Page 19

IRIS

Vhex’s voice breaks, and his silks death-grip mine.

My stupid Guide-heart shakes.

“Third option?” I stroke his horn. “How about we both survive?”

His magic runnels against me, animal-style, begging for my care. I wrap him tight, holding nothing back.

Sorry, Tomorrow Iris.

Today, we fuck to save a life.

I steer him by both of his handles. “I said I want you on your back.”

Vhex obeys, but he moves slowly, rubbing my skin as he shifts positions. His thoughts are a chaotic garbage fire, but I never stop sensing his desperation to stick close to me—the only thing that stops his pain.

This is work , I remind myself as I stroke the devil’s candy-pink cock.

The more we unite, the tighter we join, the more intensely I’ll feel what Vhex feels. But fucking him isn’t about my pleasure or even the venom that has me dripping to my godsdamned knees.

He needs to be healed.

I swing a leg over his hip, seating myself over his thighs.

“Your pants,” he says, clawing the fabric.

“Wait.” I gasp and fall forward, bracing around him.

His hands still and his head tips back.

Vhex stares up at me with soft, pink eyes, rimmed red in desperate lust.

I was expecting a battle of wills.

Vhex just… surrenders .

Goosebumps roll down my body.

I stroke the mole under his eye to hide the shake in my fingers. “You’re not going to fight me?”

“Fight you ?” He rubs his cheek against my hand. “How?”

Stars.

Please don’t let Vhex be a marshmallow under the madness. “I’ll be so gentle. Just let me draw off the worst of your poison.”

He laughs softly, crinkling his eyes. “It’s all poison, baby.”

I shudder.

I love aggressive, mid-battle sex that’s a contest of wills—a race to heal my Sentinel before he loses his shit.

But.

I think…

I like this better.

The Vhex who doesn’t give a fuck about anything—including what I do to him—hanging on my command.

I think I like it a lot.

I lift my hips. “Help me take these off.”

Vhex pops my button. As soon as the pants are halfway down, he slips a palm between my legs and cups my mound.

“Vhex!” I gasp as a thick finger parts my wetness.

“You’re swollen,” he says darkly. “Doesn’t my venom hurt?”

His fingers don’t move, but I’m so turned on that the slight drum of his pulse almost gets me off.

“It doesn’t hurt,” I say raggedly, leaning away from the temptation. My heart beats in my clit and electricity pulses under my too-tight skin, but I can’t call the feeling pain .

“It’ll hurt later.” His tongue works the tip of his fang. “It hurts so fucking much.”

“I’m not afraid of a little pain.” I shift off my pants, then my panties as Vhex traces patterns on my skin.

When I’m straddling him in nothing but a bloody uniform top, I realize he’s fingering my veins.

It’s the weird kind of possessive— Vhex isn’t even a vampire? —but the gesture mashes every one of my lonely buttons.

I’m used to doing the stroking.

Not being touched in return.

Vhex’s eyes glow neon pink. “Can you really fix me?”

I flinch at the magic words.

“It’s my job to try,” I remind myself. “Just relax and let me steer. There’s so much long-term damage.”

I hook my thumbs around his jaw. Holding Vhex steady with my silks, I tease his tip against my entrance.

I need to focus, but I’m so slick that just his texture curls my toes. The liquid heat makes every little motion feel loose, leaving me clenching on emptiness.

I’ve never been so wet.

Fucking never .

I fight to hold back, trying to ignore the prickling venom melting me from the inside out.

Guide-sex isn’t supposed to be about me.

It’s a service I provide.

Then I can give my all without expecting to receive anything beyond Vhex’s animal need.

Skin-to-skin, I can’t help curling deeper into his being.

Vhex’s soul isn’t tangled the same way as Remy’s—it’s more burnt twists than true knots. That tightly coiled magic will be a joy to fix compared to the magic veins themselves.

His meridians are shockingly scarred.

The walls are pitted and eaten away like they’ve been flushed with acid.

Or with hellfire.

Any casual use of his magic must be agony.

And holy fuck.

I bet Vhex hasn’t been able to use half of his real power.

How strong will he be after I make him whole?

I comb carefully through his head as I pet his velvety horn. “How have you been surviving like this?”

“Like what?”

“Your meridians. They’re toasted.”

“That’s normal?”

We’re so entwined, his casual resignation scoops a hollow in my gut.

“No. It’s not. I’ll start from your spinal meridian and work outward. You should feel the difference fast,” I speak firmly, hoping it sounds like I’m giving a prescription and not breathlessly rationalizing why I need to ride his cock.

I stroke down his stomach, more or less business until I hit his special ridge. It’s mostly made of muscle. Before I can explore, Vhex strokes me with the bony extra piece that seems free to move beneath his skin.

