by Bella Klaus
“Could you put me down, please?” I murmured. “I need to sit away from the fire.”
Still cradling me to his chest, Valentine backed us toward an armchair and lowered himself into the seat. He raised the arm around my back, and threaded his fingers through my hair, cupping the back of my head.
“Is that better?” he asked.
My heart pounded so loudly that his voice distorted through my ears. “A little,” I replied, “but I really wanted to sit on the sofa.”
He grinned, staring at me through sparkling eyes. “You’re already sitting on me.”
“Yes, but—”
His lips descended on mine in a soft kiss that sent a jolt of electricity through my insides.
“Oh,” I said with a moan.
Before I could repeat my request for him to let go, he kissed me again, this time parting my lips with his. Valentine shifted beneath me, and his hardness pressed into my ass. My lips parted with a gasp, and he slipped his tongue into my mouth.
Valentine’s lips were both soft and firm, coaxing and demanding, his tongue caressing mine in a series of languid strokes that sent spirals of pleasure racing through all my most sensitive spots. The rapid pulse of my desire boomed through my skull, its echoes drowning out a tiny voice that whispered at me to slow down and focus on the assassin outside the door.
Vampire saliva contained enough thrall to subdue even the strongest of supernaturals, and with each kiss, each curl of his tongue, I melted further in his arms and surrendered to desire.
Warmth gathered between my legs, bringing with it a surge of moisture that dampened my folds. Right now, my entire world coalesced into the strong arms securing me to the broad hard body, and the waves of pleasure Valentine incited with his lips and teeth and tongue.
My heart pounded. My blood roared. I wanted more. Needed it.
With a desperate moan into the kiss, I ran my palms over the contour of his hard pecs, over his broad shoulders, and around his thick neck. Valentine groaned in response, deepening the kiss. He devoured me, consumed me, subdued me, and muffled my cries with more of those toe-curling kisses.
“You are most intoxicating,” he drawled.
My only response was a muffled groan as I clung onto his neck.
With one hand, he unbuttoned my coat, and with the other, he held me in place, his kisses now traveling along my jawline and down to my neck.
The pulse between my legs quickened. Would he bite me? Would he let me taste his blood? Excitement rippled through my insides, and with it, a bout of terror. Exchanging saliva with a vampire was dangerous enough, but blood…
“Valentine,” I murmured.
“Shhh,” he whispered, his kisses traveling down to my collarbone. “I know exactly what you need.”
Relief loosened my muscles, and I released the arm around his neck, but Valentine lowered me onto the floor and sat me on the rug.
“Do you know how much I have yearned for you, Inamorata?” he growled.
“No,” I whispered.
All those years, I imagined Valentine had moved on to another girl, another challenge, another bit of sport. It had never occurred to me that he would even cast me a second thought except to perhaps laugh at the stricken expression I made on his palace steps. Now that I knew we had an enemy who had sabotaged our relationship, it had erased half the pain I had endured.
Valentine pulled back my coat and slipped his hands beneath the fabric of my sweater. His fingertips blazed a trail of pleasure over my belly and ribs, and my nipples tightened, eager for his touch, but he pulled the garment off my body and tossed it to the side.
Warm air swirled around my naked top half, and I pulled my arms over my B-cup breasts. Maybe if I was a cup size larger or as curvaceous as Beatrice, I’d flaunt myself, but with months of absence from the sun, I was blue veins and milky white skin.
“Don’t hide yourself from me.” His gaze roved my form. “Even after committing your body to memory, I still couldn’t capture the extent of your beauty.”
Heat rose to my cheeks, and I lowered my arms.
Valentine’s eyes lingered over my body as though he was caressing me with his entire gaze. Licking his lips, he laid me flat on the soft, silk rug. “You are, without doubt, absolutely exquisite.”
As his fingers slid down the sensitive skin on my breasts, I arched my back, aching for more.
