Page 83 of Will It Hurt?

Aisla

“If you tell me you married her, I’d have to kill you.” Edged with irritation, Maia’s voice blasted through the speakerphone. “No, I tell a lie. I’d have to kill her. ”

I imagined the little ruched frown between Maia’s brows and the annoyed little huff that ruffled her curls as she spoke.

“No,” I said with a laugh as I sipped the sub-par herbal tea that the BnB had provided. “We didn’t run off to get married. I promise I would never get married without you.”

“I don’t know if I believe that,” Maia groused. “You ran off to Aviemore without telling me.”

“Spur of the moment,” I said, only mildly sorry. “But I did text you on the train. I’ll be back soon, Maia.”

“When?” she demanded.

“Soon,” I said, unwilling to give her any more.

Jinn and I had been holed up in a little cottage nestled between two lochs. For nine blissful days, we’d barely left the homey space, choosing instead to spend our time naked under the thick, white quilt, talking and laughing and memorizing every inch of each other…

“Are you even listening to me?” Maia’s voice pulled me from the delicious daydream.

“What? Yes.” I tried to clear the image of Jinn’s pink nipples under my lips. “Of course I’m listening. ”

Maia’s sigh carried across the call. “You’ve always been a bad liar.”

I didn’t bother to refute her statement.

“I’m just glad you’re safe,” she said a little begrudgingly. “I hear the bliss in your voice, so the vamp must be treating you well.”

I thought about the scones Jinn had kneaded to life yesterday—six of them dolloped with fresh raspberries and cream. She’d fed me each bite as we lay in bed watching a storm blow through outside.

“Very well,” I confirmed, unable to keep the wistful note from threading through my words. “Too well.”

“You deserve it, Aisla. Let her pamper you.” I heard a tinkling noise in the background, as though Maia was mixing something up in her lab. “Have you heard from the High Coven yet?”

I picked at the crown of a scone absently. “Not since they called to ask me to reconsider.”

“Funny how they responded within a few hours,” Maia quipped. “They barely replied to your message about being attacked by a vamp.”

“We are cogs in a machine. Magickal cogs, yes, but cogs just the same.”

“The machine cannot run without this particular cog.”

“Exactly.”

“Did they say what they’re going to do now? What happens to all the vamps that request to be neutralized?”

I shrugged and realized Maia couldn’t see it.

“To be honest, I can’t bring myself to care. You know all those feelings of dread and darkness? They’re gone. Just like that.”

“Getting eaten out in the Highlands would do that to you.”

My laughter rang through the small cottage .

“You’re absolutely right.”

“Well, I suppose I shouldn’t keep you,” she said sullenly. “But come back soon, all right? With Brodie away at Uni, it’s a little sad at home. It’s the first time I’ve spent Hogmanay without you.”

I could hear the sadness in her voice, the way she tried to sound casual, but couldn't fully hide the ache beneath her words.

“I know,” I said, hearing the softness creep back into my tone. “I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

We said our goodbyes moments later.

Maia had demanded to know why we weren’t on video call. She’d wanted to look into my eyes and make extra sure I wasn’t compelled. I’d given her some excuse that the signal wasn’t that great up here, but the truth was…

I was naked. I’d been naked for nine dreamy days.

The idea of putting on clothes was… Unpalatable. At least for today.

Jinn had left the tiny cottage to see what supplies she could scrounge up from the local newsagent.

I would’ve been perfectly content to lie in front of the fire and speak about nothing, everything, and anything in between, but she was insistent that we needed to ring in the new year with bubbles and something sweet…

especially when my stomach had rumbled loudly at an inopportune moment.

Who was I to say no to a little bubbly?

But I also knew that nothing she could find at the local shop would compare to the gift I was about to offer her the moment she walked through the door.

In the distance, the sound of bagpipes, pop music, and laughter carried in the wind. The rhythm of Hogmanay had descended over the little village in the outskirts of Aviemore, and despite the thick layer of snow, people were out to celebrate .

I, on the other hand, was curled up under a thick quilt with my crossword puzzle, tapping the answers into the squares with a happy tune on my lips.

When the key turned in the lock, I sat up from my perch on the bed, feeling my lips curve into a smile.

“The sound of bagpipes makes me want to scratch my eyes out and—”

Jinn paused, turning to face me with a bottle of champagne tucked under one arm and box of strawberries in the other. “Why is your heart racing?”

“No reason,” I said, sliding out from under the covers. The carpet beneath my feet was plush.

Jinn’s gaze lingered on my bare chest, the curve of my belly, and the thick curls between my thighs.

“I have a little gift for you.” My words were edged with the barest hint of breathlessness. “I think you’re going to like it.”

The invitation hovered between us, thick as honey and dripping with intent. She watched me unerringly, her gaze dark and unreadable, but her next words told me she knew exactly what I offered.

