Chapter 17 #2
A faint smile touched my lips. “Oh? Prove it.”
Our roaming hands moved to uncover more of our bodies to the heated air between us. He helped unlace my boots, which I toed off. Next went my leather pants. I shed my undershirt, now bare save for my underwear and the bandages he’d applied.
He flung my breast band aside as I scrambled to pull the rest of his clothes off, eager to have him bare. I lay back on the bed. He braced over me on one arm, the glorious expanse of his bronzed body flushed with desire.
I explored the contours of his chest again more boldly, committing every bit that’d been altered to memory.
His body tensed, generous cock pulsing as my touch found it at last. Smiling, I traced the length of him with a slow, deliberate hand, savoring his weight and shape.
I’d still be able to recognize my betrothed’s body blindfolded.
His tongue darted out, tasting the side of my lip.
His hand grazed my inner thigh, and I parted my legs for him, breath hitching as his fingers circled upward.
I released a quiet sigh as his maddening touch found its perfect rhythm.
A few gentle tugs on my lower lips were accompanied by a kiss of teeth on my neck.
“Zane,” I breathed, if only to confirm the fangs at my pulse still belonged to him.
“In a couple days, I will be your first devotee,” he said, speaking against my skin. “I want the world to know that I’ve claimed you too.”
“You’ll always be first.” He didn’t bite, didn’t do more than stroke my sex with a delicate touch. My heart pounded against my ribs, each beat louder beneath the pressure of his teeth.
I considered what would happen if he left his bite mark on me. Vampires did this with their mates, especially Beloveds marking their devotees. But sometimes, the roles were reversed and she took scars from her devotees instead. Rarely, even monsters could love.
If I allowed it, the vampires wouldn’t see the bite mark under my disguise. There was something uniquely romantic about that, too. “Please. Bite me.”
He sank his fangs in, creating twin starbursts of pain that swiftly muffled to numbness from his venom.
He moaned as he drank from my vein. I went languid, enjoying the pressure at my neck and the lack of pain that filtered into my body with every beat of my heart.
I threaded my fingers through his hair, encouraging him to take more.
In the meantime, he plunged his finger inside me, crooking it to hit a spot that had my knees bending. It’d been too long since I’d known any intimate touch other than my own. He eased deeper, coaxing me open until he slipped in a second finger.
He withdrew his fangs from my throat, replaced by his lips until the tingle of my dhampir healing sealed the twin punctures. “There.” He licked a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. “You taste sweet, Sidney. Like sunshine and…everything else I thought I’d lost.”
I squinted at him. “Sunshine doesn’t have a taste.”
“You’re thinking too hard.” He dipped to kiss the end of my nose. “It tastes like you do, sunshine.” He said it deliberately, like a nickname.
I was about to tell him that didn’t make sense, when he withdrew his fingers from my pussy and settled his weight between my legs instead. I’d missed him so much…the understatement of my life, really. He was the only person I knew who’d say something like You taste like sunshine and really mean it.
He met my gaze as he slid his cock inside me one slow inch at a time. I caught my lip between my teeth at the pleasurable burn of my body adjusting to his. Even as he withdrew, I ached for his return.
I sank my nails into his shoulders as he thrust with enough force to jolt my body. It was the new him, stronger, energized from his sip of my blood. I threw my head back with a breathy cry. I needed him to claim me harder. Deeper. Make it so I’d feel him even days later.
His venom still coursed through my veins, slowly fuzzing out any lingering pain from my semi-healed bruises and scrapes. There was only the pleasure between us left.
He gave me more, his smile growing as the octave of my moans pitched higher. While he rocked into me, his free hand possessed my curves. He tweaked my nipple with an expert twist, already the master of my body and all its sensitive places. The pressure in my core mounted with every caress.
Shadows spilled from him, filling the room with ink-like swirls.
Their graceful spirals jerked to the rhythm of his body’s movements.
Each thrust turned the unusual artistry of his magic into abstract lines.
The darkness overwhelmed the meager bedside lamp until only a gentle, diffuse glow clung to him, the lamp’s light softened to make his features flawless.
It blunted the enhanced angles to his cheekbones and dulled the points of his teeth.
For a perfect moment, the last six months disappeared. We were Zane and Sidney, simple as that. Our bodies still fit together the same way.
The pressure between us mounted. I trembled on the cusp of release, dark spots clustering at the corners of my vision.
I cupped his stubbled cheek with a shaky hand.
The gleam of his amber eyes signaled the avid way he watched my release break over my face.
A wave of bliss flooded my senses, aided by the tingling venom in my veins.
Pain flashed on the other side of my neck. He sipped from the new bite as he stilled above me with a liquid rush. I felt more than heard his satisfied sigh.
“Sorry. Too tempting.” He licked the twin punctures he’d left behind.
Reality and fatigue mixed in with the warm sensation of his venom. Of course a vampire would bite at the height of pleasure.
“Just the hazards of having a vampire betrothed.” My limbs felt like they weighed a dozen extra pounds as my every muscle seemed to relax at the same time.
He rolled to the side and helped me curl up against his solid frame. “Mate. Outside of this room, you’ve got to use the proper term.”
I hummed in agreement, tucking my head under his chin. “Mate.” I was content to leave it at that and drift off. He stroked my hair and the darkness closed in, blissful unconsciousness beckoning—
There was a knock at the door.
“For fuck’s sake,” Zane muttered.
“Huh?” I slowly stirred from my daze. “Maybe they’ll go away.”
That hope was dashed when a more insistent knock sounded a few moments later, along with Finn’s muffled voice. “Lady, um, Ilyana?”
I reluctantly left rest behind as I got up and waved away some of the thick clouds of Zane’s darkness. Instead of chasing my discarded garments, I donned a set of nightclothes and my disguise as Ilyana before opening the door.
Finn startled when he got a look at me on the other side of the threshold, Nibs sitting alert on his shoulder. Is everything okay? I signed.
The seneschal wouldn’t let me return to my old bed. He flashed a sheepish smile. Are you guys done in there? Or should I… He hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
Behind me, I heard Zane’s voice muttering from a curl of shadow. Something that sounded like “for fuck’s sake” again.