Page 16 of Cursed Lifeline (Eternal Love)
Fifteen
Felix
song: do it for me | Rosenfeld
Later that night, I stalk purposefully down the darkened hallways of the Martin estate as moonlight casts an icy glow through colorful stained-glass windows, and Talon and Dimitri flank my side.
After Esme left me in the forest to return to her party, I had half a mind to find Lord Martin and tell him the deal was off. The coven would no longer help his revolution in France. But that would leave a mess for me to clean up with Mother. Why she’s so intent on us being part of this uprising is beyond me, especially when her powers have shown her how it all plays out in the end. Though she hasn’t divulged those secrets to the rest of the coven, and perhaps they are the very reason why we’re here because she’s hopeful she can twist fate.
So as not to mess with Mother’s and Lord Martin’s plans, I spent the past several hours dwelling on and weighing the pros and cons of my risky scheme to ensure Esme’s safety. In the end, the only method that didn’t bring about more madness was the idea to come to Esme’s room tonight and convince her to leave with me.
Talon and Dimitri have joined me because they believe I’m a fool, and they may be right. I allowed them to come only because, if Lord Martin gets wind that I’m here and what I intend to do, I may need their help. Not only that, but the Lord isn’t the only one who won’t let Esme go without a fight. Her brother and his minions could prove to be just as tricky.
Rounding the last corner to Esme’s room, it doesn’t surprise me that a guard is seated just outside her door. He rises, pulls his dagger from his hip, and opens his mouth to speak, but his air supply is cut off as Talon’s shadows reach out and strangle his neck in a tight grip.
The fool stumbles backward as my brother’s dark grasp tightens into a deathly vice. Coming to a stop in front of Esme’s door, I frown as the man reaches up to his throat and attempts to loosen the invisible hold. Talon allows the man a small breath before tightening his restraint. Dimitri laughs sinisterly watching the pointless show.
“Didn’t Mother ever teach you not to play with your food?” I sigh.
“Mother’s not here,” Talon grins wickedly. “If she were, you’d be smart to be more concerned with the way she’d feel about the stunt you are about to pull, not the twisted pleasure I get from inflicting pain and torment on unsuspecting prey.”
Dimitri chuckles under his breath, closing in on the ignorant victim in question. Talon quickly follows suit as the man turns and stumbles away in a sorry attempt to save his life.
Intent on putting Talon in his place for running his mouth, I open my own to do just that when a sharp clatter of glass echoes through the wood separating me from Esme, and I stop.
“Tricks and treats, remember,” Talon taunts, sauntering off after the man Dimitri has already sunk his teeth into in a dark corner. “If you plan to indulge, at least soundproof her chambers and spare us the thoughts running through your mind on how savory and delicious her treats truly are.”
The sound of furniture breaking on the other side of the door makes my heart race. Panicked, I instantly mist inside her room.
Searching for her in the dark of midnight, my worried gaze lands on movement in the far left corner. Shards of a glass mirror and a broken nightstand lay scattered across the floor. Alarmed, I step forward just as Esme steps out of the shadows. Fierce violence hangs in her eyes as she grips a large fragment of jagged glass in her palm, intent on doing her intruder harm.
“Felix,” she softly cries when she notices the trespasser is me.
Longing fills her eyes, and the piece of broken glass slips from her palm, but not before cutting a tempting path down the center of her hand and further opening her wound from earlier this evening.
I suck in a sharp breath as my body quickly propels itself back against the nearest wall. Esme’s eyes widen as she glances down and notices the enticing drip, drip, drip of her blood against the shards of glass on the floor. The crimson color of her essence reflects in the iridescent moonlight, inviting me closer and begging me to taste it.
But even though the monster in me begs to be unleashed, my heart knows it could never take what her body is unwillingly offering me.
After a moment, Esme breathes out frantically, “What are you doing here?”
Holding my breath, I attempt to master self-control and slowly push myself off the wall. Each predatory step that takes me closer to Esme causes her to back up against the wooden frame of her four-post bed.
Control.
Restraint.
I try my hardest to grab a hold of both.
But when she raises her bloodied hand as I take my final step toward her and place it against my chest, I fucking lose it.
