Page 66 of Bitten & Burned

Thirty-Five

WORSHIP

Kravenspire, Sol, Verdune

I was lying in my bed, exactly where Anton had left me, when I heard a timid knock on the door.

Fig’s ears pricked up, and he jumped down off my bed, a little mrrp escaping as he bounded to my bedroom door.

I thought briefly about getting up and answering it, but then thought better of it and simply called, “Come in, it’s open! ”

The door opened just as timidly as it had been knocked upon.

Fig bolted from the room, down the hall, and then he was gone.

Possibly to beg for scraps in the kitchen.

Possibly to go on any number of adventures, he got up to around here.

Which didn’t matter, because the one who poked his head in stole all my attention.

“Are you up for a visitor?” Vael asked, his honey-gold eyes wide and unassuming.

“Are you the visitor?” I asked, smiling warmly.

“Perhaps, if you’ll have me,” he said with a soft grin, stepping in and closing the door behind him. He had the books I’d asked for cradled in his arms. “Where would you like these?”

“Over there,” I said, pointing to the table nearby.

He took them there and stacked them neatly. And then he just…looked around. Like he was out of place. His gaze darted to the ceiling, the wallpaper, anywhere but at me.

“Vael,” I murmured. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing… I…” He snapped his mouth closed. “I just… can’t stop thinking about what I said.”

“Before I left for Blackthorn?” I asked, tilting my head and trying to remember. “You were adequately worried, I think. And rightfully so. I don’t think there was anything wrong with what you said.”

“No, not… not then. After the bonding ceremony. When I…” he trailed off. “When I threw you to the ground.”

“You didn’t throw me,” I corrected, “You dropped me.”

“It’s the same.”

“It’s not, Vael.”

“What if I told you that I would have thrown you?”

“Why would you say that, when we both know it isn’t true?”

He paused, pressing his lips together briefly before speaking.

“I was so angry with you for ruining the thing I’d spent so much time planning and perfecting that it never occurred to me that the whole reason I was doing it at all was because of you.

Not me, you. I would be content to be at your side for all eternity, but I wanted you to have the security of knowing I meant it, in addition to the other benefits it would afford you.

So I planned the ceremony to within an inch of its life, and I…

blew up when it didn’t go according to my plans…

I ruined my relationship with you, and for what?

My own compulsions?” He dropped his arms. “You’d be right never to speak to me again, never to even look at me. ”

“You’re being dramatic,” I whispered.

“I’m not being anything. I am dramatic,” he countered, huffing out a laugh.

“Even for you, you’re being dramatic.”

“And for you? Am I too dramatic for you?” he asked, holding his breath.

“No, Vael. You’re not.”

“You’re being too kind… I deserved to have that door closed in my face then, and I deserve it now.”

I sighed heavily. “I was angry when I did that. It’s not my proudest moment. I’m sorry.”

“It was needed. I needed it. You are… gods, you’re everything, Rowena.

And I… was too much of a coward to tell you that.

Too cruel to give you what I should have given you.

Instead, I punished you for something that wasn’t your fault.

” He looked so broken. Forlorn. “If you were to say it again—to tell me again how you felt—I would respond in a way more befitting and deserving of the sentiment.”

Say it again… I knew what he was referring to: that I loved him.

“You would?” I asked, tilting my head. “Would you like me to say it again now?”

“No,” he said quickly. “Not until I’ve… not until I’ve earned it.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do,” he stated plainly. “I am a man who has wronged his goddess, and I aim to make it right.”

My heart fluttered when he said that. Even if I knew my worth. And it wasn’t this. “I’m no goddess.”

“Perhaps not, but I can’t think of a better word for what you are to me.

You have given me something to believe in.

Something to cherish. Something to…” He trailed off, shaking his head.

“I’m getting ahead of myself. Trust me, you’re a goddess.

And I… have been laying idle hands instead of paying tribute. ”

I smiled, sitting back on the pillows. “And, I assume you’ve come to me with a way to right this most egregious wrong?”

