Page 129 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

But Bane’s arm was clamped around my waist, securing me to his side. He climbed with smooth confidence, claws digging between the stones, as easily as a man might walk.

He growled as he climbed towards the Tower of Winter, clinging to the sill of the open window to the bedroom, and carried me inside. I was reminded of human wedding traditions, how a groom would carry his bride over a line of silver androwan dust on the way to bed, but this was a beast carrying a woman off to his tower.

I shivered with anticipation, burying my face between his neck and shoulder.

He landed on the floor with a heavy thud, adjusting his grip until he cradled me in his arms, gazing lovingly into my eyes.

He shook his head. “I don’t know why, but I love it when you say ‘fuck’. It does something to me.”

I giggled despite myself, a flurry of nervous breaths, and unlooped my arms from his neck to speak.Maybe because that’s what I want you to do to me.

He growled, carrying me to the bed. I half expected him to toss me in, but he put me carefully on the floor. “This comes off.”

I reached behind my back, feeling for the laces of the bodice, my knees shaking with anticipation, hands shaking with the desire to get this damn dress off already.

But Rose had knotted them too tightly. I tugged at a lace, my fingers picking ineffectually at the knot, until the entire bodice suddenly loosened.

Bane held up a claw. “I’m impatient.”

So am I.Take that off. I want to see all of you.

Bane tugged the shredded laces away, tossing the loose panels of the bodice to the floor, but his hands slowed as he moved to the crimson underdress.

He stood behind me, his breath ruffling my hair as he slipped the sleeves over my shoulders, peeling the dress away inch by inch. A hungry rumble resonated from his chest as it slipped over my breasts and down my waist.

A tickle touched my spine; his tongue flicking over the nape of my neck, down my back, as he tasted me. The edges of his fangs grazed flesh, not quite hard enough to draw blood, but enough to make me shiver.

I stepped from the gown, turning to face him. His eyes roved over me, gleaming with a ravenous light.

Now for you.

He shrugged out of the brocade overcoat, and I stepped forward to unbutton the shirt beneath. His breath was raspy, and he raised his hands to trace his claws over my shoulders, caressing the edges of my breasts and teasing my hardened nipples.

I pushed the shirt aside, exposing the wide, hard planes of his chest, the thick muscles of his abdomen. Bane shrugged it off, peeling his trousers away and throwing them aside.

In the moonlight we gazed at each other. He was primal, powerful, every limb delineated with muscle, his shoulders and back weighed down with the horns and spines. My eyes slid lower, taking in the heavy thighs, his steely cock with its ridged length and barbed crown.

Heat blazed to life inside me, overcoming my nervousness. I abandoned myself to the sucking pool of lust, veins aflame, and as one we crashed into each other.

I kissed him with abandon, uncaring of the flares of pain in my lips when his fangs cut me—he licked the blood away, healing me before scars could form.

Bane picked me up, his hands cupping my backside as he carried me to the bed. He sat down hard, straddling me on his lap, the thick shaft between my legs cradled against my wet core.

I was already throbbing with need, gasping as his tongue clasped mine again.

“Slow, lover,” Bane breathed, grasping my hips before they could rock forward. “I want to give you what you want, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

I dredged up willpower from places I’d never known existed inside me before, and leaned back from him. He kept his hands on my hips, holding me in place as I signed.

Then let’s play our game. Let me fuck you. Let me control it.

A lustful snarl escaped him, and his hands tightened almost painfully. “I shouldn’t have told you what that word from your pretty hands does to me.”

I laughed.You know I won’t hesitate to use it.

“That’s what I’m afraid of, you devious little creature.” He dragged my hips toward him, the rippled underside of his shaft sliding over my clit and startling a gasp from me. “You’ll always get your way.”

Let me do it, Bane. We’ve waited long enough. Another thrust, his sliding length gliding across my wet sex, and I couldn’t stop myself from bucking against him.

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