Now she loved him, and he loved her, and they were Bound together. She shivered beneath him, her hand reaching behind his neck and pulling him closer.
“More,” she murmured against his lips.
As if he needed to be told twice.
He brushed his tongue against each fang, learning what made hershiver and moan. Each gasp and sound was a further incentive for him to continue.
Her grip tightened around the back of his neck.
He moved his hands to her hips, lifting her off the bed.
Their mouths remained fused, their kiss seeming to stretch on for an eternity as he placed her over his lap. Her wings spread out behind her, blocking the violet orbs nestled in sconces on the walls.
“I love you so much,” he murmured, his hands traveling over her body. Touching. Learning. Caressing.
He would never get enough of this. Of her.
Every other time he’d been with someone, their time together had been rushed. Very few emotions had been involved, and he’d never felt like this. Like his entire world started and ended with her.
The castle could crumble beneath them, and he wouldn’t care. How could he, when the most beautiful woman in the entire world was sitting in his lap, kissing him with the same passion that coursed through his veins?
He wasn’t sure how much time passed before she lifted her mouth from his. Her eyes were dark, and her cheeks were flushed as she rested her forehead against his. They shared the same air, breathing in deeply as their chests heaved in time with each other. Her lips parted, giving him a glimpse of those sharp fangs nestled in her gums.
She was so gods-damned beautiful... and she’d Bound herself to him.
Marius wasn’t sure whether it was the knowledge that this incredible vampire loved him that had him moving or the desire to feel those bat-like membranes beneath his fingers, but either way, he banded his left arm around her middle, held her gaze, and reached behind her to graze the fingers of his right hand down her wing. It was soft in a way that he hadn’t expected but also far tougher than it looked.
Just like her.
“Oh,” his vampire exhaled on a gasp, shivering at his touch. “You shouldn’t?—”
“Do this?” He laid his palm flat on the black membranes.
The responding shudder that ran through Vivienne had him sucking in a breath.
He kissed her, trailing his fingers over her wing. “How does it feel?”
“It feels...” She sucked in a breath as he laid his hand over the wing again. “Oh, gods. It feelsgood.”
He’d already come to that conclusion based on the way she was breathing heavily in his lap, but hearing her say those words and watching her chest heave as he touched her wings made the moment even more powerful.
He traced the membranes of her wings, following a line that led to the spot where they connected to her back.
“I... Oh.” She groaned, writhing in his lap. Her fingers found their way underneath his shirt, running over the planes of his stomach. “I want you, Marius.”
When she’d told him that she loved him, he thought those three words were the most incredible ones he’d ever heard. He was wrong.
His hand stilled on her wing, and he paused to look into her eyes once again. “Are you sure that you’re feeling strong enough?”
He wouldn’t push her on this. They had an eternity. They didn’t need to do anything she wasn’t comfortable with. Not now, not ever.
Her eyes widened, and not even a heartbeat later, she’d flipped them. He was on his back, looking up at her as she straddled him. Her wings flared out behind her, stretching across the length of the bed. Her fangs glistened in the violet light, and a look of amusement danced across her face.
“Are you questioning my strength, Your Highness?”
“Never,” he breathed.
Her lips quirked up into a smile, and she bent, kissing him. “Good. I wouldn’t want you to forget which of us is the vampire in this relationship.”