Chapter 19
Nineteen
M y heart sank into my gut. He was leaving?
Already?
I followed him away from the fire and into the darkness. The trees of the forest rose tall and dark enveloping us, shades of gray within the mist that spun around Vaelor. The moon shone, cutting through the vapor—rays glowing like spun silver.
“Where are you going?” I demanded when I caught up.
“The Final Proving is still underway. I need to find a body, return to Throk and decide if I’m going to fight in the tournament for the position of commander.” He stalked ahead, forcing me to jog to keep up.
“So you’re leaving? Now? What about the celebration?”
“I didn’t say how long I’d stay, and there are only four days left before I dissipate into nothing. I think I should focus on that.”
My muscles tensed, but I nodded. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“No.” He stopped and turned to face me. “You will remain here.”
My hands curled into my skirt. “You still need me. In order to kill a body, you will need someone?—”
“There are many other bodies I can possess. I don’t need you.”
I flinched. “I don’t care. I’m coming anyway.”
He stepped closer, an intensity marking every movement. “There are things you don’t know about me. I bring death and destruction on all that are near me.”
“Erlinen explained to me what happened to your people. What if I can help you get them back?”
His head reared in surprise. “She told you about that?”
“She wanted to convince me to stay away from you.”
He didn’t move, his eyes becoming hooded. “What else did she tell you?”
I took a slow breath. “That a demon named Creedan stole them.”
He hissed, his wings spread. “What else?”
“Was she supposed to tell me something else? Vaelor, what if I can use my powers to help you rescue your people?”
“I’m bound to Spiritu Malignos, Denara. I don’t know if there is a way to save my people anymore.”
“You can’t be certain of that?—”
“It doesn’t matter,” he cut me off. “You have your family with you. You can be free here.” His hand grazed mine, and he looked at me with urgency. “I won’t drag you out there to undergo death or torture. Stay here and stay safe.”
I caught his hand and looked into his face, fear and desire and want mixing in a confusing mess. My eyes stung. “If you leave, you’ll never return.” When the slavers trapped us, I feared he’d disappear from the world.
But now, I feared him disappearing from my world.
Vaelor ran his fingers through his hair, his jaw clenching. “What do you want, Denara?”
Rising onto my toes, I gripped his lapels and pulled him down until our lips met. Vaelor held perfectly still, as if caught off guard.
“I want you,” I said, sliding my palm along his square jaw. “I want you, Vaelor.”
He hesitated only a second before he placed his hand against my spine and kissed me, his mouth cold yet claiming. He pulled back slightly, breathing hard. “You don’t know what you are asking. I’m dangerous.”
“Don’t act like you don’t care for me,” I murmured. “It’s already too late.”
Something close to devastation tugged at his lips. “Denara?—”
“Don’t fight it.” I ran my hands over his shoulders and chest as I stared into his eyes, which ignited with an undeniable heat. “Just take me. Tonight.”
He kissed me again, lifting me and shoving me against a tree.
I tilted my chin up as his lips traveled down my throat, his fingers at my bodice, working on the ties.
“I left the festivities because I could smell your desire,” he rumbled. “It was the only way to resist the urge to take you right there.”
“I didn’t realize I had that much of an effect on you.”
His teeth grazed my skin, sending a shiver through me.
“Every time I’ve smelled it, I’ve had to fight myself.
Fight the need to touch you. To claim you.
” He dragged his mouth along the curve of my neck.
“The only way I could keep control was to leave—to go scouting, to stay away, to…” His words dissolved into a low growl that vibrated against my skin, igniting a fresh wave of heat deep inside me.
“And here you are offering yourself to me?—”
“Make love to me, Vaelor.”
My bodice loosened, and he peeled it apart, revealing my breasts. He descended lower, kissing my soft skin. A shiver of delight rolled through me.
“I’ll make love to you,” he replied. “I’ll do whatever you want me to.”
I placed my hands to either side of his face. “Don’t go too fast. Make me want it more.”
“As you wish,” he softly uttered before sucking my tit into his mouth.
Oh gods. The sensation of his tongue as it lulled against my sensitive skin made my whole being ache for him.
He gripped the fabric of my dress and slipped his hands up my skirt.
“You’ve longed for this, haven’t you?” His icy fingers spread my thighs, ascending gradually, inevitably. “You’ve imagined me doing the most despicable things to you.”
