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But his elixir doesn’t quite go as far as reaching my bones, my muscles, the parts inside me that hurt all the time – the parts that softened when I drank from him.

As if he can tell what I’m thinking, he offers me his wrist. “Would you like some?” he asks, tilting his head.

I really do want some. I want it so badly, but not because I want to numb my pain; because I want the sensation of sucking warm liquid from his cool skin. I open my mouth. Lucien holds his wrist to my lips.

I lick the open wound, then suck some blood into my mouth. I sigh as I swallow, but only allow myself to taste the smallest amount.

Lucien’s eyes are wide, and he’s staring down at me as if I’m a goddess. He dribbles more blood between my breasts and licks a line from my throat all the way to my stomach.

Before him, I covered my stomach, hated anyone touching it. Now, I love the sensation of his tongue on my soft skin.

When he reaches my thighs, he pauses and rests his cheek on my scars. “I wonder—” He sits up but before he can rub his blood into them and test whether it is powerful enough to undo old wounds, I grab his hand and stop him.

“No.” I shake my head. “They’re mine. I want to keep them.”

He frowns as if he doesn’t quite understand me, but stops because I’ve asked him to. He glances toward the bathroom. “Can I take you to the shower?” he asks.

I smile, already thinking about the warm water. “Yes, please.”

Scooping me into his arms, Lucien carries me – as if I weigh nothing – to the shower. He sets me down and wraps a robe around me from the back of the door, then runs the water. “Tell me if it’s too hot,” he says. “I don’t feel heat the way you do.”

I step forward and tease the water with my fingers. “It’s perfect.”

Without saying any more, he slips the robe from my shoulders, and steps inside, holding out his hand for me.

When we’re beneath the fierce stream of blissfully hot water, he kneels in front of me. And from my toes all the way to my shoulders, he washes my skin clean. When he reaches my neck, he kisses me.

His cock is hard and pressing against my stomach. I ache to touch him, physically ache, but before I can, he lifts me up and growls at me to put my arms around his neck.

With my legs over his arms, and my hands clasped around his neck, he grins at me. Now, he’s only holding me with one arm. His free hand is beneath me, moving the tip of his cock to tease my pussy.

As he enters me, he pushes me back against the wall and holds me there while he fucks me. The sensation of being held like that – completely safe and steady in his arms – with the hot water streaming down my skin, and his lips on my neck, and his cock thrusting up into my pussy, makes me dig my nails into his back.

Holy hell.

Holy hell.

“Lucien,” I breathe, “I need your tongue on my clit.”

I’ve barely registered what’s happening when we are suddenly back in the bedroom. I’m on the floor by the fireplace, lying on a soft fur rug, and my legs are open. Lucien crawls up between them. Hungrily, he teases me by resting two fingers at my entrance. He slides them inside me, but not all the way, then brings his mouth to my clit.

As I start to writhe beneath him, and pleasure cascades down into my core, he licks the length of my pussy then settles on my clit. Short, warm breaths, a flick of his tongue, gentle sucking... the sensations are making me lose the ability to think.

I grab the rug and tip my head back.

I want to come but I don’t want him to stop.

Now his fingers plunge deeper, and hook forward, and... oh fuck.

He releases a satisfied murmur, and then he says, “Oh, good girl, that’s it.”

A strange sensation has started to build inside me. “Lucien, I think I need to⁠—”

I feel like I need to pee, but it feels good, and I still don’t want him to stop.

“Let go, kitten, let go for me...” His fingers are moving so fast. My body feels light, and free, and the pain has gone, but the pressure in my core is building and it doesn’t feel the way an orgasm usually feels.

I hear myself release an animalistic groan. Then everything constricts. Pleasure erupts, but not the way it normally does. It is deeper and cruder. And then... release.