He trailed his finger down her seam, teeth sinking into his upper lip when she arched in response. “Depends.” He shrugged.
“Onwhat?” She whimpered when he pulled his hand away.
“No offerings.” He said simply. Nymiria blinked up at him, her whole body flaring with heat as he pushed the tip of his finger inside of her. “I heard you talking to your father. I heard whatyou said about having the Alvaros family bind themselves to you.” He pressed his finger in another painful fraction of an inch. Her toes curled. “I don’t want you to do that—not iftheyare the first.”
Nymiria swallowed, trying her best to remain unbothered, to play the game he seemed intent on playing. “Who would you like to be my first, then—Oran?Trio?”
“No, Moonflower,” He removed his finger, only to plunge two more into her all at once. Nymiria cried out, her whole body rocking forward. Aziel caught her against his chest, the fingers from his free hand gently brushing over her gaping lips. “Me.” He whispered.
She drew in a deep breath, eyes locked on his as he started to pump his fingers in and out of her. “C-can you do that?” She stammered. “Can gods make offerings to each other?”
Aziel smirked down at her, his shoulder lifting just an inch. He kept working his fingers, moving back just enough so that Nymiria could look down and see what he was doing. “I suppose we will have to find out.” He said simply.
He brought his hand to her neck, pulling her forward so that his mouth could cover hers, drinking in and swallowing each beautiful sound that came from her throat. He wanted nothing more than to unleash himself upon her, to give her every inch of his body. He had to congratulate himself on his restraint. Had he been a weaker man, just the feeling of her hot, wet walls contracting around his fingers would have driven him to the brink of insanity.
She peeled away from him, gasping for air, her hooded eyes focused on his—swollen lips parted, her brow crumpling with each rough thrust of his fingers. His hand never left her neck, keeping her rooted in place as he drove into her again and again and again. When Aziel’s incisor dug into his lip and nicked the flesh, that beautiful silver gleamed in her eyes. The moonflowerson her body danced to life, flowers and petals spilling from the tips of her fingers, cascading over the edge of the altar and onto the ground.
“Do it.” Aziel urged, his thumb resting over her clit. “Taste it.”
Nymiria watched as the bead spilled over the soft swell of his lip, rolling slowly to the sharp curve of his chin. Her body trembled, the pleasure inside of her nearly reaching its peak. She wasn’t sure what this entailed, but there was a call in her blood that seemed to propel her forward, wanting nothing more than to taste him, for her senses to be consumed by him. There was not a shred of doubt in her mind when she dragged him to her. Her tongue ran over the crimson line before she closed her mouth over his lip, tasting him,savoringhim.
Aziel gasped, pulling away from her and dropping to his knees. She barely had time to comprehend, eyes going wide the moment she felt his tongue drag up her center. His hands spread her wider, his tongue rolling over the sensitive bundle of flesh. White bloomed behind her closed eyelids, her head rolling back and hands gripping at his hair.
Her body was not her own. Though her mind and her soul were perfectly in tune with what was happening, her body seemed to move at its own accord—her hips rolling forward, meeting every delicious swipe of his tongue, her hands moving over her breasts, gripping and tugging at them to add to the fiery satisfaction that pulsed through her body.
“Fuck,”Aziel groaned. His lips were still wet with arousal, his fingers pushing into her once again as he looked up at her. “I’m yours, Nymiria.” Nymiria’s body went rigid, her breaths turning choppy and her thighs shaking. He rubbed over her clit, watching her intently as she started to come undone. “I’myours.”
The sounds of her whimpering crescendoed into a raspy cry, her hands gripping at him and pulling him up until she couldreach his lips. She kissed him—pouring every ounce of her soul into his mouth with every roll of her tongue—as her climax took hold of her body.
When her body was all but spent, Aziel was still staring down at her, those eyes of his seemingly peering directly into her soul. At that moment, had it not been for her fear or the memories that always seemed to steal away her happiness, Nymiria would have let him.
He noticed the moment the panic settled in, his jaw going rigid and his smile falling the moment he saw that look on her face. He lowered her skirt, tugging the fabric down her thighs until she was completely covered and stepped away.
“We can’t keep doing this.” She whispered.
Aziel gave her a half-hearted smile, like his heart would break any second. “It can be meaningless, Nymiria—”
“Can anything between us ever be meaningless, Aziel?” Nymiria asked. “You once told me that you could survive off crumbs, but I don’t think that I can do that. It’s not fair to you—”
“Who says it’s not fair? I told you this was what I wanted from you on that ship. I gave myself to you for the taking and I will do it again and again, every day of my life.”
“It makes meher, Aziel. It makes me her and the cycle will continue. For me, for you,” she drew in a ragged breath, hand flying to her heart as if having it there would keep the pieces intact. It did nothing. Her heart was shattered. Irreparably. It was her only defense, the only thing she could think to say that could change his mind, but he looked unwavered. Unbothered. Like nothing had ever happened to him—like her mother hadn’t ruined both of their lives. Like her mother wasn’tstillruining their lives, even in death. “You deserve so much more than that.”
He took another step back, swallowing. “You don’t get to decide that.” He said. “You don’t get to decide what Idoand don’t deserve. And the fact that you would eveninsinuatethatwhat just happened isanythingclose to what that monster used to do—Nymiria. Please.Youcan’t keep doing this.”
Nymiria rose to her feet, her dress falling the rest of the way down her thighs and to her ankles. “This is why it won’t work. I don’t think I can ever get over it—I don’t think that there will ever be a day that I am not reminded of it.”
“That is precisely why I never wanted you to know! Because ofthis, because you can’t see me as anything other than her victim.”
“That’s not true! That is nottrue! It is not all that I see when I look at you, Aziel. It’s what I see when I look atmyself. Any time I do something selfish, any time I say somethingmean, any time I have a hateful thought—sheis who I see in my mind.”
She lurched forward, fully prepared to run from him, but Aziel was already blocking her path. He didn’t touch her. He didn’t even hold up his hands. He didn’t beg. He just looked at her, his blue eyes just as piercing and cold as ice.
“Do you regret what we’ve done?”
“Aziel—”
“No.” He said sharply. “I need to know if you regret anything we’ve done—anything I have done to you.”
