Chapter 37 #5
We ate quietly, both of us no doubt considering all of the implications of the arrangement we found ourselves in.
My eyes roamed to the collar still fixed around Bastian’s throat.
Evard had given me leave to hunt Cayde and we could push the time that took to a point but we couldn’t remain absent from Stormfell indefinitely without rousing suspicion.
Not to mention what would happen if Bastian broke the deal he’d made with Dragor and was punished by the stars for it.
This freedom would be fleeting at best if I couldn’t come up with an answer to that problem. Lazarus may have been willing to give us a fresh start in Effelridge but we weren’t free to simply take him up on that offer.
“You’re forever frowning, Vesper,” Bastian teased.
“There is always something to frown about,” I countered, pushing my empty plate aside.
“We should do something about that.” He offered me the tarot deck he’d been shuffling and I indulged him by drawing a card.
The Tower, of course.
Bastian smiled and got to his feet, unclasping the fur lined cape he was wearing and tossing it aside before tugging his shirt over his head with one hand and dropping it to the floor next.
“Too easy,” he remarked, reclaiming the tarot deck from the table and shuffling it again.
“Easy?” I questioned, my eyes moving over his powerful body, the lines of his tattoos almost seeming to dance in the light from the flickering fire.
Bastian turned so that his back was to me and pointed to the tattoo which depicted the card I’d drawn.
“Next,” he commanded, holding the deck out for me again and my lips pulled up as I selected another.
The Strength card presented itself to me and I looked up from the depiction of a woman stroking a lion to find Bastian’s eyes darkening.
“Control and surrender,” he said.
“What?”
“This is my deck, love. And I’m doing the reading. There is strength in allowing yourself to submit control to another. So are you going to play along for me? I promise the reward you claim will be worth it.”
I swallowed, my own nature demanding control at all times, but his words sent heat prickling over my flesh, my gaze roaming down his bare chest as I considered what fully surrendering myself to him might entail.
“We’re in the home of our enemies,” I said.
“I’m asking for your answer, not your excuses, love. So are we playing or not?”
I bit down on my bottom lip, glancing at the door before dragging my eyes over him once more and nodding.
“I surrender,” I said, a teasing note to my voice.
“Good girl. Now take yourself to the bed and strip for me.”
“Never in my fucking life has anyone called me a good girl,” I growled, pushing to my feet, my fingers releasing the clasp of my own cloak before I let it drop to the chair I’d been sitting in.
“That’s because you don’t know how to be good, Vesper. But don’t worry – I’m a damn good teacher.”
A thousand words sprang to my lips in defiance of his commands but when my eyes fell on the Strength card once more I shut them down, wanting to play this game with him, wondering if I could follow the rules.
I turned and strode towards the bed, dropping items of clothing as I went, tossing them aside piece by piece until I was entirely naked.
I slowly turned back to face Bastian and lowered myself to sit on the edge of the bed.
Bastian took the two cards I’d already drawn and tossed them onto the heaped blankets behind me before leaning down to place one hand on the mattress beside me, placing his face in line with mine as he offered me the deck once more.
I drew without breaking eye contact and held it up between us for him to see.
“The Seven of Swords,” he said. “That’s hidden desires, love. Am I making you feel like you need to hide what you want from me? Because you’re not doing the best job of it if I’m being honest.”
Bastian tossed the deck down beside us then placed his hand on my knee and slowly tugged it aside, parting my thighs for him while keeping his gaze pinned on mine. I watched the way his pupils dilated as his fingers trailed up the inside of my thigh, my breath hitching as he closed in on my core.
My nipples hardened at his touch, my hands knotting in the blankets either side of me as I held myself still.
“Wider,” Bastian growled as his knuckles brushed the inside of my other thigh and I obediently parted my legs further for him, the reward of his fingers stroking across my slick entrance coming a heartbeat later.
He growled lustfully as he ran his fingers over my clit, wetting them in my arousal for several seconds before withdrawing his hand and licking his fingers clean.
I bit down on a curse as he held the deck out for me again, then snatched a card from the top of it.
“The Empress,” Bastian said with a wicked grin. “That’s loving yourself, isn’t it? So go on then, spectre, show me how much you love yourself.”
My chest was heaving with expectation, my body aching with need already and despite my desperate want for him to be the one to destroy me, I gave in to his command and moved my own hand between my thighs in place of his.
Bastian stepped back, his gaze burning into me as he watched the way I stroked my clit, my other hand toying with my breast as a heady moan escaped my lips.
I continued to rub and tease myself, my fingers bringing a rush of pleasure closer and closer and–
Bastian caught my wrist and tugged my hand aside. “Draw,” he growled, his muscles rigid with tension, the cards fisted in his hand between us.
“You’re not playing fair,” I panted, tugging a card from the deck anyway, but in my haste, two came free at once, the pair of them falling to the bed beside me.
We both looked down at The Lovers and The Devil.
Bastian grinned like a heathen.
“Good girl,” he taunted again, but before I could protest his ridiculous assessment of me, his mouth was on mine and he was hauling me into his arms.
Bastian’s teeth dug into my bottom lip as he bit me hard enough to draw blood before breaking away and flipping me over on the bed beneath him.
I landed on my forearms and he caught my hips, heaving me up onto my knees before widening my thighs and pressing his mouth to my cunt from behind.
I cried out as he devoured me, his mouth moving lower to worship my clit, his fingers finding their way inside me.
He gripped my hip, hauling me backwards, driving his tongue inside me, lapping and sucking, forcing me further and further towards the edge.
I pushed back against him, my gasps of pleasure punctuated by curses of his name as he feasted greedily. My head spun, my arms trembling where they held me up and the persistent pressure of his tongue across my clit.
“Yes,” I gasped, driving back against him, trying to hold off on what I knew was inevitable.
He lapped at me again, feasting like he was starved for me and my fingers knotted in the sheets before one final rake of his tongue sent me crashing into an orgasm which stole all thoughts and sense of reality from my mind.
I collapsed onto the bed beneath him, and he slapped my ass before flipping me over and looking down at me with heady lust burning bright in his expression.
He was like a god lording over his land as he took in the way he’d destroyed me, but as I tried to reach for his belt, he only shook his head and knocked my hands away from the huge bulge in his trousers.
“Not yet, spectre,” he panted, swiping a hand down his face before turning and striding away.
“Where are you going?”
“To dunk my head in a pail of cold water,” he replied, striding towards the small bathroom and leaving me aching for more on the bed. “Most likely followed by my cock.”
I growled audibly, shifting further up the bed and moving beneath the blankets. There was a Tarot card stuck to my ass, and I tugged it free while cursing him for his stubbornness.
The Tower.
Ruination at its finest.
I huffed in frustration, unable to even be fully pissed off at him because my body was still floating on a cloud of ecstasy in his wake. But I wanted to leave him feeling the same. I wanted my name to tumble from his lips in a moment of blissful release.
By the time Bastian climbed into bed and wound his arms around me, I was already on the verges of sleep. Cold droplets of water spilled onto my bare shoulder as he pressed a kiss to my neck beneath my ear and I smiled as he wound his arms around me and hauled me back against his chest.
“Goodnight, Bastian,” I murmured into the crook of his arm.
“Goodnight, love,” he breathed in reply.
As I drifted off, wrapped in the embrace of his powerful arms, for the first time since I’d lost the only people I loved in this world, I didn’t feel the pain in my heart at all.