CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

Two months later…

Ash stared down at me, his eyes never leaving my face as he entered me with one hard thrust of his hips that shook the glasses and dishware on the antechamber table.

We had just finished breakfast and should be getting ready. The other Primals and gods wanted a celebration, and Ash and I not only thought it was a good idea but also figured it was time. The last several weeks had been for mourning those we'd lost, and this event was to celebrate their memories as much as it was to mark our victory. The event would be at the City Hall, and Rhain was running around like a madman. He would probably have a breakdown if he knew what we were doing.

We hadn't planned to end up this way. It just sort of happened. I'd stood to ready myself and mentioned that Erlina had made adjustments to the gown I wanted to wear. It had become too tight around both breasts and my lower stomach. The growing bump wasn't entirely noticeable to the eye, depending on what I wore, but Ash had such a voracious reaction. He'd kissed me, and that single kiss had turned into one that ended with me splayed across the table, my robe unbuttoned, and Ash between my thighs.

"If we're late," I said, biting my lower lip as pleasure darted through my veins, "Rhain will be so mad."

Ash moved slowly inside me, clearly in no hurry. The hand on my hip tightened. "We'll just tell him we took our time with dessert."

A giggle snuck free. "Dessert with breakfast?"

"Mm-hmm." His gaze left mine and traveled downward. He cupped a breast with his other hand. The sweep of his thumb over my nipple had my back arching off the table. A smoky grin appeared. "They are so much more sensitive."

They definitely were. Sometimes, even clothing irritated or aroused them.

Right now, it was the latter.

Ash's head dipped. His lips found mine once more, and I tasted cream on his tongue. He sipped from my lips and kept up that slow, torturous tempo with his hips. His mouth left mine, blazing a path over my jaw and then down my throat. He lingered there, kissing and licking until he reached where my pulse beat wildly. I tensed around him in sweet, heady anticipation. After a heartbeat, I felt the graze of his sharp fangs. My fingers pressed into the skin of his chest as the scrape sent a burst of desire through me with only a hint of unease. That was progress.

A lot of progress.

Over the last two months, we'd been slowly working together to overcome my trauma related to feeding. Maybe overcome wasn't the right word. I'd come to believe that trauma wasn't always something you could overcome and no longer be affected by. The mind didn't work that way, be you mortal, god, or Primal. Trauma stayed with you, sometimes returning at night or during the quieter parts of the day. Other times, it disappeared for days or weeks. But I was beginning to live with it. To acknowledge it and then handle it, just like I had when it came to my anxiety. Neither were the sum of who I was. It was just a part of who I was.

Either way, Ash hadn't wanted to push it at first, telling me we could wait until our sons were born, but it wasn't something I was willing to put off until then. We still had time before I was too far along in my pregnancy for Ash to be able to feed, and I wanted to share that with him again before the babes came. I wasn't exactly sure why, but it was important to me. So, Ash had relented. And to be honest, I think he started to enjoy the process after a while. The teasing drags of his fangs, the brief, shallow bites that only drew a drop of blood, had gone from causing me to lock up in dread and shame to something that had my blood pounding with lust and need.

He gave me one of those tiny bites that drew just a hint of blood, then chased it away with his tongue, making me moan. He stilled for a few seconds afterward, like he always did. I knew what he was doing in those brief heartbeats. He was tasting my emotions, making sure I was okay.

And right then, I was more than okay.

I was ready .

"More," I whispered.

Ash chuckled against my pulse, and then his tongue slid over my skin, causing my breath to hitch. He drew the flesh of my throat into his mouth, wringing a gasp from me, but he moved on.

A hint of disappointment rose. "Ash?"

"Hmm?" His lips danced over my collarbone.

I slid my hands to his shoulders. "I'm ready."

Ash froze for just a second and then shuddered. "I know you are." He pushed into me, grinding against my clit. "You're soaking wet."

Warmth hit my cheeks. "I wasn't talking about that ."

"I know."

"Then—"

Ash moved with lightning speed, closing his mouth over mine. His deep kiss was like a match striking flint, kicking off a shower of sparks. It was possessive. Almost feral in its neediness, and I fucking loved it.

