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A dark chuckle shook Javier’s chest, and he leaned in, barely brushing his lips over mine. “No blood,” he breathed.

“Fine.” I smiled against his lips as he deepened the kiss, but his hand remained on my neck, allowing him absolute control over the moment.

Javier’s other hand settled on my hip, his fingers kneading. Without warning, he turned me around, our kiss breaking when his mouth drew out of reach. His hand snaked under my shirt, then dipped into the front of my leggings. I sighed as his fingers slid between my lips, pinching my clit. He teased me with long, slow, deliberate strokes of his hand.

I tilted my head to the side, arching my neck in invitation.

“No blood,” he rasped, tightening his hold on my throat. His breath was hot against my flesh, and he grazed his teeth over my earlobe but didn’t break the skin. “Every moan and sigh that slips from that pretty mouth is all mine, and when this tight little pussy clenches around my cock, it won’t be bloodlust or the bond that makes you come,” he promised. “It will be me fucking you until you scream.”

Pleasure shivered through my core as his words quadrupled the effects of his masterful touch. Each slide of his fingers brought me closer. Closer. Closer.

“Oh gods,” I gasped, pleasure coiling tight. “I’m going to come.”

He withdrew his hand from between my thighs and pressed his palm flat against my lower abdomen, leaving me teetering on the edge of release.

I whimpered, my hips rocking, seeking. Nothing to rub against. Nothing to push me into blissful oblivion.

“Not yet,” Javier whispered against my cheek. “Not until you want it so bad that it hurts.” His hand slid from my belly to my hip, tugging down the waistband of my leggings to expose my ass. He teased between my legs from behind, trailing his fingertips through my wet heat but purposely avoiding my clit.

“Fuck, Luna.” He sank two fingers into my core, and I groaned at the delicious invasion. “This is mine,” he said and curled his fingers, teasing the spot inside me that made my knees weak. “I’m yours to command, but this—this sweet little pussy begging me to fuck it is all mine, isn’t it?”

I squeezed my eyes shut and laid my head back on his shoulder. If he kept doing what he was doing, he wouldn’t need to touch my clit to make me come.

Like he sensed my thoughts, Javier pulled his fingers out and smacked my ass. My body jerked, my eyelids snapping open at the sharp sting. He massaged my ass cheek, rubbing away the pain and teasing my entrance with his fingertips.

“Tell me this is mine,” he said, his hold on my neck tightening with his demand.

“It’s yours,” I gasped.

His hand between my legs withdrew again, and I heard the clink of his belt buckle. A moment later, the blunt head of his cock nudged my entrance. “Tell me you’re mine,” he demanded, sliding his shaft through my swollen lips.

“I—” My voice caught when his head grazed my clit, and my legs trembled. “I’m yours, Javi,” I choked out, arching my back. Opening myself to him. “Please. Please let me come.”

He pulled back until he was once again teasing my entrance.

“Javier!” Desperation triggered my will , and my next words thrummed with power. “Let me come, please!”

Javier let out a dark chuckle. “I’m your Prime Consort,” he said, his words smooth as silk, rough with promise. “That won’t work on me.”

I wailed, raw need tearing through me. “Please, Javi.”

“Not yet,” he said and thrust into me. His hand slid over my hip, his fingertips digging into my pubis, tugging on the skin around my clit but not touching it directly. “Fuck,” he hissed, pulling out and slowly pushing back into me. He brushed his lips along the line of my shoulder. “Your pussy is clenching me so tight, begging me to fuck it hard.”

“Please,” I whined. “Yes. Gods, yes.”

Another dark chuckle shook Javier’s chest, and his next thrust was harder. His next harder still, until the slap of his body against mine and the sloppy, wet sounds of him fucking me filled the room alongside our heavy breaths and throaty grunts.

The pressure within me built and built. I squeezed my eyes shut, reaching. My breathing turned ragged. So close, the orgasm right there, a blinding star just out of reach.

Javier pulled out of me suddenly, and I sobbed my displeasure. His hand on my neck shifted higher, gripping my jaw and turning my face toward his. The fingers digging into my pubic bone inched lower, sliding between my lips and pressing down on either side of my clit. He pushed back into me with excruciating restraint, like he could sense just how close I was to shattering.

Javier’s gaze roved over my face, the press of his fingers on either side of my clit taunting me with each slow, deliberate stroke. If he just pinched his fingers together or thrust into me harder…

But he knew exactly what he was doing to me.

I had never felt so seen. So understood. This vampire—this man—was so in tune with my body that he could hold me captive in this blissful agony forever.

“Do you see?” Javier grazed his lips along my cheekbone. “Do you see what the bond does to me? It’s not the same for you as it is for the rest of us. You have a shallow awareness of each of us, but we only have you. I only have you, Luna. I can feel how close you are to coming, just as I can sense your every discomfort, your quiet agony, as if it were my own. It’s not so easy to give you space when you’re always inside me.”

