Текст книги "Burning Blood"

Автор книги: Pepper winters

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Chapter Forty-One

FOR ONE WEIGHTLESS MOMENT, I FLEW.

The mountain spat me out of its battering sluice, ejecting me into the sky with its thundering waterfall. My gaze fell on the Nujiang Gorge in the distance, the huge expanse glittering with moonlight, snaking leisurely through the Gaoligong mountains.

And then, I plummeted.

I hit hard—smacking against the river’s surface before slipping beneath and sinking. It took too much effort to keep breathing. All my willpower to just hold on.

My nerves howled as water touched what should never be touched—drowning the inner workings of my flayed body.

I kicked and swam to the surface, breaking the frigid water and gasping down air. The roar of the Burning Phoenix falls thundered behind me. Its mist and rain pummelled my shoulders, threatening to tear the rest of my skin off my bones.

But it was my heart that threatened to kill me—cruel and urgent, forcing me to hurry, hurry, hurry.

Swimming as fast as I could, I flowed downstream, buffeted by currents and hitting my legs on the occasional submerged rock.

I couldn’t see her.

Couldn’t sense her.

“ROOK!”

My voice was stolen by the night—carried away by the river as I fought to stay conscious. My torn skin lost its shield of ice and throbbed.

The banks blurred past on either side—dark walls of trees and ferns and flowers.

High above me, the jagged silhouettes of the mountains seemed to mock me. I felt as if I was at the mercy and entertainment of long forgotten gods.

I searched desperately.

Every floating branch and patch of moonlight.

But nothing.

The summoning in my heart was getting weaker. Panic crawled up my throat with every stroke as the river pulled me further downstream.

“Rook!” I choked as the current slammed me into a boulder, toying with my already brutalised ribs. I sank for a moment, using up the last of my strength to keep going.

Fighting for the surface, I spluttered and coughed but then...

My gaze snagged on a pale shape caught in moonshine up ahead.

She drifted near the bank, tangled against a snag of half-submerged branches. Her hair streamed like black seaweed, her body limp and wrong. Deep wounds sliced all over her, shredding her white clothes, her blood black in the night.

“ROOK!”

I swam with everything I had left.

The nearer I got, the colder the water became.

Cold enough to chill the fire in my blood.

Cold enough to freeze.

Snowflakes spread out from her, decorating the churning water with a delicate web, cocooning her in the centre. The air spiralled above her with a mini snowstorm, trapping her in a coffin made of ice.

Smashing my elbow through the thickening frost, I snatched her. The second my hand locked around her wrist, everything stopped.

Something aligned.

Something locked.

Pure euphoria and absolute terror tangled together, bursting out of my chest.

I couldn’t explain how she affected me. Didn’t have the words. All I could think of was...finally.

Finally.

Finally, I’d found her. Found who I was meant to find. Found what I’d been missing...ever since I’d been born.

Shuddering, I dragged her into my arms. The ice that’d formed around her vanished instantly. Pushing tangled hair off her face, I tapped her cheek. She refused to wake up. Her skin was deathly pale. Lips blue. Eyes half-lidded and empty.

“Rook—” I shook her as that impossible connection between us threatened to disappear just as suddenly as it’d begun. Hauling her against me, I swam for shore.

I didn’t stop until I’d dragged her onto the leaf-littered earth. She lay boneless and barely breathing as I pressed my ear to her mouth, my cheek to her chest.

The faintest heartbeat—

Instinct took over.

“Breathe.” Gripping her shoulders, I shook her, only to watch her head bounce like a broken toy. Letting her go, I sank my teeth into my mangled wrist.

Strange gold-tinted blood welled.

A droplet landed on the bracken, sizzling instantly with smoke.

I froze.

I’d drawn enough of my blood to know that wasn’t normal. I’d spent my life believing Marcus harvested as much as he did because it had the power to heal but...what if it was the opposite? What if it had changed? What if I made her worse?