“The only way. The best way.”

He moved closer, then he sank to the floor, down on one knee. He folded the other one under him. Until he was kneeling beside my bed. He bowed his head as both knees reached the floor.

His face wasn’t his normal countenance of assurance. In its place was one of pure, unadulterated submission. He reached for my hand, cupping it in both of his, and pressing it to his mouth. He kissed my knuckles softly, then kissed the back of my hand.

“Rowena… I am sorry. I know mere words cannot sponge out what I said to you. How I hurt you. If I could take it back, I would, but that doesn’t mean anything because I cannot. I said the words, and there will never be a time when I didn’t…”

He squeezed my hand in both of his, further bowing his head. I felt the wetness of his tears as they dripped onto my hand.

“Gods, the thought of you going through all of this without me is unbearable. And yet, you did. Because you are strong and I am weak. You are brave, and I am cowardly. I should have pushed my feelings … my pride… aside and come to you. Been there for you. I know my being there wouldn’t have stopped what happened with the others, and I’m fine with that now, I swear it. ”

“Oh Vael…” I shifted over, sliding my legs out from under the blanket and over the side of the mattress. He still had my hand, pressing his face to it. I used the other one to rake through his hair with my fingers. My nails scratched against his scalp.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered again, and I felt the tears begin to fall again.

His shoulders began to shake, and I ached to hold him, but, from this position, all I could do was what I already was: allow him to cry and stroke his hair.

“You’re beautiful and good… and I treated you horribly.” He brought my hand to his forehead, sucking in air before sobbing it back out again.

“Vael…”

“You don’t owe me anything, but please let me do this, let me… let me show you how sorry I am…”

Tears pricked at my eyes, and he moved, looking up at me before he began kissing each of my fingertips. His lips were warm and wet with his tears, and the kisses were soft.

He was still sobbing, but the breaths were coming easier; he wasn’t hiccupping and he wasn’t gasping for air. He was kissing me: my fingers, my knuckles, my hand, over and over. He rose on his knees slightly, leaning to kiss up my arm as far as he could reach and back down again.

He shifted, his head on my bare knees, kissing there too. Moving to my thighs. His breath changed, and so did mine. It caught as he kissed higher still, and he looked up at me, red-rimmed eyes searching mine.

I felt my hips relax, and my thighs spread slightly.

He pushed between them, kissing up and down my inner thigh.

“Vael…” I whispered, shaking as he kissed higher and higher. He came to the hem of my nightgown, and he looked up at me again for permission. I swallowed thick and gave him the barest nod.

He gently pushed my thighs farther apart. I let him; he slowly rucked up the nightgown over my hips. He moaned softly, seeing that I was bare.

He kissed up my inner thighs, switching back and forth until he was at the crease, his lips pressing softly there before moving to the other side, until, finally, he spread my legs more, revealing me completely to his gaze. I inhaled, holding my breath as I ran my fingers through his hair again.

He nuzzled closer, and I gasped. He rubbed his nose against me. I inhaled as his tongue brushed. Lips next. Every touch was reverent and thorough.

His tongue slid through my folds, tasting me. I spread my thighs farther apart, and he moved in closer, his tongue finding my clit. He must have felt how I shuddered as he flicked it with his tongue, because he moaned deep from inside his chest as he continued to lick into me. To worship me.

He exhaled raggedly against me and seemed to be cataloging my reactions. When he flattened his tongue over me, it made me tense; when he flicked it, I stilled. And when he swirled it? I arched into him. The more animated I became, the more emboldened he grew.

He doubled down, his tongue flicking against my clit. Holding my thighs apart, he groaned with me when I finally shook apart.

He didn’t stop, though; he merely slowed down, even though every pass of his tongue felt like too much.

I slowly tugged on his hair, pulling him back from me.

Then I tugged him upward, and he began to kiss his way up my body, his lips trailing along my belly and my breasts, until he had one knee on the mattress in between mine, leaning against me on the bed as he kissed along my jaw.

