“Don’t say that,” he said, a sliver of the growl making its way back into his voice. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying I love you, and I want to be yours. Just yours.” I kissed his palm and looked up into his eyes, willing him to understand the depth of my devotion. And the sincerity of my regret. “There is no freedom away from you. There is just pain. I don’t know why… I don’t understand why I need you, but I do. I need you so much it hurts, Warin. Please. Don’t send me away. Please. Forgive me.”
He closed his eyes with a soft groan, tangling his hand in my hair and pulling me closer to his strong body as he buried his face against the side of my head. “Liv… you deserve so much more. I am… so tainted. So… wretched. I fear, if you stay… I will swallow your light and pull you into my darkness. When you left… I almost… I was going to force you back, I… I was going to hurt people, anyone I had to, to get you back. This darkness inside of me, the monster… it’s still there. It will never go away. All I want, Liv, all I ache for, is to tie you to my side. I love you so deeply, I love you with everything I am, everything—and what I am, my love… It’s dark and it’s ugly. And if you don’t run, I fear I will take you, and I’ll break the light within you. It’s what I did, before. When I escaped my Sire. I broke everything beautiful in my path. Please, don’t let me break you, too. I beg you, Liv. I can’t… I can’t hurt you. I can’t bear the thought of looking into your eyes and not see your light. Leave me. I beg you. Leave. Now.”
“Warin,” I whispered, pulling my head back so I could lock my gaze in his. “I’m not leaving. Not now, not ever.”
“Liv—“
“No. I know you. You are here, inside me.” I pressed a hand to my chest. “I can feel you—I can see you. You are not a monster. And you will never hurt me. I know your fears, I know why you’re so scared of doing to me what your Sire did to you, but you won’t. You can’t. It’s just me and you now, Warin. He’s not here. He can’t hurt you—he can’t make you hurt me.” I moved my hand from my chest to his, where he’d once told me he still felt the broken bond to the vampire who Changed him. “He was a monster. And for a long time, even after his death, you carried him with you. But he has no more power over you. And you will never, ever be alone again. I am here, Warin. And I’m not leaving you. Never again.”
“My beautiful fool,” he whispered, his hand coming up to press against mine. “It’s too late. You’re out of time. You belong to me now. Forever and always.”
“I want to belong to you,” I said, leaning in to rest my head against his shoulder.
“You’ve said that before.”
“I meant it then too.”
Warin pressed a kiss to my temple. “And yet you ran.”
“I know,” I murmured, leaning closer so he could kiss my jaw. “Will you forgive me?”
“Maybe one day,” he whispered, his voice husky as his lips danced along my jaw up to my ear, making it hard to think. Heat curled in my abdomen, sparking with every kiss he placed against my skin.
I turned my head to capture his mouth with mine, and moaned at the burning need flaming between us as he kissed me deeply.
“I’m so, so sorry, Warin,” I gasped when he pulled back to allow me to breathe.
“If you ever leave again, you’ll be more than sorry,” he said, and this time, the growl in his voice was more than a hint. Dark possessiveness flared in his eyes, making me gasp at the desire rushing through my veins in response.
“I won’t,” I promised, pressing closer to his strong body until my breasts, stomach, and hips were flush against him and I could wrap my arms around the back of his neck. When I went for another kiss, he growled and pushed me backward, never breaking our desperate kiss. My back hit the wall, his cool fingers tugging at my top, ripping the fabric in their haste.
“Warin,” I moaned, and then whimpered when he tore my bra off my, the straps catching before they ripped, and he buried his mouth in my breasts. His tongue flicked against an already stiff nipple while his hands went for my pants, rending the zipper. They were off me in the blink of an eye, his fingers sliding through my curls and into my already dampening slit.
“Missed you so much,” he groaned, his thumb finding my clit as he drove two fingers into my sheath.
I whined in response, my hips arching out for more even as my pussy twitched at the rough penetration. It didn’t take long before his fingers’ movements were accompanied by the slick sounds of my eagerness.
“Take me,” I moaned, clutching at his hair as he sucked my nipples in rhythm with his thumb’s circles on my clit. “Show me I’m yours!”
Warin growled in response, his fingers leaving my pussy. The next second he hoisted my up by the hips, unzipped his pants, and lined the throbbing head of his cock up against my dripping opening.
“Yes,” I pleaded. “Do it. Please. Make it hurt!”
Warin thrust in, forcing me wide with enough force to make me cry out as delicious pain shivered up along my spine. His hips slapped against mine as he seated himself fully inside of me. Giving me no time to accept his thickness, he drew his hips back—and then he fucked me. Hard.
I screamed as my pussy convulsed around his big cock, trying to accept the brutal pounding, but not finding any respite. He fucked me like no human ever could, so hard and so fast it hurt as my G-spot took the brunt of his pent-up anger, his fear. His pain. Feral need burned in his eyes as he took me for everything I was worth, like a wounded beast finding release after centuries of agony. He had never been less human—and I had never loved him more.
I clung to his shoulders, crying out his name over and over and over again as he showed me everything he was and everything he’d been, lost and alone in the darkness.
When I came, it wasn’t blissful and it wasn’t sweet. Every inch of my pussy burned from the speed of his thrusts and the width of his cock, but he pounded my G-spot so hard I couldn’t avoid the agonizing release that rose from my pelvis in a tsunami of endorphins. I cried out as I crested, digging my nails into his shoulders while my body twitched and cramped, my pussy milking his hard cock in fluttering pulses.
Warin’s release followed mine, his soothingly cool essence flooding my battered depths as he shouted in ecstasy—and buried his fangs in my neck.
I whimpered at the sharp sting as he pierced my skin, and then moaned at the pleasurable pulse of my lifeblood sustaining my beloved.
We stayed like that for a long while, embracing as he drank from me, his softening cock still lodged deep inside of me while I whispered professions of my eternal love in his ear. It was such an intimate moment, filled with nothing but our relief from finally being united again.
That is, until Aleric’s voice broke through our blissful bubble.
“I hope you’re planning on offering a taste. I’m famished.”