched again, begged him to sink them into her flesh and drink his fill of her nectar.

Raising his hands, he was stunned to see that they were shaking. It grounded him when he saw that she was trembling too. He couldn’t bring himself to take advantage of her. She would never be his if he did that.

He swept her long black hair from her neck and placed it over her other shoulder. Taking hold of the cape wrapped around her, he lowered it. She let it slip down her arm and he could see the curve of her breast again as the material barely clung to it.

She had to know what she was doing, what a temptation she was right now.

Corazon pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled slowly to claw back a little control. When he felt more stable, he lowered his mouth to her back and licked the wound there. It tasted stale. He frowned and closed his lips around the cut. She made a strangled squeaking noise when he sucked on it, drawing fresh blood to the surface. The strangled squeak became a moan that sent liquid fire into his veins.

He sucked again, wanting to hear that heavenly sound fall from her lips once more.

She moaned and leaned into him a little, enough to jolt him to his senses.

He licked the wound, not allowing himself any more freedom with her, and made sure that he was finished quickly. When he was done, he pulled the cape up and covered her again.

“There. All done,” he said to break the silence.

Scarlet turned slowly to face him, her pupils wide and eyes dark. She was aroused. He could smell it on her, could sense it as it spoke to him, enticing him. He went to move away, but she placed her hand against his chest, freezing him to the spot.

She didn’t utter a word. She simply held his gaze, trapping him in her eyes, as she undid his top. His breathing quickened as she opened it, revealing his chest, and her eyes raked appreciatively over his body. He tried to move again, but she grabbed the two sides of his top and held him fast.

He breathed deep, dragging air into his lungs as he waged an internal war over her actions. A part of him said to stop her. The greater part said to surrender. He would never win this fight, not if she did what he thought she was going to.

She pulled his top back to reveal the bloodstained wound on his shoulder.

Her eyes closed.

Her lips lowered.

Her hair tickled his chest like ribbons of silk.

Her breath trembled against his flesh.

His teeth sunk into his lip.

She traced her tongue over the wound in mesmerising patterns that held him with their spell. He couldn’t move, not even to hold her mouth against him. He could only stand and surrender as his heart rejoiced over this small victory.

Her fingers slid into his top, holding his sides, and he looked down when he felt them against him. The cape began to slip. He caught it and placed it back around her shoulders, burning at the thought of her bare breasts touching his chest but not willing to allow it to happen. It would be one push too far and he would never be able to resist her.

His jaw tensed and he frowned when she licked the wound with tiny flicks of her tongue. He focused on that spot of his body, intent on memorising exactly how it felt to have her this close and feel her touching him.

He steeled himself when her left hand cleared his top away and held his upper arm. She was still trembling. Or was that him?

How did she do this to him, bring him to his knees so easily, with barely more than a look and a touch?

Did you enjoy today’s hot little snippet?

Caris Roane is also posting a Sensual Sunday snippet from one of her paranormal romance books, so be sure to check out her blog and read it!

Blood and Snow
Felicity Heaton
A lance corporal in her territory’s vampire army, Scarlet is no stranger to the violence and bloodshed of war, but in the midst of it, she discovers something that makes it all worthwhile–love.

Her kind are at war with the humans, a long running feud that has claimed countless lives, and Scarlet is all too aware that vampires are no longer guaranteed a long life after they’re turned. Time seems to be of the essence, but she can’t bring herself to admit her feelings to the man who had claimed them so wholly–her captain, Corazon.

Corazon has lived through two centuries of war. Tired, disenchanted, and with only his sense of duty to sustain him, he is garnering a reputation for having a heart of ice. But there is one woman at his garrison that can melt the frost within him–Scarlet. Torn between duty as her commanding officer, and his growing love for her, he fights his own personal battle while all around him fight the war.

When things take a turn for the worse, can their love for each other sustain them, and can they find a way to end the war and live in peace together at last?

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