Page 15 of Until the Heart Stops (The Oylen City #1)

H is lips were cold.

And yet they seared straight into my soul.

My arms twined around his shoulders as he pulled me to my tiptoes, his free hand sliding around my waist to draw me closer.

A low rumble vibrated through his chest and instinctually it had me tilting my head to the side as he gently forced my lips to part.

I sighed into the kiss. His breath was sweet across my face, like apples and spice, cutting through the rotting scent of the venefica.

Callum’s mouth made a slow path to my jaw and I whimpered, fingers tangling in his shoulder-length hair. It was soft, like silk, and I couldn’t help but learn the texture as his teeth scraped across my throat.

“We cannot do this,” he groaned.

But he was taking quick steps forward, pressing me against the stones of the rampart until I was jumping up to sit on the edge.

The hand on my waist pressed me tighter against him as I rucked up my skirts, sliding my knees apart.

I was frantic, gripping the black fabric of his tunic, afraid in the next moment he might vanish.

I could not tell the difference between the beating in my heart and that of my immortal patron.

But I could feel his desire, his roaring need, and how it clashed with the duty he felt toward…

someone. Yet I could not focus on it with the heat pooling in my core, especially as Callum stepped between my thighs as he sucked a bruise onto my throat.

“Callum,” I moaned.

Another soft rumble as his fabric-covered cock found my core, only thin fabric separating me from him.

The hand on my face slid lower to hold my throat while he lifted his gaze up to mine.

As it had been in the market, it was merely the pressure of his presence, the reminder of his strength and that he held my life in his hands.

He gave one, agonizingly slow thrust.

“We cannot do this, my darling,” he rumbled, pupils blown black in the moonlight.

I nodded, rocking my hips and letting out another soft whimper as his length slid across my clit. “I know, I know.”

His mouth covered mine once more and I finally understood what it meant to be possessed . To be at the mercy of another so completely you feel as though they might as well have ripped out your heart and placed it in their chest.

Pleasure sparked up my spine as he rocked faster, pulling away until our lips barely brushed.

“But know I will spend the next eternity dreaming of your cunt around my cock,” he breathed, “and wondering how it would feel to have your blood on my tongue as I bury myself so fucking deep inside you, you would never be rid of my scent, my taste, my seed.”

Callum rocked faster against me but he did not close the distance between us. Instead, he watched with rapt attention as the pressure coiled tight inside my belly, as my mouth opened in a silent scream.

“Let me hear you, my darling, I need to hear it.”

I was gone, crying out his name, head tipping back to gaze unseeingly at the bright waning moon in the sky.

Heartachingly slowly, Callum settled me back on my feet, the hand on my throat sliding to my shoulder to steady me before falling away.

He’d been about to say something but the moment my toes touched the stone I cried out, a sickening wave of agony radiating from my leg.

I stumbled, catching myself on the wall while Callum’s hands wrapped around my waist. His eyes fixed onto the tear in my skirts and the black gash sliced across the front of my thigh.

“Merciful fucking goddess,” he cursed, dropping to his knees at once.

“It’s fine,” I panted, gripping his shoulders as he ripped away the fabric.

His cold hands pressed against the wound. Nausea surged through my chest and I groaned.

“It’s not fucking fine,” he snapped.

His mouth was full. I only had a moment before he leaned forward and ran his tongue across the gash, smearing his blood into the wound.

My head whirled and a breathy moan slipped through my lips as the pain receded.

He lapped at the injury, dark red blood smearing across my freckled skin, his hands wrapped around my thigh and calf to hold me steady.

I readied myself for his blood, for two bonds to fight for dominance inside me. I’d never heard of anyone drinking the blood of two different vampires before. But nothing happened. The original bond was still there, perhaps stronger, tinged with fury and that bone-aching longing.

“Callum…”

But he didn’t respond. His licks had grown languorous as his blood destroyed the venefica venom in the wound. The strong muscles of his shoulders tensed beneath my touch and desire once again sparked through the bond.

His desire.

It was Callum after all, just as I’d hoped.

Questions buzzed through my mind and yet I couldn’t focus on any of them for more than a moment. Why had he not told me? Why the intrigue? Why did he pretend?

The hand on my thigh slid higher, the long tips of his fingers brushing through the wetness still smeared across my skin from my release.

He sighed as if in relief, lips closing over the deepest part of the wound and taking one great pull before he bit his tongue to reopen the fount.

The feel of my blood drawing into his mouth sent a spark directly to my clit and I buried my hands in his hair while I moaned.

“Please.” I didn’t know what I was begging for, only that I couldn’t bear to hear him say again that we couldn’t do this.

Callum’s silver eyes blazed as they flicked up to me and he gave one, long, obscene lick to the closing gash. I didn’t need the bond between us to know what he was imagining. Heat flared through my cheeks, my chest heaved, breasts pushing against my bodice.

“You’re desperate for it, aren’t you?”

The words were soft, merely a rasp against my skin, but they were amplified through our connection. I nodded, mouth hanging open as he licked again and my hips jumped, trying to push his wandering fingertips closer to where I needed him .

Perhaps he took mercy on me when he felt my frustration and desire mounting, because his fingertips grazed the crease of my thigh as he sucked on the wound.

It was closing, thanks to his healing blood, but I groaned all the same.

His chuckle skated across my skin, dark as night and breaking apart any vestiges of control I had left.

“Please, Callum, please.”

His white-blond brows ticked up. “What is it, my darling? Tell me what you need. You already know I’ll give it to you.”

It was an echo of what he’d written all those weeks ago: I want you to tell me what you want.

I want to provide for you. And I couldn’t stop the words as they tumbled from my lips.

A desperate plea for him to touch me, to fill me, fuck me, sink his teeth into my throat.

Take and take and take until there was nothing left.

Or perhaps I said it through our bond, sending the need soaring through that strange connection he’d forged.

“One more,” he murmured, slipping beneath the fabric covering my sex. “I cannot deny you anything.”

Two fingers slipped effortlessly into me and I cried out, bowing forward and steadying myself on his upper back.

Callum returned to the wound, licking and sucking.

Every so often he bit his tongue to deliver more blood to the gash.

And with each curl of his fingers, each pass of his thumb against my clit, each ripple of his tongue, I flew closer to the stars and welcomed the fall when it approached.

“My name, say my name,” he all but pleaded, drawing back from my leg to once again stare up in an awed sort of reverence as I came.

His name was a plea for mercy, a cry of delight and desperation all in one. Callum crooned through it all, pressing his lips to the now healed wound on my thigh, stroking his free hand across my shin .

“That’s it, just like that. So fucking beautiful—more beautiful than Amayah herself.”

Gently he withdrew his fingers and I watched on trembling knees as he lifted them to his mouth, sucking my release from his skin. His eyes remained locked on mine as he rose to his feet, towering over me, and dragged his thumb against my bottom lip. “I wish I could stay.”

I wrapped my hands around his wrists like brittle shackles. “Then stay.”

He had said he couldn’t deny me anything. That he would give me anything and everything I wanted— needed . But sorrow crept through the bond, dense like tar, and when he blinked blood tears stood in his eyes.

“I cannot, Lilith. But goddess, I wish I could.” He took one step back, sliding through my hold like it was nothing more than mist.

“No… don’t .” My throat was thick and I struggled to clear it. “Callum, please.”

He looked like he was burning, his face so stricken I could barely remember the icy mask he usually wore. Taking a step forward, I reached out, desperate to keep him here, but when I went to grab the fabric of his shirt my hands closed over empty air.

I was alone and shivering in the cold.