Page 19

Fifteen

“ T hat spot is already clean.”

Ruby startled and looked down at the patch of chest she had been rubbing with the cloth. It was clean, just like the rest of his chest. She had been wiping at it so long the bath water had gone from steaming to lukewarm.

“Just making sure,” Ruby said.

She looked up to find him staring at the ceiling, as he had been doing since Ruby settled on his lap and started wiping him down.

He had been quiet since they got the dog spirit back home.

It had tried to run off into the woods, only for Slate to usher it into the protected castle instead.

Ruby occasionally heard paws skittering in the hallway as the dog entertained itself.

Ruby sat up, stretching to scrub his shoulders in a way that exposed her breasts. But Slate didn’t bother to watch the bathwater bead around them as she had hoped.

Ruby gave up and laid her chin on his newly cleaned chest. “We’re safe. You can stop worrying.”

“Safe,” he repeated slowly. He shifted, water lapping around them as he moved. “Those demons were lost souls once. They would not have turned if I was watching over this realm as I should.”

Ruby bit her lip. It wasn’t like she disagreed, but she didn’t want him berating himself over it.

“Slate,” she tried.

“They were suffering,” Slate continued sharply.

“I should have been there for them. I am one of the eldest Skullstalkers, and I was given this realm for a reason. I cared about helping them, once. I wanted to guide them. To show them where they were supposed to be. And now what? Lost souls decay and shrivel into shades while I sleep.”

Ruby stroked his ribs, her fingers catching on stray flecks of dried blood she hadn’t reached yet.

“You won’t bury yourself again,” she told him. “Not after they showed you the consequences.”

Slate grunted. His lips parted below his mask, and Ruby watched the pink tinge on his teeth. He hadn’t washed out his mouth yet.

“You underestimate how long Skullstalkers live,” he said quietly. “I am sure I will be an effective guide for a few centuries. But vows fade. Everything fades with enough time. Someday I will forget why I cared so much.”

The words chilled Ruby to the bone. She knew, logically, that Slate would exist long after she was dead and gone. But to hear him talk about centuries so carelessly…

She swallowed. Even if it was years before she could take his knot, it would still be a fraction of his long life. Would he even remember her name in a thousand years?

She tapped his chin. “Lean to the side.”

He did. She scrubbed at his neck, then at a stray drop of blood on the hinge of his skull mask that she had missed earlier.

“Will you visit?” she asked, unable to hold it in any longer. “When I go back to my realm.”

He fixed his black eyes on her for such a long time that Ruby shrank against him.

She opened her mouth to take it back, but he was already talking.

“If you wish. And I will do my best to keep track of time. So, I don’t…” He stopped, his jaw snapping shut so loudly that Ruby jumped.

He stroked her bare back in a silent apology. Water ran down her spine, and Ruby shivered. The water was warm, but his skin was as cool as ever.

“I would hate to lose myself in a dream,” he said slowly. “And return to the human realm to find that you died eighty years ago.”

Ruby swallowed over a suddenly thick throat. She imagined him a century from now, the sadness fading until he barely remembered why he was sad in the first place. Someday, he would forget everything about her.

She forced a smile. “Maybe my soul will come here after I die.”

He sat up, water sloshing over the side of the bathtub. “ Don’t .”

She blinked, taken aback by the ice in his voice. “What? It could happen. That’s one way mortals come into your realm, right? They die with something big unfinished. You could… show me where I’m meant to be.”

He shook his head. “I couldn’t guide you.”

“Why?”

He gazed at her with that dark, intense gaze that never failed to take her breath away.

“Because…” he began, his voice cracking with inhuman hissing.

Then he stopped, his hands coming up to cup her face. He stared at her like he was drinking her in, like he really was about to take that decades-long sleep and wake up to find her gone.

“Because I would want to keep you here,” he admitted roughly.

Ruby’s heart thundered. He wanted to keep her?

Could they even be together , when she was a soul without a body?

It sounded like a special kind of agony, being near him and never being able to touch him.

And yet it meant so much that he said it—even if he was only being sweet, even if he would regret it tomorrow, and even if he would take it back if he actually saw her dead soul walking toward him.

There were a hundred ways this could play out. But for now, she believed him.

She grabbed his skull mask and dragged him down for a kiss.

