Page 85 of Blood Ties

Stellan kissed my bandaged palm. “I can live with that. I’ll answer whatever you ask, even when the truth costs me. Where this leaves us will be your decision.”

I held his gaze. “I’m still angry. I still want you.”

His thumb pressed once against the middle of my palm.

“I’m choosing what happens next with all the facts I have now,” I continued. “Don’t mistake that for forgiveness, and don’t use it to hurry me towards the Crown. Tonight, I want the vampire who came through the wall.”

Stellan released my bandaged hand. “If I touch you now, I’m taking control. I want you naked on that throne, under my mouth and around my cock. You can stay furious while I make you come.”

The rough promise made my cunt clench. I caught the remains of his shirt and pulled him down until his mouth was close to mine.

“Then take it.”

He kissed me hard.

The restraint he’d shown while feeding vanished. One hand closed around the back of my neck, and the other gripped my hip. He took my mouth until I was pressed against him and breathing through my nose because he wouldn’t give me enough room for anything else.

I opened for his tongue and slid my hands over his bare chest. The blood on his skin had cooled. Under it, his body was firm and warm from what he’d taken from me.

Stellan broke the kiss and looked down at me, his fangs still out. He caught both my wrists in one hand and held them against my chest while his gaze moved over me. “Mine to enjoy tonight.”

My body answered before I could. My thighs pressed together, and his grip tightened on my hip.

His mouth returned to mine.

I reached for the hem of my jumper. He turned me, pushed my hair over one shoulder and pulled the soft knit over my head himself. His knuckles brushed my back as he unfastened my bra. He kissed the unbitten side of my neck and drew one fang over my skin without breaking it.

“Fuck, Stellan.”

“I know.” His hand slid around my waist and closed over my breast. “You’ve been angry with me for hours, and you’re already wet.”

“Those things aren’t related.”

“They don’t need to be.”

He worked my leggings down over my hips. I stepped out of them and kicked them away. My bra followed, then my knickers. The throne room stayed dark and silent around us. No light moved under my feet. Harrowmere had no place in what we were doing.

Stellan lifted me onto the throne. The cold seat made me gasp. He spread my knees and stepped between them, naked from the waist up, his trousers stained with blood and stretched over an erection that made my mouth dry.

He guided my hands to the carved arms and let his palms travel back down my body. Anticipation tightened low in my stomach.

My fingers closed around the carved ends as he knelt.

I got wetter at the sight. Stellan Varen, the Blood King who refused to kneel for the Crown, went down willingly between my open legs. The waist chain lay over his hip and ran back to the dais. His silver hair brushed my thigh as he lowered his head.

His first lick was slow and broad. I gripped the throne harder. He opened me with his thumbs and did it again, keeping his eyes on my face while his tongue passed over my clit.

“Fuck.”

His eyes darkened.

He closed his mouth around me and sucked. My hips lifted off the seat. Stellan held them down and used his tongue until the pleasure stopped building slowly and turned sharp.

I pulled one hand from the throne and caught his hair.

He caught my wrist and returned it to the carved arm without lifting his mouth far from me.

Heat rushed through me. I tightened my grip on the throne and opened my legs wider.