Chapter 51
Will saw Eric clear the bed in a single jump that held nothing human. He did not make it three meters before the monster tore his feet out from under him, skinning his knees and palms, a sharp pain shooting through his shoulder. The impact pushed the air from his lungs.
He kicked wildly at the beast and scrambled away on all fours, deeper into the shadows between the bookshelves.
“Do you think you will find a secret exit in here?” Eric laughed, seized his ankle, and yanked him back. Claws dug into Will’s leg, but he managed to catch the monster beneath the chin with his heel.
Will tried to strike again, but Eric caught his arm, and moments later they crashed into a bookshelf. A maw met a mouth, a claw closed around his waist, a hand buried itself in damp hair.
They wrestled together, half on the floor, half pressed against the shelves. Their legs tangled. Legs bent at unnatural angles, claws at their feet, shoved the slippers from Will’s toes.
Will ran his hands over Eric’s cheeks as though he could hold his head between them and break his neck if necessary.
He shuddered when his fingers found the corners of his mouth, too high and too sharp.
The lips were still the same ones he had kissed in the snow; even now, he tasted winter upon them where icy droplets still fell from Eric’s hair.
But sharp teeth scraped across his tongue, and it felt strange when Eric opened his mouth for him.
Yet he held Will like a dragon guarding its treasure, as though his prey might escape at any moment, disgusted by the monster kissing him.
Will tasted his own blood and trembled with revulsion and desire.
No. He did not want to run anymore.
He practically climbed into Eric’s lap, spread his legs over his erection, and moaned as he pressed his own cock against it.
“By the blood,” Eric gasped, and for the first time, he sounded genuinely shaken.
Will put his chest against Eric’s bare one and wrapped an arm around the thick neck of the beast. Slowly, he began to move against him, tilting his hips in small thrusts to coax another of those sweet gasps from the monster.
A paw closed around his backside as though Eric wanted to feel the muscles move when Will thrusted.
It was an unfamiliar sensation, the claw-tips piercing through the fabric to his skin, stopping just short of hurting him.
With one violent tug, Eric tore Will’s trousers open until they hung from him in tatters.
Will choked in surprise, and Eric released him long enough for him to struggle upright and peel himself free of the remains. Excitement so intense it made his head light kept him from trying to flee again. Instead, he let the last pieces of clothing fall from his body.
Eric’s gaze traveled over him as though he had never seen a man before. As though he had found religion. He stared up at Will while Will rose to slip his final trouser leg off.
Will could almost hear the god inside his chest purr as he looked down on the worshiper kneeling before him on animal legs, lips parted slightly. If he had been a sensible man—or merely a normal one, that would have been enough—he would run.
But he wanted to kiss him—this wondrous man who forgot to be a beast whenever he looked at Will.
Instead, he settled back onto Eric’s lap, naked, his erection hard and heavy. Perhaps Will truly was na?ve. Perhaps he was stupid, or delirious from blood loss and drugged by venom, but his hand moved lower and opened the buttons at Eric’s waistband.
Eric’s monstrous eyes searched his. “I have never done this before.”
Will’s mouth curved into a mocking smile. “So na?ve, little hellhound.”
Eric stared at him in disbelief. “You would really take me? Like this?”
Will opened the final button and reached beneath the undergarment, closing his hand around the length there.
His eyes widened.
“Did you turn your entire body into a beast?”
Will could have fallen in love with the small, confused laugh Eric gave in answer.
“Will. I am serious.”
Even though this monster had ignored every one of his pleas only moments before, Will would be patient now. He withdrew his hand and regarded Eric for a long moment.
“Do you know what is going to happen here?” he asked politely, because he refused to believe Eric was truly ignorant. Not when Saint had implied that they had moved in the same circles.
Fortunately, Eric did not lie. He nodded and swallowed. “Will you…?”
Will tilted his head, and a veil of silver hair spilled across his bitten shoulder. The wound had stopped bleeding, though it surely looked terrible.
“Use your words, Ambassador. I saw it in your eyes. You know exactly what you want. You have looked at me often enough and imagined how you wanted to take me.”
Eric swallowed, and the pointed tongue flicked across his lips. Did monsters get dry mouths from excitement too?
Then he gathered himself, and Will watched with satisfaction as Eric took control again. Not of the beast that was his body. Of the beast inside his mind. And he let it run free.
