Page 51 of Magic Claimed
And why was I letting him?He hadn’t asked for permission to touch me, but my body had already answered his unspoken question. If I pushed him away, he would let me, but I didn’t want to. I wanted his hands on me. His mouth on me. I wantedhim.
“About…me?” I gasped.
My pussy pulsed. I tilted my hips, needing the friction that would make me soar. He kissed me as he eased his fingers in and out of my willing body. His tongue entered my mouth in sync with his fingers. He pressed the heel of his hand onto my clit and then I soared on a wordless gasp, my body tensing, every muscle locked as pleasure raced through my veins.
I drifted back to find Jarom kissing his way down my body. His hands were splayed on my thighs and he held them apart as he settled between them.
“I made a mistake once.” He dipped his tongue into my belly button. “I thought she was our mate. She not only betrayed me, but Alerick and Eike.” He licked along the seam of my thigh, leaving a fiery heat in its wake.
My senses were locked on his tongue, his hands, his mouth, his words. His fingers massaged my skin and although I’d just climaxed, my core swelled and tightened as anticipation rose through me.
“Betrayed?”
He looked up, capturing my gaze. “It wasn’t you I didn’t trust. It was myself. Can you ever forgive me?”
Forgive…him? I frowned, not knowing what to say, because I planned to use the bond magic to unlock enough magic inside me to free myself from the collar. Without the collar, I could run to the outlands where no one would come to claim me.
His dark eyes gleamed with a mix of desire and sadness, but it was the unhidden hurt I recognised that allowed me to speak. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
There was nothing to forgive because I still planned my betrayal.
The groan that was wrenched from him came from deep within his chest. His head dropped between my thighs. He licked a path through my seam, from my entrance to my clit and I threw my head back and screamed as a scorching thrill shot through me.
Jarom consumed me. Licking me again and again, sucking on my clit and flicking it with the tip of his tongue. I clutched his shoulders, my fingertips digging into his flesh, digging into solid, well-formed muscle. I hooked my thighs over his shoulders, tilting his core into his face and tensed as exquisite pressure built between my legs.
I ploughed my fingers through his hair, tugging on the thick strands as he ate me, edging me higher, seeking the elusive release I was desperate for. He suckled my clit and plunged his fingers inside me. One finger. Two. Teasing. Pumping. Caressing. Oh, how my stomach tightened, and then every part of my body lit with fire as the tension exploded and I shattered into a thousand pieces.
I was surrounded by flashes of golden light as I pulled the magical bubbles in the room into me. His coppery light swirled around me as I flew apart. The power of the bond surged through me, so ancient and gentle I wanted to wallow and bask here. It was seductive in its power. If I fully accepted the bond, I could still release the collar, but our souls would be joined.
I wouldn’t be free.
I would not be bound to another ever again.
I repeated the mantra inside my head, keeping a part of myself separate from the bond. I used its magic to take me to the place where the ancient magic was tucked deep inside me. I was strong enough to loosen some of the magic, taking only as much as I would need to ensure my freedom.
Jarom’s rose light swirled around me. His soul brushed mine and nestled within his soul-light was an ugly blackened slash through the centre. I reeled in shock. Only a great wound would leave a scar like that.
Black wisps clung to its decay, so thick that none of his soul-light could penetrate to heal. How long had he hurt as badly as this? Everything he’d said and done made perfect sense to me now.
Wounds as bad as that festered and consumed the whole system in a misguided attempt to protect itself. Every thought, action and word he uttered was built to protect against another wound.
One touch of the ancient magic I’d drawn into my being could heal that scar, but if I healed it, I would need to open myself to the bond magic to do it. It would have more control over me.Theywould have more control over me.
I drifted away in a sickening spiral, leaving Jarom’s wound. Ignoring his pain. Rejecting my mate. He didn’t know what I’d seen or what I could do.
Nor how I’d failed him.
Jarom drew the blanket around me and gathered me in his arms.
“Thank you, Serafine. Thank you for accepting me,” he whispered. I flinched at the hope in his words. They settled on my shoulders, hard and heavy.
He kissed my temple and I spread my palm over his chest, feeling the steady thump of his heart while my gut was hollowed out and my heart beat with an ice pick embedded inside it.
I had the power to heal the wound on his soul, yet I had chosen not to.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I awoke from a doze to hear Jarom speaking seriously with a guard at the door. The smell of something sweet and delicious hit me as he accepted a tray of food and turned towards me. My heart fluttered when he noticed me awake on the couch.
