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Chapter 31

CHAPTER31

“I’m quite capable of dressing myself for battle,” I say as Ashen kneels before me next to the bed in our greenhouse bedroom of the cliffside manor. My hands lay on his shoulders as I balance on one foot, the other resting on his bent leg. His fingers trace a slow path across my skin as he pulls the first leg of a pair of leathers up my calf, his tattoos glowing with gentle light as the war draws ever closer.

“I know, but it’s more fun when I do it.”

“Actually, it’s more fun when you take them off.”

Ashen smiles, his eyes not straying from the steady work of his hands. “I intend to do that too,” he says, placing a kiss against my knee. “After we win.”

“If we do.”

Another kiss embellishes my flesh with a whisper of Sumerian, this time to the inside of my thigh. Kianga gasan, he says, those words warmed by the core of his soul. There’s another kiss, then another, each a little higher, the leather following the heat of his lips. “We will win,” he says.

There’s a long pause of silence as Ashen works his way further up my leg, his procession full of fire and reverence. He takes his time, slowing as though the world outside this room does not exist. But it does. This time, it’s not the past that haunts my every thought. It’s the future.

“What if we don’t win?” I whisper, but Ashen continues his worship of my skin, undeterred. “What if we fail? What if the Realm of Light falls?”

“It won’t, vampire,” he says between kisses. “You are too stubborn to lose.”

“What if you and I fall when we’re there? Do we still resurrect here?”

Ashen stills this time. His eyes meet mine as his palm heats my thigh. He leans back a little as he watches me. “I don’t know.”

Fucksakes. Why couldn’t the damned demon just lie? That is one potentially large wrench in my backup plan of ‘sex in the resurrection chamber, part deux’. The grimace creeping through my face must be worse than it feels, because Ashen releases his hold on my leg and grips the back of my neck with his calloused hand, his gaze latching to mine.

“We will not find out the answer to that particular question,” he says.

“But—”

“Sexual fantasies aside,” Ashen purrs as he rises enough to push my body back, my leathers forgotten on my leg, “we are not going to give the enemy the chance. And if you like the Resurrection Chamber so much, vampire, you just have to say so. I will gladly bend you over the altar and fuck you until your screams echo on the cavern walls.”

A shiver slithers up my spine. Goosebumps pepper my arms. “Filthy demon,” I hiss as Ashen presses my back into the mattress, his smile tracing the pulse in my neck. A bruise blossoms beneath my skin as he sucks on my flesh. “We’re supposed to be getting ready for war.”

“We are,” Ashen says between kisses that flow down my chest. He sucks on my nipple through the black lace of my bra, letting go to cast me a wicked smile. “I’m eliminating distractions. I would not want you to be mired in sexual fantasies while battling Nephilim.”

I snort a laugh that turns to a gasp when his fingers trace the edges of my panties, circling my clit through the damp fabric. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You’re the Master of War. How do I ensure you’re not…distracted? You already know I have a thing for the Resurrection Chamber. Maybe you should tell me one of your fantasies so we can ensure it doesn’t steal your focus on the battlefield.”

A rumbling growl resonates in Ashen’s chest. Within a breath our positions are flipped, and I’m straddling the Reaper with his erection trapped beneath my soaked panties. He grips my breasts as he grinds against the seam of my body. “You want to know one of my many fantasies of my wife? Then pull your panties to the side and slide my cock into your pussy and I will tell you.”

My grin is full of devious mischief as I roll my hips and tease the edges of his demands. I glide over his hard length and he groans, his palms growing hotter through the lace covering my breasts. “I like it when you make promises in our bed, Reaper.”

Ashen trails a finger slowly from my chest, down my stomach, then beneath the hem of my panties, coating it in my arousal. He makes a show of bringing that wicked finger to his lips and hovering there before tracing his fingertip with his tongue and sucking it into his mouth. He pulls it out slowly, his gaze holding mine without letting go. “Almost as much as you like my demands. Now pull your panties to the side, vampire.”

As much as I’m suddenly desperate for him to fill me and sate the ache I feel deep in my core, I do love to tease this man.

“I could be such a brat right now,” I whisper with a sinful grin.

“But you won’t be.”

“You don’t think so?”