Gripping her neck, I force her back against the bedpost and cage her in. She sucks in a strangled breath then quickly raises her bloodied palm and slaps me across my face. Her eyes widen as she takes in the blood now staining my cheek and deliciously spread across my lips.
I tell myself not to, but before I can master the dominance I need over the beast lurking inside, my tongue slips slowly across my lips, savoring her taste like it’s my last meal.
A savage growl rumbles through my chest and echoes hungrily through the room.
I want more.
Reading my mind, eager to feed the monster in me, Esme raises her hand and offers it to me to feast on. My mother and father's story suddenly haunts me and fuels the control, the restraint I need to back away and put some distance between us before I do something stupid, like change her against her will and fulfill the lifelong curse my father succumbed to centuries ago.
I’ve always had control around Esme. I won’t lose it now.
Taking a step back, I loosen my hold around her neck, and she asks through rushed breaths, “You told me you loved me. Don’t you want me?”
“You have no idea how badly I want you,” I growl. “But I won’t take what my body craves if it means risking losing you in the process.”
Her bloodied palm trails down my chest, and I suck in a shaky breath. My cock hardens as her fingertips gently trail across my length and the perfumed fragrance of her blood fills my senses.
“Esme,” I groan in warning.
“Felix,” she pants, as I close the distance between us and the backs of her thighs firmly press against the mattress. “Please, I know there’s a way you can let your body have mine that doesn’t risk losing my life?”
Holding her stare, my hands raise and gently cup the sides of her face. What she’s asking, what she’s offering, I won’t let myself take it.
Not only could it prove to mirror my parents and the way the curse started, but it’ll ruin her. It’ll taint her beautiful reputation when she eventually forgets about me, and marries a mortal. A gentleman I could never be. One I suddenly desperately wish I had the chance to once again become, if only so I could make an honest woman out of her before I take everything she’s offering and more.
Running my fingers across her lips, I confess, “Esmerelda, you have no idea how much I crave exploring you, marking you, making you mine. I long to ruin you, ravage you, devastate every last pleasurable inch of your skin until you’re pleading for me to stop, begging with your last breath for more, and promising me I can do it all over again after stars fill your eyes, your toes curl, and your back arches into the most gratifying high you’ve ever experienced.”
Her hands rise and her fingers desperately lace through mine.
“Please,” she begs again.
Breathing deeply, I attempt to reign in control one last time and fail when the smell of the blood on her hands fills my nostrils. Releasing a carnal groan, I spin her around quickly. She braces herself against the bedpost as I brush her hair off the side of her neck and gently place my lips against the heart-shaped spot that was seared into her skin earlier this evening. She releases a throaty moan that causes a selfish need to throb through my cursed veins. Wrapping a strong arm around her waist, I draw her closer so she feels just what it is she does to me, and what I undeniably want from her.
My name falls from her lips a moment later as my tongue slowly, gently licks the heart-shaped spot at the base of her neck. She whispers for me not to stop, but hell couldn’t stop me now from taking a small piece of what she’s offering. As my lips brush against her skin, pebbling several kisses across her trembling flesh, my hands drop, and I make fast work of untying the laces of her corset.
Esme lets out a strangled breath as her confines fall to the floor, and my hands quickly find the curve of her breasts.
“You shouldn’t let me touch you this way, ” I growl as my fingertips brush across her stiff nipples. She arches back into me, wanting more, needing more, and God, it takes every last ounce of my control not to give it to her.
“You don’t conform to the rules of modern society,” she purrs as my lips suck a path across her bare shoulder and my fingers pinch down lightly on her sensitive peeks. She sucks in a sharp gasp. “Why start now?”
My hands trail a path down her slender waist to her full hips. Hungrily, they approach the apex of her thighs, but Esme tightens them together, denying me access. My eager desire to show her pleasure, the likes of which she has never known, stops as her body begins to shake.
Reprimanded for my thirst, I back away, swallow hard, hang my head, and repeat, “You shouldn’t let me touch you this way, and…”
Swinging around, my words are cut short as Esme’s eyes harshly lock on mine. “I chose you, remember. You said you did, too. I want to give you everything I can and more, but not if you won’t…”
She stops speaking and looks away ashamed.
