CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
EMMERY
His words were all the incentive Emmery needed.
She reached for Dez and their mouths collided, practically snarling from all the pent up desire that she’d kept bottled and now seeped from every pore. She wanted to tear his clothes off, rake her nails down his skin, sink her teeth into him, and drink his blood until she was drunk off it.
“A few small rules,” he whispered, his voice rough. He rolled her from beneath him and gently added, “Stand up, Em.”
She frowned but stood at the side of the bed. He perched himself on the edge, grasped her hips, and tugged her between his spread legs.
“First, if you want me to stop, you don’t hesitate. If anything makes you uncomfortable you say so. My feelings completely aside, yeah?”
She nodded and held his face in her hands. As they slickened with his blood, it took all her restraint not to lick it from her fingers. Her cheeks burned as she recalled the streak of pleasure and raw need it brought.
As if Dez could see her thoughts, he gave her a feral smile. “Second, blood exchange is sacred. We only do so in ritual bonds or with lovers. So if we share, I want you to do so with me, and only me.”
Now it made sense why the Treasurer had called him her lover. Her cheeks flared hotter as she realized she’d taken his blood at Thirst without asking. But he hadn’t stopped her and, really, she couldn’t imagine sharing with anyone else. “I can handle that,” she said.
“Good.” His smile was more devious than ever. “And third, as much as I know you love vexing me, I need you to listen. I don’t want to repeat the day at the pond. Can you do that for me?”
“You’re so bossy. But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.” Emmery bit down on her bottom lip. “And what if I have conditions?”
Leaning back on his hands, he tilted his head to the side like he undressed her with his eyes. “Do you?”
“What if—” His patience snapped, and he slowly worked her shirt buttons with deft fingers. “What if I want your heart, Dez?”
“Hmmm. You want my heart?” He peered up at her as he unfastened the fourth button and slid the fabric aside to reveal her shoulder and cavae. “It’s hardly worth it for this sad, withered thing, but it’s already yours.”
His finger traced her cavae before he repeated the same pattern with his tongue.
Emmery gasped in both shock and awe, trembling as the sensation echoed between her legs.
Dez’s breathing sped and he winced as the tendons in his neck strained and the thorns tore through.
A small, dejected noise slipped from the back of his throat, yet he didn’t stop.
Blood trickled from the wounds down his neck, shoulders, arms, chest, and she craved to kiss away his pain, but she could barely touch him.
As he popped the next button, he licked and laved down to her Shadowheart, then up to her zvezda.
Her whole body quivered, and the gathering dampness between her thighs only grew.
Hand tangled in his hair, she tugged on his curls.
Dez moaned into her skin as she breathlessly looked over his chest, her fingers itching for him to tremble like her.
“I wish I could kiss your scar,” she said, her voice a wisp of a thing.
Would his magic return his cavae? And since Dez had to be Hollow like his mum, what did that mean for his rule over Asaella?
“Soon,” he said softly. “And yours, my angel, are so lovely. So stunning.”
Dez finished with the last button and slid the shirt off her shoulders, savouring every inch of her as the fabric fell away, until she stood there in only her undergarments.
The black shorts were nothing to fuss over, yet his eyes hooded like he’d thrown back a shot of celestial trumpet.
As he took in the puckered scar over her heart and jagged smile across her abdomen, she held her breath.
It took all her strength not to hide, but she kept her chin held high and let him see her.
Gods knew Dez had enough scars himself. They were both battered and beaten by this life, and their bodies were proof.
He hissed something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like a curse. At her raised brow, he chuckled low in his throat. “Let’s just say the translation is close to one of your favourite filthy words.”
She wound a few of his curls around her fingers and revelled in the softness. “Which one? I have many.”
“I’ll let you decide.” He leaned up and kissed her as he took her breasts in his hands, then caressed and kneaded until her head spun and she whimpered against his mouth, both of them breathless. “I’m sure you already know, but you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Emmery.”
She shook her head. Her voice disappeared as emotion flared and threatened to drown her, and she couldn’t swallow past that lump in her throat. Had anyone so earnestly called her beautiful before? Surely her mother did at one time, and Shade—
Emmery ripped herself from that dangerous thought.
