Page 22

A chill ran up my spine when his lips touched me. Tasted my skin. It was a shiver laced with both fear and want . I was walking a thin line, but I found in this moment that I didn’t care. That I wanted him.

No… needed him.

His lips felt much the same as they had before, but entirely different at the same time.

His tongue darted out of his mouth to taste the skin on my stomach, sucking and teasing.

I let out a groan of my own as he moved upwards, his one hand supporting my back and the other finding my breast. He cupped it gently, sucking it into his mouth.

I could feel his fangs trace over my nipple and another shiver ran down my spine, my core throbbing.

My hand found his hair where I gripped it tightly. His gaze found mine, my nipple still in his mouth.

“Fuck.” The word slipped past my lips at the sight of him .

“You like that?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

I nodded fervently. Despite being in the now cooling water, warmth pooled between my legs.

His right hand continued to help me float as his other dragged up my calf, then my thigh.

The air strangled in my throat as he moved towards where that heat was growing, his fingers teasing but never touching.

“Nikolai.” The word was both an admonishment and a prayer as it escaped my lips, and he laughed darkly.

He lifted me and I hadn’t been expecting it—I clung to him as he stood.

I wrapped my legs around him as he ascended the stairs of the pool, exiting the washroom altogether.

He deposited me onto the bed where I crawled back towards the pillows.

He stood over me, his hungry gaze tracing up and down my wet body.

His clothes clung to him in an entirely inappropriate way, his cock hardened and pressing against his wet pants.

His eyes burned as he watched me take him in.

“I didn’t think… ” I spoke, my words trailing off.

“That I could still get hard for you?” He reached for the hem of his wet shirt, pulling it over his head and letting it fall to the floor.

“Look at you.” He ran his tongue across his lips, licking them.

“As if there was any doubt.” He shook his head, water droplets spraying.

As if the thought, the very idea was silly.

I made an impatient noise in the back of my throat as his hands went to his belt buckle, undoing it with agonizing slowness. I was bare before him and he took his time stripping down, watching me want him. Need him.

He unbuttoned the pants and slid them down his legs, stepping out of them. The sight of his hard length popping free had my core tightening. He was so Goddamn beautiful. Even like this.

He bent his knee on the bed before me, grabbing the back of my thigh and pulling me towards him.

His gaze heated as he took in my breasts, my hardened nipples, then down even further as his gaze found the want between my legs.

He kneeled before me, his mouth grazing the skin of my thigh before settling between my legs.

A gasp escaped my throat as his mouth met my center with no preamble, and I gripped the wet satin sheets in my fist.

Holy. Shit.

He had never had me like this before.

His fang grazed my bundle of nerves and I almost screamed, a noise of pleasure buried deep in the back of my throat as I pressed my lips together.

He lifted an eyebrow, that wicked smile across his lips as he continued.

One of my hands moved from fisting in the sheet to fisting in his hair, and that only made him work his tongue even harder against me.

Inside of me.

I was gasping against the sheets, one of his hands finding my stomach to press me down into the bed as I writhed beneath him. He worked me with his mouth, soft in some places and harder in others, driving me towards that cliff that I wanted desperately to fall over.

I could feel my pleasure building, but before it could crest he met my gaze, running his tongue across his lips to savor the taste of me.

I thought I might come undone right then and there.

He lifted off his knees to press his body over me.

The hard length of his cock nestled between my thighs.

My hand moved from his hair to grasp it, working my hand over the length of him as he groaned.

His mouth found my neck, and a gasp escaped me, but for an entirely different reason than pleasure.

My neck.

That was where the Noctani bit their victims to steal their blood and their magic.

My limbs locked up, my hands finding his chest and trying to push him away, but all he did was laugh against me.

He kissed my neck softly, gently, sucking at the skin there.

My body reacted despite my mind’s warning, leaning into him.

No… I couldn’t let him bite me.

