Elain raised the biscuit to his mouth, and Azriel took a bite, the buttery cookie crumbling in his mouth, the chocolate melting beneath his tongue. He chewed slowly, cautiously, unsure how exactly this would manifest but savoring the experience nonetheless.
As he swallowed, he felt it. The warm tug in his abdomen tightening, a shower of gold annihilating his senses as he began to feel her. He took another bite, and another—each bit passing his lips strengthening the pull of her until he had consumed the entire thing.
Elain raised the biscuit to his mouth, and Azriel took a bite, the buttery cookie crumbling in his mouth, the chocolate melting beneath his tongue. He chewed slowly, cautiously, unsure how exactly this would manifest but savoring the experience nonetheless.
As he swallowed, he felt it. The warm tug in his abdomen tightening, a shower of gold annihilating his senses as he began to feel her. He took another bite, and another—each bit passing his lips strengthening the pull of her until he had consumed the entire thing.
Elain raised the biscuit to his mouth, and Azriel took a bite, the buttery cookie crumbling in his mouth, the chocolate melting beneath his tongue. He chewed slowly, cautiously, unsure how exactly this would manifest but savoring the experience nonetheless.
As he swallowed, he felt it. The warm tug in his abdomen tightening, a shower of gold annihilating his senses as he began to feel her. He took another bite, and another—each bit passing his lips strengthening the pull of her until he had consumed the entire thing.
Elain raised the biscuit to his mouth, and Azriel took a bite, the buttery cookie crumbling in his mouth, the chocolate melting beneath his tongue. He chewed slowly, cautiously, unsure how exactly this would manifest but savoring the experience nonetheless.
As he swallowed, he felt it. The warm tug in his abdomen tightening, a shower of gold annihilating his senses as he began to feel her. He took another bite, and another—each bit passing his lips strengthening the pull of her until he had consumed the entire thing.
It was then that he felt the burning hunger.
Azriel had thought that he needed Elain before, but it had never been this primal, this urgent. And through the bond, he could feel his own feelings mirrored in her. It was heady to feel such desire in return for him.
One could always tell from scents and other physical symptoms, but this was on another level entirely. The gravity between them was palpable, two large moons about to collide in the sweetest embrace.
“You’re my mate.” It was the first time he’d allowed himself to voice it aloud, the first time he’d dared.
“And you’re mine,” she murmured, her heady voice eating away at the core of him as his already erect cock stiffened even further. He was going to need to learn how to control that. Because, Cauldron, if this was his physical reaction to merely being in her presence now, they weren’t going to get a lot done. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.
She cocked her head at him, eyes darting to the evidence in his pants, and it was his undoing. He pounced, nearly knocking the remaining cookies off the counter as he pressed her against it.
“Azriel,” she groaned as he ground against her, lips already frantically pecking at her neck. He was unhinged, completely and thoroughly unraveled with need for her. His mate. His gift from the Cauldron. It was unbearable to be so close and yet so far.
“Bed,” she insisted, and he realized he had never taken her there. They’d fucked all over this house, but he’d never given either of them that bit of normalcy. And even though he preferred to be in control, he obliged her, winnowing upstairs to the room she had resided in back when she’d lived in the townhouse.
But he wouldn’t give her the bed. Not yet. Azriel led Elain to the chair. They would still be doing this his way, and it would be the most beautiful torture for both of them. This was going to be an exercise in restraint for him as well—just in a different way. Shadows wrapped around her wrists and ankles, binding them to the armrests and chair leg.
***************
“I said bed,” Elain protested, causing Azriel to grip her chin and force her to look at him. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but it was enough to get his point across. He still wanted to play with her before he took her. She was starting to get an impression of how her mate worked—how he craved control in the bedroom.
“You’ll have to earn it, love,” he crooned, causing Elain to fake a pout. She would play his games as long as …
“Then I get to take you how I want to,” she demanded, with more bravado than she felt. He was still completely in control of the situation, but she trusted him.
And Azriel trusted her too. “Deal.”
Darkness fell across her face, and she felt the familiar barrier of his shadow blindfold. Shadows tickled up the insides of her thighs, wriggling their way up her dress until they were caressing her in the most sensual of ways. The cool sensations were a direct foil to how she heated for him, her sex desperate for him but only given to wiggling against the bottom of the chair.
