24. Ezra
TWENTY-FOUR
ezra
In all fairness, I hadn’t come here expecting this to happen. She’d just looked so fucking pretty in that silky nightgown, and all I could think about was getting my mouth on her. When the smell of her arousal hit me, it was all I could do not to pounce on her right then and there.
“We’re going to have to be quiet if you don’t want us to get caught,” I said, brushing my lips against her ear. “Can you do that for me, hm?”
Her whole body shuddered. “Shut up and fuck me, vampire,” Rina moaned.
I was so hard from going down on her, and I needed to be inside her now. Without warning, I picked her up, my cock pressed between us as I carried her over to the chaise lounge in the library’s corner. She rubbed against it, groaning as I nipped at her neck.
“You know what I want to hear,” I said, grinding her against me.
“Goddess. Please,” she begged, letting out a small whimper.
I smirked, running my fingers up her thighs. “Please, what, Sabrina?”
“You can have me,” she murmured, closing her eyes. “Now, please, make me come.”
“Never thought I’d hear the day when you were begging for me,” I said against her neck, scraping my teeth against her skin.
She let out a strangled moan, squirming beneath me.
I stepped back to unbutton my pants, pulling my cock free as my eyes lingered over her body.
Rina’s hair was spread out around her on the lounger.
She still had her panties on, legs spread wide for me, but something about this was even hotter when she moved them to the side—just like I had earlier—baring her sweet pussy to me.
Rina bit her lip as I fisted my shaft.
“You want this, hm?”
She nodded, and I climbed over her, using my claws to tear the lace from her body. Her hand wrapped around my shaft, and I rubbed my face against her neck.
“Put me inside you,” I instructed, breath hot against her cheek, holding onto her legs to keep them open wide for me.
Watching as Rina guided my tip to her entrance, I groaned as she rubbed the head back and forth through her wet cunt. “Fuck, I need to be inside you.”
She nodded. “Yes. Fuck me. Give it to me rough.”
“Hold on to me.”
She obeyed—no words of protest, for once—wrapping her hands around the back of my neck. Her eyes widened and mouth formed a little oh as I slammed inside her all in one go.
Fucking perfect. It was good she wanted it rough, because hard and fast was the only speed I could operate at right now.
Because I needed to feel her, to know she was here with me.
That for right now, she was mine.
Especially if this was all we could ever have.
Her pussy squeezed around me, and I groaned, dropping my face into her neck and breathing in her rose and berry scent. I gripped her thighs tighter, my transformed claws digging into her skin almost hard enough to draw blood, as I thrust my hips again and again and again.
I was careful not to bite her again—not to drink too much blood.
The little I’d drank had sated me, and I knew the consequences of drinking too much.
Her mark had changed so much over the last week.
Darker, and growing every time. I wished I had her mark on me, some way for people to know I was as much hers as she was mine.
My teeth scraped over her nipples as I continued to fuck her, the small couch making creaking noises from the effort. We were defiling the library, and I loved every filthy minute of it.
“Ezra,” she moaned, and I knew she was holding back as much as she could. “Ezra, I’m—”
“Yes, my mate.” I praised her, murmuring sweet words of nothing into her ear. “You needed this so badly, didn’t you? Needed me to fuck you, to make you come. Needed me to make you feel good.”
Rina whimpered as her body convulsed, spasming around me as she came, and I couldn’t hold back. With a grunt, I came after her, my fingers digging so tight into her skin I would probably leave marks.
Good. Every primal part of me loved the idea of marking her. Maybe I couldn’t give her my bite and have her forever—but I knew I couldn’t let her go, either.
Not after this.
After my orgasm had abated, spilling everything I had inside of her, I wrapped her up in my arms, turning us so I wouldn’t crush her body with mine. I let her body drape over mine as we lay on the chaise, still breathing roughly, my cock still half-hard and buried inside her.
She wiggled her hips, no doubt feeling me still inside of her, along with how slick she was from our combined releases.
I couldn’t help but play with her hair. I wished we could have this forever. Wished I never had to imagine a world where I had to give her up and set her free. But I knew it was what she wanted.
Even if she’d begged me for this, I knew she didn’t really want me—just what I could give her with my body.
“Ezra.” Her voice was soft as she rubbed her finger over my forehead. “What are you thinking about so hard?”
