17. Stellan
STELLAN
The darkness lasted only a few seconds. Bryony’s hand was already against my face when I opened my eyes.
“Stellan.” Her thumb moved over my cheek. “Can you hear me?”
My fangs ached.
“Get back.” The words scraped over the cut in my throat. “I’m too fucking hungry to have you kneeling there.”
She didn’t move. “Can you feed without hurting me?”
“I can stop once I start, but it’ll cost me. The court took too much, and you’re kneeling with your pulse against my hand.”
“You stopped last time.”
“Last time I wasn’t bleeding onto the floor.”
Bryony sat back on her heels and rolled up her right sleeve. Two faint marks remained from the first bite.
“You need blood. I have it, and we know you didn’t take too much last time.”
“Bryony.”
“You nearly tore your throat open getting me away from that Crown. I’m not watching you die because you’ve chosen now to become bloody polite.”
She moved between my bent knees and put her wrist against my mouth.
I turned my head.
Bryony followed the movement and pressed her pulse to my lower lip. She didn’t ask again. Her other hand slid into my hair, holding me there with a firm grip that sent a different hunger down my body.
I caught her waist with my free hand. “Pull away the moment you want me to stop.”
Her fingers tightened in my hair, and she pushed her wrist against my fangs.
I bit.
Her blood filled my mouth. The first swallow stopped the shaking in my arm. The second eased the pressure in my chest, and the collar loosened enough to let me breathe. Bryony’s body softened between my knees as pleasure followed the bite. She made a quiet sound and leaned closer.
I kept one hand at her waist and drank slowly. Her pulse ran fast against my tongue. Each mouthful repaired the damage at my throat and returned feeling to my hands. I still knew the exact moment her body had given enough.
I lifted my fangs from her wrist and closed the wounds with my tongue.
“Fuck.” She rested her forehead against my temple. “I remembered it being intense.”
“Your memory was being generous.”
A breath of laughter touched my skin. “You’re criticising my memory after drinking from me?”
“I’m alive enough to be ungrateful again.” My voice had regained its depth. “You can move back now.”
She stayed where she was.
Bryony ran her fingers over the blood drying on my chest. The cuts had closed, and my cock was already hard against my trousers.
“Do you know what frightened me most in there?” she asked.
“The Crown speaking in my head was bad. Seeing you at those doors while the chains cut into you was worse. You knew what the court would do when you crossed that threshold, and you did it anyway. Then you sat here and tried to send me away while you bled out. You don’t get to pretend that was sensible. ”
“It was the only choice that got you out.” I covered her hand with mine.
“I could stand in the doorway and take the iron, or I could watch the Crown close around you. There was nothing sensible to consider. I’ve seen what happens when that thing reaches a woman who can wake it.
I wasn’t going to let it take you while I still had enough strength to interfere. ”
Her gaze stayed on our hands. “It showed me you free. No collar, no chains and no Adrian waiting outside. You held out your hands, and the Crown made it look as easy as touching it and walking into the sun with you. For a few seconds, I wanted to believe it so badly that I could barely hear you.”
“You heard me in the end.”
“Because you told me it would punish you if I walked away, and you told me to leave anyway. The Crown promised to give me everything without admitting what it would take. You were bleeding and still gave me the choice that hurt you. That’s why I came to you when the doors closed.
” She lifted her eyes. “It isn’t trust. I’m still angry about what you haven’t told me. But it matters.”
“It matters to me too.” I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed the faint bite marks.
“More than this court opening another chain. More than Adrian losing his hold on the house. You walked away from the power that kept Cecily trapped for years. You did it half dressed, furious and swearing. I don’t think Harrowmere has ever seen a refusal quite like yours. ”
Bryony’s mouth curved. “There was more swearing in my head.”
“I heard enough to be impressed.”
“You looked terrified.”
“I was.” I didn’t soften the answer. “For the first time in a century, I was more afraid of losing you than of what those chains could do to me.”
Her palm moved down my stomach and stopped at the waist chain. “Does this hurt?”
“The iron does. Your hand doesn’t.”
Her palm settled against my skin.
“I’ve finished feeding. If you stay this close, I’m going to kiss you.”
Her eyes rose to mine. There was no silver in them and no distant look left by the Crown. She shifted forwards until her knees touched my hips, then put both hands on my shoulders and kissed me.
My hand closed around the back of her neck as I opened her mouth with mine. She tasted of sleep and the water she’d drunk earlier. The trace of her blood on my tongue made the kiss rougher than the one in the garden, and Bryony met it without pulling back.
The chain at my waist stopped me drawing her fully onto my lap. I changed our position, lifting her by the hips until she straddled my right thigh instead. Her thin sleep shirt rode high. Bare skin met the worn fabric of my trousers, and her breath caught against my mouth.
I moved my thigh against her. She gripped my shoulders and released a sharp breath.
My hand slid under her shirt and up her back. She wasn’t wearing a bra. When I brought my palm around and covered her breast, her nipple was already hard. I rolled it between my fingers, and her hips moved over my thigh.
I held her breast and guided the first roll of her hips.
