by Marian Tee
My eyes started to water when I took in how pale and exhausted he looked. There were scratches on his arms, too, and one on the side of his temple, as if it was meant to gouge his eye out. “Tell me honestly. How badly hurt are you? Is there something else I’m not seeing?” I had heard rumors about certain poisons that were fatal to our kind, but it wasn’t something I had concerned myself with until now.
When Luka started to speak, I instinctively held my breath, telling myself I had to be strong no matter what he said.
“Broken ribs, the scratches you’ve seen, and loss of blood, that’s all.”
I choked out an incredulous laugh. “That’s all?”
“I almost died, you know.”
“Luka.” If it was his intention to see me cry, he was very much close to succeeding.
“There was a point when I almost lost hope, but then…” He exhaled. “I thought of you and I just couldn’t let go.”
“Luka.” This time he succeeded, this time I cried, the tears that I swore would never fall for Luka trailing down my cheeks. Unable to bear even the smallest distance between us, I hugged him again, not as tightly as I wished but at least close enough I could feel his heartbeat and be assured of it.
Luka murmured my name against my hair.
“Mm…”
“What do you think about calling off the engagement?”
Please God of Caros, let me not break down in front of him. Curling my fist between us, wishing I could capture his heart with it and never let go, I said evenly, “What do you think about it?”
“That it’s not doing the job it should and keep you all from danger.”
Bullshit, I thought. I had no doubt Emilia was the one who made him think twice about the validity of our betrothal.
“You be the one to decide, Luka,” I said finally. “I’ve always thought this was a one-sided agreement.”
“I want to know what you want.”
I raised myself on my elbows. “Luka, I want what you want. So if you want to end this so you could be with Emilia Moretti…”
He didn’t answer.
The silence continued, and the hurt inside me festered. I pushed myself away from Luka and was about to get up from his bed when he caught my wrist.
“Don’t go,” he said harshly.
“How can I not when I can see that I’m not the one you want?” I asked brokenly.
His grip tightened around my wrist. “All I want is for you to be safe.”
Bullshit. This time I said it out loud, not even flinching when Luka scowled in response.
“You want Emilia Moretti,” I hissed, “but for some reason you can’t admit it, not to me or to yourself.” My fists clenched in impotent frustration. “I know you went to the monastery, Luka.” The words came out of nowhere, but the moment I said them I knew it was meant to be. The truth had to be said. Maybe then I could stop hating me and he could…he could stop hurting me, however unintentionally.
Luka jerked at my words.
“I know…I know you went there because you’ve realized you love Emilia and you didn’t want her hurt. I thought of this over and over and…” I closed my eyes because somehow not seeing helped soften the truth and blunt out the pain. “She made you cut me out of your life all those years ago, didn’t she? You didn’t want to, but because you love her and we Caros are notoriously foolishly powerless when we’re in love…you did it.”
Ah, God of Caros, I sounded so pathetic, didn’t I?
I wasn’t sure which of us moved first. I tried to go and Luka tried to stop me. I struggled, he conquered. In the end, I was doomed most by my weakness, the regret that made his face even more beautiful my undoing.
“Caylie, I’m sorry.” Luka whispered it over and over as he rained kisses all over my face, licking my tears dry.
I couldn’t answer, couldn’t speak, couldn’t move – if I made myself think just for one moment I knew I’d completely break down.
Luka hadn’t denied my worst fears, and we Caros had always been taught that silence meant assent.
He pulled me above him, and my body immediately fitted over his, his legs brushing against mine while my most intimate part cradled his erection. But still I tried to avoid his lips as they sought mine.
“Caylie, please,” Luka whispered rawly. “I can’t bear feeling your pain like this.”
Liar. Liar, liar, liar! You bore it fine enough for almost three years.
“How can you love her more than me?” I was without shame and pride once more, forced to beg by the terrible and indelible weakness inside me that only Luka could satiate.
Instead of answering with words, Luka gripped my hair, this time not taking no for an answer. His lips meshed with mine, and he sucked on my lower lip hard, hungrily, insistently until I surrendered with a sob, my lips parting to let him do what we both knew I wanted as well.
My arms wound back around his neck as his tongue mated with mine. His lower body mimicked the movements of his tongue, thrusting, withdrawing then thrusting again, harder and more possessively.
Luka’s lips moved down and I moaned in anticipation when his lips drifted to my neck.
And then…
There it was.
A slight sting and then blood was flowing.
“Excuse me.”
I froze, realizing with shock that someone else was in the room with us. I let out a small moan of embarrassment and tried to pull away, but Luka’s steel-like hold didn’t allow me to move an inch. I felt his tongue touch my neck and I ceased my struggles, realizing that he just didn’t want anyone to see blood in my neck. The stupid part of me thrilled to it. For us Caros, the sight of one’s blood was as intimate as being naked, and I knew Luka would rather kill an entire army than let anyone see me bleeding from a bite.
When Luka finally released me, I hastily scrambled off the bed.
Violet eyes flashed a warning. “Your dress,” Luka bit out.