That bond between us went scarily silent, making the decision for me.

Pressing my wrist to her mouth, I cradled her head and begged, “Rook, open your eyes and swallow. You have to swallow.”

She didn’t obey, and I lost myself.

Bringing my wrist to my own mouth, I sucked as much as I could. Folding over her, I pressed my lips to hers and transferred the metallic mouthful, only for it to dribble down her chin.

“Please,” I whispered. “Please, don’t do this.”

Frost feathered out from her unconscious form, flash-freezing the rotten leaves beneath.

A surge of fire erupted from me, washing over her like a blast of summer. The ice instantly melted and...she moaned.

My heart hitched violently.

Dragging her into my lap, I ignored my cracked and bleeding hands as I shifted her enough to be able to hover my mouth over hers.

I felt her.

Felt the faintest tickle of her life-force brushing mine, dimming, slipping—

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Grabbing her by the jaw, I hinged her mouth open and pressed my lips to hers, exhaling a lungful of oxygen directly into her.

Her lungs didn’t even expand.

Wet bubbles appeared, hinting her lungs held water instead of air.

“Fuck!” Pure terror gave me strength to get to my feet and haul her into my arms. I needed her head below her chest. I needed gravity.

Spinning in place, I spotted a fallen tree in the dark—the trunk horizontal and covered in moss. Carrying her to it, I draped her limp body face-down over the trunk, ensuring her torso hung over the other side, her arms dangling, and hair dripping onto the bushes.

Raising my hand, I hesitated for a heartbeat.

I didn’t want to hurt her but...I couldn’t let her die.

Taking a deep breath, I slammed my palm between her shoulder blades.

She jerked but remained lifeless.

I did it again, shifting her further over the trunk until her forehead almost skimmed the ground.

“Come on,” I growled, hitting her again. Harder this time. With my fist instead of my palm.

She moaned. A thin stream of water dribbled out.

Not enough.

Not nearly enough.

“That’s it. Come on.”

That strange bond in my heart caught fire, filling me with urgency as her soul flickered against mine, wanting to stay but fading, fading—

“You can hate me for this when you wake.” I hit her. Hard.

She jackknifed over the tree. A torrent of bloody water burst free.

I waited to see if she would keep retching.

But she went still instead.

That awful sensation of her leaving me wrapped viciously around my throat.

Still not enough. Not all of it.

“Again.”

I struck her. I whacked her hard enough to break a rib or two, forcing every last dreg to expel in a gush.

“Breathe. Breathe and—”

She gagged as her body jerked in a seizure.

“Shit.” Snatching her off the trunk, I placed her on the ground and tipped her chin up. Sucking in a huge breath, I sealed my mouth over hers and forced as much air as I could into her.

This time, her chest rose before collapsing.

“Wake the fuck up, Rook.” I breathed into her again.

I pinched her nose and kissed her hard, forcing all the oxygen I could deep, deep into her cells.

She spasmed and moaned but I kept breathing for her. Drowning her in air. Fighting with the grim reaper because no way in hell was I giving her to him.

She convulsed.

Pushing her onto her side, I patted her back as another trickle of water came up. But then blood followed. She coughed—a thick river of blackened crimson that torrented over her lips and stained the leaf-littered ground.

Ice flashed in her spilled blood, killing everything.

A tearing sensation ripped through my chest.

I doubled over with it—my heart threatening to burst with despair.

She choked on more blood, the black thickness becoming frothy instead. Pink bubbles painted her lips before rolling down her cheeks. She moaned and flopped onto her back.

My eyes caught on her legs. On the way they stayed crossed and...unnatural.

No...

My stomach hollowed out.

My gaze dragged upward, slow and unwilling, cataloguing the damage I’d refused to see. Her back was kinked, the line of her spine no longer straight but...broken. Deep abrasions sliced into her from where the whirlpool had chewed her up and spat her out. One side of her torso was punctured—ragged and dark, bubbling with blood each time she tried to suck in a painful breath.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” My hands hovered, terrified to touch her in case I made it worse. And I’d thrown her over a goddamn tree! I’d hit her. I’d made things a thousand times worse. Even if I had the best doctor in the world—even if they operated immediately—they wouldn’t be able to save her.

