Page 116 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

I shivered beneath him, reveling in the way our bare bodies slid together, flesh to flesh, our breath entwined, our chests heaving in unison. Lifting my hands from the edge of the table, I banded my arms around his shoulders, gripping the clusters of lean muscles that rippled beneath his skin as he moved against me. His mouth came to rest between the juncture of my neck and shoulder, making me gasp as his teeth grazed my skin.

“The second I enter you, are you going to bite me?” He grunted against me, his voice all husky and low with his own lust.

“You don’t want to be my mate,” I said in a quivering voice. “S–so I’ll try not to. I’m still trying to get a lid on this whole control thing.”

“What I said is thatIwon’t markyou. That privilege rests with the male you choose as your mate.” His eyes narrowed to nothing but slits. “Eros notwithstanding.”

I gave Sterling a stunned blink as his words penetrated the haze still wrapping my brain. What was he trying to tell me exactly? Was he really saying it was okay to bite him?

No, that was insanity.

It’s not like I knew all the nuisances with all this marking and claiming stuff, but it couldn’t be normal for one vampire to carry another’s mark but not the other way around.

Before I could dwell on all the complications of this whole weird game to find my mate and king, Sterling thrust his way inside me.

My spine arched, and I surged on a swollen gasp, but his body pushed me back down against the table, and he devoured my cry with an insatiable kiss, feasting on my lips like they were the tastiest thing he’d ever had.

“Christ Almighty,” he purred into my mouth on a half-growl, half-groan. “You feel like paradise. Complete and utter perfection. Fuck!”

He unleashed another erotic groan of satisfaction, his brows pinching in euphoria, and slowly fed more of himself to me. “Do you feel me, Ruby? Do you feel this?”

I wasn’t sure if he was talking about this terrifying magic binding us together or the way his massive cock spread my walls, making me stretch to accommodate him. Either way, I felt it alright. It was this tight, uneasy ball of tension hanging over our heads. It had been there since the moment we came into each other’s orbit and demanded to be worked loose.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I savored the sensation of him inside me, filling me up until I thought I might break. It was painful, but only because of his size. He went slow, almost painfully so, easing himself inside me in a way that told me all he cared about was my comfort. He was so damn gentle, so careful with me, as if I was something precious he wanted to treasure forever.

Sterling felt so goddamn right sheathed inside me that I never wanted it to end. Hell, I could die getting fucked like this, and that would be A-okay with me. He called me paradise, but it went both ways. His body locked together with mine felt so perfect. It went beyond reason. It was maddening how freakinggoodit all was.

“Don’t stop, Sterling. Please, whatever you do, don’t stop.”

The soul-stealing smile he gave me was enough to make all the pain from our size difference melt away, and just like that, there was nothing but blinding pleasure between us.

Just as it should be.

No more secrets, no more pain, no walls or armor to hide behind. There was nothing but the most amazing heat coiling where our bodies met as his hips flexed forward, surging into me with his mouth agape as if he was just as lost to this enthralling magic fusing us as I was.

My teeth clenched, and I lifted my hips off the table so he could get more purchase inside me. His hands slipped beneath me, cupping my ass as he held me to him, pumping into me, rolling his hips with strokes that already had me close to falling apart in his embrace.

His brow pressed against my own, and I stared into his ghostly eyes that seemed to sparkle with something that would have me moaning in pleasure even if he wasn’t seated balls deep inside me, fucking like he had forgotten the bliss of a woman’s body.

“Beautiful,” he breathed. “Absolutely beautiful.”

“But you can’t see me.”

His hands left my rear to smooth over my breasts, up my neck, over my face, and finally settle on either side of my head, holding me. “I see all the parts that matter. And you’re fucking beautiful, Ruby Renada.”

I don’t know why I started to cry. Maybe it was from the searing bliss between my thighs as his cock continued to work me up to another climax. Or maybe it was the fact that for the first time since… Well, since ever, that I felt seen. Truly seen. And by the reclusive blind prince, no less. How was that for irony?

Sterling stilled for a moment, staring down at me with worry etched in the corners of his eyes. “You’re crying. Am I hurting you?”

“No, I’m just…happy. I’m so happy it almost hurts.”

“If you’re happy, why does it hurt?”

“Because it has to end sometime, doesn’t it? Eventually, we’ll have to leave this attic, and I have to accept that you won’t be king. I just have to pretend that I’m okay with that. And I’m not okay with it. I’m not okay at all.”

Part of me felt pathetic for crying, especially right in the middle of what I had basically begged Sterling for. And now here I was, sobbing, with his dick still inside me. But if I felt at all stupid, he soothed it away with hushedshhhhsounds, his arms encircling my head, drawing me into him in a fierce embrace.

“I can never be king because I refuse to sit where he did, Ruby. And I won’t mark you because that right should lie with the king. But understand, I want nothing more than for me to be yours. The only reason I wouldn’t take your mark before is that I didn’t think you’d want me once you discovered what your father did to me. But if you’ll have me, I will always be here for you to guide you in your role as queen.”

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