Chapter 98 Pure Heat
❀ Maeve ❀
Heat seared my skin where Nikolai’s palms cupped me.
“Are you dressing, or undressing me?”
A low groan rumbled in his throat.
He’d pulled on a pair of dark brown slacks over my hips, insisting on being of assistance with my dressing, when his hands slipped back into the fabric to cup my ass.
His lids were heavy, and he stared down at me through thick, black lashes.
“Just making sure you’re fit to exert yourself tonight.”
“I am.” I tried to sound firm, but my voice came out breathy.
I pushed against his chest to get away, but he only kneaded me more brazenly.
My core roiled with liquid lava. My breaths were quick, my mind trying to justify going along with his hungry intentions—
“It’s been quite a while since I drank of you, bride. Your scent flames my veins.”
My heart tripped. “Oh.”
Had he decided to drink from me regardless of the curse?
My toes curled with excitement.
My vampire would be fed, and I’d get my fix of his intoxicating bite and traces of venom I adored.
I bit my lip at his primal gaze. “Of course.”
But as I tilted my head to sweep my hair from my neck, he leaned in and lifted me.
My hands flew around his throat in surprise.
He took my mouth, lapping and devouring like it was his last time on earth.
He set me down on his reading table, sweeping the parchment and tools clean from the surface.
My gasp was lost in the chaos.
My chest heaved in pants. I loved when he acted so dangerous, so greedy for me.
The unfortunate pants he’d dressed me in disappeared in a flurry of shreds.
“What are you going to do to me?” I whispered.
Delicious anticipation lashed at me. His grip was tight, his movements intent and predatory.
Glowing eyes locked on my exposed legs, he shuddered. Then he pressed his fist against his lips.
“Will you spread them for me?” was his request.
I pulsed there, already yearning for him, aching for him.
My lips curled as I greedily admired him. “If I say no?”
He shuddered again, eyes snapping to mine in disbelief. “You’d punish me so, milaya?”
“What would you give for it?” I purred in his face.
He’d chosen to go without my blood over a mere curse. He deserved to never taste it again.
His nostrils flared, his throat bobbing with want. “If for one brief glance of my tongue against you I ceased to exist, I’d set in without a second thought.”
I took his chin in my hand, pulling him in for a kiss. I could never stay vexed with him for long.
“Nothing so drastic,” I told him, pushing my chest out to rub against his. “You may partake.”
No sooner had the words left my tongue than his was plastered to my sex.
My breath of surprise was cut off by a moan.
Nikolai set in like a savage. Ravenous and fierce. He kept his eyes locked on mine as he licked a firm line up my bud.
I gripped his hair with a scream.
T-this was what he’d meant?
More wet licks and a merciless suck wiped my train of thought.
“My darkness, oh gods…”
He raised my legs so my back curved. My pussy was like an offering to a long-starved god, one with a blazing Crimson gaze and an insatiable thirst.
Staring into my eyes, he ran his wet tongue in an achingly slow circle around my flesh. He stopped to suck between his lips with a decadently loud slurp.
My legs jerked in his hold.
“Nothing short of heaven, my queen,” he rasped against me. “I live to serve you,” a suck, “to pleasure you,” a lick, “till the inconceivable end of our immortal lives.” He growled it like a warning.
His way of letting me know I was pledged to this as much as he was.
I couldn’t summon any complaints when my eyes rolled in my head, nonsensical murmurings blurring from my lips.
He tugged on my legs with soft movements to rock me into his tongue, and stars exploded in my head.
“Yes… oh yes, my love… more—give me more!”
Even as my body jerked with the throes of a reckoning so powerful I couldn’t take a breath.
I blinked lazily, chest heaving, as my vampire mate rose from his knees, framed by my shivering legs.
He cut an arresting picture, my dew glistening across his entire lower face.
He grinned at me, devoid of amusement and heavy with promise.
When his hand fell to the waistband of his pants, my eyes were drawn to the firm, long bulge at his front.
Heat slid down my spine in a soul-steaming path.
My claws glinted as I reached forward to grasp his hips.
“Crack my spine if you must,” I said in a throaty voice, “but I need you to fuck me out of my damned mind.”