Ashen shakes his head, an equally devious smile quirking the corners of his lips as he folds his hands beneath his head like he has all the time in the world. I grind harder against his erection, but aside from the skipped beat in his heart, nothing about him changes.

I sit back a little and look at Ashen with suspicion, my touch tracing the carved muscles of his abs. “What are you up to, demon?”

Ashen tries to control his smug grin, but he can’t smother the sparks igniting in his eyes. “I realized something in my careful observations of the volatile, vicious creature who is my bloodmated wife.”

“I like the flattery. Continue.”

“She doesn’t just tolerate surprises. She doesn’t just like them. She adores them.”

He has a point. When they come from him, I do love his surprises. “So, you’re going to what…bribe me into behaving myself?”

“More like I’m going to lavish an ancient and powerful immortal with offerings until she grants me the wish of acquiescing to my demands, for once.”

I bite my smile into submission. “Lavish, hmm? With what, exactly?”

Ashen reaches for the edge of the bedspread, knocking pillows to the floor as he pulls it back to reveal a series of black boxes, sliding one across the bed toward us. My smile erupts as I take in the massive bow and a matching black card, the note written in gold ink with Ashen’s precise penmanship.

Not a weighted blanket.

I give him a suspicious smile and lift the lid from the box. Inside is a set of silky sex sheets but in a creamy white, with a matching nightgown. The edges are embellished with gold piping, the pillowcase embroidered with a message in blue thread the color of my mated mark. I let out a riotous laugh, holding up the scrolling stitches.

I’m feeling fangtastic, the embroidery says.

“Oh my God, Ashen. You know the path straight to this vampire’s heart.”

Ashen beams a broad smile at me, his skin vibrant. The lantern light captures every angle of emotion in his face. Mischief and delight glow in his eyes. He pulls the next box toward me, this one heavier. Another black card is nestled beneath the bow. Not fifty times your size, the cryptic note says. Warmth blooms beneath my bones knowing he remembered my passing comment about finding clothes that fit before we were separated in the Nephilim attack.

I set the lid aside. A charcoal-colored tunic rests folded on top of matte black chainmail of the finest quality I’ve ever seen. The links tinkle as they shift into place when I lift the armored shirt.

“It’s so light,” I say, balancing the weight in my palms.

“Ceramic composite. The finest the realm produces. I figured you would need armor sooner or later.” Ashen traces a finger across the waistband of my panties then down the edge that skirts my leg. “Panties, vampire,” he purrs as his finger glides back up the center, pressing against my clit as he goes. “Take my cock in that pretty cunt and put the chainmail on, then I’ll show you what’s next.”

His demands ignite a tingling current in my skin. I keep hold of Ashen’s hooded gaze as I curl my fingers around his hard length and pull my panties to the side with my other hand, guiding him to my opening. I sink down slowly, so slowly, savouring the heat and fullness as I glide onto Ashen’s cock, inch by torturous inch. When he’s as deep as I can take him, I pull the fitted tunic on and then the chainmail, pausing to watch as Ashen takes in every detail. He narrows his eyes with a thoughtful frown.

“It’s missing something,” he says as he grips my waist with one hand, guiding my rhythm as I start to rock my hips. He reaches over with his free hand and pulls another box toward us. “This one next.”

Not wings, this note says.

I open the box to reveal a brushed gold scale mail cape and matching corset. The short cape flows over the shoulders and partway down the back, the layers of scales designed to protect the wearer’s scapulae. It looks nearly like a set of folded, short wings, the garment bordered by heavy gold chains that balance the fine craftsmanship of the scales.

“No axes this time, I hope,” Ashen says, his voice low and rich as I hold the pieces up and marvel at the detail, the precise tooling and the drama of the layered sheafs of gold. “Put it on.”

Ashen steadies the motion of my hips as I slide the corset over the black chainmail. The mixed pieces settle in place like a second, armored skin, Ashen letting out a low rumble of appreciation at the way the scales of the corset hug my curves. His fingers tighten on my flesh, branding my bare thighs with heat as he spreads them wider, burying his cock in the depths of my pussy as I bite back a whimpering moan.

“I’ve never been fucked into my clothes before,” I say, my voice breathless as I slip the cape onto my shoulders, fixing the chains closed across my ribs to keep it in place.

