Page 26 of Tempting the Fae Lord (The Gatekeeper’s Weakness)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Gale

I seize a chestful of air, greedy for it. Desperate. Drawing in gasp after gasp, sharp as daggers. Sharp as the pain in my throat.

The damp is pregnant with copper.

Confusion claims me.

It’s too bright. I clamp my eyes shut. Air is replaced with liquid hotter than magma searing my tongue. A river runs down my throat.

I swallow to avoid drowning.

Cold in here.

Where am I?

My body feels foreign.

Swallowing. Gulping. Sucking.

A strange fire burns through my veins, lighting my nerves and bristling the hair on my arms and nape. My muscles tense and release. Tense and release.

I reach for something. No. Someone.

And I find him, clutching him tight to my body. My anchor.

My heart pounds. Head fevered. Cock hard.

Copper sweet silk slip-slides down my throat, boiling in my stomach, sprawling all the way to my curled toes.

I remember the forest, the sound gurgling water, stampeding wolves, and the stink of death. Pain. Falling. Shadows slinking in. Darkness.

Now I’m cold yet burning with hunger. Frightened yet safe in his embrace. Dazed yet sure this is where I’m supposed to be.

Voices filter through my hazy consciousness.

"My stars, what’s happening?”

“Will he live?”

“…be like the Gatekeeper—”

“Gale? No!”

“Back off. Give them space.”

Ezra’s possessive growl drowns out the others. He tucks my head against his neck and lifts me. The world shakes. We’re moving. Jostling.

Quiet descends.

The laceration at his throat I’ve been gnawing on no longer bleeds, but I can’t tear my mouth off him. He tastes too good. Smells too good.

The chill of winter nips at my exposed ears, but it doesn’t matter. The cold doesn’t bother me. I like it.

Fresh air ruffles my hair and livens my senses.

When I open my eyes for the second time, it isn’t too bright anymore. Silver moonlight illuminates the forest as Ezra carries me deep into the woods. Away from everyone. Just us. Alone.

I dig my fingers into his cloak and squeeze with more force than I’ve ever possessed. “You’ve done it to me, haven’t you?”

I’m like him now. I feel it in my bones. In the power running through my veins. In the buzz of nerves tickling my skin like a thousand tiny pin pricks at once. Alive. Thriving. Eager.

I need to run and chase and leap and fuck.

Especially that.

I squirm in Ezra’s hold, and he lets me go. The second my feet touch ground, I break into a sprint.

“Gale!” The alarm in his voice freezes me midstride. “Don’t leave.”

I grin, my lips peeled back over new teeth. Fangs. A rush of glee flows through me. “I’m not leaving. We’re running. Come on.”

I don’t wait to see if he’ll follow. I know he will. My feet fly like never before. Long strides. Sweeping steps. I dodge over roots and around branches through underbrush. Elation. The wind in my hair like a thunderstorm. I let out a triumphant cheer and laugh.

Not human anymore. Not fragile. Not breakable. Not at risk.

Vampire now. Strong, fast, deadly, immortal.

Like him.

I whirl around and open my arms. “You’ve done it to me!”

He takes my hands, but not the embrace I’m offering. He blinks, his expression wary. His lower lip is trembling. “You must forgive me.”

I shake my head and laugh some more. I can’t help it. “Does it look like I’m angry?”

After a pause in which I can barely stand to hold still, he says, “No.”

“Then don’t apologize. It is I who must thank you. For this gift. We are equals now, you and I. Made for each other. Don’t you feel it?”

He visibly struggles with this information. Which I must put a stop to so we can celebrate.

I squeeze his hands. “It’s what I wanted.”

“But—”

“You’d never have done it if I’d asked, and I was going to ask. It would have been like the gate. No, Mooncalf, I can’t. Too dangerous. Not possible. Not for you. Forever and ever until I’d grown old and gray and weak and died. This is better. I didn’t have to ask. And you didn’t have to deny me.”

His stunned expression is so endearing I have to kiss him. His mouth, his cheeks, his jaw, and a nip to his throat where he’d opened a vein for me to live.

Finally, he steps into my embrace. Holds me as I hold him, chest to chest, hips to hips, toe to toe.

“You really wanted this?”

“Yes. So much.” I draw back enough to look at him. “I was working up my courage to tell you. To ask for it while I’m still young. To launch my campaign.”

A long, slow breath shudders out of Ezra, and an even slower smile spreads across his lips. “You’re right. I would have said no.”

“Crazy man.”

“One could argue it’s you who’s gone mad at present.”

“One could.” I drag him back in and press my hard cock against his thigh. “But why argue when we have better things to do?”