“The safe word’s porpoise,” he breathed in her ear, causing Elain to realize that he had moved behind her. She didn’t have time to wonder why he chose to use the name of the squealing aquatic mammals living off the coast before he had swept the loose hair off the back of her neck, his hot breath causing gooseflesh to rise around it as he kissed the length of her collar bone.
“You’re exquisite,” he murmured against her skin. “I promise you that everything I’m about to do is perfectly safe, but if you want me to stop for any reason, you know what to do, right?”
She nodded her ascent at the same time she let out an involuntary moan. He had just bitten the tender skin of her throat before kissing over it and moving away from her.
No—not away. But now he was kneeling before her, and she could feel his hands sliding up her thighs, the skin already primed from his shadows, and Elain squirmed in her seat but knew better than to demand that he take her right then. He would only delay them even further out of obstinance.
Instead of hooking on her undergarments like she wanted though, his hand paused at the sheath strapped to her thigh, where she wielded Truth-Teller.
Elain heard the soft whisper of the blade being pulled free before the icy-cold metal plane of the blade struck her thigh, causing her to curse in surprise.
Azriel paused, and once she had regained her bearings, Truth-Teller slithered down her leg, a viper coil to strike. But strike where, she did not know.
“Where should I start?” Azriel purred.
“Your exquisite thighs?” A flourish before his hand pulled out of her skirts.
“Your supple breasts?” The edge traced the underside of her bosom, slicing neatly through the fabric but nothing else.
“Your perfect neck?” The flat of the blade found her collar bone, and Elain shuddered beneath him, wriggling to break free of her bonds. She suddenly didn’t care about their agreement. The inferno in her sex needed kindling, and he was all that would do.
“None of that,” Azriel tutted. “We are dancing on a knife’s edge, love. You need to yield to me completely.”
Elain melted. She was loath to admit it, but he was right. He was a master with the blade, and though she trusted him to wield it, she might accidentally hurt herself by moving about.
Cauldron, he was going to be the death of her though. “I need you,” she pleaded, letting him in on the magnitude of her desire.
“I know,” Azriel whispered in her ear. “But you have to earn it. You know the rules.” She did, but that didn’t make it any easier. Not with cold blade and hot breath mingling in exquisite torture across her skin. Not when she hadn’t gotten to feel him inside her for weeks. Not when their mating bond was ringing loud and clear between them, amplifying every ache for him.
If only she had use of her hands, she could—
Azriel chuckled wickedly. “You’re not allowed to get yourself off either. That will be mypleasure.”
Truth-Teller snaked down her front, cold air assaulting her skin and peaking her nipples as the front of her dress was sliced clean in two, revealing her fully to him.
Elain’s breathing hitched as Azriel straddled her on the chair, his mouth lavishing on her nipple while the tip of the blade scraped along the side of her breast. The pain was tantalizing—not quite enough pressure being applied to break skin, but enough for her to feel the sting and to know with certainty that if she moved a millimeter, that might change.
It kept her still and compliant, only allowing the faintest of moans to escape her lips as he worked—a master through and through.
He mirrored his actions on the other side, the most exquisite, beautiful pain unleashing something within her as she clenched around nothing, desperate for relief.
“You like that?” he growled. “You like the feel of my blade against your skin? You like riding that edge?” He pulled away enough that Elain felt comfortable letting out a panting breath, the scrapes left behind by the knife already having healed over thanks to her Fae blood.
“Yes,” she admitted between pants. And she found it to be true. She knew he would never hurt her, but the small tinge of fear at having the blade so near combined with the trickle of pain and his pleasuring of her might have become her new favorite combination.
“Shall I continue?” Azriel slid down her front until he was kneeling between her legs. He kissed Elain right at the apex between her thighs, and she leaned into it, silently begging for his tongue to annihilate her.
“Answer, love.”
“Please,” she begged.
“There we are,” Azriel murmured, immediately rewarding her by kissing up her thighs, a sweeping heat flushing through her abdomen as he approached … And then retreated, repeating the motion on the other side. And when he was done, she felt the sting of the blade, languidly tracing his kisses. It scraped its way toward her sex, leaving her riding in anticipation of how far he would take it.
Elain let out a soft groan as it hit the edge of her lips, pausing there for a moment before he replaced it with a kiss. It set her ablaze.
“Azriel,” she croaked, barely able to form a comprehensible word as her world burned and burned.
