Avoir besoin (verb) to need

As I stared at the letter floating in my wash basin, I wondered if this was the answer I unwittingly paid for.

But the bigger question was—did I want to read it?

Part of me thought to throw it in the fire. To hell with the old woman and her futures. I didn't want any of her advice. She knew nothing of who I was.

But I couldn't deny that another part of me was curious.

What did she mean when she said I was a black cloud? Or that I'd rip the world apart? That had to be a metaphor for something else. Seer speak. Not to be taken literally.

Or maybe she was just a bored old woman who liked scaring unsuspecting girls.

In the end, my curiosity won out, and I decided to find out what was in the letter.

With shaking hands, I plucked the dripping wet envelope from the basin and tried my best to open it.

The damp paper tore every time I tried to peel it open, and before long, it was impossible to pull the note inside from the envelope. The ink bleeding and smudging with every attempt.

Why put a paper envelope in water? It made no sense.

A knock sounded at my door, and I shoved the note inside my vanity and tried to act like everything was fine despite the questions swirling around in my mind.

The bloodstone around my neck warmed against my skin when the door creaked open. I didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

Yet...I still did because if he was here, everything would be okay. I canted my head over one shoulder to find Bastien closing the door.

"How was the meeting?" I asked.

Instead of replying, my vampire prince drew in a deep breath, and in an instant, he was kneeling in front of me, cradling my hand in his.

His sudden closeness stole my breath.

"You're bleeding," he said, inspecting the bolt of red-stained linen wrapped around my hand. Then his eyes lifted to mine. "What happened? Are you alright?"

I bit my lip. Telling lies wasn't my strength. I preferred to keep my mouth shut if the truth would get me in trouble, but the cut demanded an answer.

"I fell and cut my hand on something sharp," I replied, which wasn't a complete lie. "It was stupid. I should be more careful."

Bastien's gaze hardened. "It was the earthquake. Wasn't it?"

I nodded, and he expelled a tight breath.

"It was strong enough to collapse our salt pools," he said distractedly, shifting his gaze over my shoulder."I hoped you be safe up here. But," he sighed, and his ice blue eyes wandered back to mine. "I can't leave you alone for one second, can I?"

Warmth budded in my chest as he studied my face with such intensity and care. With such...love.

"Maybe you shouldn't," I breathed. "Leave me alone, that is."

He hummed low in the back of his throat as his eyes drifted down to my breasts. The attention causing my nipples to pinch against the silky material.

"If you keep wearing black satin and lace," he said, eyes darkening as he ran a finger along my collarbone, "perhaps I won't."

Having his focused attention on me was an addiction. His hands and lips a drug.

"Then...don't."

I tilted my head back, and his featherlight touch slid underneath my silky robe and pulled it down my shoulder, exposing more of my bare skin.

He traced a line over a particularly nasty bruise. "I will never forgive myself for what happened. Never."

His words were spoken like a dark oath. A vow he would die before breaking.

"I'll spend my life making it up to you."

His tongue dragged over my collarbone, gliding up, up, up. Claiming my skin until his lips were on my neck, kissing me so deep I wondered if he would bite. The anticipation tightening my need into knots that demanded untying. 

He cupped my breast. Ever so gently swirling the pad of his thumb over my nipple.

"I do not blame you for what the witches did," I told him. "But if this is your apology, I will let you continue as if it's all your fault."

Pleasure had my legs opening wider for him, and I gripped his waist with the inside of my knees, drawing him closer.

He responded with another low, throaty growl that did nothing to stop the demanding need between my thighs.

This was what I needed. Him and his undying pledge to love me no matter what.

Gently, Bastien pressed a kiss against the soft spot just below my ear. "It seems I'm at your mercy, then," he teased. Another kiss. Another breath. "What penance will suffice?"

I didn't have to think about my response.

"Kiss me."

Cupping my face, Bastien took my lips with his, kissing me so deeply that I nearly forgot to breathe. Wanting only the feeling of his mouth against mine. Of his fingers stretching into my hair, holding me so close to him.

To be consumed by him. To drown in him. To be the woman he believed me to be.

He broke off the kiss and stared into my eyes like I was the only person he ever wanted to look at. "I want to take my wife back to...our room."

A smile played across my lips. Our room. As in the one we now shared as man and wife.

I didn't believe it was the custom of aristocrats to share bedrooms, but I didn't think Bastien cared.

He lifted me into his arms in one easy motion, holding me against his chest as he made for the door with long, determined strides.

Breathlessly, I let out a bubble of laughter and buried my face into his shoulder, drawing in the heady scent of bergamot and pine that always seemed to cling to him.

Nearly all thoughts of what happened in the caverns disappeared.

It was a short walk down the hallway to Bastien's room. When we reached the door, it opened on its own accord, and he whisked me through the entrance.

