39. Yaaf
YAAF
Sullha came apart, and Yaaf felt it twice.
Once in her body, in the way her thighs shook against his shoulders and his name tore from her.
And once in his mind, because as much as he tried to stay out of her head and not peek at her thoughts without her permission, her climax was too explosive to contain, and he couldn't block it even if he wanted to.
It was a wave of bliss and joy, with his name written all over it.
The only thing he could do was be the wall between what was pouring out of her and his seven counterparts. He absorbed it all into himself, feeling prouder of what he'd given her than of anything else he'd ever achieved.
He'd given pleasure to a woman who until now had known only subjugation, who'd never experienced tenderness and patience, and he'd coaxed a climax out of her.
Before this had all started, he'd believed that the eight of them had risen above such things and that to feel pride over such an achievement was a human emotion none of them could feel, but now he was drowning in it.
Once the tremors subsided, Sullha laughed, wiping happy tears from her eyes, and pushed herself up to look down at him. She was flushed and undone and more beautiful than any woman had a right to be.
"I didn't know that it could be like that."
That one sentence confirmed what he'd suspected but hadn't dared to ask. Sullha had never experienced pleasure, had never climaxed.
He wanted to tell her that he loved her, that she was beautiful and precious, and that he was so lucky to have her. But talking meant opening his mouth, which meant showing his fangs that were fully elongated and dripping venom, and the last thing he wanted to do now was to scare her.
She'd seen his fangs before, but not like that.
Instead, he moved up her body and gathered her against him with her head tucked under his chin. But Sullha, being Sullha, wasn't happy with just basking in the afterglow of her climax. Pressing her hand against his chest, she pushed until she had him on his back, rose over him, and looked down.
"It was incredible, Yaaf. And now that I know what you can do to me, I will demand it frequently and consistently."
He could not help the smile that broke over his face, remembering too late that there had been a very good reason for him staying silent. He quickly clamped his mouth shut.
Sullha was still smiling, so he hoped she hadn't noticed, but then she frowned. "Why are you not saying anything? Are you keeping your mouth closed to hide your fangs from me?"
He nodded because there was no way to hide the truth from her.
"Don't." She cupped his cheek. "Don't hide anything from me.
Not tonight." Her thumb brushed the corner of his mouth, an invitation and a dare.
"I've seen your fangs, and I know that they are not just for decoration.
I know about the intense pleasure, and I know that's how you will induce my transition.
" A small seductive smile lifted her lush lips, and she looked at him from under hooded eyelids.
"I'm not afraid of your fangs, Yaaf. I want them.
I want the bite, and the bond. I want to become immortal so I can spend eternity with you. "
Something in Yaaf's chest cracked open.
"I love you." He exposed his fangs and watched her face for the flinch, but it didn't come.
What came at him was the sudden, intensified scent of her desire, and he could have climaxed just from that intoxicating smell.
Sullha leaned down to kiss him. She licked around the fangs, careful but unafraid. Then she leaned back and reached for the button of his jeans.
"My turn."
Yaaf held his breath as she pulled them down and freed his erection from the confinement of his briefs.
"Oh, my. You are big all over, aren't you?"
There was not a hint of fear in her voice, just admiration, and in response, his shaft swelled and twitched in her hand.
"I won't last," he warned her.
"I won't let you." She squeezed the base with her hand as she dipped her head and took a third of him into her mouth, which was the most she could manage.
It was more than enough, and the groan that escaped his throat could have shaken the walls if the house hadn't been built to the highest standards.
The pleasure was intense, but even more so was the gratitude. She was choosing to give him something that had only ever been stolen from her.
He let her have it for as long as he could, which wasn't long.
"Sullha." He cupped her cheek. "You have to stop."
She released his shaft from her mouth and looked at him. "Why?"
He wondered if she knew about immortal stamina and decided that her one-word questions meant that she did. Whoever had told her about the pleasures of the venom bite must have told her about that as well.
He drew her up, gently, both hands framing her face. "I can climax multiple times, but I can only bite once, and I want to be inside of you when I do."
