Hunger Embraced (The Hunger Series) by Jennifer James

my elbow propelled me forward. “Do not worry about it. I took care of it.”
    Oh, I’d worry all right. He’d been attacked by an unknown number of assailants and all the damage I could see was a smudge on his pant leg. Who was this guy?
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    I controlled the shaking until we reached the sidewalk. It started in my hands and spread up my arms to encompass my teeth. My incisors clacked uncontrollably until I clenched my molars together. Daniel took in my expression with a quick sweep of his dazzling blue eyes and held an arm out. A cab squealed to a stop, and he scooped my feet off the ground in a fluid movement. He cradled me to his chest and slid into the back of the car, giving the driver an address I had never heard before. I tried to shake my head no. I wanted to go home where I could throw up in private.
    He pressed his lips to my head, muttering nonsense into my hair. It sounded like gibberish in a foreign language. The words soothed and calmed me enough that the shudders became more intermittent instead of a continuous pulse through my body.
    Thoughts chased through my head on an infinite loop. My king, not my king, couldn’t be my king. I had no king, belonged to no one.
    I raised my butt off Daniel’s thigh and tried to resettle in a more comfortable position, but no matter how I sat, my swollen, sore labia suffered. Somehow he knew what the problem was and eased one forearm under my ass, the other under my thighs behind my knees. He spread his legs and then let my weight settle into the cradle of his body. It didn’t fix everything, but it sure helped a lot.
    “Don’t be such a crybaby. You liked it.”
    I turned my face into Daniel’s chest—away from the voice in my head—and burrowed in as close as I could get. A part of me had reveled in allowing Adrian to dominate my body and bend my will. But it was wrong.
    “Why is it wrong? You going all vanilla now? You? The biggest slut in Cleveland?”
    I shoved my fingers in my ears and squeezed my eyes shut.
    “You’d ride Daniel right now if he wanted it. Whore.”
    “Shhh…” Daniel rubbed his cheek on the crown of my head and hummed under his breath. I concentrated on it for a few minutes, and the voice quieted before coming back.
    “Quit denying what you are. Adrian was right; you’re starving. You stupid, pathetic bitch.”
    I clapped my hands hard over my ears, but he caught me by the wrists and held both of my hands in my lap. The humming began again, louder this time, and I was able to fall into the sweet notes of the melody until the voice stopped.
     
    * * *
     
     
    The cab dropped us off outside a converted warehouse apartment building. The units were closer to the size of a condo, and he carried me straight to the elevator. I kept my face averted and firmly entrenched in the hollow of his neck, too ashamed to look at anyone and still shivering.
    The elevator dinged six times before stopping. His keys jiggled against a lock, and then he stepped across a threshold, kicking the door shut. He set me down on a cream-colored sofa and laid a soft knitted afghan over me. I stayed curled up in the fetal position, staring blankly at a built-in shelf on the far wall loaded with hundreds of books and CDs. A large stereo system dominated the center, surrounded by an impressive record collection interspersed with other paraphernalia.
    I closed my eyes as my teeth began to clatter again and failed to keep my jaw closed. My facial muscles were too fatigued to be effective. The sound of water running somewhere down the hall reached me. Daniel returned to pick me up from the couch. He held me against his warm, muscular chest and carried me down a hallway of polished, honey-colored hardwood. We entered a bathroom permeated with the smell of flowers and mint. He perched on the edge of a large bathtub, holding me securely in his lap. The surround looked like marble or some other kind of natural stone. The tub was big enough to be outside