“No,” I said, tears pricking in my eyes. The horn twisted so the ridged edge worked against me. My eyes rolled back. “I’m going to come,” I told Bastien. The horn moved to my entrance, threatening to slip inside me.
“No,” Bastien gritted out. He grabbed the horn and pulled it away. The two of us breathing heavily. My limbs shaking. I felt like I was about to combust into flames.
“Too far?” I asked. Panting. Sweating. Barely able to focus. “Is it too much?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s just that we haven’t paid the blood price yet. I want this to work.”
Horn in hand, he sank his teeth into my thigh. I had to bite down on my lip to keep from screaming in ecstasy.
After taking a long pull, he spat blood onto the horn. I’d never been more glad for the dark. Then he lifted his own wrist to his mouth and bit down once again, coming away with wet lips as he licked the tip of the horn.
I shook with unexpressed magick. Fire burning in my chest. My hands. My lips. Everywhere.
“Now you can come.”
He pressed the horn back against my heat, holding it against me while his fingers curled inside me. The vibrations and his fingers brought tears to my eyes, and I screamed out into the night, unable to hold back any longer.
“Gorrath,” Bastien said, the name a plea between heavy breaths. “Damn you. Give it to her!”
Invisible hands squeezed around my breasts, and whatevermagick that had been contained within meescaped. I shook. I whimpered. I screamed. I saw fire and stars behind my eyes. Saw a boy with blond hair and bright blue eyes rising from the ashes. My son. My blood.
And as free as I felt, I knew it was fleeting. Like the candles I’d lit. There was more that Gorrath wanted. I could almost hear him whispering it to me from behind.
“He’llnever,” I whispered in response to the request.
“What?” Bastien asked, reading my face.
I sucked in a shuddering breath, my whole body aching with the absence of what had just been unleashed. The magick that had poured out of me began to retreat like steam drawn back into a kettle.
“He needs an heir.” The words burst out of my mouth. “To reestablish the bloodline. It’s his final demand.”
“An heir?” His gaze dropped to my belly, widening. Then more firmly, he repeated himself. “An heir.”
Tears leaked down my cheeks. “I won’t beg. I know how you feel.”
Bastien took my face between his bloody hands. “This is what you want?”
I studied his face. His beautiful face. And nodded. “Yes.”
Bastien didn’t offer excuses about my well-being like I thought he would. He simply handed me the horn, and I knew it was over.
When he reached inside his trousers, I froze. “What are you doing?”
The horn glowed red, illuminating his hard length, which was already dripping for me, and he slid me onto his lap. “Giving you what you want.” Everything inside me melted. The heat reignited. Then, more tenderly, he said, “Claire, letme put a baby in you.”
“Bastien?”
He wrapped my arms around his neck. And as I sank down onto him, he stared adoringly up at me. Something hot and intense jolted through me when he was all the way in. Bastien’s mouth was a ruin of red, but I didn’t care. I lowered mine to his, tasting the flavor.
He gripped my backside as I rode him deeper. Deeper. The friction and pressure of the position had taken over for the horn. It wasn’t the demon who would make me come,but him.
“Tell me you’re close,” Bastien said.
“I’m close,” I moaned.
“What do you need? Because I’m right there.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Tell me you want this baby. Tell me it isn’t just about the magick.”
