Page 57 of Captured in Love
Another retreat, another slow thrust that has me squirming under him.
“Raphaël, please,” I beg, trying to roll my hips.
But he tightens his grip on me, brings his face down so he’s staring straight into my eyes. “The spell you owe me. I wanted you toendme, Nora.”
His words pierce the fog of pleasure, and slow horror dawns inside me. “What?” I gape at him.
He rocks into me again, stronger this time, and I have to use both my hands to keep myself in place.
“I’ve lived for centuries, had more lovers than I can count, and then I met a girl with honest eyes,” he murmurs against my neck. He kisses the edge of my jaw, the corner of my lips. “She was everything I never knew I’d been searching for.”
I tilt my head and take his next kiss on my lips, trying to get him to stop talking, to just finish what we started without…
“And she cursed me,” he continues. His lips are soft, a dangerous counterpoint to his ever rougher thrusts. “I spent two years living a half life, a shadow life without knowing what was missing.”
I’m crying now, tears slipping down my temples and into my hair, and I want to wrap myself around him, comfort him, but he won’t let me. He delivers his next words with another deep, delicious slide inside me.
“Then you returned and gave me back my memories. You offered me adeal. And I decided to ask you for a spell that would end me. I’d grown so fuckingtiredof this world.”
His movements stutter, and he pauses above me, his eyes closed tight. He bows his head and shudders, and I know he’s just as close to the edge as me. He feels impossibly thick inside me, and I need just a little more—of his touch, of his body, ofhim.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice cracking on my words. “I’m so sorry.”
I jerk in his grip, and he lets my hands go. I lift them to his face, cup his cheeks, trace my fingers over his brows. He’s so beautiful, my heart aches, and I hate that I caused him so much pain.
He leans down until our bodies are flush with each other, until his warm breath mingles with mine and his lips hover an inch over my ear.
“I don’t want to die anymore,” he murmurs.
He flexes his hips, and I cry out in pleasure. This close, the friction on my clit increases, andthere’sthe sensation I crave.
“I love you,” Raphaël whispers against my lips. “I loved you even when I didn’t know it, and I don’t want to waste a moment of my life being away from you.”
He kisses me, messy and rough, and his hips jack in a faster, more urgent rhythm. I dig my nails into his back and cry out, and he swallows the sound, teases my tongue, sucks my bottom lip, hard enough to sting.
But his eyes remain human, and his focus is onme, just me, and it’s everything.
Between one thrust and the next, I come, the glowing ball of light exploding inside me. Pleasure ripples through my veins, and I clench around Raphaël, holding on to him, afraid to let go.
He roars, buries his face in my neck, and pumps his hips through his orgasm, every jerk of his body prolonging mine.
We cling together in the aftermath, even as the strength of my grip eases and I caress his back instead of clawing it. He presses a kiss to my neck, another to the edge of my jaw, and finally finds my lips in a soft kiss. It’s more expressive than his words, more telling than the rough passion of a moment ago.
I sniff, trying desperately to hold back the tears, but they keep flowing. Raphaël doesn’t comment at all. He simply rolls to the side and brings me closer to him, until I’m lying half atop him. He maneuvers the stiff sheet and scratchy blanket, covering us both.
I can’t look at him yet. First, I have to pull myself together, stitch back my open heart. But a new sense of calm descends upon us after the revelation he shared. I’d been dreading the moment he called in his due, I’d spent time worrying over what spell he will extract from me in payment for his help. I’d never imagined he might wish to…die. It’s a terrible thought, the knowledge of how close I came to losing him. I would have been honor bound to fulfill that promise, and even though I don’t yet know the spell to unravel a vampire’s eternal life, I could probably have found it buried in some old archives. Maybe even in the Ballendial Library.
After living for so long, I guess Raphaël would have deserved his peace.
But I’m selfishly glad I don’t have to be the one to give it to him. And even happier that I’ll get to spend my life with him.
I close my eyes, resting against Raphaël’s chest. It takes me a minute to realize that the moment istoopeaceful—his breathing is too slow for a human, and his heart is still. But I’m too tired to ask him about it, to wonder what his being a vampire means for him, for us, for our future.
The last thing I remember before I slip into exhausted sleep is the press of Raphaël’s cool lips on my forehead and a whispered repeat of “I love you.”
Twenty-One
Levi
