She meets my eyes and smiles, her fingernails still scraping my horns, making slow, deliberate strokes from tip to root and back again.
“I think youlikedimagining me watching you,” I whisper, sliding my thumb over her bare flesh. “Liked pretending I could see you touching yourself. Didn’t you?”
“I… yes.” Another soft gasp escapes, and I drag my nose up the slope of her neck, inhaling her scent. She smells like the Blackmoor apple orchard in full bloom. Like something sweet and clean and delicious and justbeggingto be bitten.
“Iwaswatching you, little scarecrow,” I breathe. “You were right. Every night, standing out there in the shadows while you fucked yourself for me, teasing me senseless. I could hear your moans, hear the wet sounds of your greedy little cunt, and you made me sofuckinghard for you all I wanted to do was smash through the window, take you into my arms, and fuck you through the goddamn wall.”
“Jude,” she whispers, her hips undulating beneath me, fingers tightening into fists around my horns, and fuck if I don’t love the shape her lips make when she’s got my name in her mouth.
“Say it again,” I whisper. “Say my fucking name again.”
Her eyelids flutter closed, hot breath misting my skin. “Jude…”
“That’s my good girl.” I drag my mouth across hers so softly it makes her shiver, but I don’t dare steal a kiss. Not yet. “But there’s a dilemma, see? I’ve got you pinned beneath me, just like I’ve been fantasizing about since the first night we met. But I don’t think I’m going to fuck you tonight, darling. Not after you teased me so relentlessly all month long.”
Her eyes fly open, lust mingling with disappointment. “Why not?”
“My, my. So impatient. So demanding.”
She opens her mouth for another protest, and I silence her with the tip of a claw. Her eyes widen, but it’s curiosity rather than fear that has her gazing up at me now.
“The night you came to Blackmoor,” I say softly, “when I threw you over my shoulder and carried you inside, I could smell you. Even through your fear and the rain and the mud, the scent of your desire was unmistakable. It was all I could do not to throw you down in front of Drae and the others, bury my face between your thighs, andlickyou until you were writhing and begging me to stop.”
I slide my tongue out from between my lips, letting it extend to its full, impressive length.
“Holy shit.” A sharp gasp, and her eyes go wide once more. “It’s so…”
“Mmm.” I retract it and grin. Then, in a low, menacing growl, “The better toeatyou with, darling. Now be a good girl again and open your legs for me.”
She obeys without protest, and I shift down and settle myself between her thighs, shredding her panties with my claws and pushing my nose through her slick heat.Fucking hell, she’s so wet for me, so eager. The scent of her desire makes me dizzy, like when I was a boy spinning round and round in my father’s fields until I crashed.
I don’t want to crash tonight, though. I just want to fuckingdevour.
“Jude,” she breathes, her hands curling around my horns again, hips rocking.
“Greedy girl,” I tease, gripping her thighs and unfurling my tongue. I swirl it over her clit, then slide lower and dip inside, curling the tip to hit the perfect spot, and…fuck me. She tastes like heaven, like the very best summers of old on the seashore, warm and pure and perfect. A deep groan rumbles through my chest, and I thrust in harder, making her gasp. She tightens her hold on my horns and I pull back, sliding out just enough to tease her clit before plunging inside again, stroking her until her thighs tremble and her back arches off the bed.
Fuck, the way she responds to my touch, my kiss… It’s like she’s absolutelystarvedfor it, and all I want to do is keep on feeding her exactly what she wants. What she needs.
I slide my palms beneath her arse and bring her closer, burying my tongue to the hilt, tapping that soft spot inside her again and again, stroking her harder, faster, licking and tasting and fuckingowningher until she finally shatters for me, her thighs convulsing around my face as the wave of undiluted pleasure sweeps us both out to sea, the perfect summertime place that exists only in my oldest, fondest memories.
And then, all at once, she liquifies. Her hands release my horns and she relaxes back onto the bed with a soft sigh.
I draw back slowly, pulling her T-shirt down into place and stretching out on my hip beside her.
The overwhelming evidence of her pleasure is smeared across my mouth, the taste lingering on my tongue in a way I’ll be fantasizing about for a long fucking time, and when she finally meets my eyes again, she smiles, and my name is the sweetest whisper on her lips.
Something surges inside, my need to protect her so fierce it damn near burns me up. I grab her face and claim her mouth in a possessive kiss, stealing the breath from her lungs.
When I finally pull back, her lips are swollen and glazed, her eyes smoldering, and I wrap a massive hand around her delicate throat and utter the only word she needs to fucking hear right now.
“Mine.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
AUGUSTINE
I’ve just popped a tray of apple muffins into the oven when I feel it—a dark, otherworldly chill sweeping through the manor like a cold wind, raising the hairs on my arms and neck. Suddenly, my skin’s crawling with the feeling of being watched, my otherwise strong stomach churning with unexplained nausea.
