Page 55 of Blood Feast

With no buffer between them, he buried his face between her thighs and covered her with his mouth. She came up off the bed with an astonished outcry.

You taste incredible here, too,he informed her.

His hard kisses gave way to wicked, delicate flicks of his tongue. Her hands closed over the curving iron of the headboard, and she clung there while he held her legs down. Every heretical curse and prayer to Hespera that she knew flew from her lips.

That’s my goddess,he said.

He took her bud in his mouth and began to suck. She felt as if she dissolved into a creature of pure sensation. Her immortal senses existed for one purpose. Pleasure, in its rawest form.

She still had a voice. That was her scream echoing around them. But it was distant compared to his palms on her skin, his fingers digging into her muscles. His mouth, a wet heat fused to her own, transforming her anew. Her body seemed to shatter and reform in his hold yet again.

Just when she couldn’t bear to break anymore, he pulled his mouth away. He covered her in his weight, giving her shelter,stillness. She didn’t breathe or move until her vision cleared, revealing his very satisfied smile and damp fangs.

He spoke softly. “Did that make a memory?”

“Bonded to my mind forever, like our ward,” she said around her canines.

He stroked one of her fangs, making her moan again. “But now my goddess is hungry for blood. Let me feed you your avowal banquet.”

He sat up, pulling her with him. She told herself she should slow down, make this moment last, but she tore open his collar with the ferocity of her Craving.

He let her.There’s no such thing as too slow or too fast in eternity. All our moments will last.

Pain broke through her haze of revelry and pleasure. Did they really have unlimited time? They didn’t know what would happen during this war.

Lio caught her hands, stilling her. “Yes, Cassia. We truly will be together for eternity, no matter what happens. We will live this life—or leave it—side by side. This, too, is the nature of Grace. There is no fear of loss. I will be with you, in this world or in Sanctuary.”

He pulled his festival tunic the rest of the way off, and she saw the surprise he had for her. Divine script was tattooed across his skin like a vine. The glowing crimson letters trailed over his jugular, across his heart, and down into his trousers.

She traced her finger along the words. “It’s our Oath.”

“Every word I said to you that first night, and tonight. Feast on our vows, and once they’re gone from my skin, know they’re still in our veins.”

She kissed his throat, tasting crushed rose petals and his blood. She took the wordsI promiseinto her mouth, his light magic sweet on her tongue.

I love you so much,she whispered in his mind.

I love you, my rose.

She pushed him onto his back. Framing the script with her canines, she slid their sharp tips lightly over his skin, drawing fresh blood. They gasped together at the well of pleasure in his aura. Blood trailed across his skin, tracing the contours of his chest. The infusion made the tattoo brighter, and she sucked the glowing swirl of script that circled his nipple.

Letter by letter, she licked the defining words of their lives from his body to savor each promise, each memory. She worshiped him in turn with her fangs. Her divine immortal, who had become sacred to her when she had believed in nothing.

The tattoo ended in a suggestive point above his groin. With a soft scrape, he dug his nails dug into the bedclothes while she pulled off his trousers. Freeing his straining erection, she realized her mouth was actually watering at the sight.

He lifted her chin, gazing at her mouth. “I’m ready for you to bring those beautiful fangs up here.”

She slid up his body, baring her canines for him. He flashed his fangs back at her and flipped her over onto the pile of their pillows. His Craving sent a frisson through their Union and into her veins. Her pulse pounded faster, making her blood rush in preparation to sate her Grace.

But he hesitated, poised between her thighs. She sensed the flare of light magic. The air above them shimmered, then smoothed into a plane. Instead of the canopy bed overgrown with roses and moonflowers, she saw the two of them reflected back at her in a mirror spell. Her in a tangle of white silk. Him, pressing her down into the black silk sheets.

She ran her fingers along the brilliant red lines of the tattoo that continued on his back. His vows, written again in reverse like a never-ending promise.

He pressed his mouth to her ear. “Watch me avow you like this.”

She saw his muscles play under the tattoo as he sank into her. He filled her, reshaping the inside of her body around him. With an appreciative groan, he pulled back, only to return with a heavy thrust that left her riveted to the sight of his buttocks in the mirror spell.

Her fangs gleamed at her in their reflection.Give me your bite, now and every night.

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