Page 66 of Fated to the Vampire Prince
Bastien cupped my jaw, guiding my attention back to his face. It was hard to believe anyone else was on his mind besides me. His eyes roved over the lines of my body, lingering on my breasts. The hardness between us twitched, pressing against me, and as it did, his hands found the small of my back, gently holding me to him.
The feeling was… indescribable. Wrong.Right. Sinful.Bliss. I tipped my head back and closed my eyes, enjoying it. Savoring it. Our bodies fit together like pieces of the same puzzle. I didn’t know why touching him felt so right, but it did.
I wanted more than just this. I wanted him. Closer. So close. As close as Devlinn and Tansy had been. I wanted him to be all around me and inside me until he forgot the person he truly belonged to.
Opening my eyes, I leaned forward, letting my hands cup his cheeks, my fingers stretching into his soft blond hair. When our lips were a breath apart, I whispered his name. “Bastien.”
“Claire.” The low rasp of his voice went right through me. I wanted to kiss him. There was no question in my mind. Nodoubts. No wavering. It felt as inevitable as the tide meeting the shore. As if drawn to him by a string, our lips brushed against each other in one chaste touch.
My heart was pounding and my hands shook. We’d touched before, but this felt different. Itwasdifferent.
“Claire. I want—I need—more.More of you.”
“I need you too,” I choked out.
He groaned, then brought my face to his again, sweeping his lips over mine and capturing my lower lip with his teeth. A gentle bite. This kiss wasn’t anything like the heady desire of last night. He pressed our foreheads together. Breathing coming fast. “Before this goes any further, there’s something I need you to see.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I waited, still trembling from the intense emotion building in my chest. He opened the connection between us, pulling me deeper into him, like it always did. I waited for what he wanted to show me, when suddenly, a picture formed behind my eyes.
It was dark, save for the light of floating candles. Steam curled off the surface of the water. I saw myself across the pool, shampooing my hair. Then the scene panned away from me, and to Bastien’s pulsing stone.
I realized I was watching a memory. His memory of the night he took me to the bathhouse.And with it, I felt his emotions like they were my own. His frustration and anger were there, but it was nothing compared to the deep affection he had for me. For… the desire.
When the scene panned back to where I’d been standing, I wasn’t there. Now, fear crowded into my chest. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I was looking around, but couldn’t find me. And the bloodstone… it wasn’t glowing anymore. Panic. Blind panic. With shaking hands, I dived under the water, swimming hard and fast, until I saw myself floating.
The sleeping draught.I must’ve fallen asleep. I must’vedrowned.
I scooped my lifeless body out of the water, praying to the gods as I stared at my face. There was a momentary hesitation before he decided to bring me back to life. Breath by breath. Begging me to live.He saved me.
When the memory was over and I opened my eyes, I was back in my own body. Tears were running down my cheeks. Slowly, he wiped them from my face. He’d saved my life, and never said a word.
“You saw what happened that night?” he asked.
I nodded, unsure what else to say. His lipshadtouched mine. Somehow, even in death, I’d felt him. He could’ve let me die and rid himself of me, but he didn’t.
Unlike Mama.
She would send me to die for her war. My family, too. They watched her place the choker around my neck without a word against it. All because of the shame I held. Because I was a magickless witch—a burden. It sat on my chest, pressing down on me until it felt like I was drowning all over again.
The pulsing light of his bloodstone gave me something to focus on besides the shame, and I let the rhythm ground me when everything felt too heavy to hold.
Beat. Beat. Beat.
I swiped my finger over it again.
“Do you know why I saved you?” he asked. I shook my head. Still choking back tears. “If you think hard enough, you’ll understand.”
I sucked in a shuddering breath. “Bastien—” was all I managed before he kissed me again. The touch of his mouth awakened something inside me. Saving me. Bringing me back to life when the weight of who I was and who I wasn’t threatened to drag me under.
Bastien slanted his mouth against mine like he wanted to savor every piece of me. Like nothing was too much for him. His smooth tongue swept over the seam of my lips, encouraging them to open for him. When I did, he traced mine with his. I was floating again. Lost in his tide. Wanting to swim to him and hold on tight.
Kiss by slow kiss, I fell deeper into him. Our bodies moving together. My hips and his. My hands and his. Rolling together and gripping tight. I gasped. He moaned. The hunger increasing until Bastien abruptly pulled away, leaving my lips wet and swollen and tasting of him.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” he said, shaking his head, breathless. “It will only strengthen our bond.”
Did he mean the connection between our minds, or something else?
Again, I saw the war raging behind his eyes, and I wanted to understand it better. I probed our connection, and found his guilt. His hesitance. And a need to protect me at all costs. But on top it was an intense desire. A desire that matched my own. Heat prickled in the back of my throat. How could he feel all these things for me at once? Unless… My gaze fell back to the bloodstone.