He stares, wide-eyed, and I watch him back just as intently. His pupils dilate, and his lips part.

I’ve got him. He’s mine.

Ezra’s kiss is ravenous. Claiming. Hard and possessive, with teeth and tongue and little sounds from the back of his throat that I’ll treasure from this night forward.

He grabs my bloody clothes, ripping them in his haste. Winter ghosts over my bare skin, followed by his hands. Both bring a surge of pleasure in their wake.

One moment I’m kissing him as though my life depends on it, and the next I’m backed against the wide trunk of a tree, pinned between its bark at my spine and Ezra at my chest.

To my utter delight, he slides to his knees and tugs open my breeches. “Can I?”

“Please.”

He pulls my cock free, already hard and throbbing, and gives it a firm stroke. “You have no idea how much I want you.”

I might have some idea. “I want you too.”

He glances up, eyes dark and burning with desire. There’s no preamble. No teasing. He stretches his lips wide and takes me into his mouth.

Rapture.

Cool, wet suction, and his hands on my thighs squeezing the muscles.

I bite the inside of my cheek in an effort not to thrust.

The bark digs in against my shoulder blades, like nails scratching the skin. I relish the crisp twinge of pain.

Ezra pulls back a little so the sensitive head of my cock rests heavily on his tongue. He stills. I ogle. He’s gorgeous like this. Open for me. Lips slick with spit. He’s staring at me as if to say, “Well?”

Smoldering ashes, he wants me to thrust.

If that’s what he’s after, who am I to deny his wish?

I grip two thick fistfuls of silky black hair and position his head just so. Then I stop holding back. I fuck into his mouth like I want to. Like I need to.

He moans for me.

The vibrations feel euphoric around my shaft as I slide in and out, taking the pleasure he offers.

Cool fingers trace my sac. He cups my balls and rolls them gently. A careful tug. A barely there squeeze. All while I pump my hips and pet his hair and lose myself in every intimate caress.

I climb to the edge, pressure building, thighs trembling.

“Please,” I whimper.

He hums in response.

I gasp. I’m there. I should warn him. I should—

He grabs my ass and yanks me in. I come down his throat with a groan, losing myself in lust, muscles spasming. Shattered.

In my bliss, I’ve fisted his hair hard, trapping him where I need him until every last bit of pleasure is wrung out of me.

He indulges this, burying his nose in curls at my base, muffling little breaths against the sensitive skin there, letting me draw out the moment for as long as it will last.

Shaky, I release my iron hold on him and run my fingers through his tangled hair and over his cheek as he slowly draws away. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and presses a kiss to my hip.

I can’t believe I’m still standing after such a decadent treat. “Catch me,” I say with a sated giggle and sink into his arms.

We fall into a happy pile of intertwined arms and legs on the snow, and I can’t bring myself to care that it’s cold or that we’ll get wet or that I’m still half-undressed. These clothes are ruined anyway. All I can think is it’s time to relieve him of his.

I reach for the laces on his breeches with full intent to get my mouth on him, but he stops me with gentle fingers around my wrist.

With his other hand, he tucks my hair behind my ear. “How are you?”

What kind of question is that after what we just did? “Erm, fantastic, actually. Wait, how are you?” The idea that there might be something wrong doesn’t sit well.

“Concerned.”

That snuffs a bit of the fire from my veins. I study his eyes as he studies mine. “Why?”

“This is a big change, Mooncalf. There’s no undoing what I’ve done to you tonight. Have you considered the sacrifices you’ve made?”

I’m tempted to jest. To mention how not being dead is pretty okay with me. But he’s gone somber, and I’d rather take that weight off his shoulders if I can.

I hold his face in my hands. “Yes. I’ve given it a lot of thought.”

“And?”

“When losing something as grand as sunshine and days spent with the others, of course I would consider those consequences. And perhaps, if we’d had the luxury of time, I would have glimpsed one last sunrise, enjoyed one last sunset, burned the images into my memory, but, Ezra…

” I kiss him. “Sometimes it’s better to leap than to tiptoe.

To rip the cloth from the wound so there’s no time to fret.

We had little choice, tonight, you and I, but who’s to say it’s not for the best? Hmm?”

A slow smile washes away his serious expression. “Wise beyond your years, Gale.”

“Not always, but in this instance, I’ll accept your praise. Thank you for the gift of my new life. I won’t waste it.”

“I never thought you would.”

Slow enough so he can stop me if he doesn’t want it, I trail my fingers back down to his breeches. When he makes no effort to halt my progress, I run them lightly over the length of his cock through the leather.

A noise somewhere between a whimper and a moan escapes his throat.

I grin. “Oh! Make that sound again.”