An animalistic sound tore free.

I’d failed her. Left her to suffer and—

Her chest hitched as she choked for breath. Her lungs made a wet, rattling sound as more pink foam appeared on her lips. Every part of her quaked as she entered the death throes...everything twitched apart from her useless legs.

My throat closed as I fought the urge to cry.

I hadn’t cried since I was thirteen, yet now...even sobbing wouldn’t relieve the catastrophic helplessness I felt at watching the girl I’d fallen irreversibly in love with...die.

My cracked hands balled.

No.

I wouldn’t accept this.

I would never accept a world where she didn’t exist.

Grabbing the nearest rock, I dragged it fatally deep along the underside of my charred forearm. I snagged on the stitches that’d stopped me bleeding in the bed and breakfast. I tore open everything. I would happily die here...trading my life for hers.

Blood poured free—thick and luminous, gleaming scarlet-gold as it splashed hot and fast to the ground. Little flames appeared where it landed, igniting the decaying leaves. They shrivelled into ash a moment later, killed by whatever lurked in my veins.

Rolling her over, ignoring how her legs refused to cooperate, I pressed my arm against the hole in her side—the hole popping and wheezing with every fading breath.

She cried out as my blood mingled with hers, dripping inside her—going straight to the source of her death.

She twitched as my blood took over.

She groaned as it started to work—little plumes of smoke rising from the puncture between her ribs. She tried to get away but with a broken back, she didn’t have a choice as I grabbed her soul with both hands and yanked her back from the netherworld.

Only once enough blood had filled her damaged lung did I move to other areas.

I fed golden-red into the slashes on her chest, her arms, her cheek. Shifting closer, I brought my arm to my mouth and sucked.

Hot, scalding copper drowned my tongue, my life-force pumping out far too fast. I turned lightheaded and weak, but I’d give it all to her if it worked.

I folded over her and hesitated.

She coughed again, in the final stages of drowning. Blood sprayed over her chin, painting her lips a glossy red. For a second, I swore it glittered silver—shimmering with a sterling hue as if tiny snowflakes swirled in her life-force.

I shook my woozy head, leaned down, and sealed my lips over hers.

I let go of the mouthful I held.

She coughed and fed me a mouthful of hers.

And—

Fate detonated.

Blood to blood.

Soul to soul.

Power roared through me, through us, fire and ice crashing together in a blinding supernova that tore a scream from my throat.

She tasted like heaven and winter and ruin, flooding every sense at once, shattering me, breaking me, remaking me. Lightning ripped across my tongue, silver and sharp and the best fucking thing I’d ever tasted.

The pain I’d suffered.

The fire I burned with.

The decades of misery and years of torture.

All gone.

Power howled.

No longer restrained or contained, it broke every bone in my body and rebuilt me.

Rebuilt her.

The bond we shared unravelled into full force, and everything prior to this felt so weak and tame and mortal. This new shivery awareness felt elemental and unstoppable as her energy bulldozed through me.

I trembled as my sanity blew apart.

I gasped as my body started to heal.

I itched and ached and throbbed and burned, but it was nothing to the awe of feeling her.

I felt her heartbeat stutter before slamming back into furious rhythm.

Felt her lung knitting together.

Felt her spine—bone grinding against bone, realigning, reforming, restoring everything that’d been broken.

I wasn’t prepared.

Wasn’t equipped.

Desire cleaved me in two. Savage desperation to keep her, make her mine, finish what we’d started.

I needed her.

I needed to be inside her, just like my blood was. I needed her to accept the joining, the binding, the lock.

Because I’d surrendered the second I’d felt it and from this day, to my last day, she was mine.