His eyes glazed, and he hooked his fingers beneath both my leggings and knickers before pulling them down my thighs. When his gaze fixed on the red curls between my legs, he parted his lips and moaned, “Let me taste you.”
A whimper reverberated in the back of my throat as he divested me of my shoes and tossed my clothes across the living room.
The thud of them landing snapped a part of my mind out of my daze, and I stared up into Valentine’s lust-filled eyes. Eyes that were now a deep crimson with no hint of the indigo I’d seen in them before.
All the moisture left my throat and coalesced between my folds. My heart made rapid palpitations as his lips parted and his hands slid over my knees.
Valentine parted my legs, and I sucked in a shuddering breath. He was going to see how wet he’d made me—the full extent of my arousal.
His eyes dropped to my sex, and his fingers made a slow, torturous descent down my inner thigh. My core twitched and spasmed with need, and that tiny voice in the back of my head told me we were moving too fast. Valentine’s fingers brushed my outer lips, and a breath caught in the back of my throat.
His satisfied rumble sounded almost like a purr. “You are so deliciously wet for me.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, my cheeks heating with a mix of discomfort and desire. This was one time I couldn’t hide my feelings from Valentine.
“Look at me.” His deep voice resonated through my insides.
One of my eyes peeped open.
Valentine raised his brows, looking every inch the commanding vampire king. “I want to see every moment of your pleasure.”
“Really?” I murmured.
“I want to see the ecstasy in your eyes when I do something like this.” His fingers brushed over my outer lips.
Pleasure spread across my sex and pooled low in my belly, arousing the fire that had been threatening to ignite. My back arched, and I bit down on my bottom lip to stifle a moan.
“Inamorata.” His tone was chiding. “I want to hear your moans.”
A nervous giggle burst from my throat. “You don’t ask for much.”
Valentine’s face broke out into a broad grin. “When it comes to you, I want it all.”
His fingers glided through my folds, circling my entrance before traveling up to my clit. My breath came in shallow pants. I’d touched myself a thousand times since we’d been apart, always thinking about a faceless stranger, who certainly wasn’t a vampire. But no self-pleasure could even match the effect his fingers had on me.
As he reached the base of my clit, a whimper reverberated in the back of my throat. Round and round his finger went, with a punishing slowness, barely skimming my sensitive bundle of nerves. I panted through my parted lips, trying to catch my breath. Pleasure swirled through my insides at his touch, but it wasn’t enough.
“I need…” My tongue darted out to lick my dry lips.
“Tell me,” he growled.
A pleasant shudder skittered down my back, settling where I needed him most.
“Touch me,” I whispered.
“Where?” His fingers made a wider circle, giving me the barest hint of the promised pleasure.
I clenched my teeth. Bloody hell… I was three years out of practice with all the dirty talk. “My clit,” I said in a much stronger voice. “I want you to touch me there.”
Valentine’s gaze dropped to my sex. “As you wish, Inamorata.” He lowered himself on top of me, positioning his broad body between my legs. Before I could utter a word to ask what he was doing, he said, “But first, a kiss.”
“I can do that.”
He
swooped down and captured my mouth in a kiss that was harder, deeper, infinitely more demanding than the ones we had shared earlier. Valentine devoured me with his tongue, lavishing my mouth with wicked, long strokes that made me moan.
The fingers circling my clit now glided over it, each revolution building me to new heights of sensation. As I lost myself to the kiss, my core spasmed and clamped as though crying out to be filled. Valentine had just awoken something in me, and it was ravenous.
My head spun with a combination of his saliva and the fingers teasing me to distraction. I clung onto his broad shoulders as though they were the only things keeping my consciousness from spiraling out of control. Pleasure wound tight, like the dial of a clock, and just when I thought something would snap, he removed his hand and drew back.
“What’s wrong?” I said, my voice trembling through rapid breaths.
He slid down my body, kissing one nipple then another, until he reached my belly button. “I want to hear you moan.”
“It’s hard to make noises with your tongue down my throat—”
Valentine’s tongue swiped down the length of my sopping slit, and a shockwave of pleasure lanced through my insides.
