CHAPTER 51

"Kiss me," Faye moaned against his mouth in a desperate plea.

Rune held her tighter. One hand splayed over her ribs and the other in her hair. He gave no quarter, possessing her mouth. He ravaged her, slow and deliberate, opening her wider for him.

She licked his fang and a metallic taste bloomed on her tongue. Rune groaned as he captured the back of her hair, slowly using his other hand to tug at the sash of her silk robe.

Faye wasn't thinking as he pulled her robe open. His hand caressed down her side as he pulled back, breaking their kiss. Faye panted as she gazed up at him, her mind a fog of wanton need. His downcast eyes gazed at her, awestruck as his hand slid down the lace trim of her garter belt. "You are the most beautiful sight I have ever beheld."

His words doused her passion. The stinging memory of sitting up alone in his bed filled her with tension. "I heard that line before. Are you planning on running off again?"

"Forgive me," he murmured, drawing her closer. He kissed the underside of her jaw. The corner of her mouth. "I acted in haste. If you allow it, I will stay until morning."

Faye brought her lips to his, their kiss sweet and savoring. She didn't want the hope, or believe he would want more with her. They weren't right for each other. She wasn't the queen raised in a dark court who would command and possess him, and he wasn't the simple, kind man she envisioned sharing her life with.

But Darkness, he felt right. Being in his arms, touching him— Felt like home. Faye steeled herself. This was a ritual, and the rose-colored dreams of a future with him would shatter in the morning when he left her bed.

His memory would haunt her, but she could make the memory worth the pain.

She smoothed her hand over his chest. "I'm ready."

Rune stood, cradling her against him without breaking their kiss. He laid her on the ivory sheets.

"Take off your robe," he crooned as he hooked his finger under the strap of her thong. He met her gaze, waiting. Faye nodded, slipping her arms out of the robe while Rune slid the bit of lace down her legs and knelt before her.

He set her leg over his shoulder, and Faye dragged her heel up his back. "You don't have to do that."

He gave a low laugh, pressing his lips to the inside of her thigh near her knee, and moved lower. He looked up at her from beneath his dark lashes and smirked.

"I do this for me, not you."

Fayepanted,soft sound escaping her lips as Rune devoured and worshiped her. He parted her gently and kissed her clit before drawing it between his lips. She squirmed, fisting his hair as his tongue worked her. She twitched with each flutter passing over her sex, echoing her pleasure through her body.

The tension coiled in her again as he teased her with a firmer pressure. Building that rise of pleasure until it snapped. It'd snapped so many times, and he'd just started.

"Rune, please. I can't."

He eased his touch and pressed his tongue into her. Faye cried out, pulling his hair as she rocked her hips. Fucking herself on his tongue.

He pulled back to kiss and tease her slick flesh. "You can," he breathed, moving higher to where she was most sensitive. "Would you like a demonstration?"

He purred against her mercilessly. Faye screamed, her back bowing as ecstasy crashed over her. Through her. Permeating into her, to her very soul.

"Please," Faye begged without realizing it. She repeated her plea again and again as Rune pinned her waist, drowning her in a pleasure so intense stars glimmered in her vision. "Please," she whispered.

Not knowing if she was begging for mercy or demanding more of him.

Rune relented and groaned against her. His tongue swept through her folds as his eyes slid closed. The veined shadows swaying beneath his eyes as he reverently tasted her. As though he truly worshiped her and needed to etch this moment into his being.

Faye curled onto her side when he finally released her. Panting and short of breath. She stared up at him as he let his robe fall to his feet.

Faye's gaze swept down his perfectly chiseled body and her expression faltered when she caught sight of his erection. He was much too large to take into her body.

Faye sat up, glancing down at her hand, pressing three fingers together on her ivory sheets. She thought her sister was joking about a three-finger killer. Faye turned her attention back to Rune, keeping her gaze above his waist.

He glanced down at himself and turned back to her with an arrogant grin. "Having second thoughts?"

The flush from the orgasms he wrangled from her covered the self-conscious heat spreading over her cheeks.

"No," she answered, wondering how he intended to wedge that into her.

He returned to her, kissing her as his hand smoothed down the front of her throat, to the front of her chest, and cupped her breast. He moved the pad of his thumb over her nipple in torturous circles and Faye moaned into his mouth.

Rune teased her, toying with her body until her nails bit into his shoulder and back. His hands slipped lower, under her, palming her ass as he easily picked her up. Faye stiffened; his fingers too close to her slick heat.