My body was betraying me. I trembled under his touch, a craving sparking so strongly I had to suppress the noise rising up my throat. “I have no clue what you mean,” I lied breathlessly.
A smile curled his lips, and he leaned forward, his mouth brushing my skin as he whispered in my ear. “I haven’t just scented your desire. I’ve seen the want burning in your eyes. Your… lust .”
The back of his finger stroked my center, and I fell against the tree, releasing a primal moan. His grin turned wicked.
He stroked again, the back of his nail sliding over me, its tip gentle, yet I knew what he could do with those claws. How he’d used his dragon claws to pull out the creature’s own heart, how easily he could kill me if he chose.
My desire spiked at the danger of it. Of him.
“Fuck, Denara. The way you’re looking at me. Fuck.” He removed his hand and came closer. He positioned his hips between my thighs, and I sensed his hardness through my dress. I gasped as he thrust, dragging it over my most tender area, sparking me to life. Gods, that felt good.
“Are you a virgin?” he asked, as his hips churned, thrusting against me again and again.
My body was alive, melting. I… shit. What did he say? A virgin? I shook my head.
“Good.” He was driving me wild each time he rubbed his cock on me. “You have an idea of what you deserve.”
I actually didn’t. All I had was one awkward experience with the tavern boy. Vaelor was already eliciting far more pleasure from me than the tavern boy ever had.
He pressed harder, and I gasped. I couldn’t think.
All I could do was feel him. The ecstasy that was building.
I sucked in breath after breath, unable to contain the molten heat, the sparking ache that had bloomed into something uncontrollable.
I threw my head to the sky, a cry on my lips. Oh, gods… gods .
He faded, dropping me to the ground.
I fell onto my hands and knees. He stood in front of me, looking down with such hunger. My body pulsed with need. Shit. What was he doing?
He vanished, and his frigid air permeated me, trickling into my mouth like a fine current.
Every part of me alighted as he moved through me.
The coldness created an icy fire spreading downward through my veins.
And then I cried out as the iciness slipped out between my legs, revealing the intense sensitivity—the deep ache craving to be satisfied.
When he coalesced into being, he stood away from me.
He’d removed his clothes and lingered there, bare.
The planes of his sculpted chest and stomach were toned and defined, while the muscles in his arms bulged from his clenched fists.
The long, hard cock between his legs was big.
I wasn’t aware cocks came that large. The space between my own legs ached with longing.
Gods, he was more gorgeous than any male I’d ever beheld. How I wanted him. He gazed at me, breathing hard, his glowing eyes raging with a deep ravenousness. I breathed. I was so close. So close to reaching that pinnacle…
And he was just going to stop and stare at me?
“You… bastard,” I gasped.
His dark chuckle only strengthened my need. Something moved behind him. Something thin and long. Shit. Did Vaelor have a tail hidden in his pants this entire time?
“Come to me, Denara.” He let out a low growl as his tail whipped back and forth like a snake. “Crawl.”
“Bastard,” I whispered again. But I’d asked him to drag it out—to make me want him. And fuck. The way my body screamed for release. Each demand, each raw command was doing just that.
I slid my hands forward across the forest floor.
Pine needles pricked at my palms, and the folds of my dress dragged through the dirt.
There would be no doubt afterward about what Vaelor and I had been up to.
Perhaps that was his intention. Perhaps he wanted everyone to know that I willingly let him take me.
And I didn’t care.
He stood there, his gaze burning with open darkness as I made my way to him on my hands and knees. “What is it you desire me to do to you? Tell me.”
“I want…” I panted as I dragged myself forward, inch by inch. “Your hands on my body…you…driving me insane… making me scream.”
His lip curled, and something dark and demanding lingered in his eyes. “ Beg .”
I wanted to hate him, but he had an unsettling control over me. I’d do whatever he wished. Nothing was out of bounds when he looked at me like that.
“Please,” I gasped.
“More.”
“Please,” I moaned as I crawled forward. My body was burning, wetness coating my thighs, my ache uncontainable. I moaned again. “Take me, and I will be anything you desire.”
Vaelor’s eyes glowed with the intensity of a thousand burning stars. I saw the consuming yearning, the insatiable need, and my own thoughts turned dark.
When I reached him, I grabbed his legs and pressed my face to his hardness. “I am yours, my lord.” My voice came out lusting and depraved. Ever so slowly, I dragged my tongue along the length of his cock.
“Fuck,” he snarled as he lost his footing a little.