Chapter 49
EMBERLINE
Icould not stop kissing my husband.
After pretending I was made of ice my entire life, feeling everything all at once was glorious. Dante’s soft lips were experienced, cleverly pressing mine apart so he could slip his tongue deeper into my mouth, exploring and probing until I didn’t care if I ever breathed again.
There were no more secrets between us.
No more doubt. For the first time, I had a partner. Someone I trusted beside me, someone who treated me as an equal, not a liability, who recognized my strength and didn’t try to dim me down so I was tolerable.
And gods, this male could kiss.
One hand gripped a fistful of my hair, his other cupping my chin, holding me in place as he plundered my mouth until my lips were puffy. His rough, low groan raced through me like a shiver of adrenaline.
I wanted every one of his needy groans, all his heartbeats, every one of his wicked smiles.
I wanted his darkest thoughts, his most elusive dreams, and once I had those, I wanted everything else too. I’d never felt as greedy, desperate, and hopeless as I did around him, and I planned to hoard every bit of this happiness for the dark days ahead.
Because I was not going to face them without knowing what being loved felt like.
Being claimed.
Being touched in all the ways a male touched a female, so when those dark days did come, when I wanted to give up hope, I could remember this moment… and remember how sweet life had once tasted.
“I want you.” I framed his rugged face with my palms, searching his eyes, feeling like I was gazing out across the ocean all the way to the horizon. “I want to know what you feel like inside me, Dante.”
The smile slid off his face. “We should go slow, Emberline. There is no rush, none at all,” he said, a rough, pleading note in his voice. “I’m sure you’re sore from last night…”
“I’m not sore. I want to do everything all over again, but this time, I want your… cock.” Heat crept up my neck, but I kept going. “I might be a virgin, Dante, but it’s my decision who I share my first time with, and I choose you.”
His eyes slipped half-closed, a rumble vibrating in his chest.
“Let’s make this real between us, marito mio,” I urged softly. “I’m tired of play acting. I want to start living.”
I slid my thumb along the cut edge of his jaw and between his lips, watching, fascinated, as he sucked, his cheeks hollowing out, my entire world narrowing down to where his warm, wet tongue circled my finger.
Wetness gushed between my legs, remembering how his mouth felt on my clit.
“The stakes are too high for us to fail, tesoro,” he cautioned, pulling my finger from his mouth. “If we go any further… I’m not a refined male. Not anymore. I can’t…” he swallowed. “I fucked up at Rocco’s. I can’t fuck up with you again.”
“That’s a tomorrow problem, it seems like.” I took his big hands, resting on my shoulders, and placed them on my hips. “Today’s problem is how fast you can get me up to the bedroom and get these clothes off.”
I barely had time to gasp before my feet left the floor, the world flipping upside down as Dante tossed me over his shoulder, as if I weighed nothing at all. A startled yelp burst out of me, my fingers grasping at the back of his shirt as he headed for the stairs, cracked plaster walls blurring.
“Don’t you dare drop me, Dante,” I warned. “Slow down.”
Never one to listen, he took the steps two at a time, his bare feet soundless, my hair nearly brushing the steps as they flashed by.
My heart was pounding, adrenaline pumping; this felt reckless and dangerous and forbidden… and right.
This is what being alive was supposed to feel like.
Real.
Like all the pretend, glossy facades had been stripped away, leaving only base desire behind.
Want. Need. Touch.
Dante shoved the bedroom door open with his shoulder, tossed me on the bed, and stood over me, chest heaving. Muscle coiled as his hands landed on either side of my hips, caging me in. The expression on his face stole the air from my lungs.
Yes. This was what I wanted. Someone to look at me like I was the only thing they saw. The only thing they cared about. The only thing that mattered.
Sunbeams raked through the dimness, Dante’s powerful wards humming, keeping us safe. This house was a refuge. Nothing could touch us here.
I stared up at this male whose eyes smoldered with yearning, who I had every right to hate, and knew, deep inside, I could never hate again.
“We need to take this slow. That means we don’t rush into… anything.” His searing gaze branded me from head to toe. “I really should be somewhere else right now,” he muttered, nostrils flaring. “I still have that little job to do for Rocco, and he’s getting impatient.”
Scratch that whole hating thing.
Maybe there was still a chance I’d stab him.
