Page 35 of Bitten & Burned
“I should go,” I said softly, as if I didn’t want to say it. Because I didn’t.
He didn’t argue. Didn’t try to stop me. Just dipped his head in a small understanding nod and then went back to gazing at thestars. But I swore I could feel the ghost of his shoulder nudging mine as I walked back inside.
I went back down the hall in the direction I’d come from. Cassian had said Vael might be in his rooms. Perhaps he was. So deep in thought, he hadn’t heard me knock before.
I nearly tripped over Fig, who was bounding up the hall towards me as I approached Vael’s suite. I knelt, scooped him up, and held him close as I knocked on the door once more. I might have done it a bit louder than before, rapped my knuckles a bit harder than the first time.
“Coming,” I heard from behind the door. Vael opened the door, looking a bit more frazzled than I’d expected.
“There you are,” He said, reaching for me and pulling me close. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Really?” I asked, laughing. “Because I’ve been looking all over for you. I even knocked earlier.”
“You did?” he looked flustered. “I apologize, Witchling. I was deep into a series of pamphlets I brought from the archives. Warnings about blood magic. All of it pertains to vampires, however. So nothing to help us on our quest, I’m afraid.”
“That’s alright,” I said, wrapping both arms around him. “I know you’re trying your best.”
“My best isn’t good enough,” Vael said, as if the very statement broke him. He was so used to understanding everything, to being extraordinary. He wasn’t used to falling short. Poor dear.
“It’s good enough for me,” I assured him. “Even if you don’t find anything, you’re doing the work for me. That’s all that matters to me.”
He smiled and ducked down to kiss me, a lingering, long moment that felt good in the wake of everything else.
I leaned up into the kiss and wrapped one arm around his neck to hold him steady. He chuckled against me and lifted me easily, pulling me into his rooms. I hadn’t meant to do this, but for whatever reason, it felt right.
Vael’s lips pressed fervently to mine as he walked me back intohis sitting room, taking a seat on the chaise and pulling me into his lap.
I squirmed a little so I could face him, gathering up my skirt and straddling his hips as his hands gripped at mine, fingers pressing against my buttocks as I started rocking against him.
“I missed you,” I murmured.
“I could sleep in your chambers with you,” he offered. “So you never again have to be without me…”
“But isn’t the anticipation delicious?” I countered, rocking with purpose over him, feeling the hard length of him as it struggled in vain to escape. To reach me. To fill me.
“Gods, yes,” Vael murmured.
His hands smoothed up my legs, squeezing my ass before dipping between them. His fingers found the apex of my thighs, stroking softly against my slip shorts.
I heard a small moan in his throat when he could feel his finger slide. “Gods,” he murmured reverently, kissing my neck and pulling me down more firmly in his lap, hips bucking up to meet mine. I could still feel his cock pressing up against me; he’d moan when I moved, and it was addictive, knowing just a small flex of my hips could have him groaning in my arms.
“I need you, darling,” he murmured. His hips rocking up to meet mine.
I wanted more than gentle. I wanted to be pressed down, pinned, split apart until I felt real again. I didn’t have the words for that kind of hunger—only the ache of it, sharp and unreachable. Vael was perfect in all ways but one: he couldn’t give me that. I would never be so selfish as to ask for it. I would never make him feel less than.
Vael growled against my skin, and it made me shudder, his hands plucking at the buttons on my blouse. He’d never tear it open. It wouldn’t be like him.
I let my head fall back, and his hands found my breasts, thumbs coaxing my nipples out of hiding. I felt like one of those documents he was always poring over. Untouched forcenturies until his dextrous fingers found just the right way to hold me.
In that moment, all I was and all I could ever be was a bundle of nerves at the end of their tether, so thirsty for any kind of contact that I rubbed myself mercilessly against his cock. Silk trousers made the slidedelicious, and he moaned with me as I rocked against him.
“Gods, Rowena,” he moaned again, his hips moving, but not of his own volition. He was a man possessed. I wondered how many times I could take him apart in one night.
Neither of us had taken off a stitch, rutting against each other fully clothed, me holding my skirt up around my waist, him straining so hard against his trousers that he appeared to be mounting an escape.
I looked into his eyes, pupils wide and dark with want. His lips were parted, his breath a harsh gasp, my name on his tongue, whispered over and over again like a litany, just for me, from Vael, my willing supplicant.
I was on the edge already, even without even touching him skin to skin. He, too, looked wound tight enough to break.