“Yes, love?” She still shivered every time he called her that, but she didn’t get a chance to respond before ever-thoroughly he had Truth-Teller lazily climbing her other thigh. Every conscious thought fled her head as she focused on the knife.
It inched ever closer to her, a wicked promise.
And when it reached its destination, this time she felt the cold flat of the blade press directly against the core of her. It was an effort not to lean into the touch, knowing that any slip might slice her thighs, but it held there.
“I knew you loved my blade,” Azriel growled as he pulled it away, sheathing Truth-Teller in the holster on her thigh. “Look how wet you are for it. For me.” A finger plunged inside her, and Elain swore, clenching around it for dear life.
His other arm grabbed her backside, scooting her until she was perched on the edge of the chair. His finger continued its plundering, and his lips took her clit, suckling as Elain saw stars behind her eyelids.
He grazed it with his teeth as he added another finger, hooking them in just the right place that had her exploding uncontrollably for him, the moans completely unrestrained as she let him know just what he was doing to her—how much she loved how he worshiped her body.
He didn’t let up, guiding her through her orgasm but only slowing enough for her to recover before increasing his pace again.
Elain, already riding the knife’s edge, felt an even deeper burning ember in her core. It sparked almost immediately, as she rode the wave to completion once again, the sweet heat filling her from the inside out.
“My turn,” she gasped out when Azriel showed no signs of letting up. He had to be about to explode in his own pants, and she wanted to be the one to make that happen for him.
His tongue and fingers slowed, only grazing with languid, taunting strokes. “I mean it, Azriel. Bed. Now.”
Her restraints disappeared, and she caught a cocky grin on her mate’s face before she stood on shaky legs and pushed him down onto the sheets.
***************
It had been an exercise in willpower to hold onto his own release at the noises Elain had made—at the taste of her sweet pussy coating his tongue. But he had held out, even though he could feel how the danger of playing with Truth-Teller—even dulled by his magic as it had been—ignited something within her.
He had carved up enemies with this blade, but never caressed a lover. She was the only one who had touched this blade and lived to tell the tale. She always would be. The thought had his balls aching even harder as she straddled him on top of the bed.
No one had ever taken him like this before. He always maintained control. Always. But there was something freeing about letting his mate take control from him. For allowing them to be equals—as fate had deemed them.
Her flushed face gazed down at him lovingly, a curtain of hair spilling over one shoulder as she mounted him, slipping over him as easily as breathing.
It took all of Azriel’s strength of self to hold on, the tight silk of her pressing in on all sides felt glorious around his cock.
Placing her hands on his chest, she began to move on him, slowly pulling out until the tip was only hanging on by a thread before lowering herself once more. Each thrust was more of an undoing as Azriel grabbed her ass, helping to guide her as she rode him.
“I love you, Azriel,” she breathed between pumps, and he swore he could practically see the bond between them, growing and glowing as she closed her eyes and thrust her head back, those unraveling little moans sending him over the edge. It was everything he’d ever needed and more.
And maybe this kind of sex was something he could actually stomach now, with her holding him through it.
After he came inside her, they laid there for minutes. “Did you ever expect anything like this?” she asked him.
“Never,” he dared to admit. “But I’m so glad I have this. That it’s with you.” He would love her until he was no more than a shadow himself, a wisp floating on the night air. She was his everything.
“Me neither. I don’t think I ever allowed myself to dream of loving a mate. It all seemed so primal and controlling, but with you, it’s easy.”
Easy.
Nothing had ever been easy for him before now. But it fit. She fit perfectly, the missing puzzle piece he’d searched centuries for.
“It can still be primal,” he growled in a way that had her giggling as he nipped at her throat. Just the sight of her naked form next to him had him becoming erect again. He’d heard a fresh bond made males into sex-addled dimwits, but he hadn’t quite imagined how lost he would be for her now.
And as his kisses deepened, he could scent her readying herself for him again.
“Come here,” he growled, flipping her so she was facedown, bent over the edge of the mattress. Oh, he was going to have fun playing out his fantasies with her for as long as they could remain sequestered here. So much fun.
***************
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“What was that, Elain?” Azriel demanded as soon as they landed back in the foyer of the townhouse, him clearly not willing to air this conversation in front of others.
“Listen, Azriel. I … I love you.”
He froze in his tracks for a split second before cupping her face in one of his hands. “And I love you too. I have for longer than I care to admit,” he offered.
“Then you’ll understand that I needed to keep this from you until … until I knew it was true.”
