Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (38 page)

He drew a sharp breath when her fingers brushed along his knuckles and he looked down at them, seeing the cuts he’d made.

“Why?” she said.

His eyes moved to meet hers. She looked so worried that it was clear she thought she was to blame for what he’d done.

He turned his hand in hers, catching hold of her fingers. He looked at their joined hands and sighed.

“He is here then?” he said and felt her tense. He didn’t give her a chance to speak. “What sweet words of comfort did he whisper into your ear this time?”

She pulled her hand away from his and when he raised his eyes, she was scowling at him.

“I don’t ask him to say those things to me!” she said quickly and walked across the room.

He could sense her frustration and confusion as clearly as if it had been his own. Their growing closeness seemed to be giving him the ability to read her feelings in her signature. It was almost as though a claim had been placed between them.

“I know.” He held his hand out to her.

She frowned at it and then her expression softened to one of concern when she noticed his knuckles again. She took hold of his hand and brought it to her lips. He smiled when she licked the wounds, cleaning them and sealing them for him.

“It is his way of turning you against me,” he said and she looked up at him.

“Whatever do you mean?”

He took his hand and placed it over her heart. “He wants this, but I have the audacity to say it is mine.”

“It is yours,” she confirmed.

“I know.” He caught her hand and brought it to his chest, pressing it against his heart. “As this is yours, yours is mine.”

“You think he’s trying to poison me against you with his words? That he is intentionally making me feel confused?”

He smiled at how honest with him she was being. It would have been so easy for her to lie and say that she felt nothing for Venturi, but instead she had admitted that the Tenebrae had attempted to muddle her feelings.

“I am saying that he wants you to believe that what you feel for him is more than it really is.”

“Why does he do this to me? I’m so tired and confused already without him joining in.” She furrowed her brows into a hurt look and he held his arms out to her.

“Come here,” he said and smiled when she did. She nestled close to him, her forehead resting against his chest. Her arms slipped down his body and around his waist. “You need some rest.”

She turned in his arms so she was facing the garden. He let his arms rest over her shoulders, his hands clasped in front of her chest. He kissed her hair when she leaned her head back into him.

“How am I supposed to sleep? It seems impossible,” she said.

“What plagues you?” He let a strand of her hair slip through his fingers.

She sighed.

“They’re all going to leave me, Valentine. I’m driving them away. We’ll be forced to face Kalinor with only a handful of guards.” She brought her hands up and took hold of his.

“Even if it is only you and I, we shall still defeat him.” He cleared the hair from her throat and looked at the wound on it. He’d never bitten her so deeply before. It would take time for it to heal. He could see each tooth mark clearly—his incisors of both his upper and lower jaw, and all the smaller teeth in between.

Dipping his head, he pressed a kiss to it and heard her sigh.

“Do not worry,” he said and pressed another kiss to her throat. “I am certain that not everyone is going to leave you. I saw support in their faces tonight, and love for you. You have been their Chosen Daughter for many years and you have done nothing to hurt them. If people leave, it will be because of me, not because of you.”

“If they are shallow enough to leave because of you then I don’t want them here anyway,” she said and leaned her head to one side, her body pressing into his while she lured him into kissing her neck again.

“Remember that we were not always like this.” He freed his hands from hers and ran them down her arms. He looked at her profile. She had her eyes half closed while she let him do as he wanted to her and the smallest of smiles was teasing her lips.

“I remember I hated you,” she said.

“And I you,” he whispered into her ear. “But now my feelings are quite the reverse.”

She closed her eyes and her smile broadened. When she opened them again, she looked worried. She turned her head, looking over her shoulder at him, and her fine brows creased into a frown.

“Is Venturi the only thing worrying you?”

He wondered if she could read minds or whether his eyes had betrayed his innermost thoughts and fears.

He looked over her head and stared out into the night, trying to shake the words spinning around his head and the feelings inside of him. He sighed, his fingers tensing against her arms and his jaw clenching. He ground his teeth, fighting for control over his emotions and desperate to shun the thoughts that plagued him, the same ones that had been resident at the back of his mind from the moment he’d met her.

She went to turn in his arms but he stopped her. He lowered his gaze to meet hers and gave her his best smile, hoping to convince her that he was all right even when he wasn’t. She had enough to worry about without him adding to it.

“Valentine?” she said and the sweet look of anxiousness in her eyes made another sigh escape him. She seemed to search his for a moment and then her frown disappeared, melting away to be replaced with a tender look of concern.

He realised that she wasn’t going to let him get away without telling her.

He dropped his eyes to her shoulder and then slowly brought them back up to hers.

“It’s … tomorrow.”

Her eyes widened and she leaned back into him, pulling his arms around her and holding him tightly. He closed his eyes, drawing comfort from her embrace and the way her fingers gently stroked his hands, soothing him.

“The elders will fight me. They would sooner die than be ruled by me. I was their dutiful son and even then they hated me, loathed me because of my age and my position within the family.” He held her a little tighter, moulding his body against hers and relishing the way it felt. He wished they were skin on skin. He loved the feeling of her soft body against his.

“I thought I was the only one worrying about making a good leader,” she said and he smiled at the way she’d drawn a parallel between them, even though he was sure that most of her family would stay. His family were a whole different matter. If he gave them the option to leave, the only person left would be Cornelius. “You have always been loyal to your family. They will know that what you have done is for the best. You will be a good master to them.”

He wished he could believe her. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that unlike Arkalus, Kalinor had been a good leader. His family respected and feared him, but he had never crossed the line with any of them. He had always been just and had made their family one of the seven to be truly feared. Kalinor had raised them up, showing the rest of the bloodlines that they were a force to be reckoned with and deserved their high standing. Their two families weren’t the same. Hers had needed rescuing and protecting from a tyrant and as Chosen Daughter it was her duty to do that.

