Page 40 of The Blood Crown

There were a million reasons why she came back. But none of them mattered except for one.

She leaned into his touch as she whispered, “I couldn’t live in a world without you.”

And his guarded expression shattered.

Closing the space between them, his mouth was on hers, the careful distance they’d kept from each other since leaving Ravenstone dissolving in an instant. The feel of his lips just as she remembered, gentle and unyielding all at once.

Tonight, he’d offered her some small semblance of safety, and maybe that was all that it meant to him—maybe it was only a sliver of light in this dark place for both of them to grasp onto. But she wanted this, even if it wouldn’t mean anything beyond this place. She wanted to belong to him, if only for a moment.

His hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her into his lap. The thin gown she wore did little to hide her body’s reaction to him as he found the curve of her waist, scorching a path acrossher exposed skin, his palm grazing the underside of her breast as he pulled her closer.

It was as if his hands had been made for her—the feeling of them so familiar and utterly perfect that she couldn’t imagine having felt anything else.

He guided her fingertips to the throbbing pulse at his neck. An invitation. A silent question burning in his eyes. And her teeth seemed to sharpen in answer, every instinct in her body demanding that she sink them into his smooth skin. She traced his throat with her lips, drinking in the heady scent of him. Fresh, clean sweat, and beneath it . . . blood.

Her fangs pierced his neck. And the instant his blood hit her tongue it was dizzying ecstasy.

A sharp sting at her wrist drew her attention to where Ven held her arm against his mouth. But the pain quickly gave way to pleasure as his other hand traced the curve of her hip, exposed where her dress had ridden up. An ache pounded through her as his mouth pulled against her wrist and she drank down the rich flavor of him.

His fingertips swept along her inner thigh, and her heartbeat raced at the thought of what he might find if his fingers brushed any closer . . .

Tearing herself away, she wiped at her mouth, catching ragged breaths, embarrassment heating her skin. Ven had told her sharing blood was a window into someone’s power, but what passed between them seemed much deeper than that.

“Does it always feel like this?” she asked, willing her heartbeat to slow.

Ven’s eyes had taken on a glazed quality, his skin flushing scarlet at the question. “No,” he answered, his gaze dropping to her lips. “Emotions are transferred through taking blood from someone. If there is pain, fear . . .”

She recalled what she’d endured during her stasis.Painwasn’t enough to describe the way she thought her body would combust entirely . . . but Ven had endured all of it with her.

Desire thrummed through her, but a small amount of clarity returned as she shifted to move from where she'd crawled into his lap—and she felt the hard ridge of him beneath her.

Heat spread as understanding sunk in. The pleasure, the desire . . . it hadn’t only belonged to her. And she couldfeelhis blood coursing through her veins, his power igniting something in her that she didn’t understand.

“Tell me what you want, Aurelia,” he rasped as his lips traced her neck, fangs grazing the swells of her breasts.

An unwelcome thought pushed into her mind of her last encounter with Bastien. And the bitter taste of self-loathing flooded her mouth even as she tried to swallow it back. Partly because she’d made love to him trying to hold onto something that never was—partly because she’d been thinking of Ven the entire time.

“I want to forget,” she finally admitted. Forget this place. Forget who hunted her. Forget the feel of another male’s hands . . . if only for a moment.

His palm traveled across the plane of her stomach, wrapping around the curve of her hip as his eyes met hers, a flicker of sadness flashing there and disappearing just as quickly. “I still think about that night in the Crystal City—and how I did not keep my promise," he whispered, "and I have regretted it every day since."

Her fingers sunk into the silky strands of his hair, pulling him down to her as he greedily took her mouth once more. Possessive this time. A claiming. His fingertips pressed into her skin, bruising her thigh where he still held her tight against his body, as if he was clinging onto the last shred of his soul.

His caress bordered on devotion as he stroked his thumb across the smooth skin of her thigh, every circle bringing him closer to where she wanted him to be, until at last his hand found the molten heat of her.

He growled his approval in her ear at finding her already slick and wanting, his thumb making torturous circles at the apex of her thighs. She silenced a gasp as he slipped a finger inside of her, faintly aware of the fact that just outside of the door, guards were standing watch. But Ven was undeterred as he stroked her, his lips at her neck, fangs scraping against the sensitive skin just below her ear.

There was nothing hurried about his movements as he slipped another finger inside, coiling her tighter and tighter, until she was completely at his mercy. She could feel the evidence of his desire beneath her, the hard length of him against her ass making her blood heat even more. Tangling her fingers in the onyx strands of his hair, she shifted to touch him, but he gripped her waist firmly, holding her in place—commanding her with his touch.

“The first time I take you will not be here. Not in this place.” His voice was gravelly with the words, and she knew what it cost him to say them aloud. His mouth was unyielding as it dropped down to her neck.

A demand. A plea.

Baring her throat to him, warm breath caressed her skin just a moment before she felt the graze of his fangs. As the sting of his bite gave way to exquisite pain, she finally shattered into oblivion around his fingers.

Ven’s arms were still wrapped around her, the steady beat of his heart thudding against her ear as she shifted in his lap. He liftedher wrist to his lips and pressed a whisper soft kiss against her skin. But something about his expression stole the warmth from her chest.

“I found a way for you to leave.” Sadness laced his words, glittering in the depths of his eyes.

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