“Good. In such a long immortal life, I’m happy to have been able to give you a first of anything.”

I lean over Ashen, tracing the slope of his cheek and the line of his jaw. “You’ve given me all my best firsts, Ashen.” I relish the glimmer of surprise in his eyes before I press my lips to his throat. “My first trip to another realm.”

“You consider that a good first?” he asks, his tone skeptical.

“I’d say it turned out pretty great in the long run, the interlude with Gallus aside,” I reply with a press of my lips to his surging pulse. The taste of his inked skin threads across my tongue, mixing with the nectar of venom. “You gave me my first comfort in flame,” I say between kisses, remembering the way Ashen’s arm had slipped behind my back when we passed through his corridor into the Shadow Realm for the first time. “My first dance among the Reapers. My first introduction to the merits of silky sex sheets. My first fangria.”

“If I remember correctly, you suffered for that one.”

“It was worth it. You brought me bacon the next morning. I think you like to bring me snacks. You even brought me my first take-out douchebag meal.”

“The human with the crooked dick in Ravello? No one had brought you prey before?”

I shake my head, smiling fondly at the memory. “No, you were the first. Just like you were my first binding spell. My first rescuer in the Realm of Light. My first resurrection.”

Ashen smirks as he shunts his hips with a powerful thrust from below, eliciting a gasp from me. “If I’d realized earlier how much you liked the Resurrection Chamber, we’d be there right now.”

“First time making love in the Resurrection Chamber, but definitely not the last,” I say with a fading laugh. My touch traces the lines of Ashen’s mark. There are so many moments in the few short months we’ve known each other where I shared with him something I’d never shared with anyone. And so many moments I would never want to have again, not because I want to forget, but because each is a precious star so bright that its hue could never be replicated. “You gave me my first time making love above the clouds. My first and only wedding. My first and only mate. My first and only all-consuming love that lives in my very soul.” My smile dims as I lean back and my gaze tangles with Ashen’s. I still the motion of my hips as I watch these secrets of mine settle into his heart. “The first time someone told me they loved me when I had nothing to give in return, and yet they still loved me anyway. The first time I tried everything I could to push someone away, and yet they still kept coming back for me. That was you. You’re all my best firsts, Ashen.”

Ashen whispers my name and his palm warms my cheek as a sudden swell of tears glass my vision. He swallows, his throat bobbing. A shine films his eyes before Ashen shutters his gaze away and draws me down into a kiss, its fire equal parts love and desire. When we part, I push myself up and shake the heavier emotions away, biting back the rise of tears to give Ashen my sweetest smile.

“You look enchantingly wicked,” Ashen says as his eyes narrow.

“Well, depending on what’s in that last box, Reaper, you might even give me my first time being a well-behaved, obedient little vampire.”

Oh, how I love the way the crimson flame glows in his eyes as my words hit their target.

Ashen’s hand darts out for the last box and I smile as he slides it toward us, resting it on his chest.

Not horns, the note says.

He lifts the lid for me and my breath lingers in my chest, clutched tight by my lungs. I know the instant I see it that Ashen made it.

The simple gold crown glows against the black velvet lining of the box. Layers of scales that match the armor flow from each side toward the center to frame a crescent moon cradling an eight-pointed star of lapis lazuli. Ashen pulls it from my fingers and settles it into my braids, his fingers tracing the line of my cheek as his eyes roam over every inch of the fierce royal I’m dressed to become. “My warrior Queen. So beautiful,” he whispers.

“You made this, didn’t you,” I say as I run my touch over the delicate scales adorning my hair.

“Yes. From the gold mask that was on the statue the Nephilim broke. It felt right to take that which was meant to hide you and reform it into the symbol of your power.”

My heart aches with Ashen’s words, my hand resting over its armored encasements like I could catch the beats that skitter through my chest. But before I can lose myself too deeply in everything I feel, Ashen gives me a grin that grows every bit as sinful as what I would expect from the most powerful demon of the Shadow Realm. My answering smile is suspicious as I tilt my head and regard him.

“What? What is that look?”

“There is one more offering for my immortal Queen, but it didn’t make sense to put it on the bed,” Ashen says, nodding his head toward the door that leads to the sculpture garden and the stairs to the lower levels. “In the kitchen. A Rocket Appartamento espresso machine.”