The understanding in her eyes told him he didn't need to say more.
"I want that too," she said.
He laid her back and got rid of the rest of what covered him before coming over her, and behind his eyes he made sure the door to the seven was firmly shut.
They were there, at the edges of him, as they always were, but tonight he built the walls higher and thicker than ever, sealing every seam until the room in his mind that held only Sullha and him was closed on all sides. The others were only a pressure on the far side of it, music through a wall.
It took effort to hold up the walls, and he set part of himself to the task and did not let it waver. He'd made her a promise, and he was going to keep it no matter how much it took out of him.
The split focus was a blessing of sorts because it allowed him to take his time and kiss and lick every inch of Sullha's skin before positioning himself at her entrance and pushing the tip in.
She was slick from her orgasm and the passion he'd reignited with his kisses and caresses, and as she arched up to meet him, the rest of his shaft slid in until he was fully seated inside of her.
The fit was impossibly perfect.
"I love you." Sullha wrapped her arms around him. "Fangs and all."
He kissed her lips. "Love of my life."
Yaaf went slowly, attuned to every sound she made, every twitch, every shift.
He'd believed the eight of them had risen above carnal pleasures, had left physical desire behind like a snakeskin, but he'd been blissfully wrong.
What had been discarded was not this.
This was love and connection that was more beautiful and more transcendent than any intellectual stratum he'd believed was worth ascending to.
He'd been remade. There was nothing muted in him now, nothing theoretical, only Sullha, and the disbelief that she was his, that this woman who had every reason to fear his hands was arching into them, welcoming him, choosing him with her whole trembling body.
They found the rhythm together, and it climbed, and as the pleasure gathered, he felt his glands swell with venom.
He held back the bite the same way he held the wall, by the sheer power of his will, waiting for her to signal when she was ready.
When she broke apart beneath him, her inner muscles clamping around his shaft and his name tearing loose from her throat, she turned her head to the side and bared the long line of her throat to him.
An offering. A choice. Fully hers.
Yaaf licked the spot she had given him, preparing it for his bite with the analgesic in his saliva. Then he hissed and sank his fangs in.
She gasped as they pierced her skin, but then the venom entered her system, and her body relaxed, only to seize again and again as it triggered one climax after another, wave after wave of pleasure so overwhelming she wouldn't know how to process it and would black out.
He'd experienced this before with women he cared nothing about. The venom's effects were addictive, and the women in the brothel learned to crave it, chasing oblivion and hallucinogenic dreams.
It was different with Sullha. With her, it was a gift he felt fortunate to be able to give.
Through it all, he held the wall. The seven stayed sealed on the far side, doing their best to keep their distance and not intrude.
He let nothing slip through but his joy and gratitude. Not the sound of her voice, not the feel of her skin, not the taste of her. It was the hardest thing he had ever done, and he held on without even the smallest crack, because Sullha had asked him to, and because he loved her.
When the euphoric component of the venom took over, Sullha's body went loose beneath him.
Her eyes rolled closed, and a blissed-out smile spread across her mouth as the euphoria lifted her up and carried her somewhere he couldn't follow.
He knew where she was going from what other women had told him.
They described colors that didn't exist on Earth, alien landscapes, and ghostly entities who smiled and waved as they passed above.
He withdrew his fangs, sealed the small wounds, and gathered her against his chest as she soared.
There was so much he wanted to tell her. That the wall had held. That the others had seen and heard nothing, that it had been theirs and only theirs from the first breath to the last.
But she was gone, soaring, and the telling would have to wait until she came back down.
For now, he only held her.
He pulled the blanket over them both and settled her head against his heart.
He didn't want to think about what his venom might be doing to her blood, the transition it may have set in motion.
From what Bowen had told him, it would come when it came, in a day or a week or two, and it might require more than one bite.
Sometimes two or three were needed to start the process.
Tonight, it was enough that she was soaring, and that when she opened her eyes, he would be there to welcome her back.