"Stay," I told my wolves.

They obeyed, sitting dutifully, albeit with slightly annoyed looks on their sharp faces. There was something in their eyes, especially the white one, that seemed almost human at times.

But that was silly.

Once the door was closed, Bastien carried me to a settee near the crackling fire and gently set me down beside him. My legs stretched out across his.

We were quiet for a long time. His hand drawing long lines back and forth across my bare skin. Just sitting and staring at the fire. Alone, finally, after all that had transpired.

The quiet was a welcome guest—almost as welcome as the man sitting beside me. It was familiar, even though nearly everything in my life had turned on its head.

I stared into the flames, the gentle heat warming my bare toes, and a vision of the graveyard shifted into my thoughts.

Of the witches, and...of the fire I'd called.

Devlinn believed it meant I was connected to the wicked Kemp witches, but I knew that was impossible.

Mama would never raise a dark witch, even if I'd been orphaned. Never. It had to be something else.

Bastien touched the bottom of my chin and, with a finger, turned my attention back to his face.

What I saw in his eyes was nearly as unsettled as my thoughts.

"What is it?" I asked.

His cold fingers laced with mine. "There's something I want to discuss."

I swallowed hard, and as I did, it felt like Mama's choker was tightening around my neck, threatening to cut off my airway. But after a moment, the thickness in my throat relaxed, and the feeling passed.

"Should I be nervous?" I asked.

The hint of a grin flashed across his face, and firelight danced in his eyes.

"You once told me that I make everyone nervous. Including you," he teased. "Don't you remember?"

"I faintly recall saying something to that effect."

I lifted a shoulder, grinning, but his face had fallen flat, and that serious, dark look had returned.

"I still make you nervous."

It wasn't a question. He could read my emotions.

I nodded once. "Sometimes."

"And why is that?" he asked, canting his head to one side.

Instead of fumbling over my words and blushing furiously, I let my gaze tick down his body, starting at his lips and roving down his neck over the hard lines visible beneath his fitted jacket.

Then, down further, to the place where my knees were resting.

To the hard length of him that was pressing against me.

My heartbeat kicked up, and I could hear it throbbing in my ears.

"Why do I make you nervous, Claire?" Bastien asked again. More firmly this time.

He truly didn't know? Even now? With access to my emotions?

Yes, some part of me was nervous Bastien would discover my plan. But there was something else I thought he might be picking up on.

Something...darker.

"It's not nervousness. Not exactly..." My voice trailed off as I tried to find the words. My eyes wandered back to his as my knee brushed against his hardness. "It's more like the...anticipation...of what you'll do to me next."

I shifted my knee again, rubbing him deliberately while holding his gaze. It looked as if he was struggling to keep his hand planted on my thigh. His fingers were pressing into my skin, and his eyes rolled back.

"Claire, my moonflower..." he started to protest.

But I didn't let him continue. Leaning forward, I ran the flat of my uninjured palm over him, relishing the feel of him and the way he sucked in a sharp breath when I squeezed gently.

I liked this. Turning him on in the same way he turned me on.

"No," he said, taking my hand in his and holding it still. "We can't. You need rest."

"You said you were at my mercy. You said I could choose your penance." I rolled my lips together as I scooted further onto his lap. "Bastien, don't you desire me?"

I asked the question in a coy voice, but on the inside, it sliced against my insecurities, and I knew he could feel the intensity of it. My need for him and my need to be loved mixing together.

He wrapped both of our hands around his hard length. Holding me tight around him.

"This is what you do to me," he choked out, working our hands up and down. Up and down. In a slow, maddening rhythm. "You are an ache that never dulls. One glance, one word, and I'm hard for you. Ready to fuck. Ready to give you everything. And that's how it will be until I draw my last breath. Do you understand?"

He gave his cock one last squeeze, then let go of my hand, taking hold of my chin instead and pressing a punishing kiss to my lips. One that did not leave me questioning how he felt. His tongue parted my lips, sliding against mine in the same maddeningly slow rhythm.

"But you need rest," he said against my mouth. Our eyes holding. His hand stretching into my hair. Holding me against him. "I wasn't gentle with you earlier. And neither were those witches."

My breath was coming in and out in short pants that matched his, and when I reached out through our connection, I could feel his stubbornness about this. He wasn't going to budge. He was afraid he would break me.

But I didn't want to be treated like glass.

"What would you do if I was more rested?" I asked. Bastien hesitated, studying my face and reading my emotions, which frustrated me. "What would you do if I wasn't bruised and I wasn't barely more than a maiden? Tell me."

I watched him swallow hard.

"I don't want to scare you," he said. "Or make you nervous."