I go completely still.

And silent.

I don’t even breathe.

Ashen’s smirk is one of absolute triumph.

“You…got me…what?..”

“That espresso machine, vampire. Surely your infallible vampire memory has not forgotten. You know, with the copper circles? If I recall correctly, vampire, that’s the one you had in Sanford. Oh, and I had another installed in the Kur. And at Bit Akalum. You know, just in case.”

I manage to blink. Not much else. Ashen’s eyes spark into dark, devious flames. A thick swallow passes down my throat and Ashen watches the motion with ravenous hunger.

“Give me literally every debauched fantasy and demand that you’ve got, demon, because I will be the best-behaved vampire you have ever seen. Probably.”

I blink and I’m on my back with one of my wrists pinned above my head, the other trapped between us on my chest. “Sadly, we will have to save some of the fun for later, considering we’re needed in the Kur imminently,” Ashen says in my ear as he presses my thighs to the mattress and resumes a rhythm of deep strokes that have me failing to contain a whimper. “However,” he says as he braces his free hand on the mattress and stares down at me with heated longing, “I would love nothing more than to listen to my wife beg for me to make her come with all her prettiest, filthiest words as she wears her armor and crown.”

Ashen slowly winds my braid around his fist, pressing searing kisses to my jaw. His strokes take on a languid quality, as though he has all the time in the world to wait for those words to fall from my lips. A war, the fate of the realms, the enemies nearing our doorstep, these are distant dreams, nightmares for another world to worry on.

“I’m waiting, vampire…”

My breath shudders. Ashen’s gentle bite to my throat contains a devilish smile. “I want you to fuck me, slow at first as you watch me touch myself, until you can’t help but go a little faster, a little deeper, each stroke of your cock bringing us closer and closer to coming undone,” I say as my free hand slides down my armor beneath Ashen’s watchful gaze until my fingers slip beneath my panties to draw circles over my clit. “Before we get too close, I want you to flip me over. I want you to push my thighs together and slide your cock back into my pussy and take me from behind. But I don’t just want you to take me. I need you to claim me.”

For a breath of time, I think I’ve broken my husband.

Sparks swirl in his eyes. The crimson flame flares to life. Smoke coats the bed as Ashen’s grip tightens on my braid, the tension almost imperceptible. Except to a vampire.

I give Ashen an innocent grin.

The flame in Ashen’s eyes burns brighter as he slides to the tip of his sex and back in as far as I can take him. His slow strokes build a steady swell of motion and I swirl patterns over my clit as he watches in the moments when he breaks from pressing his lips to my neck and jaw. The pace builds and builds, and I feel my orgasm creeping ever closer, my muscles tightening in anticipation. A moan escapes my lungs on a trembling breath and Ashen growls as he slips out of me completely, as though it’s physically painful to tear himself away.

“Turn over,” he grits out as he lets go of my wrist and braid. Our eyes lock with equal hunger as I watch the effort it takes for him to cage the voracious demon residing in every dark corner of his soul. It’s the same creature within him I hope is about to rise to the surface. “On your knees.”

I give Ashen a diabolical smile, but I obey. To a point. If I want the demon to come out and play, I have to make a few dirty moves first.

I sit up and draw my knees beneath me, then shuffle slowly until my back faces him, but I don’t bend over. Technically, I did exactly as he asked, but I can feel the flare of heat behind me when I make no further moves.

“Bend over,” Ashen commands.

“You didn’t say please. I’m still a Queen, you know.”

A deep, rumbling sound of discontent vibrates through the still air and I smile to myself. “Vampire,” Ashen warns, his voice deep and menacing. “Bend. Over.”

I lean forward, my movement unhurried despite the rising heat at my back. I stop with my hands braced on the silky sheets.

“Lower,” Ashen says, and doesn’t utter another word until my cheek is flush with the bed. “Legs together.”

I draw my legs tight to one another and there’s a long beat of silence. The bed dips as Ashen moves closer, and then my braid is back in the grip of his hand. His other traces a path down the armor above my spine until it reaches my panties, slipping them to the side. Ashen slides the tip of his cock across my sex in gentle strokes and presses at my opening but doesn’t enter. My need for him coils in twisting knots of heat low in my core.