“You don’t have to,” she said quickly.

Liar, I thought, watching the way her fangs kissed her bottom lip, waiting to descend. Waiting to devour.

“I’m old, Aisla.” She set the bottle down on the small strip of counter space next to the front door. The plastic box of strawberries clattered as they touched the surface. “I don’t need to feed very often.”

“Is that right?” I stepped forward, my fingers running over the edges of her tweed lapel. “Are you rejecting my offer of blood, vamp?”

“I’m not—” She pressed her lips together as though trying to push back her insistent fangs. “It’s not necessary. ”

“I know it’s not.” I flicked the button open and tugged the coat off her shoulders. “But don’t you ever drink for pleasure? Need is very different from want .”

I thought I heard her throat click drily over the crackle from the fireplace.

“Tell me you want it,” I said, pressing my breasts into the thick fabric of her vest. “Tell me you want to sip me slowly, that you want to savor me. That you need to feel every second of it.”

Her fingers rose to my hair, delving beneath my curls. She tipped my head up to hers.

When she spoke, her voice was nothing more than a rough purr.

“I’ve thought about little else.”

They were exactly the words I wished to hear.

“Then take me, Jinn.”

Her free arm wrapped around my waist, tipping me over until I was lying on the carpet in front of the fire. Gold light touched my hair, my skin, my heart, but it was nothing compared to the lusty flint in Jinn’s eyes.

“I remember the taste of you all too well,” she said, letting her clothes fall away. “It’s something I’ll never forget… the magick of you.”

Tears pricked at my eyes before I could stop them, and I had no doubt they shimmered bright in front of the fire. Her words sounded dangerously close to devotion… Or something deeper—something I wasn’t sure I was ready to name.

When her lips ghosted over my inner thigh, I spread them wider. I had indulged in far too many steamy vampyre novels not to know the various points they could drink from.

The femoral artery was my favorite.

“Do it,” I whispered, my fingers clinging to the carpet. “Drink from me. ”

The rasp of her fangs in that sensitive dip of flesh made me gasp. But she didn’t bite down. Didn’t break skin.

Instead, she ran her tongue along the crease, over the curls, and dipped into the messy wetness of my pussy.

Her eyelids fluttered shut as she inhaled, her features going slack as though she was breathing in the most exquisite scent she’d ever encountered.

Something like pride surged in my chest as I watched her breathe me in like a sommelier before a taste of fine aged wine.

“My Aisla,” she mouthed a second before I felt the slow, long flick of her tongue.

Curse the moon! Slow and relentless, she tightened the quivering coil inside me with every pass of her tongue. Every wicked swirl set something alight.

My hips arched upward in a silent plea, begging, pleading, demanding more as she pushed me to the edge, leaving me teetering, only to watch me fall and build me up again.

Her fangs pressed against my pussy, hard, unyielding, and little pulses of heat rushed through my veins. Even without a single word from her, I knew my heartbeat had quickened, doubling, tripling, waiting for her fangs to slip into my flesh.

But what I wanted, what I needed , was held just out of reach.

“Oh fuck .” The moan slipped free, tangling with the crackles from the fireplace. “ Please, Jinn… Just bite me.”

Her eyes met mine, the dark pupils outlined in a deep, devilish red.

“No,” she whispered against my clit. “I’ve waited far too long to taste you again, little wytch. You will not rush me.”

Torture—this was pure, agonizing torture. There was no other word for it .

A whimper escaped me as she pressed her tongue flat against my clit, slow, insistent, dragging out the sensation until I thought I might snap from the sheer tension of it. My thighs trembled, every nerve alight with a pleasure so intense it bordered on pain.

Then—pressure. A slow, deliberate press of fangs into my flesh, just enough to make my breath hitch. My fingers curling into her hair, holding on as a gasp trembled on my lips. The sharp pain quickly melted into something deeper, something base and intoxicating.

Heat spread through my limbs, my senses flooding with a dizzying mix of sensations— fuck , so much heat. A whirlpool of it. A bloody avalanche. Her mouth closed over the twin wounds, pulling in slow, languid pulses as waves of tingling pleasure curled through my body.

Liquid fire. Sugar-soaked lightning.

I barely noticed my own breathless moans, the desperate turn of my hips. All I knew was that I wanted more of it, more of her.

Pleasure dulled the surprise when her voice rang clear in my head.

You’ll get it, little wytch. Anything you want. More pleasure, more love. An eternity if you wish.

“Yes.” I shivered around her bite.

You taste like sin and magick and…

“And?” My demand to continue was nothing more than a whisper as I pushed my thigh deeper into her hold.

And home.

Like silk and shadow, her voice curled around my thoughts.

Mine.

Between the fireworks and the whine of the bagpipes in the distance, I could admit to myself that I was hers.