Chapter 44
Rougir
BASTIEN
Ilowered her down until her back was resting against the mattress and her head was cradled by a pillow.
She gazed up at me with so much adoration and trust that the weight of this moment sank deep into me.
This might be her first time with a man, but she wasn’t a meek girl waiting to be deflowered on her wedding night, unsure of what was going to happen.
She knew.
The pull to seal our mate bond demanded that I take her hard and deep, devouring her until I was completely spent and my cum dripped out of her, slicking her thighs.
My instincts were driving me to make an heir, but that couldn’t happen.
I couldn’t burden her with the pain of carrying a vampire child.
Her fear of blood would make it impossible. Especially after the babe was born. No, I had to be careful. I had to prioritize her well-being. She was mine to protect. This was all we could have. Each other. And it was more than I could ever want.
My moonflower. So beautiful. So alive.
Distracted, I traced the sharp edge of her cheekbone with my finger until I reached the curve of her lips.
I coaxed them open, parting her lips ever so slightly until they pursed around me.
All warm and wet. Sliding it deeper, my finger trailed over her tongue before I pulled it out.
Watching her take me, even in this small way, had me thickening for her until I was painfully hard.
“Are you going to make love to me?” Claire asked, looping a finger through my chain and dragging me an inch closer.
Holding my bloodstone in the palm of her hand like she held my heart. I gazed down at her with the same adoration and made a pledge to make this moment one she’d never forget.
“Oh yes. I’m going to make love to you,” I said, parting her lips and sliding my finger in and out again. I dropped my voice to a rasp. “And when you’re ready, I’m going to fuck you like you were made for me. Because you were, Claire. You were made for me, just like I was made for you.”
I pulled my finger out of her mouth and kissed her hard, swallowing whatever she wanted to say, then broke off the kiss just as quickly, leaving her breathless.
“Don’t stop,” she gasped, reaching for me.
I kissed the top of her knuckles, then said, “Close your eyes.”
She did not obey, and her obstinate frown made me grin.
She’d always been fearless, but now my little witch had confidence.
She was bold and fierce with fire in veins, not just her heart.
Gently, I ran my hands down her face, encouraging her to do as I asked.
When her eyes fluttered shut, I leaned forward and pressed my lips against the shell of her ear, expelling a breath against her skin, just like I had the night of my Sanguination Ball.
She reacted in kind, arching her back and pushing her breasts into me.
My hand melted around her, holding her against me.
I had to bite my own lip to keep from sinking my teeth into her.
For so long, I’d been teetering on the edge, holding back the primal desire for her.
I wanted her to know the torturous pleasure that accompanied having to wait for what you so desperately wanted.
“I want you to need me so bad you can’t hold still.
I want you to need me so desperately that you can’t focus.
” One of her hands twined into my hair, twisting the strands.
“I want the anticipation of our first time to fill your mind and steal your breath until the only word you can speak is my name. And when you say it, it’s a strangled gasp that only I could understand. ”
My hand slid around her waist until it found hers and guided it down, down, down, over the thick wool of her dress until she was cupping the warm spot between her thighs.
A cry of pleasure left her lips when I squeezed her hand.
“I want you to touch yourself to dull the need so you can make it through another second without my cock inside you.” My next breath caressed her skin, and I gripped her harder.
“I want you begging for me. Then, and only then, will you know how I’ve felt.
How I have felt since the moment you stormed into my life. ”
“I’m already there,” Claire gasped, squirming under my touch. “I already can’t stand it. I’m already begging.”
Humming in the back of my throat, I let go of her hand and backed away from the bed, watching the need and want blowing her pupils into dark chasms. Breaking eye contact, I went about removing what was left of my clothing and tossed it on the floor.
I could feel her warm gaze tracing the lines of my back, heating skin that had been cold for centuries.
“I thought I told you to close your eyes,” I teased, as I made my way over to the washbasin to scrub the smears of blood and sticky sweat from my body.
Rivulets of water ran down my stomach and puddled onto the floor until I was someone I recognized in the mirror once again.
Not the bloodthirsty monster I’d become.
Claire was propped up on her elbows, watching me with a delicious flush running from her cheeks to her throat. All her copper hair loose around her face and cascading down her shoulders.
