27. Vesper
Vesper
It takes exactly three cups of chamomile, two of my special lavender oils, and a highly credible threat of unleashing a glitter bomb in Manny’s vintage silk closet before he finally stops hyperventilating in the kitchen.
Bethie is asleep in her swing, worn out from all the trick-or-treating.
Manny sits at the kitchen table, clutching a floral teacup like a lifeline, his magpie wings twitching every time Valefar shifts his weight in the corner of the room.
“So,” Manny declares, then clears his throat and tries to summon his usual theatrical tone. “You’re telling me…he was a demon. But he’s not a demon anymore? He’s just…tall?”
“Six feet and five inches, to be exact,” Valefar responds.
I reach over and take my man’s new hand. Completely human. Just a strong grip of a man who looks like he could build a house with his bare hands. “And yes. He’s human. Well, mostly human.”
Valefar’s tail twitching behind him immediately draws Manny’s attention.
“Right,” Manny mutters, taking a long, slow sip of tea. “The tail. Frankly, Vesper, if you’re going to domesticate a creature from hell, keeping the tail is the only sensible aesthetic choice. I saw the horns go.”
Valefar nods. “My crown has been surrendered. I am mortal. Human.”
Manny stares at him for a long, quiet moment.
He surveys Valefar’s thick dark hair, his striking golden eyes, and the broad, massive frame which still dominates the kitchen even at his reduced height.
A slow, dramatic sigh escapes Manny’s lips.
“Well,” he muses, setting his teacup down with a soft click.
“I’m glad you got to keep the mane. The haircut options are endless.
And honestly, 6’5” is much more off-the-rack friendly.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to source a seven-foot tailored coat in this town?
You, big guy, are going to look spectacular in a wool coat this winter. ”
I let out a soft laugh, the night’s weight finally lifting from my shoulders. Valefar is staring down at me with a breathtaking adoration. The happiness is so overwhelming, it makes my chest ache.
“Now,” Manny says, standing up, filing into the sitting room where he scoops my sleeping toddler out of her swing.
“I’ll take Bethie Bean back to my place for the night.
My parents also want to spoil her for Halloween.
You two look like you’ve been through a theological blender.
Go. Figure out how this new…human thing works. ”
“Thank you, Manny.”
It’s not the first time Bethie has had a slumber party. Manny still lives with his parents. His very rich parents who have a very rich nursery thanks to Manny’s older sister and her four little ones. It’s one reason why Manny’s so good with kids. And works so cheap.
“Don’t thank me yet.” Manny pauses at the door with a knowing wink. “I’m going to braid that man’s mane someday. Have fun, kids.”
The door clicks shut behind him, leaving the house completely, beautifully silent.
I turn to Valefar, who is touching his hair with an expression of mild alarm. The energy between us is warm and charged with an intensity that makes my breath catch. “The woods,” I say softly. “Let’s get out of the house. I want to feel the fresh air.”
Valefar nods, his hand tightening around mine. “I will follow you anywhere, my Evening Star.”
After I grab two big old blankets, we slip out the back door, leaving the candles and the chalk lines of the pentagram behind on the grass.
We walk into the cool autumn woods behind the house, the dry maple leaves crunching softly beneath our feet.
The air is crisp, smelling of woodsmoke and damp pine needles, but I don’t feel the chill.
Because beneath my skin, I feel him.
The shared soul hums in the center of my chest, a vibrant, living tether. We share heat in a deeper way now. And our heartbeats have synchronized.
We stop in a small, secluded clearing, surrounded by towering pines that block out the light of the streetlights. The moonlight filters through the branches, casting silver patterns across the forest floor.
He glances around, recognizing the clearing. “This is…”
“…where it all started,” I finish with a smile.
I turn to face him. I reach up, tracing the smooth skin of his brow where his horns used to be, then sliding down to cup his jaw. My skin tingles. “How does it feel?”