“What are you waiting for, demon?” I ask. What I intended to be a taunt comes out as little more than a desperate whisper, answered by a dark chuckle from the Reaper.

“For you to beg for it,” Ashen says as he tightens his grip on my braid and leans in closer. “Beg me to give you the release I know you crave. Beg for me to fill your pretty cunt until it’s dripping with my cum.”

I shudder as he presses his erection harder to my entrance, but not enough to slip inside. And then it’s gone, his only remaining touch the fist that clenches my braid. My belly spins at the loss of him as a whimper of need passes my lips.

“Stubborn creature. You refuse to make anything easy, don’t you—”

“Please, Ashen. Please,” I say, letting the word and its heavy note of desperation thicken the air between us. “I need you to fuck me until the only realm I know exists is the pleasure you give me. I need my demon to hit every deep and hidden spot until he fills me. I need my Master of War to rage a battle on my body. I’m begging you.”

“Was that truly so hard, wife?” Ashen asks, his breath spilling across my ear. His cock is back at my entrance, pressing to the seam of my body once more.

“Yes, actually.”

“Good. After the hellish night of need you put me through refusing me a single word, you deserve a little punishment, a little justice.” He teases me again, withdrawing his touch as a cry climbs my throat, demanding to be let free even though I won’t let it. “But I am merciful. And you already know I can deny you nothing. If it’s a battle you want, I will give it to you.”

Ashen slides into me with a brutal thrust. That cry of need that was clawing free of my chest unleashes as a sound of relief. Ashen withdraws completely and slams in again. And again. And again. He wraps my braid around his fist and pulls my head back until my spine is bowed. His other hand grips my shoulder until the sharp points of my armor dig into his palm and the scent of blood rises in the air. The thrusts come impossibly harder, my sex aching for the release that’s starting to build like a storm of fireworks in my nerves.

“Say that word I like so much, vampire,” Ashen grits out as he gives a delicious tug on my hair. “And make it pretty.”

My pussy clenches in fluttering waves as the vicious thrusts hit deep within me. “I want to come with you. I want to feel you spilling into me. I need you to bring me release. Please. Husband.”

Every nerve seems to explode in my body as I come apart. My body grips tight to Ashen’s as though it’s unwilling to ever let go. I cry out his name, each one of his strokes rubbing against my G-spot and drawing the orgasm out, making every second feel like a wave of euphoria sucking me under until I drown in it.

“You can come once more, my Queen. And if you ask nicely, I will fill you.”

I whimper as the next orgasm already starts to build deep in my core. Ashen pistons into me with the full length of his erection and picks up the pace. His hips slam into my ass. He tears my panties off with a snap that bites my skin and makes me gasp, ratcheting up my desire. His balls slap my clit with every punishing thrust.

“Words, vampire,” Ashen grits out as he tries to hold his own release back.

“Fuck,” is all I can manage.

His fist tightens on my hair, his fingers digging into the flesh of my hip. “More.”

“Fucking fill me, Ashen. Please…I can’t…” I can’t hold back any longer as my release breaks me apart, filling my head with pressure, deafening me to the sound of Ashen’s roar. My blood thunders through my veins as he pulses in the depths of my sex, filling me with heat. The mark on my chest tingles with an electrical current. My darkened vision returns with sparkling stars in the peripheral shadows as Ashen’s thrusts slow. I’m breathless, boneless. Even after Ashen’s gentling strokes finally stop, we still don’t move, trying to regain control over our galloping hearts.

When our breath comes back to us, Ashen pulls out, and the weight of everything we’re about to face seems to creep closer in the dark corners of the room. He cleans me with gentle strokes of a soft towel, pressing a kiss to my hip when he’s done. We dress in silence. I lace up my leathers and strap my kaiken on my thigh, then pull on my boots. I watch as Ashen straps on his armor, then turns to me. His dark smile banks the embers of worry that seem to flare brighter in my chest with every moment that passes.

“I’m under no illusions about who just conquered who, wife,” Ashen says as he holds my katana aloft, the brightening glow of his knuckles reflecting on the midnight sheets. “Now let’s go win a war.”

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