“You’re saying you could possibly control me?”
“Yes,” I say matter-of-factly, not wanting to hide the extent of what she offers. “But I wouldn’t. You have to decide if you trust that, though.”
I watch her expression soften almost instantly.
“I trust you, Riven.”
Her whispered words land with more weight than anything I’ve felt in centuries. I blink rapidly, trying to process the immense gift she’s offering me. It isn’t her body that her trust comes from, but her heart.
I shift again, drawing her gently into my lap until she stares down at me. Her thighs straddle mine as my hands settle at her waist, grounding myself in the feel of her there.
“If I’m going to do this,” I murmur, voice threaded with thinning restraint, “I want to do it right, darling.”
She tilts her head slightly, eyes flicking over my face. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” I say, brushing the backs of my fingers along her jaw, “I’m not taking it fromyour wrist, because it hurts there. I won’t have that be the first thing you remember.”
I sit up, putting us nearly chest to chest. I lean forward, mouth ghosting over the place beneath her ear where her pulse races.
“Here,” I whisper, letting my lips trace the hollow just above her collarbone. “This should be all pleasure and no pain.”
She shivers before tilting her head to give me better access. “Do it, Riven.”
I pause one last time to memorize this moment. Her body straddled across mine, her breath even and sure. Her trust resting in my hands.
Then I kiss her, slow and reverently, my lips pressing my gratitude into each inch of her exposed skin. I trace the line of her jaw, the slope of her neck, until her head tips back with a gasp.
I sink my fangs in as I feel her pulse quickening.
The taste is immediate, and it's like the world explodes around me.
My mind swirls as if I’m the one with venom in my veins, yet instead of euphoria, it’s pure power that overwhelms me.
It detonates across my senses like lightning striking, flooding every nerve, vein, and hollow space inside me that I hadn’t realized was empty until she filled it. A groan slips from me as I swallow it down. Her blood isn’t just nourishment, it’s like an awakening,as if I’ve spent my entire existence drinking watered-down echoes of life, and only now have I tasted something real.
I’ve drank so little, not wanting to take more than I needed, yet with barely a mouthful taken, more power surges inside of me than I’d ever feel even after drinking a hundred bags of fae blood.
I grip her tighter, not out of hunger now, but awe.
This isn’t just the blood of another powerful magical being, it’s something else entirely.
I draw back slowly, forcing my fangs to retract and my mouth to close. Her blood sings in my veins, and I know with absolute certainty that I will never be the same after this.
I don’t know what she is, but she is not like anyone else on this earth.
Her body arches against mine with a soft, broken sound, her fingers tightening in my hair as a moan slips from her throat.
“You’re done already?” she asks breathily.
She moves without hesitation, hips pressing down into me, chasing friction I don’t think she realizes she's seeking.
And I…I’m powerless to her desires.
My grip on her waist tightens before I let one hand trail lower, gripping the curve of her ass as her movements grind against my already aching length. Shemakes the first move, surging forward to seal our lips together.
My growl rips through the kiss, low and involuntary as I feel the remnants of her blood in my mouth twining with her and soaking her lips.
She pulls back, eyes dark and dazed but focused, lips parted as she whispers, “Maybe I’m ready for more than kissing.”
