by Isabel Wroth
Maksim had not expected Kerrigan’s first word upon awakening from her spell to be profanity. Concern hit him like a ton of bricks to the chest.
“Kerrigan, are you hurt? Is something wrong?”
She shook herself like she was trying to fling raindrops from her shoulders, then reached over to push one of her hands into the pool of water.
“I’m alright.”
“You don’t look alright.” Maksim crouched on the edge of the circle. “Should I call for one of your sisters?”
Kerrigan gave him a quick, reassuring smile and carefully dropped the sapphire into the velvet bag waiting by her hip.
“I’m fine. I got what I was after. How long was I under?”
Maksim held up her cell phone to show her the timer.
“Almost four hours.”
She made a sound of mild surprise, washing the ash from her hands with quick, efficient movements.
“It always seems like the blink of an eye down there. Are you good?”
“Aside from being mildly concerned that the first word out of your mouth after visiting what you said to be purgatory was, ‘sonofabitch?’ Yes. What happened?”
Kerrigan took a breath to explain, paused to frown in thought, tried again, and scrunched her nose up as though thinking really hard about her answer.
“I really don’t know. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. I need a minute to clean all this up while I process.”
Having watched her put out all her tools, Maksim put on a burst of vampiric speed and had everything neat and tidy in a flash, leaving his Bride both flustered and amused.
“I also need a kiss?”
She groaned when he snatched her up from her place at the center of the circle, stretching her arms up over her head before wrapping them around his shoulders, giving him a happy smile even as she lifted her lips expectantly.
When he frowned, Kerrigan rolled her eyes with an impatient huff. “I’m just a little stiff from sitting like that for so long. Please kiss me.”
How could he possibly refuse? He kissed her softly, feeling the coldness of her lips that told him Kerrigan was more than stiff.
He would have pulled away and assured her he would take care of her, but Kerrigan twisted her fingers in his hair and held him in place, her tongue sliding across his lower lip, seductively requesting entry.
Maksim let her in, doing a bit of groaning himself when she licked at his fangs—oh, so carefully—before dancing further inside with a caress he felt in his groin.
The hunger for her, body and blood, overwhelmed him in an instant.
Whatever she had to tell him about tonight could wait. Must wait, because he couldn’t.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“You’re hungry, Maks.”
Kerrigan tipped her head to the side for him. By the coolness of his skin, the feral way his eyes brightened, and how his fangs doubled in size, Kerrigan suspected he was past uncomfortably hungry. Likely, it was why he hadn’t taken his clothes off, not wanting to give her a chill.
Even with access to a feast, after starving for so long, he waited until she’d finished her work. A testament to his control.
He pulled her up with a hungry hum, twisting to put his back against the headboard, lifting her to straddle his thighs.
She immediately curled her arms around his shoulders, sighing into the firm press of his hands down her back. He nuzzled at her throat, sending chills of excitement and pleasure racing down and around each vertebra.
Kerrigan couldn’t feel the bulge of his erection, despite knowing he was aroused, and bit her lip to keep from laughing as she thought of Juliet’s curiosity about erections and blood volume.
“I’ll be so gentle, love,” he promised hoarsely, his tongue following the path of her hammering pulse, making her temperature skyrocket as she braced herself, waiting for whatever happened next.
Maksim didn’t strike like a cobra or bite down like a lion.
Instead, he spent time indulging himself in tracking kisses from her throat to her shoulder, ensuring her entire body was trembling and on fire with pleasurable shivers.
Kerrigan relaxed into the euphoric feeling, playing with his hair, scraping her nails across his skin just above the collar of his shirt.
The soft cotton of her own shirt felt like coarse burlap against her overly-sensitive skin, the hard points of her nipples dragging across the material with enough stimulation to make her breath come a little faster.
Maksim kissed his way up to her ear, nipping the lobe with just the right amount of bite to send an arrow of pure lust sizzling straight for her clit.
