“Cristian,” she whispered. Her voice was unsteady but sure. “I want you to feed from me. Please.”
I looked up at her. Her eyes held mine with a confidence that shook something loose inside me.
Her trust hit me with the force of a memory I did not want to examine. Years of refusal. Years of control. Years of hunger denied. None of that lived here. She was offering herself because she wanted me. Not because she was bound. Not because she was afraid. Because she chose this moment. She chose me.
I lowered my mouth to her again. My lips pressed to the soft skin of her inner thigh. Her pulse beat steady against my tongue. Instinct moved through me. My fangs slipped through her skin with slow, deliberate care.
She gasped, her fingers sliding into my hair, holding me there. Not forcing. Allowing. Asking for more. The sound she made tore through every line of discipline I had held for centuries. I pressed two fingers into her while I drank, and she clenched tightly around them.
Her taste hit me. Sweet and warm. Alive and real. I had never experienced something like this. Not in battle. Not in hunger. Not in the years of captivity. This was different. This was connection. This was trust I did not deserve but could not refuse.
“Cristian,” she whispered breathlessly. “Don’t stop. Please.”
I drank only until the bond pushed against my restraint, my fingers never stopping their ministrations. Her body arched under my mouth, her hand tightening in my hair as if she felt every thought I struggled to contain. I forced myself to pull back before instinct took over. A line I could not cross. Not with her.
She looked down at me, her cheeks flushed, eyes heavy-lidded. The softness in her gaze ripped through me.
I brushed my lips over the mark I had left on her thigh. A mark that was hers to claim or hide. A secret that belonged only to the two of us.
“You wreck me,” I whispered against her skin. “And you do not even try.”
I rose and entered her slowly, carefully, in one smooth thrust, feeling her walls grip around me like velvet. She clung to me like she was drowning, and I held her like she was the only thing keeping me afloat.
She gasped, eyes wide, as her back bowed off the bed in response. “Fuck, Cristian, you’re so big.”
“And you are the embodiment of perfection.”
Our breathing grew ragged as I started to move inside of her. She arched into each thrust, meeting my gaze with a mix of total surrender and longing that made my heart both ache and soar. With every drive deeper inside of her, I grew more lost in her, pulling her soft legs up around my waist to draw her closer still. I couldn’t get enough of the taste of her skin, the sounds she made. “You have no idea how irresistible you are to me.”
Her nails raked down my back, leaving trails of heat in their wake. She pleaded with me through gritted teeth as she urged me on, digging her heels into my back. “Don’t stop. Whatever you are doing, do not stop.”
She clenched around me, and it took every ounce of restraint inside me not to follow her. “Oh, Cristian. Oh my god, Cristian.” Her nails dug into my skin as she threw her head back.
I stared at her in awe. “That’s it, Nadia, let go for me.”
When she came back down, she rolled her body on top of mine and slid her trembling body down on top of me. That one movement almost did me in, but when she sat up and began to fondle her own breasts as she rode me, I thought I might leave my body. Centuries of immortality and this mortal woman would be what did me in. I reached around her, palming her glorious ass with both hands as she moved on top of me like she belonged there.
The muscles in my stomach clenched and released with every sensation that ran through me. She leaned down and captured my lip, teeth scraping against it. A shiver coursed down my spine as she moved her hips against me. Her other hand trailed up my chest to the side of my face, her eyes never leaving mine. I looked at her, raw and exposed in a way I had never been before.
“Show me what I do to you,” she whispered softly, her voice husky from her pleasure.
My entire body shuddered as I started to release, my grip on her tightening almost painfully.
“You make me lose control,” I growled against her lips as she rode me harder and harder, her walls clenching around me with every thrust. My hips bucked up into her, a silent plea for release. She met each one with a moan until we were both shaking, both of us losing ourselves in each other.
Finally, she collapsed on top of me, panting heavily as her body trembled with aftershocks of pleasure. She laid her head on my chest and sighed contently, her heartbeat slowing down. “That was… incredible.”
I ran my fingers through her hair and chuckled softly. “You shouldn’t tempt an immortal like me.” I pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before pulling her in closer, the heat from her body soothing mine as I held her tight.
I said the things I could not keep inside. I praised the right parts of her. I told her she was perfect, and I meant every syllable like a prayer.
I whispered, “I will not survive this,” and the confession was not an exaggeration. It was a promise and a warning.
She curled around me and dozed, and it made the rest of the centuries fall away. I did not sleep. I held her until the room lost the moon, and the house remembered how to breathe without us. If love was a curse, then let it be hers. I would take that curse and wear it like armor.
Chapter 19
Nadia
