For now, getting drunk and well-laid would go a long way to healing the warriors.
“You’re sure thinking hard. I’ve heard you sigh at least a dozen times.”
He turned to find Batya backlit by the light from her bedroom, which had the happy effect of showing the outline of her womanly figure through the thin fabric of the nightgown she wore. Ferrenden Peace’s weather, now that they’d left the snow behind, was relatively mild and the castle comfortable.
The queen had provided them with clothing. He wore a simple, but very soft, dark blue velvet robe.
He set the towel on the stone window sill, then crossed to Batya. She’d dried her long hair and it smelled sweet like berries as he pulled her into his arms.
She pushed underneath his robe until her arms flowed around his back.
You’re hungry.
Yes, I need sustenance, but right now I need you more.
She hugged him, then lowered her hands to caress and fondle his ass. His cock loved it and stiffened for her.
She kissed his neck, her lips plucking at his skin, up and up, over his jaw-line to finally land on his mouth.
He crashed down on her, kissing her hard, holding her tightly to him. She slid one hand over his waist then his hip. He gave her just enough room to reach him, her fingers sliding around his stalk, a new kind of caress.
He drew back and looked into her large, hazel eyes. She was so beautiful, especially in the soft glow his vampire vision yielded right now. Emotion swelled in his chest, something unfamiliar, yet powerful. He felt strangely like he needed to say something important to her, maybe even to thank her for being so strong over the past few days.
Instead, he kissed her again and let all that feeling sweep through him. Her body responded, trembling.
After a moment, he picked her up and carried her to the bed. Holding her in one arm, he pulled the covers back then laid her out on the sheets. Her thick, blond hair fanned out on the pillows, just as he’d always imagined it would.
His gaze drifted to her large breasts and the three simple bows that held the gauzy gown together. He stretched out beside her and through the fabric fondled her breasts, teasing each tip into a swollen firm bud.
He dipped down and took her right breast in his mouth, sucking at her through the fabric. She moaned as she stroked his head, his cheek, and played with his lips while he worked her nipple.
“It takes so little,” she whispered. “It’s never been like this, Quin, not with any man. You take me to the edge in lightning speed.”
Unwilling to stop savoring her breast, he pathed, I love nursing on you. He lifted his gaze while he suckled, to meet her wide hazel eyes, now dark with passion.
The scent of her sex, rich with her tropical-flower fragrance, hardened him even more. He arched his hips into her, pressing his cock against her thigh.
She pushed away his robe, her fingers kneading his shoulders and arms, then finding his pecs and rubbing over his nipples. Her moans grew louder.
He released her nipple as well, and helped her out of the gown then resumed savoring her breasts, fondling the size of her, the wonderful weight of each, enjoying her moans and coos and the way she worked the muscles of his arms.
He flexed his biceps for her over and over which kept her hips rising and falling.
Drifting a hand over her abdomen, he loved her soft gasps and the way her body jerked at his touch, as though his fingertips burned her.
Lower he crept. Only this time he massaged above her mound and across her pelvis. She breathed in deep gulps. Taking more of her breast in his mouth, he sucked harder.
Her coos turned to cries as he smoothed a hand over her mound. Spread for me.
Batya responded, easing her legs apart. His lips trembled over her breast as his fingers slid downward and found how wet she was. He groaned heavily as he played with her soft folds, just to feel her and to enjoy her.
She moaned again, her hips rising and falling, pushing into his hand. He slid two fingers inside and his cock jerked, wanting to be exactly where his fingers were. He slid in and out, suckling her nipple with the same rhythm that he used between her legs.
Her back arched, her body rolled.
“I’m in agony.” Her voice sounded hoarse.
He moaned as he moved his fingers faster and faster. He felt her body tense, one hand digging into his neck, and the other into his shoulder.
A series of cries left her throat, then she shouted. He sustained the drive of his fingers as her body writhed and she cried out over and over. He felt her coming with strong spasms. He experienced her pleasure as well, like a second skin.
When her body eased back on the bed, and her breathing settled down, he withdrew his fingers, wiping them on the robe he’d taken off her.
“That was wonderful.”
He rose up onto his elbow to look at her, at her flushed cheeks and swollen lips. He kissed her. “We’ve just started.”
She nodded, then a soft smile spread over her lips. “I know. It’s one of the things I like best about you.”
He smiled as well and again his chest filled with an unrecognizable emotion, something that threatened to bust through his ribcage.
“What is it?” She rested a hand between his pecs. “You look like you want to say something.”
He shook his head. “No. I’m just, I don’t know, grateful to be alive, maybe. Hell, I should have died several times out there.”
She huffed a sigh. “I know. I feel the same way.”
He wondered if he should tell her that he suspected she was a blood rose. But somehow the moment didn’t seem right, mostly because he knew she wouldn’t be happy about that on any level, so he let it slide.
* * * * * * * * *
Batya let her gaze feast on Quinlan, on his dark, almost black eyes, his powerful cheekbones that looked chiseled from granite, his thick, straight, black brows that made him appear so serious and determined all the time, and the super sexy crooked line of his nose. Somehow, that imperfection made him perfect, almost too beautiful to look at.