I lifted my legs, curling them around his waist, and pushing up to meet the plunge of his hips. He groaned against my mouth, and a full-body tremor swept through him. My lips felt swollen when his mouth left mine.

"I want you to watch me," he ordered in a voice wrapped in silk and shadows. He kissed my chin and then the crook of my neck. "I don't want you to take your eyes off me. Understand?"

I nodded, watching him as the edges of his hair teased the side of my breast.

He halted, his breath cool against my nipple, and his gaze flicking to mine. "I want to hear you say it, liessa ."

My eyes narrowed slightly. "Yes."

That shadowy smile returned. "That's my Queen."

His head lowered once more, but his gaze remained locked onto mine as he took the peak of my breast into his mouth. The graze of his fangs against my soft flesh sent desire streaking through me. He drew the turgid peak into his mouth, and even if he hadn't ordered me, I wouldn't have been able to look away. His tongue swirled over the hardened bud, and my eyes started to flutter shut as I rocked against him. Acute wisps of pleasure spread through me. I was aching by the time he let go.

"Keep watching."

"I am," I panted.

"Good." His hair teased my skin as he moved to my left breast. His tongue traveled up the swell. "Whose mouth is on you?"

I blinked. "Yours."

He nipped at the skin.

"My King?"

Ash caught my nipple between his thumb and forefinger. I cried out, back bowing, and his grin was downright wicked. "I want you to say my name."

My legs tightened around him, and our eyes locked once more. An aching pressure settled in my chest and between my thighs. " Nyktos ."

His growl rumbled through me.

I grinned. " Ash ."

He showed his approval with a flick of his tongue. "And whose cock is inside you?"

My heart was pounding so fast. "Ash—" He struck before I could even finish saying his name.

Ash pierced the skin of my breast right above my nipple. His gaze still holding mine, I cried out. My hands flew to his hair as the sharp burst of pain momentarily overwhelmed my senses, stroking that fear I fought so hard to deal with, but…

But it was his quicksilver eyes that held mine.

It was Ash's fangs that had pierced my vein. It was Ash's lips and mouth that moved hungrily. It was Ash's throat that swallowed greedily. It was Ash who drank from me. His cock still deep inside me. It was his name that I had called out when his fangs sank into me.

And it was his name I shouted again as the pain quickly gave way to pleasure, but it…it felt different, causing my thoughts to run together chaotically. It had been so long since I'd felt his bite, but even then, I knew this was different. Stronger. He groaned, continuing to drink from me. Eather whirled through his eyes, and his pupils dilated. It had also been too long since he'd tasted more than a drop of my blood.

The steady drag and pull of Ash taking my blood into himself was the kind of ecstasy that was as fierce as a current of eather coursing through me, consuming every sense with searing intensity and leaving no room to think of anything, let alone feel anything but his mouth and the decadent agony he unleashed. I came apart without warning, my back arching. I held his mouth to my breast.

The sound that came from him was animalistic. My grip loosened. His hips moved faster, each thrust deeper and harder as he drank from me. And his gaze—his beautiful silver eyes—remained locked on mine, keeping me grounded. He didn't look away, not even to blink, until he closed the wound with a sweep of his tongue.

"Sera," he said, stretching up to take my mouth in his. I tasted my blood on his lips. His chest was harder against mine, and when I ran my hands from his hair over his shoulders, I felt his flesh becoming smoother. "I'm going to fuck you now."

Ash pulled free of me and lifted me from the table. I caught a glimpse of his shadowstone -hued skin. The moment my feet touched the stone floor, he turned me with one hand on my hip. The other pressed me down until my chest was flush against the table. His hand left my hip, sliding between my cheek and the table so I rested on his forearm. He thrust deeply, all the way to the hilt.

He held himself completely still, his length and hardness filling me as his rough, short breaths stirred the hair at my temple. "You okay?"

"Yes," I breathed.

Then he moved again, and things…things sort of spun out of control.