I bit back another embarrassed moan as I realized that Luka’s roaming hands a while ago had my dress hitched up to the point of exposing my lacy underwear. Pulling the dress back down hurriedly, I schooled my face with an indifferent expression before glancing up.
It was no use.
The unabashed grin on Stefan’s face, combined with Riyu’s raised-eyebrow look of incredulity, was more than enough to make my cheeks heat up.
“The nurses had been worried about the moans coming out from your room,” Riyu said straight-faced.
“And the guards outside your door thought you were under attack,” Stefan continued with a grin.
“His wounds were hurting,” I said weakly.
Stefan’s dark eyes laughed at me. “So you kissed it better?”
I turned a deeper shade of red, realizing that I had set myself up for that one.
“Enough,” Luka said, but even I could hear the smile tugging at his voice.
“I better go,” I mumbled.
Luka’s eyes became hooded. “I see.”
He had no right to look at me like I was abandoning him. I knew that. But after the scare he gave me, after spending over an hour wondering how I’d survive life without Luka, I just couldn’t find it in me to hurt him.
I said gently, “I’m just going to make a call and let my parents know I’m staying longer.”
“I see.” Maybe it was the drugs or sheer exhaustion, but Luka’s usual aloofness was failing him, the relief in his eyes undeniable.
It was enough to make me smile and tease him a little as I bent down and pinched his cheeks impulsively. “Poor baby,” I murmured. “Did you think I’d leave you all alone?”
“Caylie,” Luka growled as Riyu and Stefan laughed.
Outside, the call I made to Catherine was quick and to the point, with neither of my parents putting up a protest when I told them I was determined to stay at the hospital until Luka was discharged. After, I made a quick dash to the boutiques in the lobby, purchasing the essentials I needed for sleeping over.
; “You’re staying over?” was the first thing Luka asked in a surprised voice when I came back with several shopping bags in hand. Riyu and Stefan were nowhere to be found, which I was privately glad about. I wanted more alone time with Luka, especially now.
He was going to leave me sooner or later for Emilia Moretti. I had to take all the memories I could with him while he was still mine.
“How could you think I wouldn’t?” I placed the shopping bags on the extra bed before turning back to him with an impish smile. For now, I was determined to forget that Luka’s heart belonged to someone else and that mine was about to be crushed.
For now, it was him and me.
“What would you like to do?”
I expected Luka to say something irritatingly responsible like “study for your midterms” or something terribly nerdy like “read the latest treatise on interracial politics”. Whatever he wanted, I told myself I’d do it. Because this was my day to do what I wanted, and what I wanted was for Luka to be happy.
But Luka said nothing.
Instead he just let his amethyst eyes do the talking, the heat in it making me swallow.
“Luka.” It was supposed to be a protest, but it came out like a needy moan instead.
He smirked.
Oh God of Caros, who the hell taught Luka Georgiades to do something as impolite as smirk should be…sainted. With that one smirk, Luka could now make every girl’s dream come true.
“Lock the door.”
In a blink of an eye, our roles were reversed and I was no longer the bauble he forever wanted to cherish. Within the four walls of this elegantly decorated hospital room, he was my master as I was enslaved by his pleasure.
After locking the door, I had barely turned around when his next command came. “Take off your clothes.”
As my fingers fumbled over the buttons, he growled, “Faster if you don’t want to be punished.”
His words enflamed my entire body, and I was shaking with a terrible desire for his touch by the time I stood naked in a pool of my own clothes.
Luka’s gaze devoured my body inch by inch. “Beautiful,” he growled. He crooked a finger and I slowly went to him, stopping at the side of his bed. He cupped one breast, weighing it in his palm while his fingers played with my nipple.
“Mine,” he whispered fiercely as he plumped one breast before bending down to suckle my nipple.
I whimpered but this only made him suck harder. His hand went to my other breast, caressing it as if in preparation for its turn to be worshipped. By the time he moved to suck my other nipple, I was delirious, my knees about to buckle under me.
“Straddle me,” Luka said when he finally released my breast.
I hurried to do it, unable to keep back a moan when I felt his cock pulse heavily against my already slick folds.
Luka’s eyes widened then glittered in triumph. He dipped one hand between us, lining the folds before bringing his soaking wet fingers to his mouth and licking it one by one.
Ah.
I rocked my body against him, the sight of Luka licking my essence an unbelievably erotic sight, one I was sure I’d never forget. Early morning sunlight was peeking in through the windows, but the heavily tinted glass blunted its fiery effect on our skins, allowing it to simply bathe Luka’s body with golden light.
“I need you naked,” I whispered.
Luka had torn off his hospital gown before I had even finished speaking.
And then he was pulling me down, my breasts flattening against his chest as he gritted out, “Play with me.”
My eyes widened. “W-what?”
“Move against me. Hold my cock and rub it against your pussy without letting it in.” His smile was beautiful and cruel at the same time, and ah sweet Caro heaven, but the sight of it just turned me on even more.
“You be the one to do the foreplay this time.” His eyes blazed. “NOW.”
Inserting my hand between us, I slowly gripped his cock, loving the way he groaned at my touch. I shifted while tightening my grip and when I lowered my body again, the head of his cock was perfectly positioned. I began to rub. I began to move. I began to dance and undulate before him and soon I found my rhythm as the large red head of his cock brushed against my clit with wonderful friction.
