Page 53 of Never Run from an Immortal

He couldn’t decide if she was out of her damn mind or if she was that confident in her abilities. Probably a little of both, if she’d survived this long the way she had. Rae was a fighter through and through. More than that, she might have been oneof the strongest individuals he’d ever met. “Malik and his wife Karina are vying for my position in Sysmus’s absence; it could be worse than last time.”

“Married Vampire aristocracy. They sound delightful.” Not a hint of worry or hesitation fell from her, only her bristling sense of awareness at his proximity as she held his gaze. Her tightly coiled anticipation, colour staining her cheeks.

Aidan hummed his agreement, letting his gaze fall to her mouth for a moment, his attention wholly divided. The aristocracy was a fucking nightmare, he’d concede to that. “Most of them can’t decide whether they want to fuck or strangle each other.”

“Why not both?” Her tongue darted across her lips, her pulse picking up.

His palm found the scar over his chest again, and Rae tracked the movement. This craving went beyond hunger, beyond rational thought. “Regretting your choices?” he asked her.

She closed the space between them until she was an inch away, tilting her head back to look him in the eye, but the speed of her heartbeat gave her away. “When it comes to you, Vale? Always.” She was playing him. His brain knew that, but his body had other ideas as every drop of blood within him rushed south. “I’ve got a lead on your missing magic,” she told him quietly as she placed a hand over his scar, fingers splayed open and a pulse of her magic tumbling from her, mixed with a little of her lust.

It felt like another lie, but she’d pulled that bullet from his chest and he’d felt her worry, her relief. Right now, he could feel the desire coursing through her, could taste it in the air. “I’m done playing games, Witch,” Aidan said, stepping into the last bit of space between them, half expecting her to push him away, but when he looked into her eyes, he saw a mirror of the hunger he felt, the need.

“Guess you’ll have to kill me then, Vampire,” Rae murmured. Her gaze dropped to his mouth, her fingers fisting into his shirt. “But you and me… we’re no better than your married aristocrats.”

His hand wrapped around her throat, her lips parting, breaths coming faster, faster. “Tell me you want this,” he said roughly, fighting the pressure against his canines.

Rae leaned into his grip, her head held high as her fingers tightened in his shirt. She angled her head until her lips were close to his, her breath dancing over his skin. “Bite me, and I’ll gut you.”

Aidan didn’t need to be told twice, his mouth coming down over hers.

Chapter twenty-six

Aidan wasn’t gentle. If he had been, Rae would have stopped this madness.

His kiss was bruising, punishing, lips devouring hers, tongue sweeping in, not a moment of it tentative or tender. It was exactly what she wanted,neededfrom him. To get this out of her system. That was what she told herself as he backed her up against the workbench, one hand fisting in her hair and yanking her head back so he could continue claiming her mouth. Everything about the way he moved, held her, kissed her, told her he knew exactly what she wanted.

For two days she’d avoided him, holing herself up in her studio. Two fucking days to think of the way he’d looked at her at the rutok kennel. She didn’t care, she told herself, if it was because of what he was. Only that she was tired of chasing her relief with her hand or her vibrator.

His eyes were molten silver, half-lidded and full of lust, ofneedas he pulled back to crush her hips against him, achinglyhard and thick against his trousers. Her hips moved with his, legs curling around him as he lifted her onto her bench. Rae fumbled with the buckle of his belt to free him, but Aidan caught her hands, pinning her wrists together with one of his. He slid her further back onto the workbench, tools falling and shattering across the floor.

“You’ll be replacing that,” she told him between breaths, his free hand like a brand along the bare skin of her thigh, tracing higher, higher.

A dark chuckle rumbled through him. “Maybe I should fuck that mouth of yours instead.”

A retort rose up, but she had long since shredded through the last of her resolve, everything she felt dancing along her skin, and she was past the point of trying to keep it under wraps. Even if she’d been able to hide her lust, there was no hiding the scent of her desire from him, the liquid heat pooling between her thighs so close to where his fingers teased her flesh.

His hand cupped her wet centre, flipping her around and pinning her against the bench, an appraising sound rumbling in his chest where it pressed against her back, his other hand pulling her skirt up to her waist.

“Fuck, Farren,” he breathed into her neck, fingers teasing for a second longer, the thick, hard length of him pressed up against her ass. He pulled back to roll her underwear down, hands tracing her thighs, his breath hot against her legs, and Rae shivered with anticipation.

His belt fell to the floor, the zip of his fly sliding down, and with one hand, Aidan pushed Rae flat against the bench. She panted breathlessly, every nerve ending alight as he pulled her ass high in the air, the hand that pressed her down caressing her spine, the tip of him brushing her entrance, and then he paused.

“Don’t go soft on me now, Vale,” Rae snapped, her body shivering beneath his featherlight touch.

He didn’t. There was no hesitation as he slammed himself in to the hilt, a hiss of air leaving them both as he pulled back and thrust again. Rae pushed against him as his hand fisted in her hair, arching her back towards him, his other hand at her throat, his hips never slowing.

Every sense, every nerve was overwhelmingly filled with him, his sandalwood and leather scent, his weight, his warmth, every deep thrust inside her, filling her almost to the point of pain as she panted against his grip, his own breaths short and sharp against the shell of her ear. She’d expected to feel the scrape of his canines against her flesh, swallowing down her disappointment when they never came.

Her eyes fluttered shut at the feel of him, the fullness, the ecstasy building and building inside her. She leaned away from him, bending further across the desk, biting back a cry at how the angle made him hit even deeper. Pleasure tightened every muscle, but Rae would be damned if she’d give him the satisfaction of making her fall apart around him so easily. “Is that all you’ve got?” she rasped against the desk, the force of his thrusts and the size of him lighting her up from the inside.

Aidan made a feral sound, pulling Rae up to her feet and turning her around to face him with one hand hooked around her waist, the other gripping under her knee to wrap her around him.

“Eyes on me, Witch,” he commanded before thrusting into her again.

His mouth was on hers, one hand slipping between them to touch her, fingers working her with just the right speed, just the right pressure—

“Fuck,” Rae breathed, her orgasm hitting her hard and fast, everything squeezing tighter around him as it shook through her.

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