Yet, she couldn’t look away. She traced the line of his cheek with the tip of her finger, then followed each of his features, memorizing them perhaps because soon their strange adventure would come to an end.
She drifted her fingertip down his neck, then lower to smooth a hand over his thick pecs. He had an elegant body, a vampire warrior’s body, strong and fit, lethal in its ability to slay the enemy. She knew there resided within his soul a sense of unworthiness, which she now understood. He’d grown up in a brutal home that had ended with the deaths of both parents on the same night. And he’d never truly forgiven himself for what happened, that he’d been unable to save his mother and that his violent outburst against his father had led to his death.
But it seemed a great irony that though he felt this way, undeserving of love, he was perhaps the most deserving man she knew.
She wanted him to know, but doubted words would make a difference so she coaxed him onto his back and, stretched out on top of him, and began to kiss him. She took her time, using slow, lingering kisses one after the other, all over his face and his neck, licking over his veins which caused him to writhe and moan.
She scooted a little lower so that she could track the line of his collar bone with her tongue, then descended to worship his beautiful, thick pecs one at time. She used her hands, her tongue, her lips, kissing at times, then nipping at him, to finally take a nipple in her mouth and suckle him.
His cock was a hard ridge against her abdomen and his hips flexed to grind against her. He held her in place with his fleshy hands caressing her bottom. Everything about the moment felt so right and so good.
She worked her way down his abs, using her hands and tongue again, to ride the swells and dips of his stomach, then descended to lick her way down the line of hair that ran into his trimmed pubes.
She took him into her mouth, sucking lightly because she didn’t want him to come, not yet. She wante
d to build him up to the moment so that he roared while pounding into her.
But she also felt that turnabout was fair play, so she opened up her mating vibration and while she held him in her mouth, she let the vibration float down his cock. Two could definitely play at that game.
She didn’t think she’d ever forget the heavy, guttural groan that left his mouth and brought his upper torso rising off the bed.
Releasing him immediately, she sat up and stared at him. “Did I hurt you?” But she smiled.
He shook his head. “I’ve just… It was… Oh, Sweet Goddess, do it again.”
“Are you telling me that no woman has ever done this before?”
He shook his head, his dark eyes wide. “Not even a little. I mean I’ve felt a few vibrations before, but honey you’ve got something no one else can do.”
Batya felt absurdly self-satisfied. “Then lie back down and let me try it once more.”
He panted and moaned as she drew him again into her mouth. She took her time and let the moment build, finally releasing the same vibration so that it flowed down his cock.
He didn’t lift off the bed, but his back arched and he groaned like a bear in pain. It was an awesome sound.
She didn’t dare keep it up, however, or he’d come too soon.
So she released him gently, and using her palm, she made a path back up his abdomen and met his gaze. She kissed his nose. “I love this curve.”
“It’s always bugged me.”
“It’s monumentally sexy.”
He laughed, then teased her left nipple with the crook of his finger. “I love being here like this with you. I knew we’d be good together, but it feels like more than that.”
“I think we bonded over the trauma of the last two days.”
He smiled again, then leaned up and kissed her, rolling her onto her back. She thought he’d attack her breasts again, because she was stacked and she knew he liked the way she looked.
Instead, he knelt beside her and let his gaze rove her body, head to foot, every inch, maybe memorizing her the way she’d done earlier.
She didn’t say anything but waited and somehow she wasn’t surprised when, using his left hand, he began caressing her face, sliding his fingers down her neck and in careful, gentle swipes, back-and-forth, he mapped her. He’d done something similar with the map of Grochaire, remembering where he’d been, and savoring what he’d come to love.
He moved over each shoulder, his gaze following the line of his hands as he touched her, and petted her in soft swipes. He continued over her breasts, her stomach, her waist, her hips and mound, then down her legs all the way to her ankles and feet. He left no part of her untouched.
When he’d done the front, he turned her over and began from the soles of her feet, and worked upward.
His touch was firm, warm and gentle, more like who he was deep in his heart than who he believed himself to be.
She spread her arms straight out so that he could reach every part of her. By the time he was done, she felt known as she’d never been known before.
She rolled onto her back once more and looked up at him. He seemed awestruck as he stared into her eyes. “What is it?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. You confuse the hell out of me.”
She nodded. “I know what you mean. I really do. But there’s one thing I know for sure.” She slowly swept her hair away from the right side of her neck.
“What’s that?” But his gaze settled on her throat.
“Take what belongs to you, Quin. Take it now.”
* * * * * * * * *
Quinlan was fully erect and now his heart pounded. He hadn’t realized how much he needed to feed until she’d exposed her throat. His vision focused on her neck, narrowing and sharpening, until he saw her beating pulse.
“My heart feels weighted with what you need.”
Again, he wondered if he should speak to her about being a blood rose, but chose against it.
He moved between her parted legs, and using his hand, he positioned himself at her opening. He wanted to come like this, filling her up while he took her life’s blood into his mouth.
