Page 3 of Gua rdian of Blood and Shadow

For now, though, this moment belonged to Javier and me. Healing old wounds. Forging new bonds.

I gripped his shoulders tight as he carried me across the room, pushing open a door with his back to bring me into his bedroom. I released my bite as he laid me on the bed, lifting my hips so he could drag my leggings and underwear down my legs in one smooth motion. His hands glided up my thighs, pushing my knees apart.

I’d have thought I would be past blushing after everything I’d done with the others, but seeing Javier look at me like I was a feast and he was starving made heat rush to my face. Then his mouth was on me. I arched into him, and everything else vanished. Just sensation. Just this.

I dug my fingers into his hair, pulling him closer. He lapped at my entrance, then shifted higher to my clit. He tongued the exposed head while digging in his teeth just enough to break skin.

“Holy fuck,” I gasped as pain mixed with pleasure in a way that made me see stars. He sucked hard, pulling more blood to my nether regions, and the pleasure narrowed to a pinprick, then exploded outward, rocking through my body in waves. I’d never climaxed so fast.

Fresh tingles told me he’d coated the shallow wound in his blood even as he teased my clit, sending delicious aftershocks jolting through me.

He pushed up my shirt as he climbed onto the bed, gripping me around my ribcage to lift and toss me further back on the mattress. I raised my arms, letting him drag off my shirt and sweater as one. He gripped my bra and yanked, tearing it in two. Kneeling between my legs, he stared down at me, his super-heated gaze roving up and down my body as he yanked his shirt off, then pushed down his drawstring pants, revealing his lack of underwear and releasing his proud erection.

I drank him in. Broad chest covered in glowing sigils and dark hair. Taut abdomen. The thick length jutting out from between his legs.

Javier kicked off his pants and took hold of my hips, lifting my ass off the bed. He dragged my soaked slit along his hard length, using me as his personal lubricant, then angled the head of his cock at my entrance and thrust forward, plunging in deep. My fingers dug into the comforter. I threw my head back, soaking in the harsh sensation of suddenly being so full.

He bowed his head, his breaths coming faster as his fingertips dug into my hips, and held me impaled on his cock. He was still for so long that I feared something was wrong.

“Javier?” I asked softly, reaching up to touch the side of his face. “Are you all right?”

He raised his head, and I sucked in a breath when I saw the tears staining his cheeks. Sex with me had never before made a man cry.

But this wasn’t just sex. This was reconciliation. Reunion. This was a man who had lost everything to find his way back to the one person he had sacrificed everything to save. Twenty years of suffering finding release in a single moment.

I captured a tear with my thumb and searched his intense gaze. “Javi?”

He turned his face into my hand and grazed his teeth over my palm. “It’s a bit overwhelming,” he said roughly.

Guilt tightened my throat—not for Gavin this time, but for Javier. All those years I’d lived my life while he suffered in darkness. All that time I’d believed him dead, never searching, never questioning.

“Come here,” I said, tugging on his shoulder.

He leaned forward, covering my body with his, the motion pulling him out of me partway, only to push back in as he stretched out between my legs.

I shuddered, taking a shaky breath. “If you need to go slow, then go slow,” I said, grazing my nails up and down either side of his neck. “If you need to fuck me hard, then fuck me hard.” I searched his eyes, seeing the shadows threatening to drown out his desire. “I’m here for you. Whatever you need.”

I couldn’t erase his past. Couldn’t undo his suffering or mine. But I could offer him this—a present where he wasn’t alone, a future where he belonged.

I lifted my head and lightly pressed my lips against his. Our first kiss. And despite his cock buried inside me, it was sweet and innocent. Somehow more intimate than what we were already doing.

I broke away, resting my head back on the bed, watching his expression. He licked his lips, then bent his neck, claiming my mouth. This time, there was nothing innocent in the kiss. I opened to him, letting him in, our tongues seeking.

His hips shifted, drawing back before thrusting forward again. I groaned at the renewed invasion. Each thrust came harder, faster, rougher until his body slammed into me with bruising intensity, pushing me toward a second climax as magic welled in my chest.

Making a sound between a groan and a growl, Javier broke our kiss and dragged his lips down over my jaw to my neck. I arched my head back, offering him a better angle. Even the thought of him biting me had my insides fluttering. He sliced his teeth over his thumb and slid it into my mouth, lighting me up with his decadent blood. At that exact moment, he dug his teeth into my neck.

My eyes rolled back as my internal muscles seized. I clenched my thighs around him as silver moonlight exploded out of me, showering us in my magic. Bliss radiated from my core, deepened by the ache from the rough joining, and I dug my nails into his back, shuddering beneath him.

In that moment, I existed beyond thought. Beyond guilt. Beyond the tangle of emotions suffocating me. Just this—bodies connected, blood bonded, power exchanged. I wasn’t torn between consorts or divided by loyalties. Just whole. Complete.

Yet even as ecstasy consumed me, a vow formed: I would become strong enough to save them all. I would harness this power and use it to reclaim what was stolen. Gavin would not be abandoned. The imprisoned queens would not be forgotten.

Javier pulled his thumb from my mouth and broke away from my neck as he slammed into me one last time, covering my mouth with his. His kiss tasted of his blood mixed with mine—intoxicating, right, like we had always been meant to mix together.

And maybe we had been. As our blood mingled on our tongues, I felt the wall between us crumbling, our bond strengthening, his emotions washing through me—relief, joy, devotion, protection, and beneath it all, a fierce love that had sustained him through decades of darkness.

I welcomed it all.

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