The thought was present in my mind as he opened his mouth, his fangs grazing against the delicate skin where my neck met my shoulder.

“Nikolai—” my voice came out as a warning, but desire was thick in my veins and I couldn’t bring myself to push him off me.

He sucked the skin there one last time before sinking his fangs into me.

“Wait—” the words barely left my lips but were stopped when an all-encompassing pleasure enveloped me.

This couldn’t be what it was to to have your magic stolen. This was pure, raw ecstasy. After the initial sharp bite of pain as his fangs pierced the skin, I experienced nothing but bliss as he lapped his tongue against me. Drinking the blood my body offered him.

He held me against his mouth with one hand while the other traveled down my body, between my legs, before inserting a finger inside of me. I moved against him, my thoughts foggy with want as he worked his finger in and out of me before inserting another, stretching me.

My blood dripped down my neck and onto the wet, satin sheets as he pulled back, licking it as it dripped down his lips. I could still sense my magic deep in my core, pressing against me with that familiar warmth.

It had been insistent at first, but now it didn’t seem to mind. And neither did I.

He hadn’t stolen my magic, only my blood. But he had bitten me.

I was utterly confused, unsure of how the magic of the Noctani worked as he continued to work his fingers in and out of me.

My hips moved against him, all thoughts of stealing my magic gone as I wrapped my arm against him, holding him close to me.

His bite had left me in a hyper aroused state, as if I were floating on a cloud of pleasure and it was all I could think of.

All that filled my thoughts. I wanted him buried inside of me.

“More,” I pleaded, my hand finding his hard length once more and pumping.

He growled against my neck as he lapped up the last bits of blood that pooled there. He removed his fingers from my wet center, replacing them with the head of his cock. He wasted no time thrusting all the way into me, a cry escaping my lips.

He had never been this rough with me, but I didn’t mind at all. I pulsed around him and he groaned, pulling all the way out of me before thrusting in again. His name escaped my lips as he held me down, pinning my hips against the bed as he moved over me and inside me roughly.

My head fell back with each thrust, and I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out. The sensation of him filling me… his hands on my body… the way his fingers teased right above my center as he thrust in and out of me…

“Wicked little witch,” he crooned, watching as my eyes fluttered shut. “Don’t hold back, Diana. Let them hear how much I please you. Let them hear how much you love my cock buried deep inside of you. Let them know you’re mine .”

I was going to come.

I opened my mouth to say as much but he continued at that merciless pace, my breasts bouncing hard as he thrust into me with such power.

His fingers continued to tease that bundle of nerves and I fell over the cliff, digging my nails into his back hard enough to draw blood.

His mouth found my breast, taking it into his mouth and biting.

My head fell back with a cry as the pleasure became too much, too all-consuming.

He drank from my breast as I came again, riding against him as if there was nothing more I wanted in the entire world.

He hummed against me as his tongue lapped my blood, the vibration sending another wave of pleasure through me.

I came again. And again.

“That’s it,” he encouraged, lifting his head.

Blood trickled down his chin as he grinned up at me, his fangs exposed.

“Fuck—” The word escaped me on a whimper as he thrust into me harder, chasing his own pleasure .

He pumped and pumped, slamming inside of me relentlessly until he came, spilling into me and capturing my mouth with his. It was the first time he had kissed me since turning, and the taste of my own blood mixed with his pleasure sent me over the edge once more.

I let out a cry against him as he held my mouth with his, my own blood smeared across my lips before he fell against me.

He remained inside of me, entirely spent.

I wrapped my arms around him, holding him against me as a small smile crossed my lips.

The feel of him against me, inside of me… it felt so natural. So right.

Reality slowly crept in as I remembered the wet, bloody sheets against my back. Sticking to my thighs. My wet hair plastered against the pillow. The taste of my own blood on my lips. Blood caked on my breast and neck.

Nik had bitten me, but my magic still simmered in my core.

What had I done?