He surged up, wrapping her in his huge arms. Bone dug into her cheek, and Ruby reveled in it.

She sucked on his tongue. It tasted like blood.

“Fuck me,” she begged. “I want you in me. All of you.”

She wasn’t thinking about the ritual. She could only think about his broad chest under her, his cock hardening where she was kneeling above it.

He groaned and tugged her back by her hair. “You can barely manage half.”

“I’ll make it fit,” she promised.

For a minute, she even believed it. He had stretched her last night, and she was still loose enough for him to slide in two fingers. Not to the hilt, but she rode his fingers until she was sitting snug against his palm, his fingers fluttering against that spot that made her gasp.

“I can do it,” she breathed. “Give it to me, I can take it.”

She reached into the bathwater and gripped his cock. It wasn’t as enjoyable underwater since she couldn’t feel the slick dripping out his slit, but she rubbed anyway, feeling it harden even further under her touch.

Slate moaned as she ground down determinedly on his fingers. “Patience, little witch. You aren’t even wet yet.”

She laughed, gesturing at their damp bodies. “I’m wet! I’m the wettest I’ve ever— oh .”

Slate smiled, his teeth showing under the mask.

“Not wet enough,” he said in a low voice.

Ruby dropped her head against his chest, panting. She had forgotten he only considered her wet after she came at least once.

He slipped a third finger inside her, holding her close as she jerked in his arms.

“Stretching so well for me,” he murmured. “So eager to have me inside you.”

“Yes,” she gasped. She kissed his chest and dug her teeth into his cool skin, wondering if this was how he felt when he pressed his fangs against her: the urge to bite down, to take, to devour . She wanted to eat him whole, blunt teeth be damned. She wanted to have him in every way possible.

His smokey eyes met hers. “Brace your hands on the tub.”

Ruby grabbed the sides of the bathtub. It was slippery and she ached to touch his chest again, to drag her nails over the bits of blood she hadn’t managed to clean off his sides. But she obeyed because she knew what it would get her.

“Very good,” Slate purred, thrusting his fingers deep. “Now stay still while you come.”

The words vibrated in his throat, sounding like something a creature would say before they pounced out of the dark. It made Ruby wetter every time she heard it.

Her orgasm was coming up on her fast. She wanted to open her mouth, to arch her back. But instead, she locked herself in place, feeling it warm her up from the inside out.

Slate licked her cheek, wrapping his tongue around her throat and squeezing just long enough to pry out a moan, then released.

“Now,” Slate told her.

He curled his fingers against her sweet spot. Ruby gripped the sides of the bathtub and came, arms shaking, legs going numb against his powerful thighs.

“There,” he said, his voice so thick she barely recognized it. “Now you’re wet enough. Stay like that.”

He pulled his fingers out, ignoring her pleading whimper.

He held her in place as he lined himself up. Ruby didn’t move. He liked her still when he was working his cock into her. She liked being held still. It worked very well for both of them.

He pressed his cockhead into her, the shallowest thrust before pulling out. He always started like this, opening her up with small, careful thrusts until he was properly inside.

Ruby dug her teeth into her lip until it stung.

She loved how carefully he fucked her. That he never truly hurt her when he could do it so easily.

But she wanted him to stop being careful.

To fuck her with complete abandon. To shove himself inside entirely, not work himself halfway in and stop himself from pushing deeper.

They both sighed as the head pressed in.

“Yeah,” Ruby said, barely holding herself back from rocking her hips. “Just like that. Give me more?”

“Just who is in charge here, little witch?” Slate asked, his black eyes gleaming with mirth. Something was underneath it, something intent and tender that took her breath away. Then she squeezed around him, and his eyes went half-lidded.

“Good question,” Ruby said. “If you aren’t going to fuck me properly, maybe I should— ohhh !”

She cut off with a cry on the next thrust. It was faster than he would usually allow, giving her less time to adjust before he went deeper. She could feel her inner walls stretching to accommodate him, always straining no matter how many times they did this.

Slate grabbed her hips, holding her still as he fucked deeper. Water splashed out over the sides of the tub. Ruby’s arms trembled as she braced herself.

“Taking me so well,” Slate groaned.

Ruby moaned. He was so big. Impossibly big. She couldn’t take any more.

