Page 12 of Blood Tribute

Her hand curled into a fist upon the wall. “My blood is all you’ll get from me.”

“You’ve already given me more than that. You didn’t promise me the flavor of your desire in the bargain.”

“Go to Hypnos.”

“Holy knights’ daughters aren’t supposed to swear by the god of death, either. But no one can hear you except a heretic. No one will ever know if you ask me to give you what you want.”

He drove his fangs back into her slowly. A moan escaped her. He began to suckle her, pleasuring her vein, teasing each sip out of her and onto his tongue. Her breath came faster.

Her hand slipped from his hair, coming to rest on his where he held her throat. Her nails dug into his hand, prying him off of her. Tugging his hand down to the laces on the front of her gown.

He took over, teasing apart her laces one by one. She whimpered in frustration. He went slower. She cursed him again, but yanked the loose portion of her bodice out of his way.

When her gown hung open to her belly, another layer of fabric got in his way. Finding another lace at her collar, he loosened the wide neck of her undergarment and pulled the fabric down.

A thick band of cloth wrapped around her chest, viciously tight. Dav felt an unexpected rush of anger at the binding that held her natural figure in a vise. With a whip of levitation, he tore it off of her. She gasped as her breasts swung free.

He could make an entire banquet off of them after he was done with her blood. He swept his forearm under the heavyglobes, pressing them up toward him. Just as he’d imagined, a rosy flush swept all the way down to her taut nipples.

She shifted her head to look down at what he was doing to her. The motion tugged against his fangs, sending a jolt of pleasure through him. He wrapped his hand around one breast and massaged her, and there came an echoing jolt of pleasure in her aura.

Her whole body tensed, as if she were fighting to hold still. He kept kneading and teasing her breasts, dragging at her vein. Her fist uncurled, and she flattened her hand on the wall. He pressed his fingers between hers, trapping her.

Her blood escaped his lips, trickling down past her collarbone, over the swell of her breast. He caught the crimson trail on his fingers. When he swept the warm liquid over her nipple, the peak drew tighter. He played with the tight bud between his slippery fingers.

She arched back against him, pressing into his straining trousers. Through her thick skirts, he felt an impression of wide hips and full buttocks. The foretaste of her release enriched her blood and filled him with a sense of triumph.

He would not bed her. But he would make her climax against this wall.

He suckled her relentlessly, giving her breasts no mercy from his hand. Her divine pleas dissolved in wordless mewls. Her free hand struck the wall, seeking purchase.

At last, her shocked outcry echoed through the chamber. She came apart, grinding back against him, a wanton mirror of his goddess. He tasted her prim self-control explode into pure, carnal defiance.

He had thought he knew the flavor of a woman’s ecstasy, but no lover of his had ever tasted like this. He shouted against her throat, his body pounding with vicarious pleasure, aching in the grip of his own hunger.

When the crest of her release faded from her blood, and her body calmed, she still rubbed softly back against him, panting.

He gave her neck a long lick. “That barely took the edge off, did it?”

“Oh,gods,” she uttered.

“Only Hespera can hear your prayers.” He braced his feet, nudging the ridge of his erection in the gentle groove he could feel through her skirts. “Do you know why Hesperines prefer willing humans?”

She canted her hips, exploring how they fit together. “Because you’re manipulative bastards, that’s why.”

“Because free Will is sacred to Hespera. We never violate a mortal’s power of choice. This is up to you. If you want more, you must ask for it.”

Her curious movements were a guileless, wicked tease.

“Is this an offer?” he gritted.

She stilled, trembling. He sensed a battle raging in her, an old one that had always been tearing her apart.

It ended in surrender. She leaned forward against the wall and stretched her back, offering her hips into his waiting hands.

“Ask me, Nora.”

He heard her swallow. Then her whisper. “Take my body, too.”

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