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Soft firelight filled the room with flickering shadows, highlighting every curve of Ashlynn’s body as Nyrielle pinned her to the soft satin bedspread.

Midnight blue energy swirled within the vampire’s eyes and her pupils quivered with hunger, fixed on the jumping pulse in Ashlynn’s soft, delicate neck while the sound of her lover’s racing heart thundered in her ears like a herd of wild horses, ready to carry her restraint and leaving behind nothing but the primal desire to feed.

"The night we met," Nyrielle said, closing her eyes and turning her head away from Ashlynn as she fought to control herself, restraining her hunger and the darkness that lurked behind it through sheer force of will.

"The night we met, I made a promise to myself that I would never hurt you the way he had," she said as visions of Ashlynn’s battered body flickered through her mind.

She’d fought back her hunger that night as well, even though the bruises and scratches that covered the young witch’s body had blended to create an enchanting tapestry of the perfect prey, weak and vulnerable, ready to fall under her spell and under her fangs.

Nothing in the world was as tempting or as intoxicating as the blood of a witch, but Nyrielle refused to reduce the woman she’d selected as her partner for the rest of their lives to little more than a convenient delicacy.

"You’re worried that you’ll hurt me," Ashlynn said, reaching up to capture Nyrielle’s face between her hands, turning her lover’s gaze back toward her.

"But Nyri, my love," she said softly as she ran her fingers gently through the other woman’s soft, silky hair. "I’m not as weak as I was then. I, I don’t mind if you’re a little rough," she said, biting her lower lip and squirming in embarrassment as she put her feelings into words.

"I want you to take me," she whispered. "I want to struggle, to feel my own power and to feel your strength meeting it.

I want... I want you to want me," she said, pulling Nyrielle down on top of her and using both legs to wrap around the other woman while her arms wrapped around her lover’s slender shoulders, pulling her in tightly so she could whisper in her ear.

"But I don’t want to feel like a crystal ornament that you can only touch delicately. .."

"You want me to be rough with you," Nyrielle said, her hand trembling slightly as she reached out to brush a lock of hair away from Ashlynn’s face. "But you deny me the chance to feed," she said, parting her lips to reveal a hint of fang. "Ashlynn, my darling, if you tell me ’no’, I will always listen, but this... If I am to be ’rough’ with you, but I must constantly restrain myself. .."

"Oh," Ashlynn said, her face heating in embarrassment as she realized her mistake. She’d told Nyrielle ’no biting’ but that hadn’t been entirely what she meant.

Only, to Nyrielle, the moment Ashlynn withdrew permission for her lover to take so much as a nibble from her, it was as good as fitting her with shackles.

Nyrielle had promised Ashlynn that she wouldn’t feed from her without her permission unless she had a great need to do so, and no matter how intense their actions in the bedroom were, they wouldn’t rise to a ’great need. ’

"Then, I take back when I said ’no biting,’" Ashlynn said.

"I mean, no biting yet," she said, reaching up to cup Nyrielle’s delicate face.

"I want you to be forceful with me. I want you to overwhelm me until I beg for your bite. I want you to take me and make me ache for you, but I don’t want it to be easy.

Is that... too much?" she asked hesitantly.

"No," Nyrielle said, smiling wickedly and flexing the fingers of one hand to reveal nails that had grown longer and sharper. "But are you taking back what you said about no ripping of clothing as well?"

"No, absolutely not," Ashlynn said, crossing her arms in front of her bodice.

"I like this dress, I, I wore it just for you tonight," she said, puffing out her chest and highlighting the way the soft satin fabric clung to her full bosom. "You like it, don’t you? So don’t, don’t tear it like you did the last one. .."

"Haha," Nyrielle laughed musically and smiled widely as she watched all of Ashlynn’s aura of might and majesty as the Mother of Trees fall away in a young woman’s concern for her favorite dress. "In that case, the best thing to do with that dress would be to get you out of it!"

Moving with the speed of a striking snake, Nyrielle flipped Ashlynn over, pressing her lover firmly down into the mattress while her nimble hands caught the laces of the other woman’s corset.

For a moment, rather than untying the laces, she pulled them tighter until Ashlynn gasped in surprise beneath her.

"You asked for rough," Nyrielle reminded her, whispering into her ear from inches away as she held the corset laces tightly in her hand.

"So I’ll be nice to the dress, but you, my darling.

.." Nyrielle allowed her voice to trail off, leaving the last words unsaid as her dextrous fingers untied the knots in the laces.

The sound of silk laces sliding through metal eyelets filled the air with a brief, high-pitched whistle as Nyrielle pulled the laces away, freeing her lover from the tight binding of the corset and allowing her to draw a deep, shuddering breath.

"My turn," Ashlynn said, spinning beneath her lover to capture the other woman’s slender waist, working at the knots of Nyrielle’s corset lacing with clumsy, hurried movements as she tried to replicate the vampire’s feat of stripping her laces away in a single smooth movement.

"No you don’t," Nyrielle said, capturing Ashlynn’s hands and sliding out of her grasp before winding Ashlynn’s own laces around her wrists, tying them in a tight knot that the young witch wouldn’t easily be able to struggle free of.

"You’re mine tonight, darling," she said forcefully as she slid a hand up Ashlynn’s stockinged leg, tracing her way up soft, creamy thighs as she sought the top of her lover’s underskirt.

"I won’t go that easily," Ashlynn countered, pressing her hands together as though she were praying before brilliant emerald light spilled from her palms. Moments later, the sounds of tearing laces filled the air as Ashlynn used strength that no ordinary human would possess to free herself from the improvised binding, scooting away from Nyrielle and casting a taunting look at her lover.

"If you want to eat me up tonight, you’ll have to do better than that," she teased, knowing full well that she was provoking Nyrielle and her hunger. "Come and get me," she said playfully, savoring the look of cold hunger blending with burning desire in her lover’s eyes.

"If that’s what my darling desires," Nyrielle said mischievously as she clutched the satin bedspread in her hands, giving it a sharp tug to bring Ashlynn back toward her. "Then how can I refuse?"