Chapter 31 #2
He took a breath that sounded like it hurt.
“Where do I even start? The idea of him touching you—it makes me want to kill him.” He turned to me, head resting in one hand.
His blue eyes glassy. “It reminds me of when I caught you with Alec. Drunk and topless. His hands…” His voice broke off.
“I’d been so close to killing everyone in that room. ”
Tears flooded my vision as well. That was the night everything changed.
He’d given me the bloodstone that I was wearing right now and told me I was his mate.
Then he’d dug out plants in his greenhouse, not just to make room for me in his garden, but in his heart.
He’d put his life on the line, over and over again, just to keep me at his side.
He even agreed to create an heir, when it was the one thing he was afraid of, just to help me unlock my powers.
He’d done it all without a second thought. But this, this felt like a step too far. And I didn’t want to cause him this kind of pain. Nor did I want to lose his love or trust. “If this is how you feel, then it’s not worth it,” I said. “We’ll find another way.”
He dragged a hand through his hair. “I need to know something. And I need you to be honest with me.”
“Always.”
“Do you want him?” he asked. “I know how magnetic he can be.”
“No, of course not,” I answered immediately. Truthfully. “I don’t want anything with him. Having his power is more than enough.”
The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. “But doesn’t the idea of him touching me disgust you?”
I scooted closer to him on the bench so that our thighs were touching. I ran my hand through his hair, carefully pushing it behind his ear. He watched me. “No. It doesn’t.”
“How?” he asked, sitting up.
“He is nothing. Not to either of us. Not in the way that we are to each other. He said it himself. He is just an amplifier. Of our bond. Our love. Unless,” I hesitated, “does he still mean something to you?”
“No,” he said flatly. Then, after a beat, “Whatever we were before—whatever mistakes I made—that was a very long time ago. So long that I can’t even remember wanting him. My human memories are hazy, like a story I heard from someone else. But I haven’t wished for him back in my life. Not one bit.”
He exhaled, then added, “But I do want this power for you. Selfishly, I do want to be with you forever.”
The tears that had been threatening to spill over my lashes broke free. Two fat tears rolled down my cheeks. “Me too.” I dragged in my next breath. “But I won’t trade your trust for it. If this would destroy our relationship, then eternity means nothing.”
He leaned in and kissed my tears, catching the salty trails with his lips. His cool breath felt good on my flushed cheeks. With my face between his palms, he lifted my chin until we were eye to eye. “I would give you my immortality if I could.”
The demonic horn that was hiding in my skirt pocket began to vibrate. Bastien and I both glanced down at it. Slowly, he let go of my face to fish it out of my pocket. Once it was free, he held the vibrating horn between us.
The ceiling rumbled again. More dust rained down.
Neither of us moved, but something dark and dangerous flashed in his eyes. He slid off the bench and dropped to his knees in front of me.
“If I’m going to consider this, I need to know if I can handle it or not.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
I wasn’t sure what he had in mind until he began pulling my skirt up my legs, running the vibrating horn along the inside of my thighs. I momentarily forgot how to breathe when he spread my knees apart.
“Tell me what you want him to do to us.”
My eyes widened. I hadn’t been expecting this.
A long blink of his lashes. “Play along with me, cherie.”
I understood immediately that he needed this. I nodded once again, and the horn slid against my center. Vibrating. Vibrating. My breath came unsteady and thin. The desire that always lived just below my skin switching on.
“Do you want to watch him choke on my cock?”
I moaned. My back involuntarily arched.
“You could sit on my face while he did it.”
Another broken sound left my lips. The horn clattered to the ground, and his mouth was there. Licking and licking and licking. My fingers twisted into his hair, holding him closer against me, the heels of my boots digging into his back.
The tension that had been thick in the air ripped through me in waves as I imagined the scene coming to life. Two fingers slid inside me, thrusting in and out, and I whimpered. Heat and power and the ecstasy of being devoured by the man I loved came crashing together.
Bastien looked up at me, lips wet and pupils wide. “The only way I’d let him touch you is with a dagger against his throat. I’d tell him how to touch you. And if he strayed, I’d open his throat.”
“Bastien,” I choked out.
Everything inside me clenched. I was close. So close. He brought the horn back, holding its vibrating ridges against me. His fingers inside me. “Could you take us both? Could you stand that much inside you?”
A feral cry tore from my throat. Gorrath, with his rose thorns, Bastien with his scars. Gorrath meant nothing to me. Nothing. He was nothing. But imagining it? My husband and him? Feeding me enough power to turn me into an immortal?
“I can take it,” I rasped.
Bastien set my hand on the horn, encouraging me to keep going, then stood over me. Trousers unlaced. His hard length in his hand. He watched me with lust in his eyes as I teetered right on the edge.
“Put it in you. I want to see it,” Bastien gritted out. Working himself up and down like he was about to lose control.
I did as he asked and slipped the tip of the horn inside me. It was almost too much.
“Now fuck yourself.”
The command rippled through me, and I obeyed without question. Our eyes locked. Our chests rising up and down in tandem. It was only a moment before the heat of my building magick crested.
“I-I’m going to come,” I whispered, voice broken. Sweat dripping down the side of my face.
Bastien ripped the horn out of my hand. In one quick motion, he turned me around, lifted my skirt, and bent me over the table.
Rough, hard thrusts brought me to my climax, the table shaking beneath my palms while stars burst behind my eyes.
A curse and a moan left his lips, followed by the warmth I was craving.
It spilled inside me, and a smile rounded my lips.
This was the only thing I ever wanted. Him. Completely feral.
He kissed my hair. My neck. The tops of my shoulders.
“If you weren’t pregnant before, you will be,” he whispered.
His fingers gliding through my wetness, playing with the mess he’d made.
“If another man is going to touch you, he’s going to know who you belong to.
” He swirled his fingers against my sensitive spot.
I sucked in a shuddering breath. “Because you are mine.”