Page 46 of The Gargoyle and the Maiden (Nightfall Guardians #1)

Idabel

“ L et me tend you now,” she begged, humbled by his attention. She was still in awe of his bravery in the Zenith’s offices, how he convinced the Council act against Tomin and fought his injured mind to stay in control. “Lie back.”

He humored her, and his indulgent smile pulled and puckered the scar across his cheek.

She wished she could erase his as easily as he had erased hers.

She wished she could scrub each scar away with her bucket and rag, reverse the pain and trauma that had caused them.

The best she could do was salve them, and she always kept some handy in her healing kit.

The waxy salve warmed between her palms as she worked it into Brandt’s hide, paying special attention to each mark.

She already knew many of them by touch. The ragged one in his side where the poisoned blade caught him.

The one on his shoulder from a goblin spear that nearly severed his wing.

The one across his chest that he’d carved for her.

Each one, old and new, she touched and tended with the same care he’d given her arm.

“Turn over for me?” When he complied and turned to his belly, her thumbs found the tight cords of muscle at the base of his skull, pressing in slow, firm circles. A rough sigh escaped him, and his great, gray wings relaxed into the furs with a soft rustle, exposing the landscape of his back.

She trailed her fingers over the ridges and valleys formed by the layers of scars that crisscrossed his broad torso. It was a map of his survival. She smoothed the salve over a long, raised welt that crossed his shoulder blade, her hands worshiping the proof of his strength, his sacrifice.

“You have carried so much,” she whispered, leaning forward to press her lips to a particularly nasty nick near his spine.

“If you treat me so well, I might have to collect more scars for you to tend,” Brandt murmured, his eyes half-closed with pleasure.

“Don’t you dare! I am busy enough.” Her playful indignance earned her a chuckle that shook his whole body.

She massaged the salve into the small of his back, her thumbs dipping into the sensitive hollows above the base of his tail.

She felt the shift in him through their connection, the steady thrum of contentment deepening into a darker, hotter current of wanting.

His arousal echoed in the sudden ache between her own legs.

A shudder wracked his frame as he felt her need through the bond. His voice, when it came, was a graveled rumble. “Idabel.”

He shifted then, turning his massive body to face her. He propped on one elbow, his other hand cradling her jaw. His thumb stroked her lower lip until her lips parted slightly. He slid the tip of his claw between them, and she couldn’t help seeking it out with her tongue.

“You wish to care for your mate?” he asked, his voice dropping to a low timbre that she felt in her bones.

“In every way,” she breathed, her desire a sharp, sweet twist in her stomach.

An approving smile touched his lips. “Then get on your knees for me, little rabbit. I have something to teach you.” He moved to the edge of the nest so his feet were dangling in the furs and she had to look up at him.

A thrill, hot and liquid, shot through her. She moved without hesitation, settling between his powerful legs to unlace his breeches. She had some sense of what he wanted, but she was sure she didn’t know all of it, and she was eager to learn.

Laces fully loosened, his cock stood hard and proud against his stomach, the base already beginning to swell with the promise of his knot. The earthy, intoxicating scent of his skin, stronger here, filled her senses.

He loosened her braids until her hair fell down her back, then curved his fingers around the back of her skull, guiding her head toward him. “Open for me.”

Her mouth watered in anticipation. She took the broad head easily, her tongue flattening against the underside. He was so much larger than she’d imagined, stretching her jaw and lips wide. She relaxed as much as she could, letting him guide her deeper. Trusting him.

“That’s it,” he murmured, his voice a dark caress. He sounded so calm and in control, but his fingers betrayed him, contracting involuntarily and tangling in her hair. “You can take a little more. Let me feel that pretty throat open for me.”

She obeyed, sinking down further, the head of his cock nudging the back of her throat. Her eyes watered as her body instinctively rebelled, her throat rejecting the intrusion. A low groan pulled from his chest. The sound was the most potent aphrodisiac she’d ever known.

“Good little rabbit,” he praised, his thumb stroking her cheek. “So good. I can feel in your mind how much you want to please me. Don’t fight against me. Let me in. Let me feel you take all of me.”

His words, filthy and tender all at once, unraveled her.

Her next attempt was wet and clumsy and left her gasping, a string of saliva tracing a path down her chin.

Instead of shame, a wave of pure, dizzying power washed over her.

She was pleasing him. She could feel him exulting every time she tried to swallow his length.

She pushed forward, taking him deeper still, until her chin bumped into his growing knot. Her throat stretched, convulsing around his invading girth. She struggled to keep him there until her tears fell and her nose ran.