“Rowena,” he murmured, his eyes impossibly dark as I gazed into them. They were on me, only on me, and, as he licked his lips, his chin glistened with my arousal. I tugged him closer, pressing my lips to his.

“Come here,” I murmured, lying back on the bed.

He crawled over me, his hands fisting in the sheets as if to stabilize himself, to keep from clutching me instead. He hovered there, watching me. Waiting.

I rucked up the edge of my nightgown higher, and he let out a trembling breath that sounded something like ‘goddess’.

Fuck, that did something to me.

I bit my lip and reached for him, pulling him down to press my lips to his. I kissed his lips softly, I kissed his fangs, I kissed down his jaw and over his throat. He whispered my name like a prayer.

The entire time, his hands stayed where they were, bracketing me, caging me in. So I reached for his trousers myself. I undid buttons and reached inside, finding him hard and quivering.

His eyes slid closed as I touched him, his arms shaking as I pulled his cock out.

I pulled him closer, tugging his hips down until they were nearly flush with mine.

I bent my legs, offering myself up to him.

He gazed at me like I was the altar and he only wanted to give me the best possible tribute.

I slid him through my slickness, and he moaned, dropping his head, his hips rocking forward slightly. “Please…” he whispered, and I realized that he wasn’t going to do it himself. He wanted me, no doubts about that, but he wasn’t going to press into me without my express permission. So I gave it.

I hooked my leg around his hips and dragged him closer, his cock slotting into me and then easing deeper inside me. He let out a low moan, his eyes squeezing shut as he bottomed out against me.

I rocked up, meeting his hips, letting my fingers trail along his jaw, and tilting his head so I could look at him. He looked wrecked. His hips thrust slightly, as if he couldn’t help it, but not enough to do anything. I bit my lip and squeezed around him. He moaned and bucked his hips.

Once he started, he couldn’t stop.

Vael gripped the sheets on either side of me, his hips rocking into me, slowly filling me and pulling back. Over and over, the slick drag of him inside me was all-encompassing. It was him, only him.

I whimpered, which turned into a full moan, and he answered with “Yes, goddess… again, please, again…”

I tightened around him, and he doubled his efforts, rocking into me so hard the headboard hit the wall.

I wrapped both legs around him. He kept slowing down, dropping his head, before starting again.

He kept this up until he couldn’t move more than a fraction without whining, without stopping, as if he were begging his own body for more time.

When I came, it made him cry out, but he kept his composure, watching me, feeling me as I began to flutter around him.

He looked at me again with eyes so wide and feral; they looked almost black. His body was shaking as he fought himself back from the edge.

Gods, he was beautiful.

I leaned in, my hand on his chin, the other on his hip, guiding him into me. “Come for me, Vael…”

He choked out a sound. He thrust into my body twice more before his rhythm stuttered. The warm slick of his spend was so hot, so wet, as it dripped out of me. And still, he rocked into me, not stopping even as he pulsed deep inside.

“Thank you, thank you, goddess, I don’t deserve you, I wanted to worship you, Rowena…”

“You are,” I whispered. “Your goddess demanded an offering, and that’s the offering I wanted.”

He exhaled sharply and kissed me. “Gods, Rowena… oh gods... Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

He pulled out and started to roll to the side before he collapsed, but I pulled him back, head against my breasts as he clung to me.

We lay there for what felt like a while, but likely wasn’t, given how my sweat on my brow hadn’t dried.

“Vael,” I murmured, kissing his forehead softly. “Vael, I forgive you.”

He ducked his head between my breasts and sobbed against me. “Rowena…”

“I forgive you,” I murmured again. He pushed up to look at me, his eyes still red and watery.

“I love you,” he whispered. “Gods, I love you so much. It hurts how badly I love you.”

I smiled softly and pulled him back down. “I love you too.”

He settled against me, his shoulders finally loose, his body pliant.

“Thank you…” He whispered. “Thank you.”