Page 42 of Cursed Lifeline
Gripping her neck, I force her back against the bedpost and cage her in. She sucks in a strangled breath then quickly raises her bloodied palm and slaps me across my face. Her eyes widen as she takes in the blood now staining my cheek and deliciously spread across my lips.
I tell myself not to, but before I can master the dominance I need over the beast lurking inside, my tongue slips slowly across my lips, savoring her taste like it’s my last meal.
A savage growl rumbles through my chest and echoes hungrily through the room.
I want more.
Reading my mind, eager to feed the monster in me, Esme raises her hand and offers it to me to feast on. My mother and father's story suddenly haunts me and fuels the control, the restraint I need to back away and put some distance between us before I do something stupid, like change her against her will and fulfill the lifelong curse my father succumbed to centuries ago.
I’ve always had control around Esme. I won’t lose it now.
Taking a step back, I loosen my hold around her neck, and she asks through rushed breaths, “You told me you loved me. Don’t you want me?”
“You have no idea how badly I want you,” I growl. “But I won’t take what my body craves if it means risking losing you in the process.”
Her bloodied palm trails down my chest, and I suck in a shaky breath. My cock hardens as her fingertips gently trail across my length and the perfumed fragrance of her blood fills my senses.
“Esme,” I groan in warning.
“Felix,” she pants, as I close the distance between us and the backs of her thighs firmly press against the mattress. “Please, I know there’s a way you can let your body have mine that doesn’t risk losing my life?”
Holding her stare, my hands raise and gently cup the sides of her face. What she’s asking, what she’s offering, I won’t let myself take it.
Not only could it prove to mirror my parents and the way the curse started, but it’ll ruin her. It’ll taint her beautiful reputation when she eventually forgets about me, and marries a mortal. A gentleman I could never be. One I suddenly desperately wish I had the chance to once again become, if only so I could make an honest woman out of her before I take everything she’s offering and more.
Running my fingers across her lips, I confess, “Esmerelda, you have no idea how much I crave exploring you, marking you, making you mine. I long to ruin you, ravage you, devastate every last pleasurable inch of your skin until you’re pleading for me to stop, begging with your last breath for more, and promising me I can do it all over again after stars fill your eyes, your toes curl, and your back arches into the most gratifying high you’ve ever experienced.”
Her hands rise and her fingers desperately lace through mine.
“Please,” she begs again.
Breathing deeply, I attempt to reign in control one last time and fail when the smell of the blood on her hands fills my nostrils. Releasing a carnal groan, I spin her around quickly. She braces herself against the bedpost as I brush her hair off the side of her neck and gently place my lips against the heart-shaped spot that was seared into her skin earlier this evening. She releases a throaty moan that causes a selfish need to throb through my cursed veins. Wrapping a strong arm around her waist, I draw her closer so she feels just what it is she does to me, and what I undeniably want from her.
My name falls from her lips a moment later as my tongue slowly, gently licks the heart-shaped spot at the base of her neck. She whispers for me not to stop, but hell couldn’t stop me now from taking a small piece of what she’s offering. As my lips brush against her skin, pebbling several kisses across her trembling flesh, my hands drop, and I make fast work of untying the laces of her corset.
Esme lets out a strangled breath as her confines fall to the floor, and my hands quickly find the curve of her breasts.
“You shouldn’t let me touch you this way, ” I growl as my fingertips brush across her stiff nipples. She arches back into me, wanting more, needing more, and God, it takes every last ounce of my control not to give it to her.
“You don’t conform to the rules of modern society,” she purrs as my lips suck a path across her bare shoulder and my fingers pinch down lightly on her sensitive peeks. She sucks in a sharp gasp. “Why start now?”
My hands trail a path down her slender waist to her full hips. Hungrily, they approach the apex of her thighs, but Esme tightens them together, denying me access. My eager desire to show her pleasure, the likes of which she has never known, stops as her body begins to shake.
Reprimanded for my thirst, I back away, swallow hard, hang my head, and repeat, “You shouldn’t let me touch you this way, and…”
Swinging around, my words are cut short as Esme’s eyes harshly lock on mine. “I chose you, remember. You said you did, too. I want to give you everything I can and more, but not if you won’t…”
She stops speaking and looks away ashamed.
I step forward, searching her mind for the words she’s not saying. But she’s got a block up.
“I won’t what, Esme?”
Biting her bottom lip, she whispers meekly, “Kiss me.”
Shaking my head, I search for the right words to tell her why.
Why, with every touch and every brush of my lips against her skin, my control, my restraint is pushed to its limit. If I kiss her, I don’t know if I can harness the monster inside. I don’t know if I’ll be able to withstand the need rising with every second, her hand continues to bleed, and the beast inside me longs to feast.
