“What other…effects does your blood have?” I asked, surprised by the throatiness of my voice.

“It can cause a brief sensation of general wellness. A high. It can make you feel stronger. Lure you into believing you’re invincible.” Nyktos’s lashes swept up, and the tendrils of eather swirled lazily. “It can also make you want.”

Desire licked through me, leaving behind a pounding flood of arousal. “I want,” I whispered. “Very badly.”

His nostrils flared as his fingers skated over my jaw. “I know.”

My chest rose with a deep breath, and I wasn’t sure if that helped or worsened things as the tips of my breasts brushed his arm. I lifted my other hand, pressing it to my heart, where I felt it beating fast. My fingers spread out, grazing a hardened nipple. The ache intensified as he drew his hand down the side of my neck and across my shoulder. The slight touch echoed through my entire body. My back arched as I bit my lower lip, moaning as I tasted traces of his blood there.

“It will only last a couple of minutes.” His fingers stopped at the thin strap of my slip.

“Only a couple of minutes?” I rasped, my throat drying even as I grew wetter.

Nyktos stretched his neck, the cords and tendons there standing out starkly. “They will be the longest minutes of my life.”

“Yours?” I laughed shakily, a little—or a lot—breathless from the slick rush of desire flooding me. My hand fell to his tattered shirt. Behind my palm, I felt his heart racing. My hips shifted, brushing against the thick, hard ridge of his arousal.

“I can sense your need. Feel it. Taste it. You’re drowning in it.” His eyes slammed shut. “I’m fucking drowning in it.”

A sharp dart of desire sliced through me. “Then drown with me.”

Chapter 5

Eather brightened, spreading into the veins of the skin beneath his eyes as tension bracketed the corners of his lips. “What you’re feeling is my blood, Sera.”

“I don’t think so.” I breathed in deeply, taking in his scent. “What I’m feeling is how I always feel when you touch me. Like there is a fire in my blood.”

Nyktos’s fingers curled around the strap of the slip. His eyes opened, but only into thin slits. “Sera…”

“Hot. Wet. Aching.” I squeezed my thighs together, but that did nothing to ease the throbbing there. “Wanted.”

The strap of the slip moved an inch and then two, taking the bloodied neckline with it. His teeth dragged over his lower lip as I gripped his wrist. He didn’t stop me as I pulled his hand and the strap farther down my arm. I gasped as the lacy hem scratched the sensitive tips of my breasts. “Please.”

Nyktos made a rough sound that rumbled through every inch of my body. “I know better.” His churning eyes lifted to mine, and his hand moved on its own now, drawing the strap over my wrist. “And yet…”

My pulse pounded fast as his hand dropped to the side of my hip, mine following his. His gaze left mine and glided over the blood-streaked swells of my breasts. I felt the tendons beneath my fingers as his hand tightened on my hip and then relaxed, coasting over my thigh and then under the hem.

The arm around me tightened as he bent over me, lowering his head. His lips glanced over the side of my throat, and the memory of his bite went a long way to erase the pain of the one delivered by the entombed god. He lifted my upper body slightly as his mouth moved over the healed skin. The touch of his tongue against my flesh sent a shockwave of sensation through me. I watched his mouth follow the glistening trail of blood down and then up over the swell of my breast. His tongue licked the blood. “I…I don’t think I can breathe.”

“Yes, you can.”

I gasped as his mouth closed over my nipple, drawing it and my spent blood into his mouth. My hips jerked, pushing against his arousal. He caught the turgid flesh between his lips as he lifted his mouth and then his head.

“Open for me.” He issued the ragged demand as he lifted the slip to my waist, baring me to him.

My stomach twisted with anticipation as my legs parted without hesitation. His intense stare drifted past my hips to the fine dusting of hair as his fingers pressed into the flesh of my thigh. “Show me.”

Oh, gods. A red-hot bolt of shameless desire rocked me. Breathing fast, I gripped his wrist as my fingers spread over the skin below my navel. Nyktos’s stare was unblinking, all-consuming.

“Show me.” His voice was a silky whisper of midnight. “I want to see your fingers slick with your desire.”

I sucked in a soft moan. My fingers grazed the dampness between my thighs. The chamber felt as if it were holding its breath, waiting right along with me. With Nyktos. The wait wasn’t long. Slipping my finger inside my damp heat, my hips jerked against my hand as I gasped. The curling twist of pleasure deep inside was downright scandalous.

“That’s it,” he said in that same coaxing, seductive voice from when I had been taking his blood. “Fuck your fingers.”

The punch of raw desire left me dizzy as I moved my finger in and out—his gaze fixed on my movements. He knew the exact second I eased another finger inside myself, and his eyes feasted on what he saw. This was utterly wicked, and I loved it.

Nyktos shifted me in his lap, drawing me farther against the hard ridge of his arousal. I rode my hand, rocked against his cock—

“Ash?” Nektas called from the hall. “You in there?”

I stopped, my heart lurching as my wide eyes swung to the door.

“I’m busy.” Nyktos’s stare remained focused between my legs.

“With Sera?”

I choked on a breath. Exactly how good were a draken’s senses?

“Yes,” Nyktos said, folding his hand over mine. My attention snapped to my spread thighs. He eased my fingers back inside. My hips nearly jerked completely off his lap. Oh, gods. A sinful bolt of pleasure whipped through me. “Don’t stop.”

“What?” came Nektas’s muffled response.

Stark hollows formed under Nyktos’s cheeks. “Wasn’t talking to you.”

“Okay.” There was a pause. “She all right?”

Nyktos was breathing heavily as he watched me, feeling my fingers moving beneath his. “Yeah, she…she will be.”

“You two need anything?”

“Nektas,” Nyktos snapped, and I turned my head against his chest, smothering a moan as my knees curled.

“All right. All right,” the draken replied. “I’ll check back in a bit.”

“You do that.” Nyktos’s fingers moved over mine, controlling the rhythm as I rubbed against his cock.

My head fell back, eyes closing and breathing coming in quick, short pants as tension curled tighter and tighter. His breath coasted over my breast. I cried out as his mouth closed over the throbbing flesh, and he sucked on my skin, on the spilled blood. My fingers moved faster, harder. Pleasure trembled deep within me. He groaned, pulling me closer, holding my ass to his cock. The sounds I made…gods, I should be ashamed, but I wasn’t. I wanted him to hear them. I wanted him to feel the wetness coating my fingers. I wanted him to know that the way my body responded to him had so very little to do with his blood and everything to do with him. I wanted nothing between us. I wanted to feel the hard length of him against my skin. I wanted him inside me. I wanted him to pierce me, take me into him. I wanted so much—

The graze of his fangs over my nipple was too much. I came hard, falling over the edge as he shuddered against me. My breast muffled his harsh groan. Pleasure continued unwinding and spinning throughout my body until I was left limp and utterly boneless in his arms.

I was still trembling as he eased my fingers from me. My eyes opened, and I watched him…watched him lift my hand to his lips. He closed his mouth over my glistening fingers and sucked deeply.