With a heavy sigh Tristan collapsed on the bed, stretching out to cover most of it. Ash leaned against the doorframe, gazing down at him lovingly. “How are you? Does anything hurt?”
“I’m just fucking exhausted. It’s tiring, almost dying twice in so many days.”
She chuckled only to keep from choking up and pushed off the frame to go stand over him. “I am sorry I left you to fend for yourself.”
He looked up hearing the sorrow in her voice. “Hey,” He sat up and took her hands, pulling her to stand between his knees. “That was totally not your fault. Besides, I can handle myself. I was just, I was terrified for you. But Mamoru was right, I had to trust that you’d be okay on your own. I’m not a knight or anything other than me and you’re a big girl and…” He sighed, realizing he was rambling and rested his head against her belly. “I was just worried for you.”
She leaned in a little, making him lift his head to look up at her around the mound of breast in his face. “It is nice to have someone worry for me. Tristan I… I am sorry you do not get what you want.”
“What I wan—what? No. It’s, I get it. I do. I know you have your reasons for not biting me and I’m not a big enough of a prick to push it. You’ll either come around or I’ll have to make a hard decision.” Not that he’d ever go to Yuki, or Desmond to bite him. But he’d find someone he trusted. Maybe Mamoru had a few suggestions.
“But I—” Ash blurted, looking desperate. “I do not want you to make that hard decision. I want to be the one who…”
“Ash?” Tristan straightened and moved back a little so that there was space between them. “Are you saying…?”
“Yes. I am. I, before Yukihime showed up in France, I had decided.”
Tristan nearly popped off the bed in excitement but managed to stay sitting. “You were going to bite me… for real?”
“Yes. But I am unsure again. Yukihime, she had been in my head too much and I need to sort some things out first. I promise, I will not take too long. I just, I have to understand a few things first. I must speak with Yukihime and Lilith.”
“What changed your mind—I mean, what made you finally decide in France to bite me, before Yuki showed up?”
She took in a deep lungful of air and let it out, shoulders rising and falling with the effort before taking a seat on the bed next to him, touching from hip to knee. He could smell her this close—even being trapped underground by earth and water for three days hadn’t washed away the scent that was uniquely hers, that soft vanilla orange scent—and he took in a deep breath of her.
“Our deaths. We both almost died in that place. If you hadn’t—There is so much at stake. More than just you and me.”
“Ash?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I really am not ready just yet.”
So she was holding more back. Tristan made a frustrated noise and collapsed back on the bed, shutting his eyes. “I want to say I understand, but I really don’t.”
Ash moved to stand over him, looking down. “I know.”
“I won’t wait forever.”
“I know,” she said again, near whisper.
Tristan opened his eyes. “I still love you, whatever your final decision.”
She smiled warmly and leaning over him so that her face was just over his. “I know,” she whispered again, head tilted and lips slightly parted to accept Tristan’s.
He met her with gentility, not wanting to push it. He promised to not encourage her into biting him anymore, but this here, right now, wasn’t about his need to become more than he was. He just wanted to be with Ash. That didn’t take blood, just a level of careful comingling that he wasn’t so sure was worth it. Was a small moment of pleasure worth spooking Ash into changing her mind again?
Cool fingers touched Tristan’s jaw, holding his face to hers, and he turned into her, drawing the line of her body to his. Her breasts pressed into his chest and the feel of her heart pounding against his caught his breath. As a vampire, she didn’t have to breathe, but her heart did have to pump blood. That beating in her chest wasn’t a lie.
He spread his palm against her breast to feel the life beating within her. If it weren’t those sharp teeth he felt through her lips, or her too cool skin he’d have said she was human. She looked so human, it’s a shame that was a lie.
When Ash ended their kiss, she slipped into his lap to straddle him, pulling him into an upright sitting position. And just to make it clear to him what she had in mind, she ground against him a little.
Tristan blinked at her in surprise. “Really, now?” Not that they wouldn’t be interrupted eventually. It was always borrowed time with them.
“I have,” she whispered, lips nudging his, “no hunger, but for your flesh. And only in the most carnal of ways.”
He gave a soft, shaky laugh. “I’m not one to say no to sex. But if you think you might nick me...”
She sat back enough to look him in the eye. “You are not worried about being turned.”
“No, I’m not. I’m worried about you and I know how much it’ll kill you to do it when you’re not ready.”
She sighed, head tilting as she leaned in again, posture going sultry to distract him. “Perhaps you should just worry about yourself, Uruwashi.”
Something snarky and maybe far too lewd was on the tip of his tongue but it slipped away when he saw the heat in Ash’s eyes. She stiffened for only a moment when he mashed his mouth to hers and she felt his lips against her fangs.
A slip of tongue across his lip sent a jolt of energy to Tristan’s groin and he squeezed her tightly to him, a hand slipping up into her thick brown hair. Ash wiggled on his lap, doing nothing to discourage the heat between them as she felt him stiff through his jeans. She knew it was wrong to get them both worked up like this, especially with the very real possibility of having to stop when things got out of hand. But Tristan needed this just as much as she did, the closeness of flesh on flesh. A bond shared to validate their feelings in the simplest of physical ways.
