14. Need
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Need
Cassiel watched me with predatory intent.
My heart thrummed in my chest as I avoided his swiping hand.
I kept backing up until my back hit the surface of the pane.
My limp still hindered my gait, but the pain had faded to a shadow of its usual weight.
The weakness that had plagued me for so long had eased.
“Al!” I shouted, smacking my palms on the pane between us.
It hurt my hand more than anything. I kept smashing my fist against the pane despite it not offering much in the way of noise. My only hope that he heard me was that the bookshelf remained open.
“Al!” My voice gave out.
I cleared my throat, pressing a hand to the soreness. Cassiel kept pacing the length that the chain allowed.
“Cassiel?” I breathed.
He exhaled hard, nose flaring, then reached for me again.
“You’ve awakened,” Al exclaimed.
I whirled around. “Let me out,” I begged.
“Sorry, my dear, I must retrieve Lord Vaner. His Highness seems close to bloodlust.”
Al left with speedy efficiency, and I turned back to Cassiel. He had begun to wind the chain in one hand. He yanked, and the metal held. I let out a shaky breath. I had rushed away from the cot so quickly, my slippers still remained beside it, along with the blade within one shoe.
Cassiel kept breathing harshly, his shoulders jerking from the gusts.
A creak from behind me forced me to spin back around. Al entered with a notepad and his spectacles perched on the bridge of his nose. Behind him entered about seven individuals and Officer Brandt holding the effigy.
Faces blurred until Vaner’s gleeful smile caught my eye. It hollowed my stomach.
“He’s started to react to your scent,” Al mused, jotting something down. He stood near me, blocking my view of the interlopers speaking amongst themselves. I turned to Cassiel as he yanked at the chain attached to the stone.
‘Force them to take you from here. I cannot—’ Cassiel snarled, turning rigid as he looked at me. ‘You smell delectable.’ A shudder wracked over his frame.
“Al.” He stopped scribbling and looked at me. “He does not seem himself. He will break me,” I whispered.
“You needn’t worry about that. You survived Awakening.”
Another screeching sound of metal on metal pierced the air. Stone cracked with Cassiel’s next yank of the chain.
He will gain freedom.
“Will he get through the glass?” someone asked.
Gasps behind me made me face the onlookers.
Al knocked on the surface.
“No, it is indestructible. We had it imported before we lost communication with Jalixo,” Vaner said to Lord Cedric Tagon who stood beside him.
The realm Jalixo? They lost communication with an entire realm?
Another screeching yank and this time, the tumble of stone clashing with stone enhanced my dread. I shakily turned to face Cassiel. He’d managed to rip half of the embedded hook in the wall. Only one more yank and he would free the chain from stone.
As soon as my gaze clashed with his, he growled, shooting a hand out as if he were to scoop me closer.
A rumble vibrated through him again, and he grabbed the chain. With another pull, he finally ripped the chains off. In a breath, he was on me, palms striking the pane behind my head. It trembled, but as Vaner said, it did not break.
Cassiel closed his eyes, his shoulders jerking up and down. He lifted my chin to press his nose against my skin. His tongue traced the length of my throat. Cassiel lifted his head slightly.
“They watch us,” I whispered.
He tore through the front of my frock. It continued hanging from my shoulders, keeping a tether of modesty. Tears surfaced, blinding me.
“Cassiel, please.” My voice cracked, and it was as if a jolt went through him.
Stillness. Such intense stillness. A harsh exhale from him blew the tendrils of hair against my cheek.
“Look at me,” he whispered, his fingertips pinching the bottom of my jaw to force me to look up at him.
I couldn’t stop my lip from trembling. The chill raised small bumps along my skin.
A look of determination crossed his face.
He lifted his wrist to his mouth, and keeping his eyes on me, he let go of my chin. Gold and red pulsed in his irises, the throb sluggish . As he stepped back from me, he ripped his teeth through the flesh of his wrist. Black blood dripped down his arm in a wave.
I was still staring as he offered the same treatment to the other wrist. He strode to the slim window where faces hovered in preparation for a show.
Cassiel ran his palm down his arm, collecting all the dripping blood.
In the same movement, he splattered it against the pane.
He rubbed the glass surface until a thin layer of black clung to it.
He bit into his inner arm and raked his mouth toward the inner dip of the elbow.
Black blood welled upon the pale surface.
Cassiel pulled me forward, and I stumbled, clasping my breasts.
He painted the entire surface black until there was nothing but smears and the entire pane could not be seen through.
The surface vibrated from whoever continued banging it on the other side.
I let out a shaky breath, holding my arms tight against my bare breasts.
“They will all die for doing this to you.” Each word was carefully said, but I did not miss the tremble in his hands.
He was near my face so quickly I gasped, pushing back until my shoulder blades were flat against the cold wall.
“You, more than anyone, need not fear me.” His sweet breath mingled with the iron smell of his blood.
A heady, delightful scent that I could not stop my body from reacting to.
I shook, my body incrementally warming. His distinct smell of leather mingled with the copper of blood.
The walls ran black, yet his heaving body remained before me as he reached to tear the clothes from his frame.
Bits of tunic and trousers littered the ground until he stood before me nude . . . and throbbingly erect.
My body woke, and my entire focus narrowed on him. His swollen knot throbbed, and the veins that ran up the length of his shaft pulsated under the thin layer of silk skin.
