Suddenly, Xavier gripped my face, gazing into my eyes before his mouth hungrily devoured mine. His lips were about to taste my soul and all I wanted him in that moment was to take it. He sat me on the bench of the bathtub, spread my legs and started sucking at my clit again.
“I guess you are the one who is insatiable,” I remarked, grinning.
“Yes, I told you I will claim every part of you,” he answered, suffocating my sensitive flesh with kisses, swirling his tongue around my clit until I came again. My hand was still tangling in his hair as I came down from my climax. Xavier lifted me up and roamed his hands over my back until they ended on my butt. Soreness made itself noticeable, making me hiss as soon as I was placed back on the bed.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” I said. A little pain unfolded between my legs, leading me to unknowingly hiss again.
“Stop lying. You are obviously sore. Lay on the bed and widen your legs, I’ll get some cream,” he said and wrapped a towel around his perfect body.
My entire body had been loved for hours, and was now tired. But it wasn’t the kind of tiredness that made me feel sick, rather I felt completely at peace with myself. With wobbly and tensed legs, I lay down on the bed.
Seconds later, Xavier came back from the bathroom and positioned himself in front of me.
“I can take care of it myself,” I murmured and reached for the container, but his hands stopped me.
“Nonsense…I did the damage to this sweet pussy, and I am going to fix it,” he responded and spread my legs wide. The cream had a very soothing scent, he dipped two fingers intothe container and then he sawed them in my pussy in and out, letting me relax. The soreness and numbness slowly went away.
“Better, baby?”
I nodded and then he gripped my left leg and placed a kiss on the inside of my calf, doing the same with the other leg.
“Stay like this; I’ll get you some food to give you some energy,” he said, then he let the towel fall to the floor, his beautiful ass on display for a moment before pulling on a black robe.
He gave me a quick kiss on the forehead before he left. “Don’t get too comfortable, I’m not done with you yet.” Xavier shot me a smirk.
Although my legs were as wobbly as jelly, the comment made my core warm all over again. There was no way I could compete with his desires… not that he had desires of a normal man. Xavier was a vampire through and through, with a piercing gaze that conveyed both allure and danger and embodied an inviting intrigue. It was like he never intended to let me out of his arms.
Chapter 17
I didn’t even have an idea of what happened at theMidsummer Masquerade Ball. All I knew was that she was mine. I was so lost when I danced with her—her gorgeous face, her scent, her touch, all still itched in my head like ademonI couldn’t get rid of. No wonder Xavier called her that. She was as beautiful as she was bewitching. She didn’t even realize she could have this effect on someone. Her in that dress made me think whatever I had suffered for my powers; it was all worth it in the end if it meant being bonded to her. As soon as she came into the hall, I sensed her. I knew she was mine already, but seeing her again made me realize how much I really yearned for her.
I had planned to speak with her today, to explain myself, to apologize for vanishing so suddenly after our dance. I’d seen it in her eyes when I returned later… the hurt. Wounds I’d inflicted by leaving without a word. And the fact that some siren had offered her faerie wine only deepened the sting she already felt. I could kill Sparrow for not paying enough attention to his kind.
The door to her room was slightly ajar, and despite my self-control, I let my gaze slip through the crack.
She was naked. The sunlight cast a glow across her perfect skin.Her body was so painfully beautiful and marked with bruises and love bites, some of them deeper, all unmistakably Xavier’s.Real bites. My chest tightened with dark and primal possession, obsession, and hunger.
I was aware that sharing a mate wouldn’t be easy. At least not for someone like me, who was cursed with twisted powers, only turning devotion into something consuming and maddening.
At the ball, the way Gwendolyn searched forhim, not me. Even if it wasn’t her fault—she didn’t even know who I was. Not really. When we first met, I wasn’t even in my true form. And yet… a part of me still ached with the hunger of being unseen by the one who was fated to bemine.
She sat across from the dresser, brushing her long, silky copper hair and using a black silk ribbon to tie her hair up in a bow. Then she stood up, her fingers sifting through the closet, searching for something to cover her nakedness. Not that I was in any rush for her to find it. If I were being honest, I never thought clothes were a particularly great invention to begin with.
I leaned silently against the doorframe, my gaze drinking in every inch of her exposed skin. I knew I should look away, but I didn’t.I couldn’t.Not when she looked like that… the embodiment ofeverythingI had ever wanted and everything I knew I could ruin.
And then her eyes met mine. Through the reflection in the mirror, shesawme.
She didn’t scream as I had expected. Her body froze.
Slowly, she turned to face me, her doe eyes filled with something I couldn’t quite name. My gaze traced the outline of her naked body, and I watched the flush rise on her cheeks. But this wasn’t the feeling of embarrassment. A heavy kind of shame clung to her like a second skin. The kind that wasn’t just about being seen. It was the kind that whispered lies about worth, about beauty. Disgust, not with me, but with herself.
And that shattered something inside me. This wasn’t something I intended to cause in her.
She didn’t cover herself. She didn’t move. So I did. I crossed the room in a few quiet steps, reached into the closet, and gently draped a light dress over her shoulders, my silent way of telling her she didn’t have to stay like this. That I didn’t want her to feel vulnerable. Not like this.
“I’m so sorry,” I finally managed, my voice a low whisper. “I’ll leave.”