I step forward, searching her mind for the words she’s not saying. But she’s got a block up.
“I won’t what, Esme?”
Biting her bottom lip, she whispers meekly, “Kiss me.”
Shaking my head, I search for the right words to tell her why.
Why, with every touch and every brush of my lips against her skin, my control, my restraint is pushed to its limit. If I kiss her, I don’t know if I can harness the monster inside. I don’t know if I’ll be able to withstand the need rising with every second, her hand continues to bleed, and the beast inside me longs to feast.
Unable to find the right words, I turn and make my way back towards the door, intent on misting out and giving us space before either of us takes this too far. Esme rushes to my side and places herself between me and the exit.
I came here intent on taking her with me, but right now, I can’t think straight, so until I can get my head and cock to cooperate, it’s best this escape take a back seat to the animal inside that’s begging to be unleashed.
“No,” she begs. “Don’t leave.”
Shaking my head, I grip her shoulders and force her back against the door. Her eyes lock angrily with mine.
“I can’t give you what you’re asking.”
“Why?” she cries.
My hands shake as I teeter on the last edge of honoring her the way I know I should and taking what my lost soul screams it desires most from beyond the grave.
When I don’t answer, Esme lifts her bloody palm and forces it against my mouth. Trying my best not to breathe her in, I mist to the other side of the room and turn my back on her. Taking deep, controlled breaths, I look out the window and debate, using it as an escape. Esme’s rushed footsteps sound in my direction, and I quickly take off toward the glow of moonlight cascading into her room through the aged glass.
But before I can propel myself out of reach, Esme wraps her bloodied palm around my wrist and pulls me back to her with the strength only a slayer could summon.
Hungry, starved, my black eyes find hers. When she realizes the eyes peering down at her are not their normal violet shade, she releases her hold. Her bloodied palm raises nervously to her chest. She takes a step back in fear. The moonlight illuminates the sheer fabric of her undergarments, exposing her chest and the blood smeared temptingly across it. Backing her up against the bed, I close my eyes to erase the erotic sight.
Desperate to do something to quench my thirst before I drink from her, my mouth crashes down against her lips. Indecent whimpers escape her before her right leg rises and wraps around the back of my thigh. I waste no time hoisting her into my arms, and she wraps her legs around my hips with ease. Her mouth opens, and her tongue brushes eagerly against mine. My pelvis grinds into her on instinct. She matches my greed, thrusting her hips down against my lower stomach before swirling them in a slow circle that causes the crown of my cock to rotate in a painfully tempting caress around the dampness of her soft folds.
I savor her kiss slowly, provoking a moan of pleasure before her growing need takes over, and she bites down on my lip, breaking the skin and drawing blood. She licks it away quickly. The sensation fuels a growing urge inside both of us. Falling against the sheets, my hands desperately claw at her dress, rising it quickly up her trembling thighs. My mouth falls to her neck, and I nibble, lick, and delicately bite my way toward her breasts.
Her hands tangle in my hair, and she clings to me as I savor the taste of her soft skin and we feverishly bend to a fate we’ve finally decided to embrace.
This time, when I reach the apex of her thighs, she spreads them willingly. My fingertips brush against her wet opening and she bucks her hips with need.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she breathlessly rambles as I gently part her velvet skin with two fingertips and take her hardened nipple between my lips.
“I choose you, remember,” I groan as a thick, warm wetness begins to coat my hand. “Now, open up for me like a good girl, and let me claim what’s mine.”
Her legs spread wider, and I dip a single finger inside her. She lets out a shocked gasp. Biting down lightly on her nipple, I curve my touch and stroke slowly in and out of her tight center.
“Yours,” she pants. “Felix, all I could ever want is to be yours.”
Her words fuel me. Feeling what’s mine won’t be enough. But tasting what’s mine, feasting on the pleasure I’m coaxing from her body, might satisfy my craving until she’s ready for more.
“Do you trust me, Esme?”
“I shouldn’t,” she pants.
My heart breaks because we both know it’s the truth.
Lowering myself down her frame, my eyes lock on hers as I grip her inner thighs and savagely pull them apart. She begins to look away.