‘When you look at me like that . . .’
He groaned, the lustful sound rousing even more of my desire.
I squeezed my thighs closed as tight as possible.
With movements too quick for my eye to catch, he had my upper arms squeezed in a hard grip.
He pressed his nose against my cheek and dragged it downward on my skin until he reached my throat. Inhaling hard, his hands flexed.
Feverish need wove through my limbs, flooding every inch of my organs. All I could smell was leather and another distinct scent that caused my mouth to water.
A whimper escaped, and he stilled for not even a beat. Suddenly, he had me facing the stone wall. I braced my hands against the rough surface.
Hands on my hips pulled me back. Cassiel glided his hand down my side and over my bottom. I arched my spine to push closer to his touch. The ache of need had become so piercing that I struggled to fill my lungs.
He rubbed his fingers against the sensitive, trembling flesh of my entrance.
My breath caught in my throat. Every caress affected me viscerally.
His fingers rubbed dampness across my entire sex. I cried out, pressing my flesh against his hand. The gusts leaving my throat were ragged and harsh. Sensations I had never before encountered wracked my frame. A need so potent my body trembled. I wanted him—his length—deep inside me.
Still, he teased, brushing those long fingers against me. I nestled my cheek against the back of my hands. It allowed me to push my hips out more, and I twitched my hips in a circular motion, begging with my body for more.
Teeth pierced my shoulder, and I screamed, my hips bucking from the sudden release. Cassiel pressed a palm over my mouth, caging my sounds.
‘Your cries of pleasure are for me.’ I floated into the sky, my limbs trembling so much I could hardly feel them. Cassiel drank from my shoulder. He sucked again, and my vision blurred.
Whimpering, I curled my fingernails into the grooves of the stone. He wrung pleasure from me so easily. And he moved with barely restrained strength. He pulled back before the third drag from my shoulder.
His hands skated lower, and he took hold of my hips, pulling them out more so my torso stretched flat. Then he pressed a kiss against my seeping flesh. I gasped and couldn’t even turn before his tongue plunged inside.
I cried out, pressing my front against the wall and pushing my bottom toward him. Cassiel did not stop claiming my entrance with his tongue. He slowed and dragged it toward the bud.
The release was instantaneous. My legs gave out and his arm wound around my waist, propping my legs up while my hands kept a tentative hold of the wall. Still, he did not cease devouring me. My channel pulsed rhythmically, matching the rapid pace of my heart.
I clawed my fingernails into the divots in the stone wall, using every bit of strength to hold myself upright. Cassiel grazed his teeth against the swell of my bottom. The sensation felt so odd, but so lovely.
He stood and his hands kept my hips poised for him. He slid inside me, feeding me every bit of his length before moving in a steady thrust. My sex clamped onto his steel, squeezing and pulsating around him. Need dripped down my inner thighs.
Breaths left my lips in harsh gusts. Only his hands on my hips kept me from crumpling into a ball of pleasure. With commanding force, he drove inside me, causing my breasts to sway.
I whimpered, and he pushed even deeper until his knot prodded at my opening. He had yet to offer it to me. Each time it pressed against entering me, it retreated. Another sound of distress left me, but I could not spit out what I wanted. My body had become a thrumming bundle of need.
He pulled out until almost all of his length was out. With his retreat, more moisture trickled down my inner thighs. Even that sensation wrought pleasure. He pushed inside, harder, one hand sliding up my side until he cupped one breast to squeeze the flesh.
My mouth parted at the growing tingles spreading up my thighs and traveling outward. Even with his commanding thrusts, I could tell he was not offering all of his strength. Each movement had a level of restraint.
Cassiel pushed his knot against me, and this time he didn’t retreat. I kept supple, waiting for him to give all of himself to me. With another thrust, his knot pushed inside until my flesh took him.
This pleasure was so encompassing, I lost the ability to think.
He gasped, arms shuddering around me. A snarl ripped from his lips against my ear. His knot throbbed, and my sex reacted to it. The pressure inside me was so searing, another wave of ecstasy crashed through my senses.
Then his knot began to expand. Need stretched inside me like a living, breathing thing.
I screamed, bucking back against him, but there was no give. The knot enlarging kept me from pulling free. Warmth gushed inside me. Cassiel gasped, his hand on my breast and the one around my waist squeezed.
I hovered in the midst of pleasure unlike anything I had ever known. I came down in small bits until I could finally hear my harsh breathing.
We remained stuck to each other.
Cassiel’s ragged gasps continued against my ears.
As relaxed as my limbs were, they remained warm and aching for more. I wiggled, but his knot had yet to release.
I could no longer hold myself upright. Cassiel huddled me against his chest. While I remained limp, he kept me to his chest and straightened.
My feet left the ground and dangled. Cassiel moved to the cot and arranged my legs to spread around his thighs.
He leaned back, offering my back support to lie against.
I did not want this mind-seizing pleasure to end.
His knot loosened, and a wave of moisture trickled from my entrance. A shiver climbed up my spine.
‘I am not done with you.’
My channel flexed around his invasion. What I had experienced was beyond pleasure.
It was something in its purest form. And I wanted more of him, of everything.
This between us was beyond sex. It was visceral and needy, a physical show between two Awakened bondmates.
His touch remade me in a manner I did not understand—and that could not be undone.