“Impatient? Really?” I raised an eyebrow, and before I lost my nerve, I slowly dragged the shirt off my body, skin prickling as I tossed it back in his face. I lay back on the bed, bared completely to him, and stretched my arms up over my head.
“Well, you don’t want to keep him waiting then, do you?”
A vein pulsed in his forehead, and the tendons stood out in his neck. He looked like he might stroke out as I smiled, skimming my fingers down my breasts, my stomach, landing between my legs.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll find something to keep me busy while you’re gone.”
“Godsdamn it, Emberline… I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
“You never struck me as the noble type, Dante, but you always manage to surprise me.” I spread myself open, letting my knees fall apart so he could see everything, sliding my fingers up and down through my wetness. And gods, was I wet for him.
“Go on, then.” I nodded toward the door. “Don’t let me hold you back, marito mio, I’ll just be…”
He pounced, the weight of him pressing me down into the mattress, hand gripping my wrist as he brought my fingers to his mouth and sucked, tongue feverishly working between every digit with dizzying thoroughness that sent another wave of lust straight to my core.
I threw my head back and laughed as he growled, moving from my fingers to my throat, then down to my breast, nipping and licking and sucking like he couldn’t stop.
Every inch of me was on fire, every piece of me wanted his big, male body, muscled and firm in all the right places. His cock was heavy against my bare thigh, only the fabric of his sweats between us now.
“Get these off.” I yanked at them with my free hand. “I want to see all of you. I mean it, Dante.”
“My little impatient wife,” he muttered, dragging off his pants. Both of us groaned when he pressed his hot, hard length against my stomach, finally skin to skin, his eyes slightly hazy as he stared down at me, lips parted, panting.
He was going to eat me alive.
I was going to let him.
“So greedy, so wet, you smell so good… like sweet, ripe fruit, and I am going to fucking feast on you.”
He released my wrist, then wrapped his fingers around my throat and pressed me back onto the bed, following me down, never breaking eye contact, one knee sliding between my thighs.
My entire body responded as he forced my legs apart, my cunt soaked, my aching breasts heavy as he dropped his head and sucked one of my tender nipples into his mouth, lashing back and forth with his tongue.
This was… this was…
I thrashed, seeking more friction, my empty core clenching, a needy yearning spreading through me. My whole body was made of melting butter and agonizing need, my belly filled with butterflies, nails digging into his arm.
“Please, Dante. Just… please.”
I didn’t know what I was asking for, only that this scalding, electric heat spreading through me was going to burn me alive if he didn’t do something to ease my wanting. To fill up the emptiness eating away at me.
“The things I’ve dreamed of doing to you…” He licked his lips, eyes morphing from cerulean to deep lapis. “There is not enough time in all of eternity for me to do all the wicked, depraved things I plan to do to you, Emberline. Sei mia, moglie, and it’s too late for you to escape me now.”
He was all teeth and tongue, probing fingers and hard, calloused hands kneading soft, pliable flesh, every inch of me pinned down by the weight of his immense body.
I was trapped, possessed, and claimed, and I fucking loved this, the way our skin rubbed together, the wild thumping of our heartbeats filling the room.
My body was going haywire, his heat—his scent—winding through me like a drug, something ancient and not entirely civilized rising to the surface.
I wanted my husband to fill me up.
I wanted him pounding between my legs, groaning out my name and…
“Fuck. Fuck.”
He was between my legs, pushing them apart, making little growling noises that didn’t sound remotely vampire before he put his mouth on me and began to feast. Fast and hard and hungry, he licked me deep while I writhed beneath the onslaught, head going blank until he pushed a finger inside, my hips bucking up to accept the intrusion.
“That’s it, such a good girl, so ready for me,” he praised, lapping at me between every word. “You need to be wetter, Ember, wet enough to take me, wet enough I don’t hurt you. I can’t hurt you, I can’t. You have to be ready.”
A fast, brutal orgasm shimmered, then burst through me, my body arching up off the bed, his mouth never leaving my cunt.
He added another finger, and I came again, the pressure of his mouth, the delicious fullness of having two long, thick fingers pumping slowly in and out of me, that wonderful stretching sensation flooding me with mind-numbing pleasure.
His name worked up my throat and rang off the walls, hips bucking because I’d lost all control. I wanted more. More. More. I was covered in sweat, putty in his hands, filled with heat and pleasure and a hazy kind of wonder at how easily he brought me to another cresting climax.
His.
I was completely and utterly his.