Instantly, I demand, “Eyes on me.” She obeys as my face inches closer to her glistening center. “Watch as I earn your trust when I bring you pleasure, not pain, and you quench my thirst like no other woman can.”
She bites her lip. Her eyes stay locked on mine as I dip my tongue inside heaven and feel my insatiable thirst for her subside for the first time.
As her wetness grows, and her addictive flavor rolls down the back of my tongue, satisfying a craving I’ve had my whole life, even before I turned seventeen and went through the change, I become confident I can feast on her and not snap. Like a mad man, given his first taste of water after wandering in the desert, I feast on her until her hips buck wildly off the bed, her thighs shake, and her sounds of pleasure fall in begging and pleading waves against the soundproof shield I enacted around her room.
“Oh God,” she cries.
Gently placing a finger inside her, I suck her towards the heaven she speaks of. Her pleasure increases and thickly coats the back of my hand before it pools against the sheets. Sticking a second finger inside her, she grips my hair, rides my face, and repeats, “Oh fucking God.”
“That dirty mouth won’t get you into heaven,” I growl as I lick and savor every delicious drop of ecstasy I’m frenziedly pulling from her trembling body like a fiend.
“This is heaven,” she arguably pants. “Only thing that would make it better is …”
She screams out as I thrust a third finger inside her and suck down on her clit.
“You’re not ready for that,” I insist as she continues to buck her hips, take my fingers deeper, and groan in satisfaction when they hit a spot that quickly brings her climax closer.
“I can take more than you think,” she taunts as my tongue licks a languid path toward her clit, and I suck her back between my lips.
“Please,” she begs, grinding her pelvis against my face.
Gripping her hips, I force them back against the bed and slowly enter my tongue inside her pussy. She lets out a light scream as I take my time savoring her sweet nectar before licking a path up her slit.
“First, show me what a good girl you can be, and finish what might be my last meal with a treat I’ve craved from you for far too long.”
“Now?” she pants.
Releasing a low growl against her throbbing flesh, the vibration sends a jolt of pleasure rushing through her clit.
“Now,” I demand.
Sucking down hard, Esme crashes over the edge as her fingers sink into my scalp, and she holds me hostage between her thighs. Toes curling, back arching, she’s the most intoxicating thing I’ve ever witnessed, ever tasted, as she grinds against my mouth and my fingers andmeets each desperate thrust with a hungry need to ride out every last pleasurable second of her orgasm.
After a minute, when she’s finally sated, she breathlessly looks down into my eyes and smiles. Grinning, I place a gentle kiss against the inside of her thigh and rise up her shaking form, flanking her body with my own.
“It’s time to go,” I insist, cradling her face and placing a tender kiss on her cheek.
But before I can pull her from the bed, her blood-soaked fingers rise and grip mine. My eyes trail to the sight. But unlike before, I no longer hunger for a taste of her while her pleasure still coats my tongue.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she insists.
My eyes angrily flashback to hers.
“Yes,” I demand. “You. Are. I will not leave you to your father’s sick games any longer. Besides, there is more at stake than I’ve been able to tell you, yet. You’re coming with me, Esme, and…”
She shakes her head no, holds my stare firmly, and breaks my heart when she says, “If I disappear, my father would know who took me. He’d come after the coven. I won’t risk anything happening to you or your family.”
I start to tell her she’s crazy. She’s gone mad. Just like the girl in the tragedy she’s been reading about, Ophelia until she places a blood-soaked finger against my lips and says, “I trust you, remember. But you have to trust me, too. We’ll find a way that won’t jeopardize the future I desperately want to spend with you. A future that includes your family as well.”
Shaking my head, I say, “What if we fail? What if we can’t find a way? What if…”
Against my better judgment, I concede when she cuts me off and says, “You’re my lifeline, Felix. Nothing can take me away from you.”
Lifeline?
A soft chuckle escapes my lips at the use of the word, so fitting, so true, so hauntingly promising it breaks my heart because she’s yet to know the truth.
A second later, the curse I’ve yet to tell her about snakes its way between us and robs what little joy I was feeling as she says, “And if we lose, I’m trusting our love is strong enough to find a way to bring me back from the afterlife.”