Her legs tightened around mine as she found a steady rhythm. The first damp heat reached me through my trousers. I watched her face change with every slow movement.
She caught me watching her.
“I’ve wanted you on my lap since you pointed that torch at my face.”
Her gaze dropped to the waist chain, then returned to me.
I kissed the side of her neck.
My fangs dragged lightly over her pulse.
“Stellan.”
“I know.” I tightened my hold on her hip. “You’re getting wet on my thigh, and I can smell every bit of it.”
She moved harder instead of hiding her face.
I held her gaze as I pushed her shirt up to expose both breasts. Her eyes darkened before I bent to take one nipple into my mouth.
Bryony’s hand closed around my hair. I sucked slowly, using my tongue until her movement lost its steady pace. Her cunt rubbed over my thigh with each broken roll of her hips. The scent of her arousal grew stronger, and my cock throbbed against my clothes.
I raised my mouth from her breast. “If these chains were open, I’d carry you to that bed and strip you slowly. I’d put my mouth between your legs until you forgot the Crown ever spoke your name.”
The image reached her through the bond. Her breath caught, and her hips pressed harder against my thigh.
“I can’t do all of that tonight, so I’m using what I have.”
Bryony looked at the iron, then lifted her hips before I asked.
I caught the sides of her knickers and ripped them from her. She settled back onto me with nothing between her pussy and my trousers, wet heat pressed directly over my thigh.
“Oh, fuck.” Her nails bit into my shoulders.
I gripped her arse and moved her over me. She followed the pressure, rocking against the hard muscle of my thigh while I kissed her. Her mouth grew less controlled. Each breath broke into the kiss, and she held my hair hard enough to sting.
“You can take what you need,” she whispered.
“I already did.” I put my lips against her ear. “This is what I want.”
My hand slid between us. I ran two fingers over her pussy and found her clit swollen from the pressure of my thigh. Bryony jerked against my hand. I held her hip steady and rubbed her in slow circles.
I caught her gaze and slid one finger inside her. Her lips parted, and her body tightened around me.
“You’re so fucking wet.”
Her mouth curved.
“Very fucking pleased.” I added a second finger and pressed deeper.
Her answer became a moan when I curled my fingers. I knew where to touch from the sharp pull of her muscles and the sudden pressure of her hand at my neck. She rode my hand without needing instruction. I kept my thumb over her clit and let her set the pace while I controlled the pressure.
Bryony kissed me again. Her hand moved down my chest and stroked the shape of my cock through my trousers.
I caught her lower lip between my teeth. She opened my trousers and freed me, then wrapped her hand around the base and stroked upwards, spreading the wetness gathered at the head.
The first slow pass almost broke my rhythm. I tightened my fingers around hers once, showing her the pressure I wanted. She matched it as I curled my fingers inside her in the same rhythm.
Her thumb crossed the head on every upward stroke. I felt the answering pressure in her body through the bond, hot and immediate, while her cunt worked around my fingers.
Her breath broke against my mouth. The steady movement of her hips faltered, and her hand tightened around me.
I felt her getting close in the tightening of her body and the uneven strokes of her hand. Bryony pressed her face into my neck as I kept my thumb circling and my other arm firm around her.
She came with a broken cry against my skin. Her cunt clenched around my fingers as her whole body tightened. I held her through every hard pulse, keeping the pressure steady until she softened against me.
“I’m not finished,” she murmured.
I smiled against her mouth. “Thank fuck.”
I wrapped my hand over hers and guided the next stroke. Once she caught the pace, I returned my hand to her arse and held her against my thigh. She watched me now, her cheeks flushed and her lips swollen from my kisses.
I came across her hand and my stomach with her name leaving my mouth. Pleasure tightened every muscle the chains allowed me to move. Bryony stayed close until it passed, her lips against my jaw and her hand still wrapped around me.
I cleaned her hand with the least damaged part of my shirt, then pulled the hem of hers down over her breasts. Her knickers were beyond saving, so she left them on the floor.
She glanced at her ruined knickers. “That’s going to be awkward if anyone comes in.”
“Then they’ll regret the timing.”
Her tired laugh warmed my chest.
I drew her closer.
She shifted off my thigh, winced at the state of my trousers and settled sideways across my lap. I closed my arm around her as far as the waist chain allowed.
Bryony covered the healed cut at my throat with her hand.
“I thought feeding you would leave me dizzy again. Instead, I’ve lost my knickers, ruined your trousers and discovered you can be unbearably smug while chained to a wall.”
“My throat is healed, my heart is beating and you’re naked from the waist down on my lap. I’m calling the treatment successful.”
She settled more comfortably against me. The chain left little room, but neither of us moved away.
I pulled her shirt lower over her thigh. “You gave me enough to heal without leaving yourself weak. We’ll still eat and drink before we move again.”
“There’s the bossy vampire.”
“He nearly died. It damaged his patience.”
“You’re warm,” she said.
“Your blood.”
The manacle around my wrist clicked open.
Bryony lifted her head as the iron slid over my hand and struck the floor between our feet.