Chapter 11
Drak
How quickly my desires changed. All Lux had to do was look at me and tell me she saw me.
That maybe these insane episodes weren’t fucked up, but a contrast to her visions of the future.
She didn’t look at my fangs, and she didn’t care for the crown that adorned my skull.
For the first time, she was concerned about me—the cruel and twisted vampire king.
As promised, she didn’t put up a fight when I stooped and scooped her into the crook of my arms. The crowd spread like water around a stone, and she even lifted her chin to press a gentle kiss to my lips
A hush fell as two servants opened the double doors.
We passed through; the footsteps of the remaining council members trailing behind us.
The rest of the guests, the people of Mara and the few who had traveled from Skaldir, remained in the throne room.
They’d finish the celebration, cheering and dancing and waiting for the next course of food brought out by my servants while Lux and I feasted on one another.
Her thoughts echoed loudly, though not in the way I had hoped. She was already thinking ahead to our marriage bed.
This isn’t a betrayal to Kayn. Forgetting about him was already a betrayal. Wasn’t it? Drak is supposed to be my husband. But I wanted him before that.
Maybe this was what I’d hoped for. I couldn’t help the wicked smirk that curled across my face. Lux wanted me. Maybe I wasn’t alone. Maybe she felt this same string tethered between us, pulling us closer in thought and heat and fate.
Carrying her to the largest bedchamber, I shoved through the door and set her on the bed.
Jade fabric draped around her legs, hiding her feet but doing little to conceal the curve of her enticing hips as her thighs parted.
I craved to spread them further apart, and bury my face between her thick legs.
First, I had to bid the council farewell as they drew the doors closed, though they would linger nearby, ready to witness the sounds of our consummation.
When the door’s hinges groaned and then sealed shut, I ground my teeth together.
The heavy oak wasn’t enough to afford us the privacy I wanted.
This was a moment I’d obsessed over ever since sleeping beside her in the tent on the way back to Mara’s Keep from Skaldir.
She’d crushed her ass against me then, seeking the warmth of my recently fed body, and I hadn’t been able to forget how easily the shape of her curves fit against me.
I spun back around, mouth twisted in an apologetic frown. Her eyes flicked from the door to me.
“It’s a fucked-up tradition,” I said, hoping she understood I didn’t want this to just be a performance.
When she lifted one shoulder, the thin dress sleeve slipped down to her elbow. The sleeves were merely straps, with the strings and cage of the corset keeping the gown in place at her breasts and stomach.
My gaze darted to her exposed skin. The sheen of sweat glistened along her neck from the dance—and from the flame burning between us.
Candles flickered a yellow and orange glow from where they were spread in bronze candle plates across the floor.
Light framed the bed, sending shadows into an enchanting dance across the ceiling.
Lux’s eyelashes fluttered to the spot where I’d fixated.
Slipping off the bed, the skirt unfurled around her feet.
Slowly, she dragged the other sleeve off her shoulder and then reached for the ribbon binding the corset between her breasts.
Tugging it, the bow unraveled and the cage of the corset loosened, but not enough.
I took a step closer. “Are you ready?”
She nodded, pulling another two lines of ribbon loose. The binding spread, exposing more of her breasts. With every tug, my cock grew harder, as if her fingers were closing around it instead of the ribbon. Fuck, I needed her. I needed to rip that damn corset off her and throw her onto the bed.
Striding closer, I tipped my forehead to hers. “Are you sure? Because once this gown is off you, I don’t think I can hold back.”
Again, she only nodded, but her thoughts revealed what she kept close to her chest. “Fuck me, Drak. Carve out the darkest parts of me and use them to make me shake.” All of her worry had sloughed away, and not even the gods seemed to reach her now.
“You know I can hear you?” I breathed.
Her pink lips tipped up. “I know.”
Without another word, she unraveled the rest of the ribbon and let the binding fall on the floor at her heels. Green fabric rippled to her feet like a puddle reflecting the shades of the trees above it.
My cock strained against my trousers. I traced her collarbone up to her throat, my fingers wrapping around her neck as I drew her closer.
“Let’s give them a show,” she said. My gut knotted, unsure of how to feel about a performance, about all of this being a lie. But it was our lie, crafted together. “Fuck me, Drak.” She spoke it aloud, and something inside me shattered—every restraint gone.
Slamming my mouth against hers, she released a delicious moan. Her lips parted, inviting my tongue inside. I kissed her ravenously. First her mouth, then her jaw, her throat, the soft rise and fall over her collarbone. Her breasts, fuck her breasts tasted so good.
I sucked a tight nipple between my lips, and she gasped. Smiling against her pink skin, I did it again and again, swirling the tip of my tongue around the bud.
“You’re teasing me,” she said between breaths.
“Not fast enough for you?”
“I need you inside me.”
My hands followed the shape of her waist, her hips, her ass. Palming the back of her soft thighs, I lifted her and dropped her onto the bed.
She lay spread before me, a fucking feast of bare skin and a shimmering, slick center. Her chest swelled and fell as she gulped the heady air between us.
I grabbed the back of my tunic and fisted the linen, yanking the entire piece of clothing over my head in one pull before unhooking the belt at my waist. Dropping to my knees, I ran my tongue over the drips on her thigh.
Her panting beckoned me closer and closer to her core.
The tip of my tongue ignited a fire in her as it licked up and along her wet lips.
Her entire body twisted with the arch of her spine.
I let my trousers fall to where her wedding gown lay and climbed above her.
“Please,” she started. “Drak—”
I crushed her mouth with mine, stopping her begging before it made me come all over her stomach. Gently biting her lip, I drew her attention away from the tightness as I thrust my cock into her. Slowly at first, but then without control.
She cried out in shock that quickly flipped to pleasure as she gripped me. The shape of her body, her fingernails digging into my back, her core clenching around me—everything about her was perfect, made for me.
I’d never buried my cock inside her before now, but none of this felt new. Somehow, I knew the exact speed that’d make her whimper. I knew what she wanted even without listening to her thoughts, but I still did anyway.
More, give me more. Her mind pleaded for me to thrust harder until she came undone all over me. I moaned, desperate for my undoing, and yet not wanting this to end.
“Drak,” she whispered. “Rune.”
I froze and searched her watery eyes. “What did you say?” For some reason, I didn’t lose myself again. Touching Lux grounded me. Her skin on mine. It seemed nothing could rip me from this present moment, not even this strange magic whenever she said that word.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. She looked dazed and helpless with pleasure. “Just don’t stop.”
“It feels like I’ve waited a hundred years for this…” she thought.
I brought my lips to her ear, biting the lobe, careful not to let my fangs dig into her skin too deeply. “Me too.” I pulled my head back in time to see her eyes pop open. A million questions floated in them. “I’ve waited a hundred years for you.”
Tears welled in her eyes, and I kissed her, feeling them slip down her cheeks and run over our mouths. Again, love lingered on my tongue, something I barely understood since this was all so new between us, and this wasn’t an actual marriage. I simply got caught up in the moment.
Sudden ecstasy forced pleading moans out of me as I soaked in every ripple of pleasure. I pressed my forehead to hers.
“It sure as fuck doesn’t feel fake,” I whispered.
She looked up at me, eyes full but glazed with the same delight coating every inch of my body. “It feels more like its…” I hinged on her next word, not breathing. “Familiar.”
Fuck.
She felt it too.