“Oh.” My eyes bulged first then darted from side to side. I’d forgotten how good this could be.
The tip of his tongue grazed the top of my clit, and a bolt of sensation shot to my core. With a noisy gasp, I threaded my hands into his hair.
“That’s it.” His breath fanned over my folds as he placed his palms on my inner thighs, laying me completely bare. “Sing for me.”
There wasn’t even time to feel embarrassed because Valentine’s tongue flicked up and down my clit, sending sparks of pleasure deep into my core and down my inner thighs. My lips parted, letting out a long moan.
Valentine quickened his pace, tormenting me with the most delectable strokes of that silver tongue. My thighs trembled, my core pulsed, igniting a wildfire in me that spread across my every nerve ending. My eyes rolled to the back of my head and I moved my hips against his relentless tongue.
Every few moments, it would slide down to my opening, lapping up my arousal as though he found it more precious than blood. The thrall in his saliva coursed through my veins, driving me to heights I hadn’t experienced in years.
I lost track of time, lost track of history, and lost track of the events of the day. Right now, it was just Valentine and me and his clever tongue.
“Exquisite,” he growled, his warm breath fanning over my folds. “I could do this forever.”
“Mmmm!” Apparently, I’d also lost track of the ability to speak.
Valentine laid the flat of his tongue against my clit. This time, the pleasure became even more intense.
Every red blood cell racing through my veins felt like it was on fire. My hips ground against his tongue, chasing the sensations. Valentine’s fingers dug into my thighs, holding me in place as the pressure inside me mounted. I was so close. Close to releasing the pent-up frustration from all those years we spent apart.
Valentine’s appreciative growls reverberated across my sex, adding to the mounting heat. “Come for me.”
My gaze dropped down to the head between my legs, and Valentine’s crimson eyes met mine in a look that said he wanted to consume every morsel of me until there was nothing left. Something within me snapped, and I lost myself in an explosion of ecstasy that shattered my soul.
A cry tore from my throat, ringing through my ears in staccato bursts as Valentine kept licking, lathing, lashing at my clit. My core muscles spasmed, and molten pleasure burned through my body, setting everything alight.
“Valentine,” I managed to say through gasping breaths. Whatever I was going to utter next lost itself as my body convulsed with a second climax.
This one was mercifully shorter than the first, but just as powerful. After it quickened through my body, I melted into the rug. Spent.
It took several moments for my breathing to return to normal, and for the ripples of my core muscles to calm. That had been one of the most intense experiences of my life.
“You were delicious. Delectable, an absolute delight.” He licked his lips. “But I want more.”
I stared up at him through a haze of euphoria, wondering if we were going to have sex.
Then his fangs descended.
Chapter Sixteen
I was a relative stranger to post-coital bliss, but we were becoming acquaintances pretty fast. My mind was far too relaxed to worry about a pair of fangs. Especially when they were attached to someone as ravishing as Valentine.
He knelt between my legs, his large hands sliding down my thighs. The sensitive nub between my folds pulsed once more, and I held my breath, waiting for his next move.
Valentine lowered his head to my neck and pressed several kisses along the sensitive flesh. His tongue slid up and down my vein as though he could taste the blood coursing beneath my skin.
“Now, I want to feel the force of your climax around me,” he drawled.
My lips parted with a moan. It had been three years. Three long years since I’d felt the touch of a man, the weight of his body against mine. I hungered for Valentine as much as he hungered for me. My current state of euphoria and the vampire saliva soaking into my skin was just making matters more desperate.
Whatever resistance I might have clung to now drifted into the ether, and I fumbled with the buttons of his silk shirt. “Take it off.”
In the blink of an eye, Valentine was shirtless and pinning me to the rug. As he continued laving my neck with open-mouthed kisses, he caressed my breast, rolling my nipple between his thick fingers. Sparks of pleasure flew across my skin, settling into the nub aching between my legs.
