Page 143 of Blood Ties

Her breath caught. Her fingers tightened in my hair and held me there. The bond carried no fear, only heat and the clear awareness of what I was about to do.

My fangs entered her thigh.

Blood filled my mouth, rich with her desire and the power Harrowmere kept trying to claim from us. Strength moved into my body with the first swallow. The burn along my side eased. The red cuffs under my skin faded without disappearing.

Bryony’s back lifted from the mattress.

Her pleasure reached me through the bond with the taste of her blood. It didn’t blur into hunger as it had the first time. I could feel every place they touched and keep control of both.

I took another slow swallow, then pressed my palm between her hips. She was wet enough to coat my fingers before I reached her clit.

A shudder moved through her. Her thigh tightened against my mouth, keeping me close.

I rubbed her slowly while I drank. Her blood restored what the dagger had taken, but the sounds she made had nothing to do with healing me. They belonged to her, and I wanted every one.

My fingers slid lower. I pushed one inside her and felt her cunt tighten around it. The pressure travelled through the bond and made my cock throb against my trousers.

I added a second finger and curled them towards the place that made her thighs shake. My thumb stayed on her clit, moving in steady circles while I took a third measured swallow.

Bryony pulled at my hair. Not to move me away. She pressed my mouth harder to her thigh and rolled her hips against my hand.

I gave her more pressure. My fingers worked deeper, and her body opened around them before clenching again.

The bond carried the rising tension through both of us. Her pleasure sat against my hunger until every beat of her pulse felt like a command I was choosing to follow.

I drank once more. Colour remained in her skin, and her heartbeat stayed strong. Four swallows. Enough to slow the bleeding and no more than I could take without weakening her.

I lifted my mouth and closed the bite with my tongue. The marks faded while I kept my fingers moving.

“Stellan.”

I looked up. Her eyes fixed on mine, and control broke across her face.

Bryony came with my name on her mouth. Her hips lifted while her cunt clenched around my fingers. I kept the pressure steady through every hard pulse, then slowed as the tremors eased.

Her grip loosened in my hair. I kissed the faint marks on her thigh and drew my fingers out of her.

She stayed open under me, breathing hard. I could have pulled the sheet over her and called the choice complete. The bond told me she hadn’t reached the end of what she wanted.

I moved lower on the bed and put my mouth between her legs.

The first stroke of my tongue made her whole body tighten. I held her hips against the mattress and tasted the release still coating her. Her fingers returned to my hair, less controlled now.

I licked her slowly until the tension left her thighs, then circled her clit with the tip of my tongue. She moved against my mouth, asking with her body because neither of us needed instructions.

Her taste and the last warmth of her blood filled my senses. The wound pulled when I shifted, but the pain had dulled enough to stay separate from everything I was doing to her.

I drew her clit between my lips and sucked.

Bryony swore and arched from the bed. I tightened my grip on her hips, keeping her where I wanted her, and repeated the pressure.

Her body was more sensitive after the first climax. Every pass of my tongue made her shake. I watched her lose the careful control she’d held through my confession, the attack and the plan we’d made beside the Crown.

This wasn’t forgiveness. It wasn’t a promise that the truth had repaired everything between us. She’d chosen to trust me with her body while keeping the rest of her judgement intact.

I treated that choice as carefully as her pulse.

I slid two fingers back inside her and sucked her clit again. Her cunt closed hard around my hand. The sound she made broke into my name as the second climax took her.