AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Grieve for Pakhne,” he said, “for her family and friends. Not me.”
“I am your Grace. I must do something about your pain.”
“Then let me protect you.”
“You did,” she said. “The Collector didn’t hurt me last night, because of you.”
Lio rolled them onto their sides, the flowers giving under them, and placed a rough kiss on her throat. He needed to drink the life in her veins, taste that her magic was still there. She stroked his head again, tilting her head back.
“I need this,” she gasped. “My Craving is the only thing hurting me.”
Her skin tasted of Craving sweat and the musk of her hunger. He sucked at her soft flesh before framing her vein with his teeth and giving her his fangs. Her sigh rasped in his ear.
The taste of her blood burst on his tongue. The verdant flavor of her magic tingled in his mouth more than ever before. Desire tightened his groin, but he pushed his own needs back down.
He focused on her body. The way she clutched at his shoulder and arched closer to him. The new spice in her blood.
“Lio,” she moaned. “If you don’t want the Feast…you need to stop…”
He tightened his bite. A little jerk went through her hips, and he caught her buttocks in his hand, pulling her closer against him.
“You know I’ll lose control,” she warned.
He could not accept pleasure tonight, but if she found release from his bite, he would never deny her.
He slowed the rhythm of his swallows, drinking with the deep pulls he knew she enjoyed. She moaned again and melted in his hold. Her aura coaxed his magic into her in gentle rushes, like a caress in the most vulnerable reaches of his power.
“Let me comfort you.” She wound her leg around him in a tangle of robes, an invitation to roll over. To lie back.
To stop grieving. He couldn’t do that yet.
“I understand,” she whispered, and gave him what he needed. She held him close and let him take care of her.
He sank deep into the arcane flow inside her. He traced the new, tender marks of her magic, reassuring himself that she was perfect and powerful and whole.
Her breath came faster. “Oh Goddess. The way you’re touching me…I can’t stop…”
He cradled her soft, slender frame as she stretched and twisted in his arms. The flavor in her blood rose to pure wildness. It called to him and made his own blood run hot.
He pulled his fangs out of her before he lost his head. But the sight of her was temptation enough. He watched her jaw drop and her eyes slide shut. Her release shuddered through her. He leaned on his fists, braced against the pull of her aura sucking his magic out of his body and into hers.
When she grew still, she heaved a breath and rubbed a hand over her eyes. He caught the gleam of tears on her fingers. Her grief for him washed over him.
He could sense her protest, her desire to touch him, but she respected his wishes. She simply held him until his body cooled.
“Tell me all the messy things,” she invited, as she so often did in their intimate moments in the dark.
But tonight, so much of the mess inside him was anger at her sister. If only Solia had listened to him.
And if she had? Would it have changed anything?
Was blaming her the easy way out of this crushing sense of responsibility for the destruction of another person’s life?
“I want to make something very clear,” Cassia said. “We have often said our Oath of openness and honesty does not come with conditions. That is still true. My sister is not a condition on our Oath. I always want you to speak your mind with me, even about Solia.”
“I know, my rose.” She would listen to all his fury toward the sister she cherished, but he would not ask that of her. “I’m not ready to talk about what happened.”
It was true. But perhaps it was also another easy way out.