She could actually feel the blood pulse in the already engorged knot, making the breath stutter out of her on a feathery gasp.
His hands continued to sweep up and down her back, relaxing her even as she shivered with arousal and the adrenaline-fueled expectation of his bite.
The more he kissed, licked, and carefully nibbled at her skin, introducing her to erogenous zones she hadn’t ever known she had, the more frustrated she got.
She tugged at his shoulders, undulating in his lap in an effort to find more stimulation to take her over the edge that hovered so close.
“Maks, please, I can’t—”
“Oh, yes. Yes, you can,” he growled softly, sliding his fingers into her hair to get a good grip, pulling her head to the side to give him all the access he needed to drive her wild with the continued assault on her senses.
Sure she was about to lose her mind if he made her wait one more second, Kerrigan barely felt the pain of his bite, which had obviously been his intention all along.
She felt him swallow the first mouthful of her blood, and the groan he gave vibrated through her entire body like a warm wave of bliss.
It only took three mouthfuls before Kerrigan felt his body warm and his cock turn to stone, pressing the denim-covered bulge almost perfectly against her core.
The need for more pressure—to find just the right spot—had her grinding down against all that hardness, feeling how it throbbed and pulsed harder with each mouthful of blood he took from her.
Kerrigan twisted her hips, rocking in his lap to drag her clit along the fly of his jeans. In response, he gave a deep, predatory growl of encouragement and slid his hand down from her waist to grab hold of her ass.
Before too long, she was twisting the material of his shirt in her hands, unable to stop the frustrated, little noises she made as her need for an orgasm increased to a fever pitch.
She rubbed herself against him until she found what she wanted, clinging to his shoulders as she let the pleasure take her. Maks released her throat with a hiss, his breathing harsh and heavy as he licked the blood—her blood—from his lips.
She felt dizzy from the rush, drunk, perhaps a little chaffed, but so relaxed it was all she could do to not melt back into bed.
“Kiss me, love.”
Kerrigan didn’t hesitate to lean in, tasting the metallic tang of her blood, finding it oddly enticing. Maks shuddered when she licked at his fangs, sliding his tongue along hers.
More blood passed between them, and as soon as Kerrigan swallowed, she felt the burn of it spread through her like the finest whiskey. He’d sliced his tongue with his fangs.
He pulled her shirt up and over her head as he shifted forward, pressing her back down into the mattress, leaving her there with one more soft kiss. He stood up, that decadent look of lust etched into his face, his fingers going to the buttons on his shirt.
Finally.
Kerrigan pushed up onto her elbows, having dreamed of this moment for so long, she couldn’t bear to miss a second.
Maksim truly was built like an Olympic swimmer. Tall and lean, with broad shoulders and a trim waist, but every inch of his body was roped in muscle.
Muscle, that rippled and flexed when he set his shirt aside.
Muscle, that stretched beneath honey-colored skin when he popped the button on his fly.
She was su
rprised when he put his knee on the bed beside her hip, bending to brush his lips across hers.
“I’ve tasted your blood, little witch, but I’m still hungry.”
“Hungry?” she stuttered, chasing after his kiss.
Maksim gave her what she wanted, spreading his palm over her heart, gently forcing her away from him and back to lie flat.
“I’m starving for the sweet taste of you. Lie there, love. Just lie there and let me have my fill.”
He licked a path across her neck and down along her collar bone, trailing kisses down between her breasts, his hands following the curve of her hip and thigh. Everywhere he touched, tiny explosions of pleasure followed.
Kerrigan thought she was prepared for all the things she’d longed for and dreamed of, but the hot lick he gave her nipple before drawing it into his mouth made her mind go completely blank.
The breath she’d managed to take heaved out of her, the sound she made somewhere between a whimper and a sob.
Maks hummed like he’d just heard his favorite song, giving her gentle licks, watching her as he steadily increased the pressure.
