Chapter 78 THE TASTE OF BETRAYAL
Ginnie
I couldn’t stop trembling, and shaking from the cold, razor-sharp certainty that I have no choice. Each second, my mind snaps back to Lily, out there with people who will hurt her if I refuse Kenna’s demand.
The Alpha’s seal.
I pause outside Varkos’s bedroom door for a moment—though he calls it our bedroom now, the word always feels like a lie on my tongue.
I reach for the handle, my hand hovering there as the heavy thud of my heartbeat vibrates through my body, and I push the door open.
Shooting my eyes to the shadow of Varkos standing at the window, backing me, his perfectly built physique flaunting in my face like a temptation.
I step inside, but he doesn’t turn; he only senses me, like he always does.
“Varkos.”
His name rolls out of my tongue, almost broken, but softer than I mean it to.
He turns slowly, and instantly those dark piercing eyes meet mine with a faint glow, his wolf not fully retreated. For a second, he doesn’t burst out shouting as I’d expected, or tell me to get out of his room.
Instead, before I can realize anything, he crosses the room in three strides and pulls me against his chest. I let his arms grip around me like iron, one hand fists in my hair, while the other presses between my shoulder blades, holding me so tight I can barely breathe.
“I thought you were gone,” he murmurs into my hair, his voice raw and rough. “I thought you’d take Lily and run.”
“I almost did.” The lie tastes bitter, “But I couldn’t leave…not without you.”
He exhales slowly, shuddering, like his words physically hurt him. I pull back gently, just enough to look up at him, allowing the tears all welled up to spill easily from my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper under my breath. “For walking out… for those things I said, I was terrified. For Lily and me. I thought… if I left, maybe the war would stop. Maybe you’d be safe.”
“Nothing is taking you from me,” he moves his thumbs, brushing the tears from my cheeks in a gentle, reverent manner. “Nothing is taking Lily... I swear it on my blood, on my throne, on every breath left in my body. I will burn this entire city to ash before I let anyone touch either of you.”
His promise slices through me, sending a chill washing over me. I’d always believed him to be a man of his word.
I rise on my toes, pressing a soft, apologetic, trembling kiss to his lips. Then I deepen the kiss, fisting my fingers into his hair, and tugging just enough to make him growl low in his throat.
“I need you,” I breathe against his lips. “I need to feel you. Just for tonight…to remember I’m still yours.”
His eyes turn dark, his pupils blowing wide.
“Ginnie…”
“Please.” I slide my hands down his chest, over the hard planes of muscle, tracing the fresh wounds like they felt sacred. “Let me show you how sorry I am, how much I need you right now, Varkos.”
He hesitates for a heartbeat.
Then his mouth crashes down on mine in a brutal kiss, his teeth and tongue working with desperation as his hand slides down to grip my waist possessively. Before sliding up to cup my breasts through the thin fabric of my silk nightgown. He groans into my mouth when he finds me bare underneath.
I push him backward toward the bed, and he hits the mattress, but then slightly sits up. I follow, straddling his lap, grinding down against the thick ridge already straining behind his trousers.
“Fuck!” he growls, his head falling back. “You’re trying to kill me.”
“No.” I lean in, my lips brushing his ear. “I’m trying to make you feel good.”
Before he can say anything more, I slide off his lap and drop to my knees between his spread thighs. I shoot him a slow, deliberate look through my lashes as my fingers work the fastenings of his trousers.
The zipper smoothly slides down, and I tug the fabric aside. His cock instantly springs free—heavy, thick, already leaking at the tip.
I wrap my hand around the base, stroking once, then twice, in slow but dangerous motions. He hisses through his teeth, jerking his hips.
“Ginnie…”
But this time I don’t answer with words, I lean forward and lick a long, wet stripe from the root to the tip of his thick length. I swirl my tongue around the head, tasting salt and heat and him, then I take him into my mouth, slow at first, savoring the way he stretches my lips, the way he fills me. I hollow my cheeks and suck hard.
“Fuck….yes….just like that…” His hand grips my hair, holding it as if it were going to anchor him from the immense pleasure.
I bob my head into a deeper, faster rhythm taking him to the back of my throat until my eyes water. I moan around him, letting the vibration sink into his shaft until his thighs begin to shake, his breath turning into ragged gasps.
“Goddamn, baby…yeah! Take me so deep…like you’re so fucking greedy for it.”
I pull off with a wet pop, stroking him with my hand while I speak against the slick head.
“I want to taste you,” I whisper. “I want every drop.” I dive back down, sucking, licking, letting his cock slide deep into my mouth until his hips start thrusting shallowly, chasing the heat of my mouth.
Saliva drips down my chin, feeling my jaw ache, but I don’t care. I want him lost, blind with pleasure so he won’t notice anything except the way I’m swallowing him down.
“I…I’m cumming” he warns, his voice vibrating with every ounce of pleasure. “I’m going to fucking cum all over you—“
I speed up before he can finish his words, taking him deeper. I let my throat relax until my nose brushes his abdomen. He lets out a low, broken roar, his hips snapping forward, and I feel the first hot pulse against my tongue.
He shudders, spilling down my throat. It is exactly at this moment that I slide my fingers into his pocket to steal the key to his study, feeling the coldness of its small size as I close my fist around it.
While he’s still cumming…wave after wave….groaning my name like a prayer, I swallow every drop, then I pull out slowly, licking my lips the moment our eyes meet.
“Fuck, Ginnie,” he murmurs. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
A slight smile curves at the corner of my lips, trembling.
“Not yet.”
I rise slowly, crawling back into his lap and begin to press soft kisses along his jaw.
“Because I’m just getting started.”