Page 39 of Bloody Bargain
“Take it, Tessa.”
I pushed his hand away. “I don’t want blood, I don’tneedblood. I need–”
“Blood or nothing,” he snarled, snapping his teeth at me for the first time.
“If you’re really mine, I want you to fuck me, D’abel. Then I’ll–”
“Enough!” the elemental croaked, his scales lifting as if his hackles were standing on end. “No more. I cannot control myself.”
“Then don’t!”
D’abel snatched my jaw in his tail’s tip and licked a track of blood dripping from my eye as if he were grooming me.
“You enjoy the pain, but you will not enjoy being torn apart, Tessa.”
I felt my face with my fingers and came back sticky with bright red. Hehadbeen shattering me. Whether it was with a fraction of his true self or the weight of his entire spirit, I couldn’t know. However much of his blood I’d swallowed, it wasn’t enough to heal me faster than he hurt me.
“Okay,” I said, cowed into wide-eyed silence.
D’abel butted his face against my cheeks and jaw in relief, his breath uneven and ragged. He purred like a crocodile, and the frozen droplets in the air shook as he tapped my skin in short, gentle nudges. It was comforting in an instinctive way. A monstrous way. Something that elementals did, not humans. I sighed with relief, my lashes fluttering closed. If he squeezed his tail around my chest, I knew it would feel like the safest place in the world.
Which made my hair raise in alarm.
“Stop,” I hitched, every nerve ending on fire in warning.
D’abel froze, his nose pressed to my collarbone. He nudged me again and I could practically hear his soul begging me to let him continue. I pushed him back and his hands tightened on my hip bones.
“I said stop,” I murmured.
He grimaced as he set me down, unwinding his tail. It took physical effort for him to pry his claws away where they stung my skin. When his coil released me I collapsed on tingling, bloodless feet and shuffled away from his touch. He looked down at me with equal parts awe and regret.
“As you will it, mine–”
“Don’t. Go.”
D’abel flinched, then dissolved into a column of mist. The droplets filling the air crashing into the furniture, light fixtures, electronics, and floor, leaving me huddled naked against the underside of the vanity as old outlets sparked and fizzled, terrified of what I’d unleashed onto the world.
More terrified of the feelings he’d unleashed in me.
14
Owena listened in fascination, ear pressed to the crack beneath the door of the bathroom connecting the yellow and blue suites. The blue suite had called down because of a leak, so she’d done her due diligence, called the plumber, made them a cuppa…
But when it came time to knock on the door to the yellow suite, something stopped her. Shame burned her cheeks at first, remembering how delicious the American’s boyfriend looked in his towel. Burnished skin and coarse black hair on his chest that captured water droplets like diamonds she wanted to lick up.
But listening in was just a precaution, not improper. What with the ruckus they’d caused and Cheryl down at the corner shoppe not answering anyone’s calls… Neighbors had gathered on the village green in concern. How was she to tell Ieuan that those murderous shrieks were enthusiastic bedplay? The poor deacon was nigh eighty years old! She didn’t have the strength.
But she was the village innkeeper. It was her job to ensure her guests were safe and happy. This was for the American’s own safety.
Except that they were clearly back at it. At least he’d kept his word in keeping her quiet. Owena pressed her knees together as the woman moaned, her mouth occupied withsomething.
“If you’re really mine, I want you to fuck me–”
Why had she fixed these bloody locks?! If she hadn’t, she’d be able to see.
“Enough!” the man growled in a decadent bass cadence. “No more. I cannot control myself.”
“Then don’t!”