A paw shot upward and closed around Will’s throat. Eric lowered his mouth to him and kissed a burning path along his jaw, then pushed Will’s head back with his thumb and traveled down his throat until his tongue swept across the torn wound.
A deep, satisfied rumble rolled through his body, and Will sucked in a sharp breath at the pain.
“Kneel,” Eric growled and pushed Will from his lap. He said it in the same tone he used to command his dogs to sit, and Will moved to follow, Eric’s obedient pup.
Eric hummed in satisfaction and rose, stripping away his trousers as well.
Will swallowed at the sight before him. Feeling it was one thing. Being confronted with it at eye level was something else entirely.
A line of hard ridges ran along the underside of the cock all the way to the head. From each raised point, grooves spread like semi-circles around the shaft. Dark purple veins ran across it, marbling the velvety skin. It was as monstrous and human as the rest of him.
Perhaps Eric had meant it after all when he said he would destroy him.
“Careful. You are going to start drooling,” Eric mocked, then caught Will’s hair and wrapped it around his wrist in one fluid movement.
With burning eyes, he looked down at him as he guided Will’s mouth toward his erection. His entire body shuddered when Will’s lips touched the tip.
Will followed the ridges, letting his tongue dance over them, becoming familiar with their strange texture. The same curiosity with which Elodie had once looked at him in the carriage filled him now. The dull ache of his wounds faded as everything inside him focused on exploring Eric’s cock.
Although Eric held his hair, he let Will have his way, allowing him to learn all the things that made him different from a human man.
But the gentleness did not last long. Eric pressed the head against Will’s lips, and the moment he opened his mouth, he drove deep into his throat.
Will would not have minded being able to unhinge his jaw like a vampire. Hard and thick, Eric filled his mouth, thrusting deep enough to make him gag. But Will let him, because he wanted to live inside those eyes. Half worshipful, half astonished. Half lost in pleasure, half beast.
And Will returned his gaze calmly while Eric thrust into his mouth again and again.
He would show this monster the true delights of being pleasured orally soon enough.
For now, he simply enjoyed the tears it brought to his eyes and the way he had to fight for breath whenever Eric pushed deep into his throat.
His own erection throbbed with need, his entire body humming as though charged. He wanted more. He wanted those hands on him. He wanted Eric to lose control completely. He wanted to lose himself, to drift somewhere between pleasure and pain, dissolved and free.
Just as Eric thrust again, Will closed his teeth around him. Not hard enough to injure him, but enough that the hand in his hair jerked him roughly back.
“Such an insolent pup,” Eric growled, and Will shivered in anticipation of the punishment. “Will you obey if I give you what you want so badly?”
Will nodded, though the claw in his hair barely allowed it.
“Good. On the floor. Show me your ass.”
Excitement quickened his pulse and drove blood from the wounds where the crust had broken open again. He bent forward and lowered his face to the floor, though here between the shelves, a soft rug covered the wood.
He watched over his shoulder as Eric followed and felt the claws move over his backside, exploring him.
Eric spread him and licked over the tight opening.
Will moaned, his cock twitching. Far too often, he had imagined what it might be like to take Eric to bed.
To experience that iron control, to have him give orders and dominate him.
Those fantasies faded, overwritten by reality, when Eric’s tongue moved over that intimate place, searching and pressing. A throaty moan escaped Will, and his forehead sank to the rug. This reminded him more of the Albatross than of the cold cruelty of his fantasies.
“Prepare yourself for me,” Eric murmured, his voice rough.
He picked up an amber bottle he must have stolen from Elodie’s dressing table during the chase. Moments later, Will felt cool liquid running down between his cheeks.
Eric suddenly went very still, freezing when Will reached behind himself, slid his fingers through the oil, and finally pressed the first one inside.
Saliva, oil, and arousal made it easy. Will whimpered softly but reminded himself to be patient.
He feared and craved Eric’s size in equal measure.
With practiced movements, he stretched himself and heard Eric swallow when he added a second finger.
It would take more to accommodate the beast, and everything inside him shivered at the thought.
Those ridges and grooves would be his undoing.
As he added a third finger with a moan, Eric finally collected himself again. The growl rising in his chest was deeply animal and possessive.