With tongue, Tristan tested Ash’s willingness and moaned when she let him slip fully into her mouth. The scrape of two sharp eye teeth forced a shiver of excitement down Tristan’s spine. He felt it too back in France, that sense of danger that came with being nearly bitten. It just did it for him. Ash too, apparently, the way she ate at him. But, except for that warning graze as he slipped into her mouth, there hadn’t been even a hint of fang to that deep, slow, sensual kiss.
This was nothing like France.
18: Closer
ASH tasted and explored every hot recess of Tristan’s mouth she could reach. Even in France, she never got a really good taste of him, not like this. She was so focused on his mouth that she barely noticed him tug at the hem of her borrowed tee-shirt, pulling it free of her pants. His hands were molten where they spread across her back, caressing her skin with slow, languid motions and she shivered against him.
She gave him a little exploratory bite on his lip with her flat teeth. Tristan groaned, flipping Ash over to press his heavier weight against her for just a bare moment. Ash whimpered when he pulled away to sit up and tug at his own shirt. She sat up with him, helping him out of his shirt with a hastiness that made Tristan growl eagerly. The thin cotton tee was tossed aside to join Ash’s in a pile on the floor.
They reached for each other at the same moment and Ash gasped as their flesh met, fire to ice. Mashing her mouth with his, Ash yanked him on top of her as she fell back, legs wrapping around his waist, heels nestled against his ass. A wiggle of her hips encouraged him to thrust against her, making her moan into his mouth.
Ash’s nails threatened to tear into his back and Tristan groaned, lips trailing down her neck. He always liked that particular area, the neck, but wondered if it was a stronger erogenous zone than normal for Ash, being a vampire, as her writhing under him grew frantic with want. He smiled to himself as he gave her a little nip behind the ear.
“By the Goddess!” she gasped, only en
couraging Tristan to do it again and again until she was panting for air and making desperate noises, unable to form words anymore.
Hands preceding his mouth, he laid a damp, hot line down her neck and over her collarbone. He covered her breasts, moving with a gentle touch, pulling content sighs and moans of approval from her. Not letting himself linger and forget where he was going, his kissed his way over the plush mounds and to the flat, muscled expanse of belly below. Her skin was smooth and perfect with just the tautness of muscle underneath to prove she was indeed stronger than she looked.
His tongue dipped into her navel and she bucked, hips jutting up. He smiled and continued to distract her with tiny nips and licks while his hands worked the stiff zipper of her pants. Each new breath against her filled his lungs with the scent of sweet oranges and leather. The tight pants weren’t easy to shift and he groaned his disappointment in being unable to remove them.
Ash grabbed for him as he came up again, pulling him to her so that their hips met with a small thrust of encouragement. He groaned, hands exploring her breasts again and she flipped them over so that she was sitting on his waist.
“My god,” he whispered, staring into her eyes. Her hair had fallen into her eyes, giving her a slightly predatory look. And she was a predator, but for once, she wasn’t out for his blood. None of this was about the blood in his veins. This was about a connection they’d both needed.
“You’re just…” There was no word in any language to describe the way he was feeling, the way she looked in his eyes, the beauty of the soul behind those sky blue eyes staring down at him.
“There are some things,” she whispered with heat in her words, “best left unsaid.”
He nodded, licking his lips and seeing her eyes on them, tilted his head to accept her kiss. She was gentle and careful, but he could tell it wasn’t what she really wanted. The need for her to let go and really have at him was there, bubbling just below the surface. Truthfully, he’d rather a little wild and aggressive himself. His last girlfriend was a little rough in bed and he’d grown to like it. But that would risk crossing a line neither of them was ready to cross yet. Tristan was sure he wanted it, being infected, awoken, but it still terrified him. He let his pride and blind ambition keep him from seeing just how dangerous the transformation was, during and after. Neither of them knew what it would do to him. Truth was, he was willing to give it all up, being human—or what passed for it—just for the chance to be with Ash.
Ash shifted down to fumble open his jeans and then plunged a hand inside, grabbing him. He let out a long groan, eyes shutting as the pleasure of being touched again after so long overtook his senses. All he could feel was the hand stroking him. All he could hear was the pounding of his heart, the echo of his breaths in his ears. And Ash, her scent was all over him and it was glorious.
She let go of him long enough to tug his pants down, taking his boxers with them. With a little bit of scrambling, he was free of his last bit of clothing, pulling his socks off too. Ash, making a frustrated noise at her own pants, too tight to simply slip out of, finally gave up trying to do it eloquently and jumped to her feet to stand on the bed.
Tristan smirked, liking the view and went to his knees to help her out of the tight leather. She smiled down at him, a smile full of heat and desire as she finally stood nude over him. His smile matched hers as he leaned in and kissed her just below her navel, his hands gliding along the curve of her hips.
Tristan’s lips across her abdomen made her shut her eyes and sigh, fingers slipping into his hair, the tangled, stringy mess that it was. He edged the patch of dark hair that marked her womanhood, hair that was formally so white it was nearly clear. Ash urged him on with her hips when a hand slipped between her thighs, the other finger-walking up towards her breasts. He only just brushed a finger across her and her knees gave out with a gasp.