When Kerrigan flung her hands out to the side to twist the sheets in her hands, her back arching like a bow, he smiled and used his tongue to flatten the tender tip against the roof of his mouth.
The sensations whipping through her were indescribable, the need she felt for more almost frightening in its intensity. Maks released her gently, rubbing his cheek across the pebble hard tip before moving to the other, giving it the same dedicated attention until Kerrigan was writhing beneath him.
She wasn’t sure if she was writhing to get away from the feeling of being sucked into a whirlpool of ecstasy, or struggling to get closer.
“So sensitive,” Maks murmured, touching a circle of kisses from one breast to the other. “I wonder if I might make you come just from this.”
Considering the gush of arousal that drenched her panties and the way her pussy clenched with every draw of his mouth?
“Feel free to try, please.”
“Another time, love. I’m still so hungry,” he said, the warmth of his breath wafting over her chest.
His eyes burned as he trailed little stinging kisses down her midriff, smoothing around her navel, but it was the lick across the top of her pubic bone that made her twitch and shudder like he’d touched a live-wire to her skin.
He slid backward to crouch beside the bed, his palms stroking down the outside of her thighs. Pulling her underwear off with a rough jerk that sent a bolt of shock and adrenaline straight down the center of her body, smiling wickedly at her gasp of surprise.
“Open yourself to me, Kerrigan.” The velvety rasp of his voice was so deep and dark it might as well have been black magic.
There wasn’t a single part of her that wanted to resist, and the reward she got for giving into him… unbelievable.
She felt that first lick in every cell, every pore, every molecule. He cleaved through her swollen, saturated folds, and whatever control she had over herself was obliterated.
“Maks… oh… oh, my god.”
He hummed an answer, his big hands wrapping around her thighs to hold her steady. She couldn’t stop her hips from arching, seeking more of the astounding pleasure tearing through her.
Her whole world became centered around his mouth and the careful scrape of his fangs on her most delicate flesh.
The wickedly luxuriant caresses amplified by the edge of those incredibly sharp points rubbing against her clit had Kerrigan trembling, breathless with anticipation, wondering if he would draw blood from the engorged bud throbbing against his lips.
He sucked her into a realm of pleasure she’d never achieved before, but the slide of his finger pressing inside her tore an exultant cry from her.
He was unforgiving in the way he thrust and rubbed against places that had never been thrust or rubbed against.
Breathless, strangled cries echoed his primal growls. She twisted and strained toward the release she could feel coming, working against his hand, against the push of another finger stretching her.
“That’s it, love,” he praised, giving her clit another long lick that curled her toes. “You’re so close, I can taste it. Feel it in the little ripples of your pussy, milking my fingers. Give into me, Kerrigan. You’re mine. My Bride. My sweet little witch. Give me what I want now. Come for me.”
It wasn’t what she’d been expecting. For a moment, her entire body went completely limp. Her muscles turned to noodles, her bones to mush as the strength leeched out of her like the pull of water from the shore before a tsunami.
A wall of pleasure crashed into her and stole her breath with such violence, such power… nothing else existed but the crushing force dragging her under in a maelstrom of ecstasy.
Lost, Kerrigan barely felt the pain of his bite. But she certainly felt the debilitating rush of endorphins and the pull of his mouth on her inner thigh.
*****
Maksim only took a few swallows of Kerrigan’s pleasure-laced blood from her femoral; the taste of it combined with the creamy fluid of her truly stunning release might as well have been ambrosia.
With her thigh quivering and jumping against his lips, her entire body trembling, he certainly felt like a god. A greedy god, who couldn’t wait to feel the crushing force of her orgasm around more than just his fingers.
He eased his fangs from her thigh, glad to feel the convulsive ripple around the two fingers still pressed deep inside her.
A vampire bite was rarely enjoyable unless the vampire dedicated himself to ensuring his partner’s pleasure first.
Many didn’t care one way or the other, but to him, blood was never more delicious than when it was saturated with serotonin and dopamine.
