Page 26 of The Cruelty of Thorns

“Did you miss me?” she breathed against my ear. I shuddered, still affected by the sound of her voice, and nodded. “Of course you did. You’re more like me than you know.”

That was hardly true, I didn’t say. “What do you mean?”

Her lips curled up in a slow smile as her hands slipped under my shurt. “A sexual creature. I knew it the minute I saw you on the street.” She pulled the garment off me and tossed it on the floor, her eyes sparking from the sight of my fading scratches. She traced her fingers over them, eliciting an unbidden hiss from me. “The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can begin to explore all the ways we can please each other.”

“I know what you are.” It was a risky move, but I wanted to hear her admit to it.

“Do you really?” She leaned up and brushed her lips across mine. “And tell me, what is that?”

“Vampira.”

She smiled again, her hands trailing down to the waistband of my breeches. “What a clever boy. And how did you come by this knowledge?”

I didn’t want to implicate Rosetta in any way, so I took credit for the conclusion myself. “You bit me, leaving me weak for days.”

Her husky laughter sent ripples of lust through me despite my predicament. “And yet you recovered, and here we are.” She yanked my breeches down and closed her hand around my cock, teasing me until I pressed against her with a desperate groan. “Would you like me to stop?”

“No,” I gasped, and suddenly all I could think about was the feel of her hand on me and how much I wanted to be inside her. Nothing else mattered. I watched the candlelight shimmer across her sleek ebony hair, the way it gathered in her dark eyes as she looked at me, so full of hunger, and I realized she was not the only one here with power. She wanted me as much as I wanted her, maybe not for the same reason, but it was need, all the same. Something about that thought made me bold, and I questioned my own sanity when I replied, “I was just thinking how much I would like to eat your pussy.”

She pulled back, studying me, and that glimmer of lust I had seen in her eyes deepened to a full-blown inferno. “Would you now?”

I grinned at her. “Would you like that?”

She toed herself up and brought her lips to mine again, her pebbled nipples beneath her gown brushing against my bare chest, her hair tickling the still-sensitive wounds her nails had previously wrought, sending shivers of desire coursing through me. I opened my mouth and forced my tongue into hers, wanting to devour her. Two could play this game, and I found I had developed a taste for it.

Her tongue was liquid heat in my mouth, and I sucked it in and tried to swallow it. When she moaned against me, I thought I would cum on the spot. The woman’s voice had a direct line to my cock.

She pulled back, herself breathless, and looked at me. “Unexpected.”

I reached out and slipped my hands around her waist, untying her gown and pushing it open, my hands wandering across her hips and up to her breasts. “You’ll find I’m full of surprises,” I said as I rolled her nipple between my fingers. Her eyes widened and she leaned toward me, encouraging my hands to continue their exploration.

“And where was this before?”

“Maybe I’m just warming up to you.”

“Perhaps. Know this, Julianus. You belong to me now. I control your fate. I decide when you get rewarded, and when you get punished. Do you understand that?”

I had continued to abuse her breasts while she spoke, and now I lowered my lips to them and sucked a nipple into my mouth. “Yes,” I breathed against her.

Her hands tangled in my hair, urging me to continue. “Say it.”

I broke away from her and looked up, meeting her eyes. “I belong to you.”

I was surprised I didn’t choke on the words, but as I stood there in her presence, I knew that I meant them. Whether or not it was the effect of her nature I couldn’t say; I just knew that every time I was in her presence I wanted to devour her. Surely she was using some kind of magic on me, but I didn’t care. My heart was racing, my body aching for her. I had never felt such desire for a woman before.

“On your knees, Julianus.” I met her eyes and hesitated, and she pushed her hands against my shoulders. “Now.”

I dropped to my knees in front of her, wondering what was in store for me this time. She backed up and considered me, her dark hair framing a face almost flush with pure lust, looking more human than I had ever seen her. Looking almost fragile, like she could come apart at any moment with the right trigger, and I felt my own confidence grow. I could be that trigger. I could dismantle her composure.

She shrugged off her open gown and stepped closer. “You said you wanted to eat me?” She wrapped her fingers around my head and pulled it close, burying my face between her legs. “Can you make me scream?”

I breathed in her scent and felt my cock respond. “I’ll do my best,” I murmured as my tongue darted out and traced across her mound. She spread her legs to give me better access and I slipped past her lips and plunged inside her moist heat, the heady taste of her juices spurring me on. I lapped at them, my tongue circling her clit, punishing it, sucking it into my mouth as I dug deep into her.

Her fingers tangled in my hair, her body rocking against me as tiny whimpers escaped her lips, and with each sound she uttered I was driven to go deeper, to pull more out of her, to take her body to places she’d never been. My cock was rock hard, my own body teased beyond its limit. I wanted to crawl inside her, to lose myself in her, and I hated her for making me so weak while wanting to be the only man she desired.

I could feel when she was close, when her body started to tense, her breath catching, her fingers in my hair squeezing tighter. I reached up and plunged two fingers inside her, rolling her clit between them until she came apart in my hands. Her scream started out as a low moan and grew in intensity while she ground against me, her sweet juices flooding my mouth. I lapped them up eagerly, my tongue still playing with her clit, each pass eliciting another spasm from her, until it was me who held her up and kept her from sinking onto the floor next to me.

When she finally stilled, I withdrew and looked up. Her head was thrown back, her eyes closed, her lips parted, her body heaving and flushed. Completely undone. I smiled to myself. Surely that was worth a little freedom.

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