Page 14 of Bitten & Burned

He’d want to talk more about the blood bonding ceremony. We hadn’t quite agreed upon a location yet. While I wanted to remain here for a bit longer, Vael wanted to travel to Moondale, to the Evergreen Consortium, where he’d been turned.

The Consortium was legendary among scholars—Ledite archives, moonlit groves, and ancient aetheric wards woven into the walls where Vael had crossed from mortal to cursed.

It was important to him. I understood that. But… gods, I was tired, I couldn’t imagine traveling more. And longer. If he’d only understand.

But as much as I knew I needed to go find Vael, I stood a bit longer. I wasn’t as tired. As emotionally exhausted. And Dmitri made for good, quiet company.

But everything ended, I supposed.

“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 the stars. 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 into his 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 for centuries 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 slide delicious, 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.

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 slide against 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 back slightly, 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.