Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
I blinked open sleepy eyes, unable to make out much in the darkened chamber. I had no idea how long we’d slept, but it didn’t feel like that much time had passed after we’d left the couch and gone to bed. Together.
To sleep.
I’d thought both of us were exhausted—physically and emotionally—from the coronation, the carriage ride, and what we’d discussed upon our return.
And I figured he was still asleep, his body’s response some sort of physical reaction and not necessarily a purposeful one. Which meant I also needed to go back to sleep and not dwell on the feel of him or think about that carriage ride. Which was easier said than done as I wiggled restlessly in his embrace—
The quick, deep rise of his chest against my back stilled me. Was he awake? I started to turn my head but stopped as his hips shifted behind mine. I bit my lip as his cock slipped over the curve of my ass, eliciting a sudden, sharp slice of pleasure.
My heart kicked up. “Ash?”
“You shouldn’t call me that,” he said, his voice rough in the darkness.
Confusion rose. “I thought you wanted me to.”
“I do.” A pause. “But that may have been an unwise choice.”
“Why?”
“I would think it’s obvious.” His breath stirred the hair on the top of my head. “Hearing you call me that makes me think of the other things occupying my mind for most of the night.”
Heat slipped through my veins as sleepiness vanished. “The one in first place?”
“Especially that.”
“Do you want to hear me call your name when I come again?”
“What do you think?” His body hardened even more behind mine.
The flame of desire was shockingly quick to ignite. “You can have that,” I whispered, and he groaned as I rocked my ass against his cock. “You can take me if you want.”
“I want to, but I’m…”
“What?” I reached up, finding his cheek in the darkness. His skin was cooler…harder, almost like stone. My pulse skittered. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t answer for a long moment. Then he finally did. “I’m hungry. And if I get inside you right now, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. I shouldn’t even be in this bed right now. I was going to get up, but you feel… You’re so warm.”
I flashed cold and then hot. “Will taking my blood harm me? Because I’m so close to the Culling? Even if you took just enough to ease you?”
“It’s not that.” His voice had roughened. Thickened. “It wouldn’t hurt you for me to take a little.”
I forced a swallow. “Then feed.”
He didn’t move.
And in the quiet, I remembered how he’d wanted to feed when we’d been on the floor of my chamber but hadn’t. I began to understand his reluctance. It went beyond what Kolis had made him do in the past. Feeding had become tied up with Veses, even if he hadn’t fed from her. And I knew he didn’t feel worthy of taking from me, no matter what I told him.
Only the gods knew what kind of emotions were associated with feeding, but I knew he needed to feed, and the only way I could help was to offer myself.
Drawing in a shallow breath, I arched my back, stretching my neck and exposing the length of my throat as my rear pressed against him.
His shudder rocked me.
I slid my palm down his cheek to his granite-hard jaw. Then I placed my hand on the bed before me. “I’m your Consort now, and I want to be of aid to you,” I whispered, hopefully choosing the right words. “If you will allow it.”
Ash went silent and still behind me. I didn’t feel his chest move, and a deep sorrow rose. A pain that was not for me but for him—
Then he moved in that fast way of his. I was suddenly on my belly, my cheek on his forearm, and then he struck.
His fangs pierced my flesh with shocking speed. The burst of sharp, burning pain left me momentarily stunned, but it was brief. A heartbeat, maybe two passed as he closed his mouth over the wound and drew my blood into him. The pain became raw, nerve-stretching pleasure.
Ash drank.
He drank deep as his fingers dug into the flesh of my hip, and mine curled into the soft sheet beneath me. His mouth moved hungrily against my throat as the heat spread from his bite, flaming those earlier sparks into a wildfire. I wanted to move beneath him, to lift my hips to him, but I remembered what he’d told me. How she used to push the limits. So, I held myself still. I flamed. Burned. But I didn’t move. I let him have complete control. He needed that more than I needed him to seize it.
And he did.
Ash swallowed as the weight of his body settled over mine, trapping me between the bed and him. A heady thrill joined the flush of desire as he lifted my ass and thrust into me. Hot, wet, and aching, I was more than ready to take him.