She looked down. He had only worked half his cock inside. His knot sat under the bathwater, thick and tantalizing.

She gritted her teeth. “Keep going.”

Slate’s hips faltered. “It will not fit.”

“I’ll make it fit!” Ruby bore down, wincing as it immediately started to sting. And it wasn’t just the sting: she could feel her inner walls protesting, could feel his cock bump up against the end of her hole.

Slate gripped her hips hard, stilling her.

“I cannot go any deeper,” he said reluctantly. “I can feel your end. I know you can feel it, too.”

“But…” Ruby’s eyes pricked. “You said…”

Slate kissed her, his tongue curling against the roof of her mouth.

“I will consult my brothers,” he assured her. “You have opened for me this much. There must be a way to open you more.”

He lifted her up and nudged her back down, the movement inside her making Ruby moan. But it wasn’t enough: it was too much, as always. But still not enough . It wouldn’t be enough until she felt those powerful hips snapping against her, his knot swelling inside her.

“I don’t want you to consult anyone,” she said, rocking against him. “I want all of you. The ward ritual?—”

Slate’s fingers dug into her thighs. “Don’t think about that.”

“But—”

He grabbed her chin. His grip was firm, but the claw he stroked over her cheek was so gentle.

“Just let yourself feel it,” he urged. “Doesn’t it feel good?”

Ruby wanted to protest. To point out that this was all for nothing if she couldn’t make him fit.

That even if the ward magically fixed itself tomorrow, she still needed it.

She needed it in a way she didn’t fully understand, a need that went deeper than anything she had ever felt.

She needed his knot like she needed air or food, and she couldn’t believe she could have gone her whole life without knowing that.

But he was fucking into her faster now, and her words trailed off in a frustrated moan. Then he reached for her clit, and everything melted except his huge cock and his big, careful finger rubbing circles over her nub.

“Your task right now is not to take all of me,” he rumbled. “Your task is to come on my cock. Can you do that, little witch?”

Ruby couldn’t talk beyond a series of panting moans. She nodded instead, her eyes squeezing shut as he pounded faster.

“Good,” Slate said raggedly. His fingers tightened around her jaw. “ Come .”

Ruby came with a cry, wave after wave of pleasure crashing over her as he fucked her through it.

“Glorious,” Slate said, his voice deep and guttural. “Open your eyes, little witch. Look at me while I fill you up.”

Ruby pried her eyes open. They were watery with tears, but she could see his slack mouth as he moved faster inside her. His tongue was lolling out, the tip grazing her nipple with every thrust.

Slate grunted, half feral. “Say my name.”

Ruby let out a small, overwhelmed sob. “ Slate .”

Slate growled. A claw dug hard into her cheek, nearly piercing the skin as his hips stilled, pouring hot ropes of come deep inside.

Ruby’s mouth dropped open, her eyelids fluttering. It was so good she almost forgot that half his cock was still sticking out of her, throbbing with each pulse. She looked down to watch his knot swell under the bathwater, her hole throbbing with want even as he filled her.

His growl faded into a spent moan. He tucked her head into his chest, and they sat there for a long minute, breathing in tandem.

Ruby shifted. His cock was soft inside her now, and she could feel the first round of his slick dripping out. This was usually a sign that he would start up again, pushing himself deeper.

Instead, he lifted her off of him. She made a noise of protest as he slipped out of her, and he shushed her.

“We came in here to get clean,” he reminded her. “We did not do very well.”

Ruby laughed shakily. When he held up a cloth, she let him wipe her salt-streaked cheeks.

By the time he had finished wiping them both down, Ruby was sagging against him.

He picked her up in his arms, cradling her to his chest.

She made a sleepy noise against his nipple. “I can take it again.”

“Not tonight.” He curled his tail around her ankle and gave her a comforting squeeze. “Tonight, you will rest.”

She tried to complain. But the day had been so exhausting, and he was carrying her so gently that when he lowered her onto the castle bed, she was already half in a dream.

She still managed to grab his horn as he went to pull away.

“Want your nest,” she mumbled. “Want… want to wake up with you.”

First, there was nothing. Then lips pressed against her forehead. The slightest pinch of a bone mask pressed with it.

“Goodnight,” Slate said quietly. “Little witch.”