Desire in His Blood

And I was parting for him.

I was breathing into his kiss, tasting my own blood, feeling my head swirl whenever he licked at my tongue.

He tasted divine. There was a roughness to his kiss that made me crazed. I didn’t know what was happening. All I knew was that I expected my pleasure and I would damn well get it.

When he tore his mouth away, I nearly groaned at the loss. My back left the warm stone of the staircase wall. The alcove we were in made a private little square, only big enough for us. Our only witness was the sea. It stretched wide, glittering and perfect, and I found myself blinking at it with a heavily lidded gaze as Azur turned me forward. As he pushed me over the banister railing of the courtyard terrace.

The stone was pushed under my breasts, and I gripped the railing hard. Azur bent over me, tugging hard at the neckline of my dress, and I heard it rip. He pushed the material down, and my breasts spilled out, the warm breeze drifting over them, making them pebble and stiffen.

His hot, roughened palm cupped one, and a ragged, shocked moan tumbled from my throat. His fingers pinched at one nipple, twisting it hard enough to make me squirm and my clit flutter, and I dug my nails into the stone, biting my lip, tasting my blood.

When he pinched again, I felt my knees tremble. My eyes flew wide, feeling the begi

“Oh gods,” I whimpered.

His chuckle sounded strained and tight.

“I can make you come like this,” he breathed in my ear. “You don’t need my venom at all, do you, little wife?”

His venom?

I whimpered, dragging in lungfuls of air.

Our feedings were getting more and more physical.

Ever since the night in Maazin’s office, when he’d sunk his fangs into my breast and I’d felt the rasp of his chin abrade across my nipple, the feedings had been different. Like we were toying and playing at the edge of what could be. Like Azur kept pushing me and pushing me until he found my limits. Then he’d push some more.

We had an agreement. I would be whatever he wanted me to be during our feeding. I would act however he wanted me to act: fearful or submissive. I would play a role.

Only, Azur hadn’t demanded anything from me. He liked me needy though. He liked when I moaned for his bite.

The frightening thing was that I wasn’t playing a role.

Azur was bent over me, his front plastered to my back, as he tugged at my pebbled nipples. Every pull sent a flurry of sensation hurtling straight to my cunt.

Then Azur was groaning. He moved closer, and I was gasping for breath, tilting my head to the side, awaiting—no, needing—to feel that prick of pain, followed by the hot blur of pleasure.

I didn’t have to wait long.

But just as Azur bit my neck, as that first dizzying pull made me hiss, I felt his hand leave my breast and dive under the skirts of my dress.

I didn’t even tense when I felt his hand find me, so slick and warm that it was dripping down my thighs. I was lost. I spread my legs wider, sharp zaps of wicked desire skittering up my spine.

“Good wife,” he growled against my skin, and I gasped. “So fucking wet for me, kyrana.”

The callouses and the roughness of his fingers abraded sensitive flesh. I jerked and moaned, my gaze half-lidded, staring unseeingly out at the Silver Sea.

The orgasm came swiftly. From the lightest of touches against my clit, Azur made me jerk, and it set me off like a bomb. I broke. Shattered. With his fangs deep in my neck and his hand underneath my dress, I rocked and moaned and hissed and pleaded. I might have even screamed, the sound carrying over the water, and his dark laugh abruptly cut off when he ground his cock into the deep cleft of my ass.

His curse was a muffled whisper across my skin as he drank deep. As he ground that thick shaft, hard like steel, into me.

I was other again.

I didn’t feel like myself.

I was entirely new, created from Azur’s touch and crafted from the sublime pleasure that flooded me, altering every network in my body, every cell.

A second orgasm sparked between my thighs. A deep clenching that made me feel empty, as my walls spasmed and convulsed around nothing. I groaned, rocking against him. The movement made my exposed nipples drag across the rough, textured stone. It felt good. So damn good. That tiny bit of pain that made me want to hold my breath.

Azur froze. His fangs tore from my neck and every muscle in his body went rigid. His hips jerked. I could feel his cock swell. I could feel it twitch and spill in release. But he didn’t make a single sound.

With a sharp huff, Azur’s hand dropped from between my legs. The skirts of my dress settled. I felt warm. Like I was floating in a dreamy pink haze. Or was I just dizzy?

Azur turned me around. I thought he might leave. That he would leave me hanging over the banister with a ripped dress and flushed cheeks. That was what he did whenever he fed. Though the feedings were intense, he always left. Though he usually left me in my rooms where I could stumble right to bed afterward.

His expression was unreadable as he peered down at me. Suddenly, a wave of dizziness made me clutch at his forearm, keeping me steady. The world tilted.

Azur’s brow furrowed.

“Gemma,” he murmured quietly, his voice hoarse. His eyes were bright too. Burning like a roaring fire, embers peeking out at me.

“Hmm?”

His jaw tightened. “Have you been taking the baanye?”

My blink was slow. “The baanye?”

“The supplement,” he said, pressing his fingers to my wrist. His fangs hadn’t retracted yet. “To help your body replenish itself after my feedings.”

“Oh,” I said. Wasn’t he going to leave? “I’m not sure. Maybe Ludayn knows.”

“Raazos,” he cursed. “You should have been taking it this whole time! I told you to take it, didn’t I?”

I pushed at his chest, hearing the spark of his a

“I don’t know what I eat,” I argued. He’d fed from me twice yesterday. And now this feeding. I’d been a little tired this morning but nothing that would prevent me from working on the terrace all afternoon. “Ludayn brings me my meals, and I eat whatever is there. Except for that sludge tea.”

Azur bit out a sigh, his left wing twitching behind him. Just seeing it reminded me of flying. I wanted to do that again. I’d never felt anything more exhilarating.

“Baanye is usually put in that sludge tea, you impossible female,” he rumbled softly.

Even though his eyes were sparking with irritation, I wasn’t afraid of him. With the exception of those first couple days…I wasn’t afraid of Azur.

He wasn’t what I’d thought he’d be.

None of this was how I’d thought it’d be.

“You’ll drink it,” he told me, jabbing the finger, which had been pressing and rolling my clit, toward me. I blinked, my cheeks flushing, my gaze fastening on the very tip, which appeared…wet. Gods. A deep sound rumbled from his throat when he saw where my attention was directed. “Yes?”

“Yes,” I said softly, feeling the sudden wave of dizziness fade. For now.

He’d grown in size again. I noticed he’d begun to wear looser clothes so that when he did feed from me, he wouldn’t ruin them. I’d tried to ask Kalia about it yesterday, but the subject had been awkward and stilted, considering we’d been speaking about her brother. She’d hummed and merely told me that it happened occasionally but not every time a Kylorr fed.

But every time Azur fed from me, he grew. Kalia had said it was the begi