Rook suddenly flung her newly healed arms around my neck, feeling the same rapture of want. Her hands landed in my hair, yanking me down as her icy power sundered through me, tearing through every blockage, every scar, every limit my body had ever known.

It freed me.

Released me.

I groaned and plunged my tongue into her mouth as my cracked and charred skin sealed and healed.

I tasted everything she was.

I drowned on snowfalls and starlight.

Her energy flooded me, intoxicating and inevitable, sinking into every hollow place, rewriting everything I was and making sure I was nothing but hers.

My self-control snapped.

The blood-laced kiss we’d shared turned into a breathless war of teeth and tongues.

Power spiralled between us, battling each other, clashing with fire and frost.

It grew stronger and stronger as we kissed faster and faster.

The hunger was unbearable.

The need absolutely maddening.

We were both driven to a disastrous edge.

An edge that promised total destruction if we didn’t stop.

But we couldn’t stop.

Wouldn’t stop.

I tore at her soaking clothes and let go.

Chapter Forty-Two

HEAT AND COLD, FIRE AND FROST.

That was all I was and all I’d ever be.

Every element braided tightly in my chest, humming and mending, erasing my pain and every piece that had been broken.

I twitched as the wound in my side knitted over, sealing my inner workings as if I’d never been punctured. The numbness in my lower body vanished with a gush of searing sensitivity and I almost sobbed with gratitude as I wriggled my toes and they answered.

Everything happened so fast, so miraculously, it couldn’t have been real. My bones and muscles defied logic and law, reversing death itself to become whole and strong and powerful.

How?

How had Lucien brought me back to life?

What had he become that his blood—his incredible healing blood—could do something that defied nature itself?

I should be dead.

Yet I was being kissed within an inch of my life and suddenly, nothing else mattered.

Clutching him closer, I gasped as whatever self-restraint he had left snapped.

His tongue delved into my mouth, kissing me desperately. He held onto me as if he was terrified I would vanish. His hands were everywhere—my hair, my neck, my breasts—touching everything as if he needed constant proof I was real.

The more he touched, the more my body responded.

Wicked, dangerous power flooded me with every heartbeat. That odd coldness that’d started answering to Lucien’s heat no longer just tiptoed through me but gushed. It turned wild and hungry, sending frost rippling through my veins and freezing my heartbeats...but I wasn’t cold.

I was...perfect. Absolutely perfect because I didn’t feel any pain.

For the first time since I could remember, I didn’t suffer a single drop of misery—no headaches, no nausea, no weakness.

The floodgates unlocked. Frost turned to snow, whipping the air into eddies as my emotions burst free.

Every feeling I’d done my best not to feel—every worry, every fear, every joy and ecstasy and desire—feelings that always ended with me in agony and passed out—erupted all at once.

My body plunged from icy to arctic.

My vision fractured as the connection I felt to Lucien turned feral—demanding, wanting, clawing, claiming—

I couldn’t stop it.

Couldn’t control it.

I arched under the force of far too many things.

“I’ve got you.” Lucien was there in the heart of my storm, the fire in his blood parting my coldness like a hot knife. “You’re safe.” His arms tightened in the fiercest embrace and his lips captured mine again.

I kissed him with everything I had.

I’d never felt so...free.

My fingers fisted in his hair, tugging him closer, needing more, more, more. Needing his heat, his weight, his fire. That sparkling tether lashing us together grew stronger and stronger.

I could feel him everywhere—in my blood, my soul, my heart.

I couldn’t extract him from where he’d taken root, consuming me with every breath.

Mine.

The word echoed like a tuning fork as his mouth slid along my jaw, my throat, my collarbone. I arched without thinking—hungry and unashamed, shaking with need so sharp, it turned every other thought into confetti.

The more we kissed, the more my senses magnified until I dwelled in a different dimension of hypersensitivity.

His scent...something I’d never even thought about, suddenly became the best thing in the world.

Burning cedar. Charred amber. Rich and smoky, male and powerful.