“Fallen gods ,” he panted. He held her head in place as his hips gave a minute, helpless thrust. “You have no idea what you look like. My beautiful mate, working so hard to take all of me. You’re so perfect. This is the only reason you should ever cry for me.”

He smudged the wetness on her cheeks away with his thumbs, his lower lip caught in his teeth.

His muscular tail snaked beneath her skirts, probing between her legs until she widened them enough that it could slip between her folds and find her slick entrance.

She moaned around his cock as the blunt tip pushed inside her, filling her.

He held himself there for a long moment, letting her adjust to the suffocating intimacy of it.

The bond between them hummed with his savage enjoyment and her own dizzy ecstasy.

When he finally let her pull back, she gasped for air, her lips swollen and throbbing as his tail began to thrust in and out.

She rested her cheek on his thigh, watching his cock jerk every time she squeezed her inner walls around his tail. “Your knot’s already growing,” she murmured. “If you want us to peak together, you should let me have it now.”

With a low growl, he pushed her back into the furs, curving his body over her as he braced his arms on either side of her. The change in position dislodged his tail, but her whimper of loss was quickly stifled when his mouth crushed down on hers in a rough, impatient claim.

“You took care of me so well,” he breathed against her lips. “Never have I felt more loved.”

“I’m not finished with you yet,” she teased, coaxing him to roll into his back before climbing astride him.

His eyes lit with delight as she leaned over to return his kisses, her hair falling around them like a tangled curtain.

She nipped at his lower lip before latching onto his neck, pretending to give him a mating bite.

He palmed her breasts over her bodice, and they kissed until he wrenched his mouth away from hers. “Why are you wearing so many clothes?”

He clawed at them until she laughed and pushed his hands away, hurriedly unlacing her bodice and untying her skirts so they wouldn’t be ruined by his claws. He helped her lift her clothes and then her chemise over her head, discarding them somewhere in the furs.

“Look at you,” he whispered, hands cupping and lifting her breasts like an offering to the sky before sliding down to span her waist. His thumbs brushed over the silvery lines that had formed on her lower belly when she carried Lo?c, feeling their soft texture.

“You look like you’re painted with starlight.

Like someone took a brush to you and made a masterpiece. ”

He was the masterpiece, an impossible marble sculpture laid out beneath her, scars chiseled in to highlight the perfection of his form. And he was hers .

Fingers digging in possessively, he lifted her hips, positioning the head of his cock at her entrance.

He eased inside her in a devastating slide that buried him to the hilt.

She cried out, her back arching. He filled her so completely, stretching her in a way that bordered on pain before it melted into a pleasure so intense it was almost unbearable.

Once she’d had a few moments to adjust to the stretch, she began to move, a slow, rolling grind of her hips that made them both groan. She set a torturously slow rhythm, rising up until only the tip of him remained inside her, then sinking down in rush that took her breath away.

She watched his face, felt the way his control fractured with every downward stroke. His claws dug into her thighs until he realized what he was doing and buried them in the furs instead.

“It’s fine,” she whispered, leaning forward to trace the shape of his pointed ear with her tongue. “Let me love you, Brandt. You don’t always have to be controlled. You can fall apart for me. I’ll catch you.”

As she’d hoped, his words destroyed the last of his restraint.

His gripped her hips, his big body trembling beneath her.

His thrusts became more urgent, meeting her downward slides with powerful upward surges of his own.

The slapping sound of their bodies meeting filled the chamber with a raw, animal rhythm.

The pressure inside her built, a coil winding tighter and tighter. She could feel his orgasm approaching, a gathering storm in the bond, in the way his knot began to swell significantly against her entrance, a thick, insistent pressure when it slid in and out.

“Now,” he ground out, his voice raw. “Idabel, now!”

He drove up into her one final, brutal time, and his knot swelled inside her, stretching her wider than she thought possible, and lodged deep inside.

His roar echoed off the stone walls as his release poured into her, hot and endless, the swollen knot ensuring not a single drop escaped.

Her own climax tore through her, a silent, shattering wave that left her blind and shuddering, collapsed on his chest.

For a long time, there was only the sound of their ragged breathing. She could feel the faint pulse of him still releasing inside her. His arms came around her, holding her close as they waited for his knot to subside.

“Thank you,” he said roughly.

“I think I got as much as I gave,” she murmured, tongue thick with satisfaction. “That was thanks enough.”

“You’re wrong, little rabbit. You give me equal pleasure, but you’ve done so much more for me than that.

Your hands healed my body,” he said, voice rough with emotion.

“Your mind healed my mind. Your heart healed my heart.” He cupped her face, thumb tracing her cheekbone.

“And I can never repay you for the gift of my son.”

“There’s no price to be paid.” She pressed her forehead to his. “We have already settled our debts to each other.”