Free The Drazen World: Release (Kindle Worlds Novella) by A. R. Hadley

one
     
     
    JONATHAN
     
    I woke up this morning hungrier than usual. Not for food. Maybe it was the way the light cascaded across her neck in the condo we had rented on the beach. Not her beach, Venice, but a different one. New Smyrna Beach. The East Coast. The sunrise was brutal, coming in through the sliver in the curtain. Who would have thought a one-inch slit could do so much blinding damage at what, barely eight in the morning?
    Damage.
    Brutal.
    Hunger.
    I propped myself up on an elbow and gazed at her, my wife, asleep in the bed. Blonde hair over the pillow. Long, golden eyelashes a perfect invitation to the blue eyes that lie beneath. A curtain of their own. The light. Bright. It was a spotlight, and it illuminated my basest desires. The things hidden. The recently discovered.
    Just a little teeth, Jonathan, I told myself. I groaned. Inwardly of course. I couldn't wake her. Not yet. I needed to keep still in this moment of quiet. The moment when I realized how desperately I wanted to open my mouth and sink my teeth into her neck.
    Hard.
    Fuck. I wasn't a vampire. What was I then? Who was I? My fantasies were starting to become something else. Something more. A yearning. A reality I needed to quench. They weren't even fantasies as much as they were my subconscious beginning to roar.
    I wanted to bite her neck in the little crease where it met her collarbone.
    I needed to see what a mark would look like on her creamy, delicate, perfect skin.
    A bruise.
    The colors it would turn.
    The way she might scream or gasp or squirm.
    I shook my head. Stop! Enough! Must be the jet lag. The late night. This other beach. The one I had never heard of, but ended up at, ideal for escaping, Sheri had said. I couldn't escape the thoughts. I had been awake since at least four a.m., thinking. Sleeping never my strong suit.
    I had been having these thoughts more often. Multiple times a day. Ways I wanted to have Jessica. Ass up in the air. Legs spread so far it would hurt to walk the next day. Arms behind her back, tied at the elbows. Things I wanted to say to her. Don't talk. Did I say you could move? You're mine, Jess. I own you. Things I needed her to do for me. Touch herself whenever and wherever I asked. I didn't know what it all meant. I didn't know how she would react. She loved me. Sure. She was my wife. Did that mean she could give me room to overpower her? Dominate her? Fuck her so hard her pretty little blue eyes would roll into the back of her head, her lips would part, and the only sound she would make would be the begging I would insist upon so she could come? So beautiful, baby, I would say. Your ass up. Your cunt on display. I laughed a little. We would have to work on the language first, wouldn't we? God. Could we? Could I ask anything else of Jessica? She had already given me so much. I had no right to ask for more. She was the ultimate partner. I had my arms wrapped around her until she began to stir in the bed.
    "Shh," I whispered, trying to comfort the grimace on her face. The sliver of sunlight hit her eyes, face and hair, coloring the strands white.
    A ghost.
    "You're dreaming, baby."
    "Jon," she mumbled.
    She kept her eyes closed and reached a hand out to my waist. She inched closer, clad in only a silk camisole and panties. I laid my head on the pillow, rotated, scrunching my ass against her front. We spooned. A few moments later, I guided her hand down and over my throbbing erection.

two
     
    JESSICA
     
    I sat at the table in the dining room in a large chair, wearing my pretty little white dress. My feet couldn't quite reach the floor. I wore my best, shiny, white Mary Jane's. Each utensil was in its rightful place. Each cup. Each plate. I hoped. My gloved hands were in my lap. When I saw her enter the room out of the corner of my eye, I flinched. Did she see me twitch? I picked up my glass of grape juice and the next thing I knew I was crying. She was holding me by the collar of my beautiful gown. It was