Page 59 of Reflections of Silence

Gisella stared up at me, her skin silvery, pristine beneath the moon’s sensual kiss. Her shoulders dropped back, lifting her breasts, their heavy swell rising with each sharp breath. Dusky nipples tightened beneath my gaze, and her breath wasn’t the only labored.

My need roses with her proximity. I forced myself to still. “Run, Gella,” I whispered, so brief the night air sucks my words away. I bared my teeth and her eyes widened, fear edging in as she rocked backward, then she was gone.

But not far enough. Never far enough to escape me.

I slunk into the shadows, my panic of finding her reduced as my arousal scented hers. She might as well be dripping for all the traces she left. I let her run on, turning herself in frantic circles until she stumbled back into a path she’s already used.

One I remained in, waiting.

“Sebastian,” she gasped, tripping over her toes.

Her hand came up to cover her body, but I snarled, lunging in front of her in a breath, knocking her cover away.

“You will never hide from me.” I dug my nails painfully into her hip, jerking her into my fully clothed body. Hells, she was as cold as alabaster. I licked a line along her cheek, tasting her tears, her fear. Her need. “Never cover yourself in front of me, unless I tell you so. This body. Who does it belong to?” I demanded.

“You,” she whispered, a final tear, a perfect, pear-shaped dew drop trembling on her upper lashes as she stared up at me, her frightened breaths coming so much harder as she wriggled in my grasp. “Let me go.”

Reminded of the catfish Dolion swallowed whole, I smile, letting my fangs lengthen past my lips. “I want to mark you, Gella. Something you’ll remember for a long time.”

“W-where?” she shivered when I don’t release her, backing her into a hedge taller than us both. Flagstones turn to sand beneath our feet, the positioning perfect.

“Here.” I traced her pulse beneath my thumb where her life flurried, both of us knowing I could end her in a moment. “Here.” I touched the top of her breast, skating my fingertips across the creamy, perfect skin. Not after tonight; she’d bear my marks forever. “Here.” I cupped my hand between her legs, thrusting two fingers inside her to coat them and smear the top of her thigh near her swollen flesh, right along the inside of the crease. “These are the places I’ll mark. And you’ll scream and cry and come like a wounded animal while I mark you and then fuck you until the sun rises.” I fixed her with a hard look. “And after tonight you will never,everrun from me again.”

She nodded, though her body trembles, anticipation, terror? I can’t tell. “Yes, my lord.”

I growled at her. “Use. My. Name.”

“Yes, Sebastian,” she murmured, bowing her head.

I forced her chin back and claimed her mouth, pushing her onto her knees as I kneeled before her, and found that pulse point. “Hold onto me,” I warned her. “This won’t be sweet, not to start.”

Her pulse flickered faster.Definitely fear.My breeches tightened as my cock roared to life. I tilted her head to the side, licking her flesh, and sank my teeth into her.

Warmth flooded my mouth, her sweet metallic tang coating my throat. I groaned as I gorged myself in a single mouthful, reminding myself I couldn’t drain her. Rearing back, I bit her again, tearing her skin as she sobbed above me, scoring my shoulders with her nails.

“Sebastian,” she gasped. “Stop!”

No. tonight you are mine, no longer someone else’s.

I smiled cruelly into her bloodied neck and bit her again.

And again, and again.

And when her screams of fear broke and I closed the wounds so she wouldn’t bleed out on me, I started on her breasts, turning pain to pleasure until she writhed, her legs open, welcoming my cock deep inside her. Those screams filled the maze, drenching the creatures who resided there that night in her scent,ourscent.

Her body shook and trembled many times. The sun’s arrival warned me of the end of my night’s activities. I pressed my lips to her inner thigh, the last place I promised I’d mark, and bit deeply, bruising her skin in a way that would never heal fully while my seed oozed from her used body.

She moaned, thrashing weakly as she tangled her hands in my hair, riding the waves of pleasure from my bite.

“Pain, need, pleasure. The three things I offer in my bed, Gella. I never asked your permission to marry. I never gave you those promises myself. But I promise you this, now. While ever I exist and you roam this place I will protect you. Wear my marks and you are mine. I’ll give my immortal existence for you, Gella. Everything I am is yours. For you.” My voice cracked, and I returned to drinking, slower, savoring her.

I couldn’t take more without killing her, but I satisfied myself with licking the wound clean, then turning to her swollen flesh I bruised in a different way earlier and licked and sucked until she cried and screamed herself hoarse.

Then, before the sun crested above the horizon, I carried her into the house and pulled all the drapes closed, falling into a dreamless sleep with Gella curled in my arms.

CHAPTER TWENTY

GISELLA

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