Chapter Twenty-Nine #3
I chuckle and swipe my tongue over his lower lip. “Stamina comes with practice, I am told.” I am hardly faring better myself, after all. Stubbornness keeps me in line. Selfishly, I want to watch Dante come, and I cannot do that if I am overcome with my own pleasure.
“Please…”
“What?”
“Touch me.”
I reach between our bodies and stroke his hard cock.
Dante’s hands are everywhere, moving from my arms to my shoulders to my back as he tries to pull me closer, hold me tighter.
I bury my face into his neck so I can lick and bite soft skin.
His cock stiffens even more in my hand, hot and hard, and he’s as close as I am, but maybe I can tip him over the edge—
“Lark!” He cries out my name and his entire body jerks as he comes. His thighs tighten around my hips, and his hole clenches, and I almost come outright, but I manage to stave the feeling off.
I lift my head to watch his face instead. His mouth is open, breaths sawing in and out of his chest. His lips are swollen, cheeks flushed. He is a vision. I make a wounded sound and drive my cock into him again.
“Don’t stop,” he murmurs. Of course I would if he asked, but I am glad he has not.
I kiss his slack mouth instead and lower my body fully over his, resting on my elbows on either side of his head.
Dante’s hands slide down my back until he can cup my arse and squeeze. “Wanna feel you come inside me.”
I groan and kiss him again. And again and again until the pleasure rolling down my spine coalesces and I come with my own faint cry of his name, trembling all over.
Dante kisses the corner of my mouth and runs his fingers through my hair. I slowly lower myself on top of him, and he lets out a faint huff but holds me tighter.
“I will never let you go,” I say. I am not certain whether it is a promise or a threat, but either way, Dante does not seem to mind; our bond lights up with his affection.
“Yeah, okay,” he says. He runs his thumb over the pointed shell of my ear and I shiver. “Oh? Are you sensitive here?”
I snort and gently push his hand away. “Very,” I say, and when I look at him intently, he grins.
We will go again later, but I will not push too hard now and hurt him. Besides, resting like this is nice. His arms around me and his body beneath mine are the most comfortable things I have ever felt. I pillow my head on his shoulder.
We lie there for a while, silent and comfortable. Dante does not seem to mind when I move my hands over his skin. He just combs knots out of my hair with his fingers and I am certain his mind is working, but I believe he will tell me whatever he is thinking when he is ready.
“I’m not sure where to start,” he says some time later.
I tip my head so I can catch a glimpse of his profile. “What do you mean?”
“Looking for the crownbearers.” Faint guilt reaches me. “I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.”
“We have,” I correct, then shake my head. “No. We will start with Iagan. He knows the fae of this realm better than anyone.”
“Spectra might have an idea too, if we can’t get hold of him right away,” Dante adds. “She and Sparrow. Maybe… weren’t there some fae in the Hunt? Not Iagan, the ones with Vasile.”
Rook and Saide. My lips pull into a frown. I remember what happened to them, of course. Everyone in the Otherworld does. It is what had me so surprised that Eirian would come looking for a vampire in this realm.
But perhaps that is why she looked in the first place.
“They are,” I say carefully. “They were.”
“Will they be able to help?”
I sigh. “I am uncertain. If Iagan truly does not know where they have gone, then I doubt we have a hope of finding them. They are trying very hard to remain hidden.”
Dante hums. He will know what I do. When Tamesis attacked the vampire clan a few years ago, he killed many of the human donors there at the time, including Crai Vasile’s personal donor, Jamal.
Rook and Saide were Vasile’s bodyguards, but Moreau had pulled them back to watch for Tamesis, understanding the danger the vampire truly was.
I believe Jamal was their soulbond. They are soulbonded to each other—Seelie and Unseelie, fae turned to vampires—but Jamal was part of that, too.
And, like me, they did not tell him before it was too late. I shiver and hold Dante a little tighter. Could that have been our fate? Could I have lost him so easily?
Dante’s hands move to my shoulders and back, gently patting as though to soothe me. “What is it? Are you okay?”
He is here. He is real. I feel his heartbeat vibrating through my body, and the way his chest rises and falls as he breathes.
“Perfect,” I say because I am. “I am happy we are here.”
Dante’s smile lights up his face, and I cannot resist chasing it. “We will find whoever we need to,” I murmur when our lips part. “And we will give them the crowns. And then we will never worry about the Otherworld again.”
Dante huffs. “I think you’re being very optimistic.”
“Well,” I say, and his eyes soften when I stroke my thumb over his lower lip, “at least whatever we do, we will do it together.”