Page 36 of Bitten & Burned
He dug his fingers into my flesh, and I came hard against him, still rubbing myself along his cock. His eyes widened, as if he didn’t expect this, didn’t expect me to come like this.
The hard line of it slotted so perfectly between my thighs that it was all I could do to ride him slowly. I needed him inside me. Needed him to take me places so I could forget the past few months. Back to before. Back when he didn’t worry about breaking me or being too rough.
I knew that wasn’t meant to be.
He hummed and kissed my neck. “You’re so good, Rowena…” His voice was gravelly, and it pulled at me in every direction. He reached down to push at the waistband of his trousers, pushing them down over his hips. His cock sprang free, hard and flushed.
A moan escaped my lips as he reached down to hold it still.
I eagerly moved back into position. He used the tip to slideagainst my aching clit, making me jump from the overstimulation before he slotted it into me.
“Take it all,” he murmured, making me moan as I slid down his entire length. “Oh, you feel so good, Rowena… gods, Witchling…”
He let me bounce on him a few times before he shook his head. “Oh no, I need more…”
My breath caught as he slid his hands under my ass and stood in one fluid motion, his cock still deep inside me.
One thing about bedding a vampire: they were often deceptively strong.
Vael walked until my back gently pressed against a wall. His hands gripped tighter, pressing into my flesh and holding me still against the wall as he snapped his hips into me once. Not hard. Never hard. Never frantic. Always calculated, planned, measured. That was Vael. Every press of his hips was like heaven, his cock dragging deliciously as he held me still, his hands gentle despite holding me down against a wall. He looked at me like I was something precious, and he was allowed to do this, to make me moan. To hear his name on my lips as he continually pushed into me.
Perfect pleasure every time.
His lips dragged slowly over my throat, sucking soft kisses as he found my shoulder, his fangs grazing my skin. He hesitated.
I loved him for that. He never once bit me without my permission. Not that it was such a high bar to have to meet; it was literally the bare minimum, I supposed, but he was always so polite about it.
I bared my throat for him. “Gods, yes, Vael…”
I barely felt the burn, barely felt him there. I wanted to cry out.Bite me for fuck’s sake. But when he began to draw on the wound, my body convulsed against him. My walls tightened, and he groaned against me, hips stuttering as I came once more, tightly gripping him. I felt it when he let go, when he let himself have what he’d given me twice already.
He licked the wound clean on my neck before pulling backslightly, revealing his usually golden eyes were now dark with want. The itch was clearly not scratched yet.
“Again?” Vael murmured, my blood still thick on his lips, staining his teeth.
“Yes, Vael,” I whispered, giggling when he pulled me from the wall, carrying me down the hall. To his bedroom.
Gods, even if he wasn’t rough, he was so good. So fucking good.
Six
EXASPERATION IN INK
Kravenspire, Sol, Verdune
10 Ebry, Year 810
I awokein my rooms once more, Fig jumping around at the bottom of the bed, playing with my feet as I stretched beneath the blankets.
Sometimes I swore he could sense the warping of my magic—his phoeline blood was tied to Inera’s moon, after all—and he batted at me most on mornings when the sigil felt especially heavy.
I slid them out of the blankets to rest on the floor. I went out to the sitting room, surprised to see something on a silver tray near the door. Three envelopes. Two were white, non-descript. The other was green parchment, dotted with wildflower seeds; undoubtedly from Thalia.
I brought them over to a chair, pulling my legs up with me, turning over the envelopes in my hands. The two nondescript ones had Silas’s return address at the Arcanum of Caer Voss.Frowning, I felt both of them; they must be important, if he’d sent them so close together.
I opened those first.
The first one, postdated exactly one week before, the day after I’d left Caer Voss for Halemont.