“You should be reminded everyday. I’ll say it as many times as you like, in any language that pleases you.” He dipped his head toward the bed. “I need you to lie down for me.”
“Bossy,” she teased in a sing-song voice. But she laid herself out like his next meal and stared with wide eyes as he stood and rounded the end of the bed. Despite the thorns and the blood that ran down his body, his eyes were bright, and his thick arousal strained against his pants.
“You want to play and have a little fun, right?” he drawled, savouring the tension. As Emmery bit down on her bottom lip and nodded, a spark of excitement flared in her chest. Dez braced his hands on the bed and leaned down. “Reach up and grab the headboard for me.”
She frowned, but wrapped her fingers around two of the cool, iron posts. “Why?”
He grasped her ankles and gently tugged her down the bed.
His wicked grin embodied all the fantasies he claimed lived in his head, this undoubtedly one of them.
“The thorns are sharp, so I need you to stay still. I can’t have your hands wandering.
” His stare melted her to a puddle. “Can you be good and keep them there for me? Because if you move, I’ll have to stop. And I don’t think you’ll want that.”
Fluttering filled her stomach and her heart thrummed like a wild, caged thing. “So you want to watch me squirm,” she said, her smile saturated with anticipation.
He prowled up the bed and kissed her. “If I do?”
“Make it worth it and I’ll happily squirm for you.”
His blood dripped onto her body and her mouth watered, but, damn it, she would not lose the game, so she kept her hands wrapped around those iron rods like her life depended on it. As he licked her scars again and her hips bucked off the bed, he smiled into her skin and asked, “Want a taste?”
“Please.” Damn it, now she was the one begging.
Dez gathered blood from his neck on two of his fingers. Without hesitation, she held his eyes as she licked up them, before she took them into her mouth. His blood was incomparable, the sweetest drug, and only made the throbbing between her legs intensify.
“You’re so perfect,” he breathed as he watched her circle his fingers with her tongue. “The things I want to do to that mouth … vera da mieste.”
Her teeth playfully grazed his fingers as he pulled them free. An impish grin curled her lips. “I know that one.”
“So you do.” He made his way down, licked and nibbled and kissed her body like it was ravishing, a sanctuary and he was worshipping her. “Maybe I’ll teach you more Sellidic tonight. Then you can be the one helplessly moaning it.”
Her breath stuttered as his thumbs slid into her waistband and shimmied her shorts down her hips before he tore them off and tossed them aside. Emmery pinched her legs together and gave him a coy smile. “You’re cocky for someone who has been, how did you put it? ‘Essentially abstinent.’”
“Anatomy isn’t overly complicated. It’s like playing an instrument.
Hit the correct notes in the right order and time and you have yourself a symphony.
I only need to discover what makes your body sing.
And I know a good place to start.” His hands paused as he traced the lines of her hip bones, his lips contemplatively pressed together.
“Besides, I like to think enthusiasm triumphs inexperience. Wouldn’t you say? ”
As he slowly teased her thighs apart, skimming his fingers down her legs and baring her wet center, he took his bottom lip between his teeth and hummed a satisfied moan then settled between them.
Completely exposed, her throat worked and nerves swarmed her stomach like rampant bees. “I, uhm, I’ve never done … this before.”
Dez’s eyes flicked to hers from where he kneeled. “No?”
Unsure what to say, Emmery shook her head. Her experiences before had been taken, not shared, and certainly never for her enjoyment.
In the dark room, his eyes never left hers, in an understanding, warm gaze. The mutual stillness of that look held her.
“It's a privilege to be your first. I shouldn’t admit how much that pleases me,” he purred.
Eyes locked on hers, he kissed up her thigh, and she already leapt from her skin, squirming for him.
Damn it, she was going to lose faster than she thought.
“Now, keep those pretty little fingers where I can see them. I want to watch your sparks when you come for me.”
He kissed and licked everywhere but where she needed him, where she throbbed and ached, until, holding her gaze, he licked up her center.
Slowly. Torturously. Her vision fuzzed and a smattering of colours exploded behind her eyes.
The warmness and softness of his mouth left her pathetically breathless.
She felt Dez’s smug smile as he did it again and her head kicked back.
A strangled moan escaped her throat that would surely provide unending embarrassment later.
But nothing had ever felt like this.
Nothing had ever felt this good.