“Everything is…loud,” Valefar murmurs, studying my face. “The wind. The cold. The scents. It is overwhelming.” His tail winds slowly around my waist, pulling me closer. “But the loudest thing of all…is you.”
I slide my hands beneath his scrappy Jinu robe, pressing my palms against his broad, warm chest. The moment my skin touches his, a sudden, electric shock of pure pleasure ripples through my entire body. I gasp, my knees going weak.
Valefar catches me, his arms locking around my waist. “Vesper,” he breathes. “I felt that. In my own chest. Your touch…it is like fire.”
“The half-soul,” I whisper, my fingers curling into his robes. “We feel what the other feels. Weakness. Pain. Joy. Just like Harold said.” My heart hammers against my ribs. “And this.”
I reach up, pulling his head down, and press my lips to his.
The kiss is unlike anything we have ever shared.
It’s like two halves of the same soul slamming together.
It’s blinding. I feel the soft, parting pressure of his lips, the sudden, sharp rush of heat in his veins, and the fierce, protective hunger surging through his body.
And because of our bond, he feels my melting surrender, the liquid warmth pooling in my belly, and the desperate ache between my thighs.
He groans, the sound deep and entirely human, then snaps.
His hands are everywhere, unzipping the onesie to find the surprise I’d fully intended to show him tonight.
He takes a step back, his breath growing heavy as his eyes take a long, slow sweep along my body, the scarlet red lingerie accentuating my generous hourglass curves.
The lacy cups barely cover half my breasts, the hard nipples showing through the near-transparent fabric. The thong is already wet.
Valefar rubs a hand down his face, features hungry and carnal.
He pulls the Jinu robes from his shoulders, letting the fabric pool on the mossy ground.
I gulp, gazing too long at his gorgeous frame.
A thrill rushes through my veins at the sight of his sculpted abs, the chiseled torso, and the flawless Adonis belt leading to—oh God…
I’m so grateful his tail wasn’t the only thing he was allowed to keep.
My mouth waters as I reach for him, closing my hands around his thick cock.
Not monstrous anymore. It still holds it shape, the pointed tip, the smooth, soft head, a generous shaft with ridges.
It’s still thick and long, but it simply seems more… human.
When his bare, bronze chest presses against mine, the sheer sensation of our skin connecting makes me cry out, the sound lost when he claims my mouth.
Everything in him turns to pure predator right before he shoves down the onesie, lifts me off the ground, then buries himself inside me in one powerful thrust.
“Oh, God, Valefar, oh, God, harder!” I beg, careless over how the bark chafes my naked back or how his fingers dig into my palms from where he pins my hands against the tree.
The dank autumn leaves can’t overwhelm his natural musk, our sweat, and even the saltiness of his cum or my tangy fluids.
I am so fucked for this big guy. His stamina is insane.
And I get to wake up every day knowing I am an empowered woman who is left so satisfied, I’m half convinced this man was destined to ruin me for every other living creature.
With Valefar, my body feels cherished instead of merely wanted. And I’m beginning to suspect Hell’s greatest temptation was never power. It was competent dick. Okay, and a soul grown together through our new bond. And a tail with multiple uses.
He grinds against me, and I thrust my hips out, demanding more.
“Such a dirty girl.” He pauses, and I almost sink my teeth into him for stopping.
Until his burning gold gaze summons me, commanding my full attention.
“Do you love it when I fuck you in the middle of the woods? Nothing but the cool air upon your lovely skin with all your magnificent tattoos? And these exquisite breasts?” He cups one mound, the pad of his thumb rubbing the nipple.
“Mmm, why are you stopping, you damn demon?” I can’t help but crook a grin. In some ways, he’ll always be my demon.
He releases a dark chuckle, then gives me one fierce pounding. Like a hot, thick iron rod, and my pussy squeezes, flooded with arousal.
“Are you ready to beg, Mistress?” he taunts against my lips while his tail slides between my cheeks and into my anus. I gasp from how it spreads my anal walls, the pressure growing delirious.