A question I’d asked her before. An answer I couldn’t give her while I was still buried deep inside her body. Adjusting our positions, I pulled out, leaving her sitting on the velvet as I stood, tucking my cock away, not caring that it was covered in both of us.
I looked away. “I know you’re disgusted by me. By what I am.”
Rina frowned. “What?”
I scoffed. “Don’t act like you don’t understand me. It’s impossible for you to hide the way your body reacts when you’re around me. I know what I am.” I looked away. “And you hate it.”
She’d said it before. She hated me. Her mate. Bound together for all of eternity, and yet she could hardly stand the sight of me.
“You think I’m disgusted by you? After that? After what we just did?”
I could see the way her eyes grew, like something inside her had just broken. Good. I needed that. Needed her to hate me so it was easier to imagine sending her away.
“You don’t need to explain,” I said, voice harsh. “Once I find a way to break this godsforsaken bond, you can be free of me for the rest of your life.”
But not the rest of mine. Because breaking the bond—destroying whatever the gods had given me—that would come with a cost. One I would bear, because I knew she never asked for this.
But I’d never let her pay that cost. Not in a million years, a million lifetimes. It was only mine to bear.
I shut my eyes, trying to imagine my life without her in it. Now that I had her, it felt like I was ripping out a part of me, knowing the smell of roses would no longer linger every place she went.
“Ezra.” Her voice was soft, her touch light on my shoulder as she came to stand behind me. I could hear every breath, every small shift of her body.
Every step towards me, even though I was pushing her away. Somehow, I knew she knew it, too. Knew that I was trying to push her away, and even with every stubborn bone in her body—with every once of fire that fought me at every turn, she didn’t run.
“Ezra, I’m not disgusted by you. I never was.”
I shook my head, unable to look at her. “Yes, you were.”
“At first, I’ll admit, it threw me off. How…
turned on I got when you drank from me. I didn’t understand what was happening.
But you don’t disgust me.” She let out a little giggle, a sound that was like music to my fucking ears.
I could feel her forehead press against my back.
“Ezra. I don’t hate you. Will you look at me, please? ”
I frowned, turning to look at her. Before I could say anything, she ran her hand up my bare chest, letting it rest on my pecs. “You’re the most handsome man I’ve ever met.”
“I am?”
Her hand kept trailing up, over my jaw, till she raked her fingernails through my hair. “Yes. If anything, I hated how much I wanted you. How attracted I was to you. How responsive my body is around you. I’ve never felt like that before. Ever.”
I caught her hand, pressing mine on top of it.
Her eyes fluttered shut. “When we first met, your aura… it was this dark, foreboding presence. Dark red and black and angry. But it’s different now.” Her hazel eyes captured mine, little flecks of gold holding me in. Enraptured, that was what I was with her.
“It is?”
She nodded. “It’s warmer. Freer. Less… mad at the world.”
I huffed out a breath. “I wasn’t mad at the world.” Not… exactly. Part of me hated how well she read me. How I was like an open book to this woman, this wonderful, perceptive, magical woman.
“No?” She quirked an eyebrow.
Instead of responding, I played with her hair. Sometime in between the ladder and our romp on the couch, it had come free of the loose braid, and I loved how beautiful it was like this. “How do you manage to do that?” I murmured.
“Do what?”
Calm me. Center me. Remind me exactly what was at stake here. Exactly what I wanted, and couldn’t fucking have.
“I expected you to yell at me. Scream at me. Instead, you’re reading me like a book. I’ve read every single book in this library, Sabrina. And every single one of them pales compared to the wonder that is you.” She sucked in a breath.
It was a confession, one I hadn’t been ready to share yet. A thought I hadn’t meant to let slip free.
“I am mystified by the fact that you exist,” I admitted.
She gave me a sad smile, her hand resting on my shoulder. “So, don’t you see now?”
The truth that she was too good for me? I absolutely did.
The raw honesty on her face broke me.
I couldn’t have her, and I knew it.
Bringing her into my world would be an eternal damnation, a hell of its own making. How could I subject her to that, even if she wanted me? I would never be free. I would never escape. One day, I’d be forced to stand in front of all the vampires, and what then?
Part of me could picture it: this beautiful witch standing at my side.
My lady.
My consort.
My mate.
And yet—it was so far out of reach.
An impossibly sweet dream, but still poison. Beautiful and deadly.
Of all the people I expected to ambush me in my office later the next evening, Alfred was the one I’d seen coming the least.