Her moisture flowed over the tip of his cock as he pressed into her. She gripped his shoulders with both hands. “Oh, Quinlan. That feels wonderful.” Her hands rubbed up and down his arms and over his back. She took pleasure in his body and that pleased the hell out of him.
He held her gaze, willing her to look at him while he pushed inside and joined his body to hers in the age-old union that made man and woman one being.
She wrapped her long legs around his ass and he arched his hips, letting her feel all that he was and savoring how tightly she held him inside her body.
Her lips parted as she worked to draw breath. He leaned over her thrusting, then kissed her. She rolled her head so that he could see her neck. He licked in a long line from the base of her throat almost to her ear.
He felt her pulse, the heavy beating of her heart and he smelled her blood now, another sign that she was more than she understood herself to be. He looked down at her breasts, rising and falling as her body moved and writhed under him.
His fangs descended, growing longer as saliva flowed, anticipating the feast.
He paused in his movements and gathered up his hair, twisting it, then shoving it behind his back. He didn’t want anything to interfere with this moment.
“Do it, Quinlan.” Her body tightened around his cock as he drew near her throat.
He bit down once, let his fangs retract, then settled in for the best suck of his life.
He couldn’t explain why this moment was different from before, but it was, maybe because of all they’d been through. He worked his hips at the same time, moving in and out of her slowly, letting her feel him while he drank down her elixir that tasted of heady tropical flowers.
Power flowed into him at the same time, so different from his regular doneuses, that which he’d been needing from the time he attained mastyr status. As the blood reached his stomach and began to feed him and nourish his body, his muscles strengthened. A kind of euphoria worked in him at the same time, telling him that he needed to do this again and again, the rest of his long-lived life.
But he wouldn’t think about that. Instead, he savored the taste of her. Something he’d wanted from the beginning.
She cried out, enjoying the experience as much as he.
Batya, I… He almost told her loved her.
I know, it’s too much isn’t it? This much pleasure? Sweet Goddess, Quinlan, your cock is unbelievable and chills keep racing up and down my body.
I’m going to add to that.
She gasped. She must have guessed.
As he continued to suck, and to roll his hips, he let his mating frequency release, just a small vibration at first.
Batya groaned. “Oh, Quinlan. Heaven. Just heaven. And you smell of wood-smoke.” Her voice was hushed with passion.
He reached a point when he’d had his fill, and now he could take Batya the distance. Only this time he wanted to rock her world with the vibrations.
He released her neck and watched her head thrash back and forth over the pillow.
He drew the vibration very carefully into his groin. The sensation almost made him come, but he wanted to do this for her, to have the vibration take over her inner well.
He focused hard and began to release the vibration.
When she first felt it, she arched her back, which tipped her pelvis and created a tight hold on him that almost brought him over the edge again.
He took a series of strong breaths and held on.
“Quinlan, how the hell are you doing that? Oh, My God.”
He moved slowly, focusing on her face. He leaned down and kissed her, small touches of his lips to her chin, to the faint dimples in her cheeks, to her eyebrows. Focusing on her features helped.
Her hands once more gripped his shoulders, then fondled his muscles as she squeezed his arms. Every touch wa
s a beautiful fire on his skin, igniting his desire for her.
He increased the vibration, which parted her lips as a cry emerged from her throat.
He thrust faster now and added more vibration. He watched the ecstasy building on her face. Her fingernails sank into his shoulders and he loved it, loved that she was caught up in the experience, savoring his body, his cock, his vibration which only he could give her.
He became one with the vibration as pleasure built. Heat flowed through him, the power from her blood anchoring his muscles in tremendous strength. Cha, look at me.
She struggled to focus on him, her breathing in harsh gasps. I see you.
Do you want it faster?
She offered three small jerks of her chin, almost trembling. “Yes. Please. Faster. Vampire fast. And Quin, your vibration.” He saw tears leak from her eyes.
Then he understood. His vibration had spread through his body and through hers. He now mingled with her mating frequency which lit a fire in his chest.
He thrust faster and faster, holding her gaze, watching the tears fall, knowing that this would explode between them.
“I’m coming.”
Her words, her voice, the rapt expression on her face, tightened his balls and he began to release, to fire his essence into her in hard, tremendously pleasurable bursts.
He flung his head back and roared as ecstasy gripped him, flooding his body with fire, as her well tugged on him in rapid succession, as her body thrashed beneath his, as her cries left her throat until she screamed with pleasure.
He slowed, then felt another round rising within him. Again, Cha.
“Oh, God, Quin.” She opened her mouth and screamed once more, the vibrations flowing back and forth, streaking through every part of him and enhancing the pleasure as his cock delivered the goods. Another roar left him, the vampire part of him that loved battling and dominance.
He sustained the drive, savoring every ounce of pleasure until his woman, his blood rose, lay beneath him, breathing hard and finally coming down from the heights.
His vibration eased up and his cock relaxed, but his body still experienced waves of ecstasy as though his blood kept releasing pleasure on pleasure.