40. Chapter 40
40
M y eyes drifted shut, and I rested my head on his shoulder, listening to the sound of running water and feeling the kiss of rising steam. He was filling the tub, I realized. Minutes later, he sank into the wickedly hot water, pulling me into the bathtub with him. He situated me so I was lying with my back to his chest, my hips nestled between his legs.
His lips brushed against my neck, over the open bite wounds that were now purely sore, no hint of pleasure. I whimpered at the shock of pain, but a moment later, a tingling warmth melted it away as his blood healed my wounds.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
Gavin chuckled. “I should be the one thanking you,” he said, the low rumble of his voice vibrating against my back. “You were spectacular.”
My cheeks flamed. “I’ve never done that,” I confessed. “What you did to me, I mean. I’ve never . . .”
Gavin brushed his lips over my freshly healed skin, sending goosebumps cascading down my arms. “Did you like it?”
I huffed out a guffaw and craned my neck to meet his eyes. “You’re kidding, right?”
Gavin’s lips curved into a pure, sweet smile, and he pressed his mouth to mine in a brief, gentle kiss. Pulling away, he reached for a washcloth and plunged it through the velvety bubbles covering the surface of the water. “How do you feel?”
I turned my thoughts inward, focusing on the hum in my blood. “Electrified,” I admitted.
“Good,” he said as he ran the sudsy cloth down my arms and over my breasts, the contact against my nipples making my eyelashes flutter. He washed my belly and moved over my hips and down my thighs, moving inward as he made the return trip up my legs. I winced when he reached my sex. The immortal blood they had used as lubricant had protected my tender inner flesh, but my outer lips and clit were definitely sore.
With a low growl, Gavin raised one hand to his mouth. He bit into his wrist, then submerged the open wound under the bubbles, turning the bathwater a rosy pink and filling the room with the rich scent of his blood. “Give it a few minutes for the blood to soak in.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” I told him. “I’m just a little sore. It’s fine.”
Gavin relaxed behind me, one hand draped across my middle, the other arm propped up on the side of the tub, but his death grip on the washcloth expressed how much he disagreed with my assessment of the situation. It was as though he took my every discomfort as a personal affront.
I rested my head back on his shoulder once more. “The shower worked,” I said, watching his profile out of the corner of my eye. “I understand the dream now.”
“And?” he asked, drawing slow circles around my navel with a lone fingertip.
“They’re all there in the same dungeon—Javier, Thane, and the queens—just like I saw in the dream,” I said. “I don’t know how I know it, but it just feels right.”
Gavin’s hand stilled. “And the part about not being able to save everyone?”
I sighed. “If we rescue Javier and Thane, the queens will starve,” I said. “The shifters are too proud to feed the queens their own blood. They’ve been using Javier to sustain their captives’ blood needs, and now they’re using Thane as well. That’s why he’s even still alive.”
Gavin blew out a breath, and his finger continued making lazy circuits around my belly button. “So we have to leave an undead behind to feed the queens, or we rescue every one of our people Veris is holding prisoner.”
“I promised Ash we would rescue Thane,” I murmured, my voice small, “but I can’t leave Javier there, not when he’s been held prisoner for so long.” My chin trembled. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t choose one over the other.”
Gavin was quiet for a long moment. “You won’t have to.”
I turned partway, sloshing soapy pink water against the sides of the tub. “You want to try breaking them all out of there?”
“Something like that,” he said, his hand skimming lower on my belly until his fingers glided between my legs. “How do you feel now?” There was no hint of soreness as his fingertips skimmed the length of my lips, sliding back up to graze my clit.
“Fine,” I said, the word coming out breathy. I made a tiny whimper when he delved that fingertip under the hood of my clit and touched that raw bundle of nerves.
“Still a little tender, I see,” he said matter-of-factly.
He withdrew his hand and brought it up to his mouth once more, this time biting into the tip of his middle finger. His free hand ventured under the water, gliding down my belly to delve between my legs, one finger settling on either side of my clit. He pulled back on the hood, fully exposing my most sensitive of places, and reached between my legs with his other hand to press his bleeding finger against my unprotected clit.
I gasped, arching against him as his immortal blood seeped into raw, exposed nerves. “Holy shit,” I said, suddenly shivering despite the warm water. I grabbed Gavin’s wrist, but his arms were like iron bars, absolutely immovable.
“We have to make sure the blood soaks in,” he murmured, stroking his bitten fingertip back and forth over my exposed clit.
I squeezed my eyelids shut, feeling the pleasure rapidly coiling tighter and tighter within me.
“Just a little more,” he whispered, grazing his teeth over the sensitive, newly healed skin on my neck. “I won’t have anyone accusing me of neglecting my queen.”
“I’m going to come, Gavin,” I panted. “I’m going to come.”
He bit down on my neck, not enough to break the skin, but enough to remind me of the thrill I felt while he tasted my blood.
The pleasure snapped within me like a whip crack, and I groaned, my hips rising to press my clit more firmly against his fingertip. Waves of delicious ecstasy spread out from my core, not fueled by bloodlust or immortal blood, but pure and brief.
As the pleasure waned and Gavin withdrew his hands from between my legs, I melted back against him, my body going boneless. “That was unexpected,” I said, my tone wistful.
Gavin’s increasingly familiar chuckle vibrated through me, but it ended in a sigh. “We should get out and dry off,” he said. “The others are sure to be waiting.”
Resigning myself to the inevitable, I sat forward and let him stand and climb out of the tub first, then placed my hand in his and accepted his help in pulling me up to my feet.
Fun time was over. It was time to prepare for battle.