“Yes,” he says.
He kisses my collarbone before looking up at me. He grabs my hand, pressing it against his hair, until I tangle my fingers through it. Then, he licks my jawline, my ear, and the skin on my neck. He sucks the soft spot where my throat meets my shoulder, hard enough it should leave a hickey.
Vampires probably don’t get hickeys.
“Is it…” I trail off, too afraid to finish the question.
“You smell divine, Grace,” he says. He trails open-mouthed kisses down my arm, pressing a final kiss to my wrist. “Now, I’m just not tempted to kill you for it.”
I huff out a laugh, but it’s forced. Sebastian pauses, tilting his head to look at me.
“I am in love with you, Grace,” he says. “I fell in love with you because you are kind and beautiful andgood, and because you make me want to be good too.”
He gently presses his hand against my chest.
“You are not tied to anything,” he says. Something unreadable flashes across his expression. “I know I chose this for you. I know you might have chosen differently. And I’msorryfor that. My promise from earlier stands. If youwant to go somewhere else, even if it’s far from me, I’ll take you anywhere.”
I study his face. He means it.
“That would be a shitty trade for you,” I say, swallowing against the lump in my throat. “No curse. No girl.”
His hand spans higher, until it’s a collar over my throat.
“It would be miserable,” he agrees. “But if that’s what you decide, I still wouldn’t regret it. I would still choose your light, again and again.”
I smile despite myself.
“I don’t believe you,” I say. A full grin takes over my face, and I don’t try to hold it back. “You’d miss me too much. You’d spend the rest of your immortal life trying to win me back.”
Now, it’s his turn to smile. A crooked, mischievous grin.
“Maybe,” he admits.
“Luckily for you, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” I say. I tug at his shoulders, drawing him upward until his face is level with mine. “Now fuck me, Sebastian.”
He doesn’t need to be told twice.
He hooks my legs around his waist and thrusts deep with a single stroke. I cry out, surprised that there’s still pain mixed with pleasure. Now that I’m not human, I expected to feel nothing.
Instead, it’s somehowmoreof everything. More pain, more pleasure.
He fucks me harder than he ever has, and I only now realize how much he’s been holding back. With one hand gripping my shoulder, and the other on my hip, he pounds into me until my head strikes the headboard.
“Fuck,” he says. He rotates us, dangling my head over the edge of the bed, without missing a thrust.
“I’m coming,” I say, more in surprise than anything else.
I’ve no more than spoken the word when pure bliss tears through me. It’s beautiful, erotic, addicting.
“You can take more,” he says without slowing. My center feels sore already, but Sebastian doesn’t ease his brutal pace. He dips forward, capturing my nipple in his mouth. I cry out, arching into him, and he pulls back to look at me. “Prettiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. You know that? You look perfect, taking my cock. So fucking good for me, Grace.”
That’s all it takes, and I’m coming again. It’s as if my nerves have been restructured to draw every ounce of pleasure from his cock. And I let my head fall back, taking everything he’ll give me.
“I’m going to fuck you until the end of time,” he growls in my ear. “Until you can’t think of anything but this cock inside you.”
I’m already there, I want to say.
My ability to do anything other than mumble incoherently, a mixture of his name and curse words I rarely use, disappeared a long time ago. I don’t even try to respond. I just dig my nails into his back, surprised to feel his skin break.