On her knees against him, Ash’s lashes fluttered across his cheek as she was overwhelmed with sensation. It’d truly been too long, for them both.
Smiling through his soft pants, Tristan smoothed the hair back from her face. “You’re so beautiful. And you’re all mine.”
“Tristan, I…” She swallowed, trying to catch her breath. She bit her lip lightly. “I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out.”
“You—”
She nodded almost unperceivably. “My hunger is coming on.”
“Do we need to stop?” He hated even asking, but if she lost herself and bit him, she’d hate herself. Maybe him too.
“No!” she blurted, looking panicked. “Just…” She smiled and pushed him back onto the bed to climb over him. “Lay down.”
He nodded. The farther away her mouth was from a body part, the better his chances were of coming out of this unbitten. She smiled down at him before her eyes trailed down his chest, her fingers tracing cool lines into his hot flesh. She let her nail press a little too hard into the pink scar tissue over his stomach as if testing its durability. He groaned when a sharp sting of pain shot out from where her nail pinched, surging electricity right to his core.
Satisfied she knew his limit, she traced the path of the scar tissue again, nails dragging a delicious line of heat outward. He groaned at the sensation, not quite pain, not quite pleasure, unsure what she was doing only that she’d done the same thing in France. Despite Mamoru saying that the vampire loved perfection, Tristan was starting to think that the scar was a turn-on for Ash. Proof of his mortality.
Her fingers stopped moving and Tristan opened his eyes, not having realized he shut them. Ash was looking at him with something close to fear in her eyes. “I—Whatever happens—with our life together,” she quickly added to make sure he knew it wasn’t just about the moment, “whatever happens, just know I love you. Very much.”
He smiled, reaching up to touch her face, opening his hand over her cheek. “I know.”
She sighed, turning her face into his touch and kissing his palm. He sighed in return as she licked the length of his index finger and it slipped into her mouth. Not even a hint of sharp teeth. She shifted her weight on him so that he felt her very clearly against his groin and his breath caught. She released his finger with a little scrape of her teeth and he traced the wet finger down her chin and neck. He grazed her right nipple down until he came to a rest on her hip. His other hand went to her other side as she lifted up over him.
“Oh god,” Tristan groaned over Ash’s gasp as she took all of him in with a painstaking slowness that brought tingles to flesh and a shiver down his spine.
Still for a moment, letting the feeling of being full spread in a delicious warmth across her middle and sizzle upwards, she stared down at Tristan in appreciation. A shudder of pleasure shook her narrow shoulders and he smirked up at her, knowing exactly how she felt.
“You’re amazing,” Tristan said, startling her.
Then she smirked. “I have not even moved yet.”
The urge to shift her hips was nearly choking her. God she wanted to really give it to him, but she’d contain herself and go slow. Sure, vampires were known to be rough, but tender was good too. There was no such thing as wrong sex when it came to being with someone you loved.
He gave a little chuckle that made Ash gasp and he groaned when she tightened around him. “I mean, just being you. You’re amazing Ash.”
“You are not so bad yourself.”
He held back another chuckle and winked. “You charmer, you.”
Her own smile was impish as she raised a shoulder and let it drop. A wiggle of Tristan’s hips parted her lips in a sigh and she took the hint and started to move over him, hips rocking with an excruciatingly slow purpose as he held onto her. The muscles in his arms nearly trembled as he fought not to guide her over him more aggressively. It must have been less than a minute that Ash slow ground against him, but Tristan couldn’t hold back anymore.
He flipped her over, grunting a deep noise and quickened their pace. Her gasps of pleasure in his ear only urged him all
the more. He didn’t even notice that the shift in position put them in a dangerous dilemma. Even when her mouth clamped down on his neck and she sucked in a mouthful of flesh did he really understand what was happening.
He let out a cry with his climax that turned into a rumbling groan. Ash echoed with her own exclamation that she swallowed back. Startled, Tristan slowed to a stop, confused at what he felt in those last moments mixed in with the ecstasy of a release after so many months of abstaining.
“Ash?”
She opened her eyes, their bright blue depths full of heat, and licked her lips slowly. Her mouth was red with blood and Tristan gasped, jerking back to stumble off the bed. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and felt sick when he saw the blood smeared across his shoulder. He didn’t even feel her bite him. He should have known that she couldn’t have sex without biting, it was what vampires did.
Good feeling lost under a wave of fear, he breathed out a wholehearted, “Shit…” as he went to the mirror for a closer look. There was a large purple bruise at the base of his neck, a larger spot of red smeared below it and down his shoulder.
Just like that, he thought, it was done. “You just bit me,” he said aloud with an empty voice, still not believing it happened.
There was movement behind Tristan and he turned to find Ash sitting up, hugging her knees to her chest with her chin on top, looking sated and tired. “That is my blood.”
“You didn’t bite me?” he turned back to the mirror to look again.
Her brows rose in worry. “I nearly had.”
Moon Child Page 26