His were happy without him present and with Kalinor as their lord.

What he was doing was exactly what Venturi had said he couldn’t condone. It was an in-house murder for the sake of power.

Pushing away his heavy thoughts, he smiled down into her eyes, attempting to alleviate the worry that was still lingering in them. He had to get his mind off things for a while.

“I keep thinking about Lady Caelestis and Lord Aurorea,” he said.

A smile curved her lips, his words chasing away her concern and leaving her eyes dark and clear.

“History is repeating itself,” she mused and sighed. “But I can’t help worrying that the houses will react as violently as they did that time, too.”

“I have the perfect way to help you sleep and keep your mind off the world.” He watched her face and then pressed a kiss to the soft flesh of her throat.

She arched her back into him, pressing her backside against his hips. “What’s that?”

Turning her in his arms, he crushed her lips with a passionate kiss. He clutched her upper arms tightly, holding her still while his mouth explored hers, his tongue seeking entrance that she all too willingly gave him. He closed his eyes, taking in the fervent way she was kissing him back, and groaned when her fingers wandered over his hips to his waist and raised his jacket up.

He lost control when she brushed her fingers against his stomach and drew back, his eyes narrowing hungrily on hers and the fire inside him being fuelled by the desire he could see in hers. They were dark with need and the scent of her arousal permeated the air.

In one swift movement, he had torn her shirt open, revealing her black lacy bra and taut stomach to his eyes. He extended his claws and smiled at the breathy moan she loosed when he used one of them to cut the strap holding the two cups of her bra together. Pushing both her bra and her shirt off her shoulders, he gathered her up into his arms, lifting her high enough for his lips to latch onto one of her rosy nipples.

She gasped when he tugged on it, using his teeth to tease and torture her. Her fingers twisted into his hair, holding him against her. He held onto her backside tightly when she writhed against him, her moans punctuating the silence of the room and driving him insane with need. He wanted to make her cry out as she had last time, wanted to feel her body surrounding him, and wanted to look into her eyes and see them full of her desire.

“Valentine.” Her voice was faint with need and he couldn’t stop himself from carrying to across to the bed. He threw her onto it, immediately pouncing on top of her and kissing down her chest to her breasts again. Her fingers seared him with their touch as she raked them up his back and dug her nails into his shoulders.

Her hips grazed his and he groaned at the slight contact between them. His groan became a growl that bordered on feral when he ground into her, thrusting his caged erection against her crotch. She flung her head back, her eyes closing and her lips parting to release the sweetest moan he’d ever heard.

When she shifted and looked back at him, he could see how hungry she was and the sight of it heightened his arousal. Her kiss swollen lips beckoned him along with her dark eyes. She stretched her arms out above her, turning her head slightly and luring him in with a smile.

Grabbing hold of her hands, he ground his hips against hers again while his mouth covered hers in a demanding kiss that she matched move for move. She jerked her pelvis up against his and his grip on her hands increased. He forced them against the bed, pinning her there with his body while his lips devoured the smooth milky column of her throat.

The breathy whispers she was making quickly became panting and he had a hard time resisting biting her when her hands found their way to his crotch. She cupped his erection and rubbed it, making his body shudder with need. When he couldn’t bear the feeling of her hand against him any longer, he moved backwards, letting his feet hit the floor. He growled with frustration at his boots when they wouldn’t come off, causing her to giggle. Tossing them across the room, he groaned when he saw that she was toying with her nipples, her fingers tracing them in slow circles that made fire sweep through him.

He undid the top buttons of his jacket and pulled it off over his head and then hurried to remove his trousers.

Her fingers stopped moving when she noticed he was naked.

She mewled.

He growled.

She was already undoing her trousers by the time he reached her. He didn’t wait for her to unzip them. He yanked them off her, removing her knickers at the same time. He pulled her boots off, freeing her feet and then threw them across the room with her trousers and underwear.

She moved backwards so her head was resting just short of the pillows. He watched her raise her knees up and he ran his hands over them, slowly parting her legs and revealing her to his eyes. She bit her lip, the only sign of shyness when the rest of her was screaming for his touch.

The brush of her fingers against his sent a current through him that made his hips jerk forwards greedily. He wanted her to touch there. Damn his hand to Hell. He needed her to touch him.

“Valentine,” she mewled, her eyes half closing when she leaned her head back into the bed and arched.

He frowned at her manoeuvre and crawled up the length of her body. His lips met hers at the moment he buried himself deep inside of her and he caught the breathy moan as it escaped her. His hips thrust forwards, making her moan again and he smiled when she whispered against his mouth.

“Harder.”

The tattered remains of his control disintegrated on hearing that sweet word of permission uttered on her lips. Burying his face in her neck, he kissed and nipped while he drove into her with hard, deep strokes. He groaned against her when she ran her tongue along his ear, her breathy moans tickling it as he slammed into her. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, her nails puncturing his flesh and making his hips thrust desperately forwards, searching for a release he knew wasn’t far away.

Her legs wrapped tight around him and held him there, forcing him deeper inside of her. He brought his mouth back to hers, kissing her as frantically as she was kissing him. Her teeth grazed his lip and he realised that she’d changed on him. He let his demon visage come to the forefront and sliced her lower lip with his incisors before fusing their mouths together in a hungry kiss.

The taste of their combined blood sent desire racing through him and he couldn’t stop the shudder that followed in its wake. She tensed around him, her body stiffening and her muscles clinging so tightly that he couldn’t help but lose himself in her. It drove him over the edge, sending him falling into a lust-fuelled haze that begged him to bite her.

He wasn’t prepared for the way she bit down hard on his shoulder or the way her body arched against him, shuddering and quivering with her release. His eyes widened and his body trembled against hers as he came.