Rune moved them further onto the bed, nipping at her earlobe. "Calm yourself," his accented voice was filled with dark promises, "I will be easy with you."

Faye gasped when he touched her, teasing her opening but not pressing into her. She felt exposed. Spread wide and at his mercy with her legs around his waist like this.

She moaned as he slid two fingers through her folds and clung to him when they found her too sensitive clit. He made her body sing, alternating his touch until Faye was sure she would break.

She leaned back when he gave her a reprieve, catching her breath. She cupped her hand to the side of his face, brushing her thumb through the misted shadows that swayed beneath his pale blue gaze. They shifted, swirling in different directions as her thumb passed through them, then dissipated to nothing. "What are these?"

"The Ra'Voshnik rising in me."

The part of him that clung to her when he was in her mind. Faye smiled and asked, "Can I see it?"

Rune kissed her, laying her on her back, before saying, "It would be best if I remained in control." He shifted his hips and his considerable length moved over where she ached for him.

Faye reached between them, her fingers curling around the tip of his cock as he thrust over her. His shadows intensified and Faye reached for more of him. Rune groaned as black flooded through his gaze and dissipated. "You are making it difficult to hold my focus."

She leaned up kissing his throat. "I want tonight to be pleasant for both of us," she said before biting the base of his throat, holding him with her teeth.

Vibrations whispered under Faye's mouth as a low growl sounded above her.

He dragged her against him, hooking his arm under her leg. Faye let go when he shoved her leg against her side. Pinning her beneath him, exposing more of her sensitive flesh as he thrust over her harder. Her breath caught when he gripped her tighter, his claws prickling but not breaking her skin.

Rune fisted her hair, rocking against her harder with a low growl. She was too sensitive. It was too much. Faye's hand shot to his throat, squeezing until he slowed his onslaught. "Be nice," she said before pressing a kiss to his hair and releasing her hold.

He moved over her in slow rhythmic strokes, releasing her leg and met her gaze.

His eyes were entirely black. Faye's eyes widened and he purred, holding her tighter. His dark gaze filled with the yearning she saw in their shared dreams.

Faye brought her fingers to the side of his face, and his eyes slid closed as he leaned into her touch.

It is a predator in its purest form living within me.

Faye thought Rune spoke of an aspect of himself. Urges and instincts.

She glanced up at the man who wasn't Rune. He gazed at her with a drowning need Rune never gave into. Desperation, longing, and desire rolled into a single expression reflected in the dark pools of his shadowed eyes.

"You're the Ra'Vo…"

"Ra'Voshnik." He answered, holding her closer as he rubbed the side of his face against hers in an animalistic display of affection. "You are my queen."

He kissed her, nipping her bottom lip while circling her nipple with the back of his curved claw. Pinching and teasing the peaks of her breasts until she arched her back for his touch. His thrusts moved in time with the pressure she needed, until her nails dug into his back.

He purred softly, nuzzling her throat. "Not tonight, but soon. You will submit to my fangs, my cock, and my will."

His heated words sent her to the very edge as she imagined herself beneath him as he drove into her. His mouth pressed to her neck. Her nails bit deeper as she cried, "Please."

The feel of a tongue at her entrance startled her. The Ra'Voshnik smirked at her, possessiveness dripping from him. "My will," he said simply, before leaning closer to croon against her lips, "Take it for me."

The phantom mouth pressed against her and thrusted its tongue into her in time with his cock sliding over her clit.

Faye's head fell back, and her lips parted. She clung to him, taking what he gave her. Rolling her hips as she spread her legs wider, wanting more of him. I Need more.

"Offer me your throat," the Ra'Voshnik purred as his claws sliced through the choker leaving Faye completely bared to him

Faye didn't hesitate, lifting her chin and turning her head to the side. Exposing the slender column of her neck.

He bit down, and Faye screamed, not from pain but pleasure. His fangs sank deep, and pleasure jolted through her sex, deeper than his tongue could reach. When he withdrew his bite, the pleasure receded only to return when he drank from her. Each pull sent the pleasure deeper into her.

She came hard, imagining it was his cock thrusting into her as he took her again and again. He was hers. This was the man who fated to her. She cried the name of the man who cherished and yearned for her. The man who didn't question their tie or see her as lacking. Her perfect dark-blooded man.

"Voshki."