Kerrigan’s blood had already become addictive, made even more so because she was his Bride, and to add in the chemicals produced by her brain when pushed to orgasm? There was literally nothing like it in the world.
Already she was anticipating his bite; he’d felt it in the way she’d tensed up and arched closer to his mouth when he pressed the edge of his fangs to her riotously sensitive clit.
It would take a little time, but he was determined to train her body to expect a rush of pleasure to accompany his bite, and before long, she would come just from the feel of his fangs piercing her tender flesh.
In record time, Maks stripped off his jeans and climbed onto the bed, rolling with her to get them back to the center, catching her knee in the crook of his elbow.
Spread as she was, he had an unimpeded view of the gorgeous pink flesh and the fluttering opening that looked far too small to take the thickness of his cock.
As tight around his fingers as she’d been, he knew it would be an incredibly tight fit, but fit he would. She was made for him. He caught Kerrigan staring at his groin, her eyes wide with a mix of eagerness and worry.
Despite the trepidation Maks saw in her expression, Kerrigan reached up to set her hands on his waist, pulling him toward her.
“Come down here and kiss me until I’m not thinking about physics and the improbability of all that fitting inside me.”
Maksim followed the tug of her hands with a chuckle, keeping her leg hitched over his hip to keep her open to him.
“We’ll fit, love. You’ll be so tight around me, like a slick, creamy vise, but we’ll fit.”
Her kiss edged on frantic, but she settled into him with a moan, her hands wandering up and down his back, gripping tight to his shoulders when he let his shaft glide between the slick lips of her pussy.
She was scorching hot, wet as a rainstorm, and the more he kissed her, the tighter she twined around him.
Maks rocked against her, letting her feel the drag and pull of the thick vein along the underside of his cock, tormenting them both while he lubricated himself in her juices.
He pulled back too far and felt her tiny opening catch the head of his cock, sucking at it, clenching as he pressed closer.
; Kerrigan tilted her hips to give him the best angle possible, making needy little noises against his mouth that drove him to the brink.
He wanted to draw out the hours he would spend pleasuring her, to ensure there wasn’t a single spot on her body he hadn’t painted with ecstasy, but the primal urges to seal their bond were too powerful to deny.
She threw her head back and cried out as he pushed harder against the portal of her pussy, forcing the tight muscles to part and let him in.
The heat was indescribable, beckoning him deeper, promising a burn so intense as to set them both aflame.
Needing to watch every flicker of emotion as it crossed her face, Maksim dug his fingers into the bedding beside her shoulder and pushed up, certain if he’d needed breath to survive, he’d have passed out by now.
It took all his restraint not to force his way inside, to go slow and savor every centimeter of the territory he gained, instead of burying himself balls deep in one go.
He could feel her quivering as she struggled to stay still, clearly wanting to writhe and buck like an unbroken mare, but she waited, trusting him.
Kerrigan’s cheeks flushed a vibrant pink, her lips swollen from their ravenous kisses, and the sweet, tormented sounds she made with every push and retreat had him clawing for that last scrap of control just to prolong the look of wide-eyed amazement on her face.
He looked down between them to see his shaft disappear halfway inside the tight, narrow confines of her pussy.
Already stretched so tight around him, he wasn’t sure if it was possible for her to take more. It felt as though the sleek muscles inside were molding to his shape, melting like liquid metal around him.
He’d waited so long.
Waited for her to grow from child to woman.
Waited, withered, and starving, for freedom from his prison to find her.
Waited to get away from the house of horrors in Vermont.
Waited for her to finish her work.
Waited now for the fist-tight grip of her pussy to ease despite the fact that it felt as though it became tighter, hotter.
Maksim couldn’t wait a second longer.
He drew back just far enough to sling his hips forward, entranced by the sway of Kerrigan’s breasts and how her spine lifted up off the bed as he powered through, their skin meeting with a dull thud that reverberated up through his entire body.