“I’ll get on my knees and pray if I have to, just don’t stop!” I plead.
His brows dance. “Vesper.” He kisses his way to my collarbone. “You are…absolute paradise. Every sensation is a universe.”
“Show me,” I whisper, my hands tangling in his thick hair.
He does. In the quiet, moonlit clearing, under the canopy of autumn leaves and the brisk October air, Valefar claims his mortality. Every slide of his hands, every deep, slow movement, is magnified a thousand times through the golden and silver threads of our shared soul.
His overwhelming worship of my body courses through my heart, the satisfying ache of his physical form, and the sheer, staggering joy of him realizing he is finally, truly home.
When his tail pushes into my back hole, I tip my head back against the tree, whimpering from the pressure, both pain and pleasure.
He thrusts, pumping in and out while his mouth drags down the curve of my throat, teeth leaving little marks.
His mouth closes around my breast, tongue circling my peaked nipple, but he doesn’t lose his movements.
That dastardly tail shoves in and out, stretching me, blinding me with the desire taking me higher.
We move together in a perfect rhythm, our shared sensations spiraling higher and higher.
With the strong suction of his mouth around my nipple, his massive length hammering into my soaked center, and his tail pumping in and out, the orgasm breaks in brilliant waves, the world dissolving into a blinding rush of liquid gold and starlight.
The tether of our souls weaves the bliss into a fusion so powerful, nothing we’ve experienced could rival it.
Despite the cum flooding my pussy, Valefar stays hard inside me. When his tail leaves my anus and prods my backside like a stinging poke, I squeak. “I’m not finished with you yet, Vesper,” he says against my mouth, our breaths tangling. “My tail loves your asshole. My cock would love it more.”
A trigger of a memory splits in a second. “Fondue,” I rush out the word, the safe word I’d chosen when we first began experimenting.
Valefar rips all my breath away when he gathers me in his arms, lowers us to the ground, and holds me in a honeymoon-style hold close to his chest. His beating heart finds mine. “Ves, I’m here, I’m here.” His lips rub my brow as I shake against him. “I’m so sorry, my beautiful Beastie. What can I—”
“Vale,” I interject, cupping one side of his face.
“It’s okay. It’s not you. It’s just…there was this one time, on our honeymoon, Rick tied me to the bed face down, and he fucked me in the ass.
It hurt so much. But the wedding is for the woman, the honeymoon is for the man,” I spit out the words the church drilled into us.
A low growl erupts in his chest. His grip on me tightens.
“He was a damn fool. Anal play, when done properly, yields a great pleasure. It must come with preparation and precision. And…despite the horrors of the Pit, I know the difference between torture and beautiful torment. But your trauma is valid, my Ves. I would never wish to pressure yo—”
“I want to.” The blush in my cheeks heats up as I stare up at him. “With you. I want to try. I will try.”
“Are you certain?”
I unleash my inner brat. “If you feel up to the task.”
His brows lift, then lower in an expression which I can only describe as unbridled dominance. “You naughty, little Beastie.”
Three seconds later, he’s turned me over his lap, bringing his tail down, cracking it like a whip against my bottom. I squirm and writhe, yelping and shrieking, digging my nails into the ground as he spanks me with the skill only a Duke of Hell could. Former Duke of Hell.
He reddens my ass. The pulse low in my pussy flares hotter, lighting up nerve endings I didn’t know existed and leaving me startlingly aware of every inch of myself.
When he bends over and traces his tongue along the hot flesh, I melt into him, arching my back as he licks over every stripe. The cool air caresses the inflamed skin, soothing with his tongue. My inner muscles squeeze, more wetness seeping from me and wetting his lap. I’m nearly ready to explode.
When he turns me over, positions me with my legs over his shoulders, his face poised at my pussy, I choke on a gasp.
“Ride my face, Ves.”
With a devilish smirk, Valefar dives for my needy clit and licks the hypersensitive flesh like it’s the sweetest delicacy from heaven.
My screams fill the air.