Page 49 of The Demon's Discovery
“In order to see your memories, I need access to your blood, Little Dragonfly. I have to bite. I have to drink. It’s there your secrets are kept.”
I heard the words, but the way he’d somehow moved closer to run his warm fingertips up and down the column of my throat as he spoke was mighty distracting. My heart raced so hard I was sure he could hear it. He pressed down right on the pulse point at the base of my throat with his thumb, his golden gaze flashing ruby as he wet his lips. His eyes drifted from where his hand now gripped me around the neck to my mouth, my eyes.
“Greta. I need your words. I need to know you understand. That you are willing.”
I exhaled, thighs clamped together against a fierce ache that only seemed to grow the more he spoke. “What happens if you lose control?” My eyes wanted to close, my whole body somehow tensed as tight as it had ever been and relaxed, tingling as it anticipated his touch.
“I will not lose control,” he insisted, gravel in his voice.
“Okay.”
He dropped to his knees on the rug in front of me. I reached for him, sliding to the very edge of the sofa seat, holding on to his shoulders. “Okay what? You must say it. Please.” His voice held an edge of pleading, the sound teasing down my spine.
“I understand. I want this. I trust you.” I couldn’t recall exactly what he’d asked for, but I thought I had it all covered.
He leaned in close with a low groan, doing that thing where he hovered with his lips brushing the curve where my neck and shoulder met.
His touch sent warm shivers dancing along my skin as he teased down my shoulder before gripping my throat with his right hand, pulling me closer with his left arm wrapped around my back. I thought he was going to go straight for it, but instead he opted for torture.
His mouth dipped, and he sucked at my collarbone, making me squirm against the insistent pulse between my thighs. He left a trail of soft kisses all the way from my ear to my chin and then his lips were on mine, hot and demanding.
I couldn’t stop the sigh that left me as I dissolved under his touch. It was all I could do to keep up with the elaborate dance his kiss had become, the way his tongue teased at mine and his teeth nipped just enough to bring the tiniest edge of pain before he soothed it away again. I became breathless, boneless, held up only by his solid grip around me, drunk on his kiss and unready to be done with it even as he pulled away.
“I am unworthy, Dragonfly.”
His hand snaked up around my throat again, the gentle pressure somehow fanning the flames of my desire even further. Gently, he tilted my head to the side. The softness of his lips brushed over my neck several times. My body quivered under his touch and the featherlight caress of his warm breath. Even through the heady haze of my arousal, I recognized his careful motions for what they were. He was hesitating.
“I trust you,” I whispered, finding his gaze with mine, tensing as it flipped from gold to red in a single breath.
“Truly a gift,” he muttered.
His mouth widened, and he licked a hot path along the pulsing vein, his thumb and two middle fingers tightening against my throat. Air still flowed, but my pulse thudded too loudly in my ears, the slight oxygen deprivation and blood flow constriction enhanced every sensation.
My moan was what alerted me to the fact that he’d bitten me. It was not a sound I was used to hearing nor making, but my body clearly understood the odd precipice he was helping me walk between pain and pleasure even if I lacked experience. There was a bright sting under his warm mouth, but that discomfort twisted, becoming intense arousal. He removed his hand from my neck after one final squeeze, and the gray I hadn’t even noticed forming around the edges of my vision cleared away as I inhaled an unhindered breath. His arm snaked around my back but went down low. He gripped my ass with sure fingers and yanked me all the way up against him as he drank deep, a groan rattling out of his throat.
My legs were splayed wide, my center pressed up against his torso, the seam of my trousers pressed right where I ached the most. A tightness began to form low in my gut, a sharp throb that came closer to the surface with each gentle pull he made with his mouth. All at once, the feelings surged into one overwhelming peak, and I cried out, trembling in his grasp.
He growled low in his chest, the way his fingers clutched at me desperate. The tug on my veins became sharp, and a cold sliver of fear chased away the arousal.
“Vassago.” He buried his head further into my shoulder, and panic started to take hold. I tugged at his hair. “Vassago!”
With a gasp, he withdrew his fangs and stared, the wild look in his eyes the same as I’d seen that night on the road.
“Forgive me,” he said.
“It’s alright.” I saw him come back to himself and put my hand on his cheek. He turned into it, closing his eyes. “I’m okay.”
He sank his face into the curve of my neck again, lathing over the wound his teeth had made with his tongue, planting gentle kisses all around where he’d bitten. The pleasant warm sensation returned, curling low in my stomach.
“Tell me to stop, Greta. To go.” He nipped at my jaw and drew gentle fingertips down my spine, giving me a whole new set of tingles. “I should leave you be. I said I wouldn’t lose control, but?—”
“I don’t want you to stop.” I allowed the words to flow as they wished, no censoring myself like I always did. “I want you to touch me.”
He growled, wrapping one hand in my hair as he forced me to focus on his face. “This was not my intention in asking you here tonight. I do not wish to do things you’ll regret tomorrow. Or ever.” He looked impossibly sad then, and I wanted nothing more than to comfort away his melancholy.
“I could never regret you, Vassago.” I stared deep into his eyes, the color swirling between gold and ruby as some of my blood stained the corner of his mouth. It was wholly true. There was nothing at all about the weeks I’d had with him I would take back or do differently. I’d lived more completely and freely during my time with him at d’Arcan than all of my previous thirty years.
“Nor I you, Dragonfly. For you… For you, I would lose all control. And I would never be able to bring myself to regret a single moment.”