"Just tell me, Bastien," I demanded, straddling his lap and wrapping my arms around his neck. His hardness pressed against my soft heat, which was, indeed, a little sore. That didn't stop my body from reacting as if it was not.

"Fine," he gritted out. Fisting sections of my robe and pulling it down my arms until it dropped to the floor. Then, he collected my wrists in his firm grip, being careful of my cut.

"I'd blindfold you. Then tie you up. Lash you to my bed so you can't escape."

Through our connection, Bastien reached out to me, and showed me a picture of what he was imagining. Me, squirming in his sheets. Wrists tied to his bed with a bolt of silk. Him, standing over me. Cock in hand. Staring at me like I was the most delicious thing he'd ever seen.

He released my hands to slide his fingers beneath the straps of my nightgown until they slipped off my shoulders. His touch was so light that it made me moan with need. I closed my eyes, falling further into his fantasy.

"Then I'd slowly remove this scrap of silk. Teasing you as I touched your body. Licked your body. Feasted on the sweet heat between your thighs."

The picture in my mind shifted, and I watched him undress me. Kissing every inch of me until his mouth closed around my sex, licking me with his skilled tongue.

I rolled my hips against him, feeling his hardness, and it felt so good.

"I'd make you scream my name until every soul in this castle knows you are in my bed," he whispered. "Wet, ready, and coming for me, and only me. Then I'd do it again. And again."

I moaned louder this time, circling my hips over him.

"I'd drag out your pleasure until your throat ran dry and I've drank my fill of you. Then, and only then," Bastien promised, "when you are begging for my cock, would I fuck you. Sliding in and out of you. Burying myself so deep inside you, I can't tell where I end and you begin."

I was so close. So close. Something about watching his fantasy as he whispered dirty things in my ear was driving me to the edge.

"Is that what you wanted to hear, my succulent little moonflower?" Bastien asked, gripping a handful of my hair in his fist. Opening my throat for him.

Staring directly into my eyes, he said, "Did you want to hear me say I can't wait to fuck your sweet little cunt again?"

Sweat dotted my body, making my hair damp at my neck, but I didn't care. I pressed my chest against him, and my nipples scraped against the rough lace. But it wasn't enough. I needed more of him. More.

"Touch me, Bastien," I begged. "Make my ache go away."

He licked a hot trail across my neck, then sucked hard until I cried out.

"This, right here, what you're going through, squirming for my cock, begging for me. This is how I feel every minute of every day."

I was teetering on some edge that I couldn't seem to topple over. Rocking my hips against him wasn't enough. And I was struggling to see how he could spend every second like this. I could barely breathe. Barely think of anything except getting off.

"That's not possible," I choked out.

"Trust me, Claire, darling. It is. This is how I've spent every day and every night since you came into my life."

I gasped when he roughly lifted me off his lap and dropped to his knees. Dragging his palms along my bare thighs, he lifted the hem of my nightgown.

"But I won't make you stay like this."

My fingers threaded through his hair, guiding him to the place that was burning for him.

Feather-light kisses dusted over my sex. His lips cold and hot at the same time, but they only teased. Never landing exactly where I wanted them to.

Desperate with a need I'd never felt before, I gripped his hair and pulled him against me, letting his mouth collide with my most sensitive place.

Stars burst behind my eyelids as soon as he touched me. A dark, delicious feeling that I would never tire of.

He glanced up at me through those long lashes of his. A wicked smile stretching across his face.

"If my lady insists, then I must oblige."

I knew Bastien moved with preternatural speed. I'd seen it many times before. But I didn't know he could do the same thing...with his tongue.

Gripping my hips and holding me in place, Bastien flicked his tongue relentlessly over my aching center with such enthusiasm that my release didn't just build like a slow-moving storm; it thundered.

I screamed his name as my nails bit into his scalp. Barely able to stand the waves of pleasure crashing into me. But Bastien didn't stop. Didn't relent. He kept running his tongue over me again and again until I was nothing more than a panting mess.

When I finally loosened my hold on his hair, Bastien chuckled as he glanced up at me.

"Do you feel better?"

I made a satisfied little hum as he joined me on the settee. His lips wet and red.

"Good," he said, dragging his thumb across my lower lip.

As I looked into his eyes, I could feel that—while he was certainly satisfied—there was something else he was keeping from me. Some hesitance. Some fear that was keeping him from feeling at ease.

I touched the bloodstone that was hiding beneath his shirt. The one that pulsed with each beat of my heart.

"What did you want to discuss? Earlier."

Running his hand through my hair and brushing the sweat-slick strands from my face, he offered me an imitation of a smile. "It can wait until morning. Now, all I want you to do is sleep."

🥵🔥

Is it hot in here?!?
These two, I swear!

I hope you enjoyed this little moment between them! ❤️💜🖤