Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Mate.
I had an understanding of what that meant: my blood called to him and would strengthen him better than the average human’s or the synthetic equivalent.
But as Eamon knelt at my feet, pushing my skirts higher until the apex of my thighs was exposed, covered by the scrap of fabric I wore, I struggled to focus on anything else.
He pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the bare skin of my leg, gathering my dress in one hand to brush his fingers across the path his mouth had taken.
Each movement was reverent, a ritual in and of itself, and I panted at the sight of it, at the feel of it.
My core throbbed as he pressed his nose against my sex, breathing deep.
“I’ll take such good care of you, little bird,” he promised, cool breath prickling my skin.
Gold blazed in his irises. His hair was wild around his face, adding to the feeling that the male before me was not the one I’d come to adore.
I am not the man you think I am, he’d said.
And he was right—it was easy to forget this male was ancient, that his time walking these shores was endless and unfathomable.
His mouth closed over me, teeth scraping my clit, and I cried out, knees buckling as pops of pleasure burst beneath my skin. Fingers slid beneath the fabric and a quiet growl rumbled through the night as he traced the tips through my need.
“Forgive me that I have left you wanting.” The words were a rasp and he twisted his hand, the tear of my underwear barely audible.
But whatever I might have said was lost when his tongue lapped at my entrance and he lifted one of my legs to spread me wide.
My back pressed tighter to the trunk as he pushed my knee out and over his shoulder, opening me to him.
I reached for his head, steadying myself while he licked and sucked, his soft rumble of satisfaction vibrating over my skin.
“Goddess,” I groaned, pleasure coiling tight, as it had minutes ago when his teeth had been in my throat.
“It is you who is the goddess,” he answered. “And I would spend eternity worshipping at your feet.”
Heat sliced across my cunt and I cried out as he sank his teeth into my sensitive flesh, drinking deep.
A bright, sudden orgasm rushed over me and my cry turned into a guttural moan.
Never had I felt this before—any experience paled in comparison to this.
And with each pull my release extended until I was dripping more than blood between my thighs, until I was riding his face and screaming his name.
Two fingers pressed into my entrance and I bucked. Each moment was agony and ecstasy mingled together while he pumped his hand. Stars burst before my eyes, tears caught in my lashes and rushed down my cheeks.
“That’s it, little bird,” he praised, drawing back to lick the wound. “You come so beautifully around my fingers and your cunt wears my bite like a jewel.”
I sobbed, my body jerking as I came again and again until finally he took mercy on me. His fingers slipped from my sex and he pressed his hand firmly against my clit and the wound, shushing me in soft tones as he kissed my thighs and lowered my leg to the ground.
“Perfect. So fucking perfect for me.”
When my body quieted, he leaned forward, tongue languorously dragging across my sex, and in its wake that same gentle burn flared before dying out.
He slipped his fingers into his mouth, sucking my taste from his skin before he pulled my ruined underwear from my hips, guiding one ankle up and then the other, then tucked them into his trouser pocket.
“I have you, my heart,” he murmured, drew my skirts down and rose to his feet.
I was trembling from more than just the ferocity of the feeding.
Lines had been crossed tonight—so many I could not quantify them all.
And though I’d wanted all of it, begged him for it in fact, I had not stopped to count the cost. But Lord Azad was kissing my jaw, stroking my tangled hair back from my face and bracketing my throat in his gentle hand.
“Look at me.”
My eyes squeezed shut and I shook my head. Lips brushed against my brow, the curve of my cheekbone. Each touch quieted the panic, even while my mind rebelled and asked again and again: what if, what if, what if?
I’d seen what happened when one bent to the whims of powerful creatures.
All my life I’d watched as my family fell prey to their supposed kindness and generosity.
Beautiful immortals who swept into our tiny home with brilliant eyes and lofty promises, leaving behind such devastating wreckage in their wake.
Lord Azad was different—every cell in my body told me so.
Yet I would be a fool to allow myself to fall into him, to give myself over to this desire, with all I’d seen in my life.
“Do you know what it means to be a blood mate?” he asked, voice soft in the dark of night.
I nodded. My mother had educated me in such things, and I’d seen her mates. He would crave my blood for a time, desire it above all others. But I did not know how long that would last, and when he would find another mate, casting me to the side.
They are fickle creatures, she’d said. Covetous like dragons with gold in their dens and just as brutal.
“Then you know I will never hurt you,” he breathed, turning my face toward his with his index finger on my jaw.
Again, I nodded, though it was more a small jerk of my chin. I didn’t want to argue with him, not right now. His thumb traced the curve of my bottom lip, citrine eyes blazing in the dark. My hands clutched his shirt and I could not decide if I wanted to pull him closer or push him away.
“You are my dawn and twilight, my dusk and deepest night,” he whispered in Kysoi. My eyes burned with the tears I had yet to shed while he leaned in. “I will never leave you again.”
His mouth covered mine before I could answer, swallowing my sob as it left my throat.
My head spun when he sucked my lip between his teeth, biting softly and brushing his tongue across the mark.
A low moan strummed through his chest, hands delving into my hair to tilt my face up to his.
He devoured me as I knew he would—with a wild abandon that spoke of a longing I could understand so well.
A longing that would make my dreams come true.
A longing that would make my fears turn real.
A longing that would chew me up and spit me out until I was unrecognizable.
Eamon had said he would never leave me again, and I knew when he spoke the words he believed he was telling the truth.
I did too. But that did not stop me from fearing the moment when the world came crashing down as it was wont to do—as his immortal fascination for the shiny and new crept back in.
As I aged and decayed while he stayed as he had always been.
I had to find a way to avoid that fate, to avoid the fate I’d seen play out before my eyes as a young girl, if I was to have any chance of surviving this.
If I could survive it.