Chapter 39 #2
He slams his mouth against mine, cutting off my words, and the entire world explodes around me.
His tongue plunges into my mouth, finding mine in a desperate dance that only we know.
Gods, it feels so good. I’ve tried to resist it.
To pretend that I don’t want this, but this is exactly what I want.
What I need. In this single moment, I don’t think about Julian or the impures, not even the fact that my sister is locked up in a cell, and gods, if that doesn’t make me the most selfish person I know.
But this moment feels too right. Too good.
I try to resist, but it feels like exactly where I belong. It feels like home.
He pulls back, and a gasp falls from my mouth.
“Should I stop?” he whispers, his lips a breath away from mine. His eyes are wild as he looks down at me. I should tell him to stop. I should push him away and race down to that cell to drag Willow out, but he’s consuming my mind. The only thing I can think about is him.
“No.” I breathe before fisting his shirt and pulling him forward until his lips are pressed against mine again.
A muffled groan falls from his mouth as my fingers thread through the dark strands of his hair, sending shockwaves of pleasure directly to my core.
Strong hands grip my waist, lifting me from the ground.
My legs wrap around him as he knocks every item from his desk before laying me down across it.
I let out an audible gasp as dark shadows spill from him like water, twisting and weaving until they form into several pairs of hands that work at ripping the leggings from my body.
My tunic goes next, leaving me in nothing but my underwear.
The dark tendrils dance across my skin, making my nipples peak against the fabric of my makeshift bra.
My back arches as the warmth of their touch sends desire spiraling through me.
He stares down at me, his dark eyes molten as he traces the contours of my body with his eyes.
I lay on the desk, almost completely bare before him, my core pulsing.
I want to beg him to touch me, to soothe the incessant pounding between my legs before I go insane, but the way he looks at me with that uncontrollable hunger in his eyes keeps me quiet.
A cold rush of air sweeps across my core as the shadows return to their host, and even beneath the fabric of my underwear, the friction is delicious. He steps forward, moving toward me but never taking his eyes off mine.
“Beautiful,” he whispers.
He sinks to his knees, and the sight alone has me slick with want.
My breath hitches when his hand lands on my thigh, the warm sensation of it sweeping just below where my body is screaming for release.
My legs part on instinct, hungry for the pleasure that his touch promises.
The rough pads of his fingers glide up my thigh, eliciting a quiet moan from me, but they skim right past where I need them most. His large hand snakes up my stomach, applying just enough pressure to hold me in place.
He has complete control, and for some reason, just the thought of it turns me on.
He curses under his breath as though he can hear my thoughts, then lifts my leg and plants the softest kiss against my ankle, making my head fall back in bliss.
“Gods, Adina, do you have any idea the power you have over me? I would destroy realms to have you. To kneel before you and worship you with my tongue.”
I draw in a ragged breath as I peer down at him through my lust-induced haze—the Crown Prince of the Court of Shadows on his knees for me.
I’ve never wanted anything as much as this in my life, so I open that little passage in my mind, sending the feeling directly to him.
I want him to know exactly how I feel right now. How much I want him. Need him.
He growls in response, his lips sending vibrations up my thigh as he presses them against another spot, his mouth moving higher and higher.
Gods, I’m going to lose my mind. Another kiss grazes the sensitive skin just below my center, and I forget my own name.
My eyes squeeze shut as the sensation assaults every inch of my body.
Nothing has ever felt this good. Every touch, every kiss feels like it was invented only to please me.
“Open your eyes.” His voice is commanding and laced with desire.
I obey.
“You have no idea what you’ve done to me,” he whispers against my skin, and I fight to keep my eyes open. “From that day in the bloodhouse, you have consumed my every thought. There’s barely room for anything else.”
My heart thumps against my ribcage. I know I should still be angry with him, but I cannot ignore the raging need that swirls within me. I lift onto my elbows as my eyes fall to him. His fangs extend as his dark eyes trace a path up my stomach and past my breasts until they meet mine again.
His tongue sweeps against the skin of my inner thigh, and a moan falls from my lips.
“I’ve never bitten anyone here. They say it’s the most intimate place a vampire can bite someone,” he whispers. “I want to bite you here.”
His warm breath tickles my skin.
“Do you want me to?” he asks. My mind trails back to all the times he’s fed from me before. How good it felt.
I nod.
“I want to hear it from that beautiful mouth of yours, little witch. Tell me what you want from me.”
I suck in a breath at his words. “I want you to bite me.”
A wicked grin curves his lips. Fuck. His mouth. I want it everywhere.
“Gods, those intentions of yours are driving me crazy.” He pulls me forward with ease, lining up my sex with his mouth, sending a violent shudder through me. “Do you know what it’s like to feel your need? How hard it makes me when the scent of your arousal fills the air?”
My breath catches on his words. “You can smell that?” I whisper.
“I can, but only because you’re mine.”
Before I can respond, I feel the sharp sting of his fangs just below the apex of my thighs.
I cry out as the blinding pleasure makes me feel like I’m floating.
Euphoria, like nothing I’ve ever felt, paints every inch of my being.
My fingers grip the edges of the wooden desk as my back curves high into the air.
The warmth of his palm presses against my stomach, keeping me exactly where he wants me, but everything feels too good, and like a wild beast, it wants to be set free.
I squirm beneath his touch, and he chuckles against my flesh as the pull of his mouth against me draws more blood from me.
