Page 63 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
My skin is slick with sweat. I’m so close to coming undone that I can barely think or even process the strained demand that’s just passed through his lips. I let out a shuddering moan as I swallow the blood in my mouth.
“Pay attention, vampire.” The sound of his command is as thick and sweet as melted caramel. He thrusts into me with every word when he repeats his command. “Hold. Out. Your. Tongue.”
I’m too close to the edge of a chasm of pleasure to jab back against his demands, because he’s right, I love them. I fucking love them. So I do it. I hold out my tongue.
“That’s my vampire,” he says indulgently, and holds his torn fingers above my mouth. His hot blood drips down his skin in streams and tributaries and coats my tastebuds, slipping down my throat in a thread of fizzing heat. His strokes are long and steady and deep as he watches, riveted. I let out a whimpering cry as my muscles clench around his girth. “Now say my name and come.”
And holy shit, his words, his blood, his name passing my lips until I can’t even speak, his thick cock pushing as deep as he can go, just like he promised, and I lose myself, utterly and completely. I come in a blinding rush as bright and searing as an exploding star. It singes my veins and melts my bones and wipes my mind clean of everything except the feeling of my body gripping Ashen’s as he spills into me. I hear nothing but the sound of his desperate roar as he follows me into the abyss.
We collapse into one another, Ashen’s chest against mine, both of us breathing heavily, and my heart might tear itself out of my chest just to get closer to him. It’s pounding at my bones and in my ears and through my brain, taking over my thoughts in a gripping rhythm that tries to reconcile itself with the tempo of Ashen’s pulse. I can’t think of anything else, just the tingling, bubbling sensation beneath my skin and that thrumming whoosh of blood.
“I have felt your presence in me from the moment your blood first mixed with mine,” Ashen confesses, slowly, carefully, his breath still ragged across my skin. It’s like a voice in a dream, words that don’t make sense, my brain struggling to find a way out of this fog. His hand releases from my throat so he can brace himself on his arm and look down at me, watching as the words seep in and infiltrate my thoughts. He’s still inside me, still hard. My heart still rages, my flesh still tingles. Ashen looks into my eyes as though searching for me. I blink and notice only now that my pupils have been glowing in their bright vampire gleam, the red light reflecting in the sheen of sweat on Ashen’s face.
“I still feel you, when you feed from me. Like you awaken in my veins.” His other hand trails down my shoulder, flowing across my bicep, leaving a sticky trail of blood from his wounded fingers. He’s still focused on my eyes and every movement, every word, seems carefully constructed. “I know you must feel me in yours.”
Yes. I pull my bottom lip into my mouth and run my tongue across the blood smeared on my skin. I close my eyes. Even those few drops are like swallowing sparks. I nod and open my eyes.
Ashen’s hand passes my wrist then curls around my fist. “It has already started, vampire,” he says, his eyes still on mine, the look in them almost remorseful, pleading. He uncurls my hand from my grip around the handle of his dagger. I draw in a sharp breath and look over at my fingers that open like a flower to relinquish the blade.
The blade I took from the side table without even thinking.
The blade I would have used not to kill, but to mate.
I look back to Ashen in confusion and shock, and he keeps his eyes on mine as he tosses the dagger across the room. “It has already started. But we won’t finish it tonight. We will only finish it when you know what you’re choosing.”
I open my mouth to say something… about how this could still be a choice if it’s already started, or how I can decide anything if my body and my heart just do it before my brain can catch up, or just…anything. But nothing comes out.
“You will still have your choice,” Ashen says, and it comes out like a vow. It comes out sounding true, and Ashen traces his fingers across my cheekbone as though imprinting a promise into my skin. And with the knife lying somewhere in the shadows, I feel a little current of relief in this river of confusion. I watch him for a long moment, still coming back to myself from this fog of desire.
“What if I don’t choose you?” I ask. I try to find strength in it, but my voice comes out husky and rough, little more than a whisper. Ashen’s bloody hand paints a streak across my ribs as he raises it up to brace his weight on both forearms. His fingers trace a crimson line across my lips and he watches with flaming eyes as my tongue runs through that spicy sweetness.
“Maybe you won’t. Maybe you will kill me instead. But I will come back. I will keep coming back for you,” Ashen says, and slides within me, slowly gliding out to the tip of his erection and then back in as far as my body will take him. The fire in his eyes grows brighter when I moan and rake my fingernails up his back. His strokes start at a languid pace and I can already feel my desire twisting low in my core. “But you should know a secret, my vampire.”
I trap a fleeting breath in my chest. I try to keep my words steady, even though the rest of me is melting away. “What’s that?”
Ashen’s motion grows more powerful. The thrusts grow stronger and I know the pleasure will only build, and build, and build until it consumes me.
“I never said I’d make it easy to choose anything but me.”
CHAPTER25
Everything he promises he’ll do, he does. And then some.
I ride his cock and drink from his neck and say his name as he grips my breasts.
I swallow his length as he grasps my hair and growls my name in a desperate chant.
We fuck until I’m so filled with his cum and my arousal that it drips down my legs.
Then he flips me over and pushes slowly into my ass, his body shuddering, just the crown of his cock at first in languid strokes.
“I’m not made of glass, Reaper. I can take it,” I say over my shoulder with a wicked smile as Ashen’s hand sweeps up my spine. He shudders again with my words.
“I want to take my time with you,” he says, pushing in inch by inch until he gradually fits his length inside. He waits for a long moment, both of us breathing hard and slick with sweat. He slides back out to half his length and pushes in again, waiting. “Christ,” he whispers, his hand tracing the line of my hip and down my pelvis and through my short, soft curls until he reaches my clit.
“I thought you said no deities were listening,” I whisper as his fingers dip into my pussy to come back to my clit again. He pulls out, slow again, all the way this time. I think for a minute that he might break his word, but his fingers slide back into my opening just as he leaves my ass. He leans his head on my back and his breath spills across my skin in a stuttering cadence like he can barely hold himself together.
“I was wrong,” Ashen says as he presses in, taking his time to savor the way my rim grips the head of his cock. He slides all the way in until his hips are flush with my ass and then starts a slow and languid pace of thrusts. “There is one deity here. You’re a fucking goddess, sent to destroy me.”
