Page 99 of Acedia

“And I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.”

Chapter 28

Ialmost cried as I came. I might have actually cried. My skin was damp everywhere with a combination of sweat and slick, what was a few tears on top of that?

I was just so… relieved.Sorelieved. So grateful. So overjoyed. So overflowing with love—my love for him and his love for me—that I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. Perhaps I’d been holding it back a little before now, not wanting to let myself get carried away in case things didn’t work out. But the floodgates had truly opened and I had more emotions swirling around inside my head than I knew what to do with.

Damen murmured words of praise and encouragement to me as pleasure radiated out through my body, finding his own release as my walls clenched tightly around him. As the intensitysubsided, I realized that I’d tipped my neck as far to the side as I physically could, silently begging for his bite.

I needed it. Something inside of me was missing, and I was convinced that Damen’s mating mark was the only thing that could make it whole.

His knot expanded, briefly diverting my focus as I clung to him, breathing my way through the pleasurable stretch that walked right up to the edge of pain.

Andthen, he bit me.

Or, rather, sank his teeth into my throat and stayed there just long enough that I wondered if he was ever going to let go. It didn’t hurt the way I expected it to, based on how sharp his teeth were. I barely even felt where the skin was broken. The sensation seemed to have immediately traveled much deeper, settling into my very core.

Damen withdrew slowly and carefully, tending the spot with his rough tongue. I shifted ever so slightly, setting off another relentless wave of orgasms where his knot was pressing on some highly sensitive nerves. By the time my soul had returned to my body, only the very faintest sting on my neck reminded me that he’d just had his teeth in my throat.

Something was taking root deeper, though. A connection between us that went beyond just the love we shared. That felt tangible somehow. I rested my cheek on Damen’s shoulder, his arms banding around my back, holding me in place.

A purr rumbled out of his chest, and I immediately flattened my palms against it, wanting to feel the faint vibration of it through my hands.

“Talk to me, Iris. Are you okay? Are you hurting?”

“I’m good,” I promised, surprised at how slurred my words were. “I’m very good. I’m happy.”

“That’s what I want to hear. I’ve never been happier. I’m going to move us closer to the table so I can pour you some water.You’ll probably come a few times in the process,” he added, not sounding altogether sorry about that prospect.

As he predicted, I was a writhing, panting mess while he shifted the chair closer to the table, adjusting our positions so that we could comfortably eat and drink while knotted together.

It was extremely… sensory. Decadent, even.

“Here, you need to hydrate,” Damen murmured, pressing the rim of a cup to my lower lip. I took it out of his hand, quickly drinking the water that I hadn’t realized I desperately needed, followed by a small sip of wine from the goblet he passed me next. “Can I feed you?”

I nodded sleepily, happily opening my mouth whenever Damen lightly touched a piece of food to my lips.

“Did you get all of my favorite things?” I asked.

“Of course. Like I said, I was trying to make this romantic.”

“You definitely succeeded there. This was much more romantic than what I had planned for my proposal.”

He laughed, kissing the top of my head. “What did you have planned, princess?”

“I was just going to ask you. Maybe cry a little,” I admitted. “Not on purpose, but just because I was worried you’d say no.”

Damen scoffed. “As if I could. Open, I’ve got some cakes here.”

Eventually, his knot subsided, and we bathed in the bathroom of whatever guest room we were in before redressing and heading back to my room to sleep. Evidently, it was late enough that the rest of the palace was asleep, and it felt oddly rebellious to be walking around through the silent halls.

“This has been the best day of my life,” I told Damen sleepily, my head resting on his chest in bed while Tilly stretched herself out over both of our feet.

“Likewise, princess. But I’m going to make sure we have some even better ones.”

“Can you see my bite properly?” I asked Damen, smoothing down the front of the maxi dress I was wearing. It felt like it was made out of jersey cotton, and it was the most comfortable thing I’d ever put on. I really had to thank Astrid for all of the dresses she’d sourced, despite how busy she was furnishing Elverston House with human-realm comforts.

“Yes,” Damen said smugly, pausing from playing on the floor with Tilly to reply. I’d even pulled my hair back into a ponytail to really show it off. The couple of days we’d taken to ourselves had been incredible, but we couldn’t miss the Feast of the Modra. Ophelia had put so much work into organizing it, and the whole court was going to be there.

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