Every inhale made me dizzy and drunk.

My entire soul locked onto him with predatory focus.

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

I wanted him.

Not gently.

Not later.

Now.

My hands dropped to his hips, clumsy and urgent. Burrowing between us, I fumbled with his ruined trousers. I brushed against something hard and straining against the fabric, making him hiss and bite my bottom lip.

I managed to get the top button undone—

Lucien wrenched backward, landing on his ass.

He came to a stop a few metres away—breathing hard, raking both hands through his hair.

My gaze fell on our surroundings.

Rocks and trees, water and darkness.

H-How did I get here?

Why were we on a riverbed, surrounded by foliage, and blanketed by moonlight?

Last I remembered, I’d fallen into a swirling pool—well, blown in was more apt.

My heart kicked, remembering how his power had ignited—tearing through his skin and detonating the entire cave.

But then my eyes met his again and questions ceased to matter.

Nothing mattered apart from finishing what we’d started.

“Why are you over there and not here?” I asked softly, my voice almost swallowed up by the babble of the river. It seemed to snap him awake—yanking him out of the same trance I kept falling into whenever I looked at him.

This wasn’t normal. This level of awareness and need wasn’t like anything I’d ever felt before. I swore I could sense him. Sense him buckling beneath the same craving as me.

Once again, my heart grew impatient, no longer urging but demanding me to touch him, kiss him, tear off his clothes and—

“Stop looking at me like that,” Lucien groaned, scrubbing his face with both hands.

“Like how?”

“Like you want me to fuck you right here. Outside in the dead of night. On a bed of leaves with no roof over our heads, no soft blankets, no privacy.”

“Oh, I think there’s privacy.” I waved my hand at the very dark, very empty riverbed. “It’s just us.”

“Fuck, this is crazy.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, his bare chest tight with strained muscles. The metal disc over his heart was slightly misshapen from his internal heat. “Tell me this is crazy. Tell me there’s no way I should even think about doing to you what I’m aching to do.” He looked at the star-dotted sky. “We need to talk about what happened. Talk about how you healed me. How—”

“I healed you?” I frowned. “You healed me.”

“See?” he groaned. “There’s so much we need to talk about.”

“But...I don’t want to talk.”

“Fuck, neither do I.” He laughed blackly. “It’s taking every shred of self-control I have not to be inside you right now.”

I suffered a full-body shiver. “Then screw self-control and screw me instead.”

“Rook...” He groaned again. “You’re not helping.”

“Neither are you, Lucien.” Slipping onto my hands and knees, I crawled toward him. The soft dampness of the leaves set my skin singing with heightened awareness. The chattering river and crashing waterfall somewhere upstream kept us trapped in our own little world.

A world where I really, really needed to be with this man.

It wasn’t even about sex at this point; it was deeper than that. It was a fundamental requirement to my existence and if he didn’t give in, the icy power stalking through my veins might very well explode.

His eyes ignited with that scarlet ring as he sucked in a shaky breath. “This is—” He laughed once, harsh and gruff. “This is insane.”

I stopped moving toward him and sat on my knees. “It is.”

We stared at each other. The air turned static with stinging tension.

“We should go back,” he said roughly. “We should be smart about this.”

“We should,” I agreed.

“We need to talk about what happened.”

“We do.”

His eyes narrowed. “We shouldn’t do this here. Not for our first time....We should wait.”

“You’re right.”

I couldn’t look away. He couldn’t look away. We sat within reaching distance, staring each other down, daring the other to be wise and stop this.

But neither of us spoke again and that bond pulled achingly tight—buzzing, vibrating, demanding.

Lucien’s gaze dropped to my mouth.

I opened my lips to—

“Ah fuck it.” He pounced.

We fell together to the leaf-littered ground. His mouth bruised mine as he kissed me exquisitely hard. I moaned as the world narrowed to teeth and breath and skin.