I ran my hands down the smooth skin of his broad shoulders, over the muscles rippling on his back, enjoying the way he moaned at the taste of my skin. My fingers trailed down his spine, and by the time they reached the curve of his ass, he’d already removed his pants and boxers, leaving me squeezing his firm glutes.
Valentine’s hardness pressed against my belly, the trail of dampness seeping into my skin, making my folds flood with moisture. With one shift of his hips, the tip of his length brushed against my slick folds.
I parted my legs, my breath coming in shallow pants. “You said something about wanting more?”
His deep chuckle resounded through my body, making my hungry core muscles ripple. Still nipping and sucking at my neck, the hand caressing my breast slid beneath my shoulders, holding me in place.
With his other hand, he lined himself against my opening, and my hungry core clenched with need. “You want this, Inamorata?”
“Yes,” I whispered in his ear.
“As you wish.” He pressed into me.
The intensity of the stretch was incredible and made my breath catch in the back of my throat. I’d forgotten how long he’d spent preparing me with his fingers that first time. The most intense pleasure made my insides quiver with need. I was no longer that frightened virgin. I was too blissed out from his kisses and from that climax to interpret these sensations as anything but ecstasy.
“More,” I whispered.
Valentine’s satisfied purr reverberated across the entire length of my body, making my nipples tighten. He pushed in a little further, intensifying the stretch. Just as my muscles trembled around his girth, he pulled out.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and clutched at his silken hair as he moved back and forth, taking me inch by excruciating inch. Rocking against him to deepen the penetration, I reveled in the sensations. This was proving to be even more wonderful than the cunnilingus.
The next thing I knew, his sharp fangs pierced my skin.
Molten ecstasy exploded through my insides, triggering wave after wave of pleasure rippling through my core. Adrenaline flooded my system, making my heart clench.
Valentine moaned, his hips moving back and forth and his thick, pulsing length sliding in and out of me, driving me to another climax.
A second burst of sensation tore through my insides, even stronger than the first. My muscles seized, and fire raced down my every nerve ending, making them hum. I struggled to catch my breath, riding out pleasure and waiting for his fangs to slide out of my veins. Valentine was still hard, and thrusting into my core, pushing me to a third orgasm.
My mind spun out of control. My blood roared, and the frantic beat of my heart kicked up several notches. Valentine’s lips remained clamped to my neck.
“Valentine?” I slid my palms over his biceps and dug my nails into the tense muscles.
“Hmmmm.” He continued moving his hips back and forth, still pushing me toward yet another climax, and cradling me to his body the way a cat might grasp a delicious fish trying to escape.
My eyes snapped open. Something was off. Vampires only needed the barest amounts of blood to survive and got most of their nutrition from food. The Valentine I knew wouldn’t take more than a mouthful, yet my ears filled with the sound of his continuous gulping.
Realization hit me like a hailstorm. Valentine wasn’t just tasting me—he was feeding.
I clutched at his broad shoulders. “What are you doing?”
Valentine’s hips quickened, his strokes becoming deeper, harder, more frenzied.
Panic lanced through my chest, or maybe it was pleasure. The signals firing through my brain were frazzled. As I opened my mouth to yell, that third orgasm tore through me like a firestorm.
“Valentine!” My eyes rolled to the back of my head, and every muscle convulsed with an unending pleasure that kept going, even as I slapped at his arms, even as I screamed.
He roared into my neck, shuddering through his mouthful, while still drinking my blood.
As that climax freed me from its grip, my mind returned to normal, and I exhaled several ragged breaths.
“Enough,” I croaked. “You’re going to kill me.”
Valentine hummed as though he hadn’t heard a word of what I’d just said. Cold sweat broke out across my skin. I’d been a fool and I was going to die. What if everything—from the person following me that morning through Grosvenor Square to the shadow assassin, to Beatrice boiling in my supposed magic—what if all of that had been a charade to make me enter a warded house of my own accord so he could drink from me without consequences?