How can he be taking from me, and it feels so insanely good?
Surely this must be a trick, some kind of illusion.
Just then, his hand slides up my stomach until it’s positioned in the space between my breasts, and gods, I want to scream at him to rip my underwear away so I can feel his flesh against mine.
He sucks harder, drawing more blood, and the tightening in my core becomes unbearable. I can’t take this anymore.
“Oh, gods,” I scream as the feeling builds. It feels too good.
“It’s not the gods you need to cry out for, Adina. It’s me.”
He returns his mouth to me, and a blinding light fills my entire world.
I see nothing. Feel nothing but the dominant sensation of the pleasure of his bite.
It feels as though my body is up in the sky, where no one can reach it.
Every inch he touches is a sensitive mess that is panting and screaming.
His name spills from my mouth like a prayer that I’ve known my entire life.
The feel of his shadows creeps along my skin again, its warm tendrils wrapping around the edge of my underwear before tearing the material from my body. I gasp as the cold air licks against my swollen nipples, creating a delicious sensation that has my heart pounding inside my chest.
Just when I think it can’t get any better, he sweeps his thumb between the exposed folds of my arousal, trailing it up and down in an agonizing rhythm. My breath comes out in a flurry of gasps as my body moves against the sweet friction of his touch. Oh, my gods, I think I’m going to pass out.
“Fuck,” he says before pressing the pad of his thumb against the sweet bud at my center, moving it in a circular motion that makes me shudder. My attempts to hold in my moans are futile as he draws out the kind of pleasure that could bring leaders to their knees.
The tempo of his movements doesn’t falter even as he slides a single finger into the heated mounds of my flesh. I scream out as he curls the digit inside me, matching the delicious rhythm he is making against my throbbing clit.
“Oh, my gods, don’t stop!” The words fall from my mouth in a desperate plea.
My mind doesn’t know whether to focus on the sensation of his bite or the movement of his fingers.
All of it is too much and yet not enough.
I want to consume him until I no longer know where I end and he begins.
I don’t even care that he’s a vampire and I’m human.
I don’t care that we’re supposed to hate each other.
I just know that at this moment I need him.
He’s like oxygen to my lungs, and I’ll never have enough.
My stomach tightens in a vice-like grip as the uncontrollable pleasure reaches heights that have my fingers sinking into the dark mass of his hair, holding him in place.
My breathing quickens as his movements do.
He adds a second finger as he plunges in and out of me, drawing out my pleasure in waves of ecstasy.
He rips his mouth away as his eyes find mine, and something about knowing that the red stain on his lips is from me intensifies my arousal.
He sinks his hand even deeper between my thighs, and the thrill of it rips a scream from my throat.
My entire body shakes beneath his touch as my legs vibrate with pleasure.
He dips his head and flicks his venom-soaked tongue against the incisions he made, closing the skin immediately.
I twitch at the sensation and curse my greedy body for wanting more.
I’ve never felt anything as intense as that.
I can’t even explain it. My breathing is ragged as my chest heaves up and down.
It takes several minutes before I calm, before I regain any form of control.
The room finally stops spinning, and the drumming in my ears drops to a low tapping sound. I look down at him and find a cocky smile on his face.
“What the hell was that?”
“That,” he says as he stands to his feet, “is a fraction of what it feels like when you stop fighting the bond.”
I can’t even move.
“My legs aren’t working,” I say, and a laugh spills from him. Not a cocky one, but a real laugh that rumbles in his chest.
“That sounds unfortunate,” he teases as he stares down at me. He stretches out a hand and helps me up, and the embarrassment that I expect to be there somehow isn’t. “Perha—”
His words are interrupted by his own scream. He stumbles back a few steps, clutching the sides of his head as he slams into the bookcase behind him. Ignoring the vibrating in my legs, I hurry over just as he slides to the ground.
“Karius!”
He dips his head between his knees as a muffled sound leaks from his mouth. His fingers dig into his scalp as he rocks back and forth. Panic clutches my chest.
“What’s the matter?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer.
He cries out, filling the room with sounds of agony that make me consider leaving to get one of the others, but before I can make the decision, it just stops.
My eyes fall on him, and I watch as he slowly moves his hands from his head.
He raises his head, and his eyes widen in a daze.
He holds his hands out before him, turning them over several times as he stares down at them as though he has never seen them before.
“Karius?” I whisper, but he doesn’t even acknowledge me.
He shakes his head, eyes darting from side to side as if trying to make sense of something, but all I see is confusion twisting his striking features.
“Karius.”
For the first time, his eyes flicker up to mine. He looks at me with an emotion that I cannot place.
“Adina?”
I nod. “Yes, it’s me. Are you ok?”
He blinks as if trying to decipher what I’m saying, and then, without warning, he stands. He stumbles, but I catch him, steadying his arm.
“Are you ok?”
He looks at me again and then nods.
“I’m fine, I just feel a little unwell,” he says.
Vampires don’t get unwell. Do they? Or is that another secret they have kept from us?
“Mayb—”
“I said I’m fine,” he snaps. Then his face softens. He steps forward, raising his hand to my cheek as his thumb sweeps across it. “Sorry, I’m just tired, but I’m ok.”
“Are you sure?”
He nods. “Yes, but I need to go.”
“I don—”
But before I can finish my sentence, he has already left the room, leaving me alone to try to understand what the hell just happened.