We clawed at each other as if we’d combust if we didn’t touch. My filthy white shirt ripped in the night. He tried to yank it down my arms but...in a burst of deliciously hot fire, flames burst from his fingertips and turned the material to ash.

I gasped as his hand landed on the silk camisole I wore underneath.

That too went up in a puff of smoke.

He didn’t stop kissing me, even as he turned his dangerous hands to my skirt and prepared to turn that into cinders.

“Wait!” I pushed his chest. “I’ll need something to wear to walk home in!”

Growling under his breath, he shoved the torn and tattered skirt off my hips, kicking it away the moment it bunched by our feet.

He fell on me again and when his hand landed on my breast with nothing blocking skin to skin, the bond roared with delicious approval.

Whatever this was. Whatever we’d become.

There was no going back.

His tongue plunged into my mouth as I managed to unzip his trousers. His taste hit me like a comet—hot brimstone and scorched honey—a heady mix of smoke and sweetness.

The flames in his blood roared to life, making his shoulders steam as the ice within me replied. It rippled down my fingertips, stamping his skin with instantly melting snowflakes.

And the best thing...no pain.

Just a clashing and melding, joining and fusing as if we’d always meant to find each other. Always needed each other to survive.

He groaned and kissed me ever so deep.

I lost track of him and me. We just were.

A single heart, one soul, bonded and forged, two halves of the same.

I groaned as his hot possession broke through my mind. I heard him inside me. I sensed him as he fondled and laid claim.

Mine.

Yours. I tried to send the thought back as my spine arched, forcing more of my breast into his hand. A tidal wave of winter and a corona of wildfire wove us together, not content that we’d given in but forcing us to break.

He’d come after me.

He’d saved me.

I was hopelessly, irrevocably in love with him.

He kissed me again, shifting out of the cradle of my legs and lying on his side. Grabbing my jaw, he held me tight as he stole every drop of common sense I had left. His kiss was so wickedly carnal, I didn’t just shiver with ice, I detonated with it.

A small blizzard whipped around us.

A tiny snowstorm appeared overhead.

I had questions.

A thousand and one questions about what had happened to me and why I was no longer in agony but...him.

God, him.

I melted into his control as he captured my mouth again, assaulting me and worshipping me, his hand skating down my body to settle over the scrap of lace called underwear. His tongue corrupted mine just as his fingers stroked me over the fabric, making me jerk against his chest.

My fingers clawed at his back, demanding more, immediately.

Obeying me, he continued kissing me all while his fingers slid to my hips, tugging the lace down my thighs. I wriggled in eager help, shoving them off and flicking them away with my foot.

He fell on me again the moment they flew through the air.

He kissed me ever so deeply as his fingers found my centre, stroking my wetness and electrifying me with a single caress.

“Fuck...” He rubbed me slowly, causing coils of pleasure. “You’re cold everywhere but here...you’re burning.”

I whimpered against his criminally erotic mouth as he slid a single finger inside me, slowly, maddeningly, as if he had centuries in which to break me.

My entire body clenched around him, making him hiss and sink deeper, not stopping until he’d claimed all of me.

I lay panting, needing.

The slightest sting tugged deep inside, warning that just because I wanted to lose my virginity by a river with a man who wasn’t entirely human...didn’t mean I wouldn’t pay.

I scowled at the thought.

I didn’t want pain.

I’d had so much pain. Too much pain. I just wanted pleasure. I just wanted to let go and enjoy instead of fearing what should be the best moment of my life.

I tensed as he withdrew, using my wetness to rub that sensitive bundle of nerves that promised I could unravel in a heartbeat.

Almost as if he sensed my building nerves, he eased two fingers inside me, stopping the moment he couldn’t go any further. He didn’t speak...just accepted my body’s obstruction and fell on me with another deliciously deep kiss, scattering my worry and making my hips rise for more.

“I’ll never get used to how you feel,” he murmured against my mouth, sinking a mind-melting finger back inside me. “How silky and surprisingly strong.” He curled his touch against my inner walls, finding that perfect spot.