Javier thrust into me harder, deeper, emphasizing the depth of his side of the bond. My eyelids fluttered shut, breath hitching. Javier buried himself inside me, then stilled.

“Do you understand what you’re asking of me?” he rasped against my cheek.

I nodded, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes. The agony of almost was breaking me. In that moment, I would have told Javier anything he wanted to hear.

“Good,” he breathed. And then he circled my clit with his fingertip, pressing hard enough to let me know this was it.

I choked on a strangled scream as my insides liquefied. My knees buckled, but Javier caught me. He held me tight against him, one hand curved around my throat, the other between my legs. The press of his fingers against my pulsing clit amplified the pleasure as the waves radiated out from my core. I trembled, my limbs boneless.

Javier waited until the pleasure ebbed and my body relaxed to pull out of me. I regained my footing, and his hold loosened enough that I could turn around to face him, my hands settling on his chest, his on my hips.

I glanced down at his erection jutting up between us. My brow furrowed, and I raised my eyes to meet his.

“I can wait for the communion ,” he said, his features tense, his gaze guarded. “I don’t want to make you sore, and healing your aches with my blood could trigger your bloodlust. The others may not be able to resist coming to you then, and you need to speak with Isador before the communion so you know how to channel the amplified power into a request for another vision from Selene.”

“Oh.” I frowned, hating the idea of leaving him unsatisfied after what I’d just experienced. His body practically vibrated with tension, and I sensed his raging desire through our bond. No way I was leaving him like this.

I lowered myself to my knees before him, dragging my hands down his torso. His jaw clenched and unclenched.

“You don’t have to—” He sucked in a breath when I gripped his shaft. His cock twitched in my hold. “Luna,” he breathed, reverent. His fingers threaded into my hair, his hands trembling.

I licked my lips and locked eyes with him, watching his reaction as I leaned in. As I parted my lips. As I pressed the gentlest kiss to the head of his cock.

His fingers clenched in my hair, and he stopped breathing altogether.

I gripped the base of his shaft and opened wide, flattening my tongue to glide along the underside of his cock as I took him into my mouth. The salty taste of his arousal hinted at the flavor notes of his blood, making my darker hunger stir.

Expression rapt, Javier drew in a shaky breath, his stare glued to my lips, to his cock disappearing inch by inch into my mouth.

“Mmmmm,” I hummed, savoring the taste of him and basking in his reaction.

The history between us added layers to every touch. My love for Bastian was fluttery and fresh, and I was still in the falling phase with Gavin, Ash, and Thane. But my love for Javier was deep and weathered, seasoned by all the pain and heartache we had experienced together.

I poured all that love into the way I touched him. The way I gazed up at him. The way I sucked him.

Javier’s breath hitched, and his hold on my hair tightened, becoming painful. “Luna, I—” His features tensed, his body going rigid.

I shifted my hand from his shaft to his ass and pushed forward, taking him the rest of the way into my mouth. The head of his cock pressed against the back of my throat, triggering my gag reflex. My throat convulsed, squeezing him. Heightening his pleasure as he shot out his release. I drank him down, feeling an influx of the same magic that was in his blood. Again, my bloodlust stirred but reluctantly resettled, leaving me in control.

I pulled back, choking as I suppressed a cough.

Javier dropped to his knees in front of me, his hands cradling my jaw. He gazed at me with such wonder and love that my heart warmed. He leaned in, kissing my swollen lips tenderly.

“I failed you,” he said hoarsely. “You depended on me, and I abandoned you.”

“You were captured!” I protested, shaking my head.

He turned his face away and shut his eyes, a tortured mask warping his features. “I sensed your every agony,” he whispered, shame reaching across the bond from him. “Your hopeless desperation.” Tears leaked from between his lashes and trailed down the chiseled planes of his face. “These past few years, I felt you giving up. Accepting your fate. Accepting death.”

I hadn’t known the connection was so much more intense on his end. I hadn’t realized just how much of the dark times I had shared with him. And then he’d had what I could only describe as a trauma response when he felt my distress earlier. Gods, he likely had the immortal equivalent of PTSD, and I had yelled at him for it.

I shook my head, raising my hands to his face and turning him back to me. His pained gaze met mine, breaking my heart. “You did nothing wrong, Javi,” I said, vehement. “ Nothing . I’m the one who should be sorry.” Again, I shook my head. “I didn’t understand, but I do now. I won’t ask you to leave me alone. I’ll make sure everyone knows that you’re always to be admitted, wherever I am, whoever I’m with. I love you. I love you so much, Javi, and I won’t ever hurt you like that again.”

Javier leaned his forehead against mine. “I love you, too, my Luna.”