“Aaaah.”
Luka bit my lip. “No sounds.”
My eyes shot sparks of frustration at him but he only smiled, and I knew he just wanted to torture me even more.
Asshole.
He chuckled softly. “I know what you’re thinking,” he murmured just before tugging my hair to pull me down. And then he bit my ear before his tongue circled the inner skin and I almost screamed and came.
“Quiet or we’ll stop this,” he warned in another ear-tickling whisper while his hands started teasing my breasts again. “Now move.”
Wanting to sob in frustration at the way he so beautifully played with my body, I did as commanded, my nails digging in his shoulders as I tried to keep my cries inside while the pressure built inside me.
Luka threw his head back, shuddering when I accidentally let a part of his cock slip in, just enough of it to start stretching my core.
He lifted my hips, fingers biting into the flesh. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Just no.”
The painful words were out of my mouth before I could stop it. “Because it’s a betrayal of your love for Emilia?”
Unexpectedly Luka laughed harshly. “Believe it or not, but she doesn’t have any fucking thing to do with it.”
I dug my nails harder, enough to draw blood and Luka winced. I said bitterly, “I don’t believe you.”
In one twist, Luka had suddenly flipped us around, the IV tubes torn from his wrist as I landed on my back. Luka’s eyes were blazing. “It doesn’t matter. Just believe this.” And before I could even think of moving, his thumb was playing with my clit, pressing, twisting, pinching, squeezing.
“LUKA!”
This time he didn’t keep me from crying out. Luka started to move, rubbing his cock against mine, its length sliding against my folds smoothly while he continued subjecting my clit to the sweetest torture.
I bucked against him as my arms and legs twisted around him, wanting more closeness, more friction, more Luka in every way I could.
“Close,” I managed to gasp when the pressure inside me was starting to feel like a tornado that was about to explode and whirl me away into a spiraling cyclone of pleasure.
Luka’s jaw clenched hard when he heard me and without another word, he lifted his body up before slamming back hard, enough to bury the entire head of his dick in while at the same time pressing hard on my clit.
The pressure broke, and I was immediately swept away by the most blinding pleasure. As I gasped, eyes rolling back, I heard Luka growling, the sound rough, guttural and primal as he came with me.
Chapter Thirteen
Neither of us stirred after, our bodies plastered together, the silence between us deep. He played with my hair and I kissed his chest once in a while, driven by my weakness to claim him. So beautiful, I thought drowsily. And he was mine. He was mine.
A knock sounded on the door, a male voice asking hesitantly about the IV transfusion since it had registered in their system that the bags were completely out.
I was about to call out for the nurse to wait when Luka’s fingers suddenly gripped my shoulders. I looked up, saw the feral possessiveness in his gaze and knew it wouldn’t do for any male to see me while the scent of our intimacy was so strong in our room.
“It’s okay. Could you leave fresh bags outside our door? We’ll be the ones to hook it up instead.” My voice was just a little breathless when I spoke. When the male nurse murmured his understanding, I looked at Luka in consternation.
He only smiled at me lazily. Sprawled on the bed – which was a lot bigger than it should be – with the covers down past his hips, just an inch away from revealing his jutting arousal, Luka looked so sensually beaut
iful I seriously wished I could chain him to me.
“You look,” he said quietly, “as if you wanted to eat me.”
I turned red. Asshole.
“I can hear you.”
“I meant you to,” I returned sweetly.
Another knock on the door. “The bags are here, Ms. So---”
“Thank you. You may go now.” Luka’s dismissive words were polite but with a distinctive chill to it. I could almost see the male nurse hurriedly walking away before Luka could freeze him with his voice alone.
I lifted my head up so I could give Luka a chiding look. “That wasn’t nice.”
“The way he was imagining you naked wasn’t nice either.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You can read minds now, is that it?”
“I don’t have to read minds to know what a man is thinking about a girl locked up---”
My embarrassed groan cut him off. “Don’t remind me,” I pleaded. “I can just imagine tomorrow’s headlines. You know how fast news travel and everyone will know about what happened here---” Remembering how Luka reacted about our public appearances, I added hastily with a frown, “And before you even think about it I’m not worried of people knowing I’m with you. I’m just a little worried of what my parents would say about…this.”
Luka reached up to caress my cheek. “I think it will be fine.”
Even when Emilia Moretti hears of this, too? It was in the tip of my tongue to ask the question, but I chickened out the last minute. I grabbed the menu from the bedside table. “I’m hungry,” I said brightly instead. “What do you want to order?”
Luka hauled me back and I bounced on top of him. “You, just like this, every meal.”
Time passed as if I was we were in another world, too quickly for my taste. I couldn’t remember the last time I had this much fun, that I had so many reasons to smile about. Or at least I could remember – but I didn’t want to.
Ah, God of Caros.
Why couldn’t he be in love with me instead?
The thought, coming out of the blue, had me jerking and I accidentally knocked my head against the door on my way to the bathroom.
“Going through solid objects is not one of our powers, mi vavli,” Luka teased behind me.