My thighs locked around his wrist, trembling as he shoved me smugly to the edge.

I cried out as he pressed his thumb on my clit, shoving me over and sending me shattering into a million fractals. His mouth sealed over mine, swallowing my cries as I came.

His finger thrust in time with my release, shoving me deeper into the vortex, wringing every ripple dry. And at the pinnacle—at that very moment where my heart stopped and I would gladly die if I could live in such euphoria—coldness surged.

He grunted as the icy storm blasted into him, drowning his heat and fireworking above us with lightning crackles and snow clouds.

My eyes opened, anxiety filling me—

He kept going.

Kept working his hand between my legs—making me find pleasure within pleasure, drowning me with bliss as he tore his mouth from mine and pressed his forehead against my temple as if my orgasm broke him.

I shuddered as I slowly came down from heaven.

The swirling snowflakes quickly melted with the thermals wisping off him.

His breath was tattered and hot in my ear, his hips pressed along my thigh, grinding his hardness against me as if he burned alive with agonising need.

The intimacy of the way he held me.

The sheer surrender in how he silently begged me.

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t let him be in pain.

Shifting a little, I caught his stare as I pressed my hand inside his open trousers and found him. No underwear. No obstruction. Neither of us was expecting the sizzle and stinging electricity of finally touching him.

His eyes snapped closed as his head fell back, exposing the powerful sweep of his throat. My fingers wrapped tight—just like they had that day in his bedroom when he’d used me to find his release.

He shuddered as I ran my thumb along the damp tip.

He growled as I stroked him.

He was impossibly soft yet ridiculously hard and the longer I pleasured him, the hotter he became. Every muscle in his chest roped with tension. His belly flexed as he panted. His jaw clenched as he choked on curses.

But he didn’t try to stop me.

He let me torture him, getting bolder and firmer as I learned what he liked.

I snuggled against him and pressed the softest kiss to his Adam’s apple.

He snarled at the stars as his arms banded around me, suffocating me against him, barely giving my hand enough space to stroke.

“Fuck, that feels...that feels—” A ripple worked from the base of him as he pinned me onto my back and kissed me.

I lost track of what my hand was doing as we became nothing more than tangled tongues and lust.

His hips thrust into my hand, giving everything to me and...I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I-I need you,” I moaned. “Now.”

Pulling away from me, he no longer looked human but demonic. Smoke licked from his shoulders, trapping us in our own version of hell.

“But I’ll hurt you...” He massacred the words, his teeth still clenched together as if it took every drop of willpower to hold himself back.

“I don’t care.”

And I didn’t.

I suddenly didn’t care if being with him hurt worse than everything else combined.

“I need you,” I repeated. “I need you, Lucien. I need you so, so badly.”

He kicked his trousers off.

His scalding nakedness utterly consumed me as he settled between my legs. With a snarl, he grabbed a handful of my thigh, yanking my leg to hook over his hip, opening me even wider. “Then you’ll fucking have me.”

I reached between us and fisted him.

His entire body jerked; his nostrils flaring as he struggled to breathe. Planting his elbows on either side of my head, our eyes locked as I guided the head of his cock to my entrance.

Neither of us rushed.

Neither of us looked away.

My heart pounded, pounded as the hot steel of him nudged the warm silkiness of me.

A guttural groan tore from his throat as he fell on me in a ravenous, ruining kiss. All I could focus on was his heat and weight, holding himself on that knife-edge of taking me.

I squeezed his erection—

A shudder worked down his back as he slapped my hand away.

Fisting himself, he pulled away just enough to look down at me. His eyes burned, no longer just ringed with scarlet but glowing bright red. “The moment I met you...” He notched himself inside me, spreading me far more than his finger did. “I feared you’d be the one to finally kill me.” He sank in the barest inch. “And here you are...” He hovered his mouth over mine. “...killing me.”