Ash reached down, hooking his arm around my thigh. He lifted my leg so my knee was on the table. The angle sent him deeper. He moved behind me, fast and hard, each thrust shaking the dishware even more than before. The way he placed me on the table and his dominating presence held me in place. There was no escaping the plunge of his hips, nowhere to hide from the fire he was building inside me. Not that I wanted to. I reveled in every hard, raw pump of his hips and the slick feel of him. I clutched the fingers of his hand beside my head, the contrast of my skin against the now-midnight hue of his startling. Oh, gods. I could feel him growing thicker, larger as he shifted completely into his Primal form. The sounds that came from me as he fucked me scorched the air. My body started to stiffen, and tension coiled tighter and tighter inside me. He thrust in, his hips rolling and grinding—

My head kicked back, and that tension erupted, shattering into a thousand silken shards. Ash pressed in, holding still as wisps of shadowy eather whipped out, flowing across the table when he roared his release. Something cracked somewhere. I wasn't sure what it was. The pleasure swept us both up in a storm that rose and fell in crashing waves until we were both spent.

I slowly became aware of something cool and damp slipping over our joined hands. My eyes fluttered open to see a puddle. I followed the streams of water to the shattered glasses.

My eyebrows rose. "Ash?"

" Mmm ?"

"You broke the glasses."

"I did?" He lifted his head from my shoulder. "Fuck."

I grinned. "I think that is what broke them."

He laughed roughly. "You okay?"

"Perfect."

"You are."

My grin grew as he leaned over me, kissing my cheek. He eased himself from me and lifted me from the table, then turned me again. But this time, he sat.

Ash didn't just jerk me onto his lap. He slowly lowered me and brought my gaze to his. Once he didn't detect anything off, he folded his arms around me, holding me close to his chest.

"I think," he said, his chest rising and falling against my hand, "we need to end breakfast this way every day."

"Then we will really be out of glasses."

He chuckled, smoothing several curls back from my face. "Worth it."

We sat there for a little bit, letting our hearts slow. We needed to start getting ready. My hand slid over his chest as I started sitting up—

I jolted, my gaze going to where my hand rested on his chest. I could feel his heart beneath my palm, beating in a steady rhythm that…

Gasping, my head jerked up. "Do you feel that?"

His half-hooded gaze swept over me. "Your come on my dick? I do."

My eyes widened. "Oh, my gods, I'm not talking about that!"

"Look at you." He toyed with my hair. "Blushing."

I felt like my face was on fire. "I'm talking about our hearts." I stopped the hand that was wandering from my stomach and brought it to my chest. "Focus."

His lazy grin froze, and then the haze disappeared from his eyes. He sat straighter.

"They…they're beating in sync, aren't they?" I said.

"I think they are." He swallowed thickly, his voice filling with wonder. "I think it's because we're mates of the heart, but…" He trailed off with a frown and then blinked. "This is the first time I've fed from you since you awakened."

Nodding, I bit my lower lip and felt the twinge in my breast as if his bite mark responded to his words.

"It's like a bond, right?" he said. "I think having your blood is like a final connection, which means…"

"What?"

His eyes held mine, and a slow grin started to stretch across his lips. "I think we'll find out soon enough."

"What do—?"

Ash kissed me, parting my lips with a sweep of his tongue. The moment my heart sped up, I felt his doing the same under my palm. The sensation was…it was wild .

"We'll talk more after the celebration," he said once the kiss ended. "We need to get ready now since you made us late."

I drew back. " I made us late?"

"That's what I'm telling Rhain," he said, catching my wrist as I went to smack his chest. He laughed. "Be good."

"I'm choosing to ignore both of those statements so you won't make us any more late," I said. "I need to put actual, real clothing on."

"Please, do." His fingers tightened around my hair. "I would hate to start the celebration by carving out the eyes of anyone who looks at you."

I laughed as our eyes met. And gods, what I saw in his stare made my heart skip. It was utter devotion. I clasped his cool cheeks. "How did I get so lucky to have your love?"

"You weren't lucky, liessa ." Ash's lips brushed mine. "I was."