“You like my fin?” Vhex teases me with that rigid hardness, pushing it in and out, then back and forth. His cock twitches as he smirks. “It’s for you.”

I bet.

In the right position, that thing will be all over my clit.

Clenching my teeth before I can groan, I palm his shaft and guide his tip inside.

His venom has me drenched.

Even then, Vhex is a wild stretch.

His bumps are just the surface texture. Underneath lie hidden rings that expand and contract, turning his cock into a spring that gently tests the limits of my walls.

“Wait. Stop .” He’s only two inches deep and electricity shakes my thighs. “Let me.”

His texture.

His heat.

Vhex’s body is a playground. With every inch I take, I sink that much deeper into our soul connection.

He obediently settles his cock, leaving me gasping to adjust.

I want him.

I want this .

The venom roars, begging me to take Vhex all the way and let that wagging fin kiss my eager clit.

His magic sucks me all over, drawing me tighter, closer, deeper .

That’s why I freeze halfway down his shaft.

Guides are made to give ourselves to Sentinels.

To heal Vhex the way he needs, I have to give him all of me.

It’s already happening.

Our souls wind tighter and tighter, linking me deeper and deeper to everything he feels.

Vhex is fucking desperate .

He’s desperate for me, and he’s desperate for something darker that I’m not deep enough inside him to read.

But soon.

When he’s deep enough in me.

I sink another inch, trembling.

I hold all the control.

All his focus.

In this moment, I’m his everything.

The pleasure and power curl my toes. I push down.

Deeper .

Vhex fills me everywhere.

I clench around his hot length as our silks weave—just that five percent short of permanently.

Almost perfectly united, it’s much easier to sweep through his meridians. I untwist his silks like I’m twirling my own hair.

My hips rock as I soothe Vhex’s damage, loving the way he hooks me in, craving more.

When I rock forward far enough, my clit hits his magic fin. Something jolts between us, shaking my heart.

Is that what soulmates feel like?

Perfect and so fucking terrible.

“Fuck.” Vhex kneads my thighs. “Marry me, duchess.”

I didn’t mind his delusion as much before.

But when Vhex moans it and means it —his silks wrapping around me so desperately possessive—he may as well gut me with his claws.

I’d already be a duchess if Kevan had kept the promises he made when we were in the same position. Moving inside my body. Hooked into my soul.

You’re mine, Ris.

I’ll protect you.

It would’ve hurt less if he’d lied. But Kevan meant what he said at the time.

He still threw me away.

“Don’t call me that again.” I squeeze his cording throat. “I’m nobody’s duchess.”

“Wife,” he groans, fluttering his fin.

“Vhex!” I jerk my hips away and pin him down. “Try again.”

“Guide.”

“No.” I’m not interchangeable with the others. Not anymore . I yank his horn. “Use my name.”

“ Irissssssss .” The drawled-out S whistles past his fang.

I shiver.

That’s better.

And also very not.

“No fin. Stop moving and let me work.” I stroke his horn more gently, then slide to grab his jaw. “Okay, Sentinel?”

“ Iris ,” he whispers. “Knew you’d be the one.”

“I’m the one you’ve got for now.” Vhex may not be mine, but he is my problem. I want to give him my best.

He’ll remember how good I was when he imprints someone else.

Totally missing my determination to make a stand, he stares unblinkingly at the place we’re joined. “You take my venom so good.”

I clench on his cock, edging myself on his bumps for no reason but my stubborn pride. I’m sweating. I’m dripping. I want to come so badly, I’m straining muscles I didn’t know I had.

Anything to keep his heat from taking over.

This time, I’m strong enough to remember.

He only wants me for my power.

“That’s not an apology,” I grit.

“Work hard.” Vhex pats my knee. “I want to be a real boy.”

“Hold. Still .” I lower myself on his chest until I’m breathing the smoke from his lips.

He doesn’t twitch his fin, but in this position, I can’t help grinding its ridge.

Vhex is not a playground.

He’s a minefield.

Careful of his fang, I kiss his lips.

He tastes like dark berries and smoke.

Our silks bleed together. His pink ends mesh so tightly with my blue that our united souls cast a purple glow.

If we could imprint, they’d fully meld.

Our match is so strong that even without an imprint, Vhex’s body and mind are already mine to control.

My spirit sings as I do what I was made for and heal my Sentinel’s wounds. As I coat his meridians to spark regrowth from the ashes, I can’t help rocking my hips.

My lower body is so weirdly hot.

Sweating, I move jerkily, trying to focus on my work. Somehow, I manage to comb out the mess in his central meridian. With the path cleared, I feel my way up to the base of his skull.

“Fuhhh—!” Vhex stretches, twists, and involuntarily wiggles that godsdamned fin.

I gasp.

His tongue spears between my lips.

Vhex crushes me to his chest—arms and silks reeling me in and trying to make me his.