“You’re not closing your eyes.”
“I want to watch you,” she said. Chest heaving. Flush spreading. “I want to watch you watching me. I want you to see how tortured I am.”
I fisted my hard length as I drank her in. Rubbing it up and down like a depraved man, because I was a depraved man. My need thick and hard and already dripping for her.
She tracked the movement of each stroke as I made my way back to the foot of the bed. “Show me,” I demanded, my voice thick with pleasure. “Show me how tortured you are.”
Claire pushed herself onto her knees and undid the clasp on her black cloak, letting it slip off her shoulders and fall to the bed. Next came the buttons running down the front of her bodice. With each one, she showed me more and more skin until she could remove her arms from the belled sleeves.
My breath stilled. Time stilled. The whole damn world may have stilled, and it wouldn’t have mattered.
I longed to touch her. To taste the peaks of her nipples.
To draw each one in my mouth, sucking gently while her body writhed beneath me.
“Oh, Claire,” I managed, as a fresh bead of slickness rolled down my tip. “You torture me.”
A wicked grin spread across her face as she reached behind her back and began undoing the buttons of her skirt until it inched down her hips. The petticoat was next. Both bunching around her knees by the time she was done.
Finally, I had a perfect view of the thin undergarments covering her sweet little cunt. With her eyes locked on mine, Claire tugged them down her thighs until the soft v between them was bare for me.
She was everything, all at once.
“I am not worthy of such beauty,” I explained, one hand braced against the footboard of the bed to keep me in place.
“Of such perfection.” I drew in a ragged breath.
I was dying to hold her. To lick and taste her.
But I stayed put. Knowing it would be worth the wait.
“But I will do my best to earn you over and over again.”
“For a man of few words, you’ve given me many.”
This woman would be the death of me. I was sure of it. But she wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t help it. Everything about Claire drew me, whether it was because we were fated or because I’d want her even if we weren’t. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No,” she said faintly. One hand cupping her breast. Squeezing it. “I like it.”
I let out a groan. “Keep playing with yourself. Let me hear how tortured you are. How badly you want this.”
Slowly, Claire reclined back on the pillows. I moved her skirt out of the way so I had a better view of her hand snaking between her thighs and parting her slick seam.
She gasped, and so did I as I opened the connection between us.
Feeling everything she felt as she explored her body.
Finding pleasure in each little circle of her finger.
Moaning. Sighing. Trembling. Breathing my name.
Unable to stop myself, I climbed onto the mattress, and gently coaxed her legs open.
My fingers glided down her thighs, leaving behind a trail of goosebumps as she continued. I’d be right here so many times, but this time, I wasn’t between her legs for a feeding. I was here to devour her. To satisfy her. To make her my wife.
Wrapping my hands around her thighs, I ran my tongue along her sex, and her legs snapped shut around my neck.
“B-Bastien, please,” Claire moaned, her fingers twining in my hair.
I knew what she wanted. I knew what she needed to come. I could feel it. Soft, slow strokes of my tongue, teasing her first, before picking up the pace. Then licking, licking, licking. Lapping every drop of her. Her hips circling as she chased her pleasure.
I felt it building inside me. So close. So close. But she needed more. I crawled on top of her, rubbing the heavy weight of my cock over her center, sending bolts of pleasure through every inch of me.
“Claire…” Her name whispered like a prayer almost too precious to be spoken aloud. “Come for me. Come all over me.”
“I’m-I’m. Oh, Bastien!”
“I know, darling. Let it go.”
Gripping my back so hard I was sure she’d drawn blood, Claire screamed my name as she trembled beneath me. She ran her hands up my back, pulling me closer against her. I relished the feel of her skin against mine. All the waiting was over. We were finally, finally giving in to each other.
I trailed my cock down until it pressed against her entrance. She was so wet, and I was so hard. She wrapped her legs around my hips and coaxed me deeper, but I resisted.
Nuzzling my nose against the side of her face, I pressed a kiss against her jaw, then whispered, “I’ve ached for you. Burned for you. Dreamed of you even though I haven’t slept in hundreds of years. I need you. All of you. My love. My only love. Are you ready to become my wife?”