Taken by the Blood God (Devil Springs #4)

Chapter 24

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Talant

I kept Minerva’s knees pinned up high as I devoured her. Her pale skin flushed with heat and desire as I latched onto her clit, licking and sucking. My fangs ached to sink into her, but I fought the urge. I hadn’t asked if I could bite her again. And I needed to ask soon because I wasn’t sure how many times I could resist the instinct. When I was inside her, I wanted to consume her. All of her.

I wanted to carry her in my very veins. I wanted a part of her with me for eternity.

The blood exchange had bound her to me, but as long as we continued to drink from each other, it would get stronger each time.

Minerva squirmed beneath my hands and mouth, her fingers locking into my hair as I tormented her clit. Her panting breaths became moans and whimpers as I locked my lips around her clit and sucked hard.

Minerva jerked, and suddenly, the taste of her blood was in my mouth again. My fangs had nicked her. I hadn’t meant to do it, but my control was frayed thin. Her thighs tried to slam together, but my hands were in the way. She cried out, her body writhing on the bed as she came hard. The taste of her in my mouth, her blood and her sex, snapped the last of my control.

I released her legs, moving to crouch over her. Pink stained her cheeks and chest as she breathed hard. Her peaked nipples flushed the same color.

I sucked one into my mouth, wringing another cry from her, and nearly sank my fangs into her breast as her sharp nails bit into my shoulders.

Releasing her nipple, I grasped her hips and flipped her onto her belly. Minerva tossed her hair out of her face and looked over her shoulder at me, brilliant gold eyes shimmering up at me in her flushed face. Using my knees, I shoved her legs apart and lowered my chest to her back, keeping her trapped beneath me. I braced my weight on my forearms, angling my hips until the tip of my cock lined up with the hot, wet silk of her pussy.

I cupped Minerva’s jaw in my hand, keeping her face turned toward me as I slid inside her, slow and deep. She gasped before she moaned low in her throat, her body clasping me tightly.

“I need you,” I said, keeping my body locked inside hers, unmoving.

“I’m here.”

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog of bloodlust and desire. “I need to…”

I groaned as she shifted beneath me, making the muscles sheathing my cock ripple and tighten. My tenuous hold on control slipped again.

“Tal, what are you?—”

“I need to bite you. I’m not sure I can hold myself back unless we stop right now.” Goddess, I hoped she didn’t want me to stop because it was going to be agony if she did.

Her eyes locked on mine, unblinking, as she stared up at my face. I gentled my hold on her jaw, stroking the tips of my fingers down the delicate line of bone to the artery that throbbed in the side of her neck.

She remained still except for the pounding of her heart beneath my fingertips.

“Do you want me to stop?” I asked.

Minerva’s silence lasted so long that I tensed, ready to pull my body away, before she finally answered.

“No, don’t stop,” she murmured. “I don’t want you to stop. Take what you need.”

“I don’t?—”

Minerva reached up, fisting her hand in the back of my hair and giving it a firm yank, sending a streak of fire down my spine. “I told you to take what you need, Tal.”

When I still didn’t move, she released my hair and braced her weight on that arm. Then, she reached back with her other hand to sweep the swathe of red curls aside, baring her neck and back. Minerva tilted her head to one side and pushed her hips back into mine. She rocked forward a few inches before she thrust her ass back against me, taking my cock even deeper than before.

“Take what you need,” she demanded again, ending the command with a long moan as her body rocked under me.

Any logic or reason I might have possessed vanished beneath the onslaught of instinct and primal possessiveness. I wrapped her hair around my hand, turning her head until her neck was exposed and her back arched upward. Her entire body shook, but I was too far gone to notice. I pinned her hips to the bed with my weight and struck, sinking my fangs into the pulse that throbbed in her throat.

The tang of her blood hit my tongue, and I drank it down in a slow, hard pull. Minerva bucked beneath me, her pussy clamping down on my cock as she exploded. Slender strands of ice branched out across the bed, crawling up the headboard and trying to spread to my body. My magic was too hot and too close to the surface, melting it instantly.

I couldn’t hold back any longer. I shuddered as I thrust into her one last time and came hard. My lips were still locked over the wound on her neck, her blood and magic filling my mouth.

Her blood became cool on my tongue, gentling the raw need that clawed at my gut. The fire in my head sputtered, losing its hold on my thoughts. I’d completely lost control, taking her more like an animal than a man. I licked the wound on her throat before I released her hair, taking care not to yank the strands as I unwound it from my hand.

Minerva collapsed face-first on the bed, the lacy web of ice beneath us cracking under her cheek. I watched in awe as the frozen crystals withdrew from the edge of the mattress and the headboard, retreating into her body. Minerva sighed, letting her body melt into the mattress beneath us, her arms curled beneath her head.

I ran my hand down her back, scanning for injuries, and she sighed again, closing her eyes as she smiled.

“That tickles,” she murmured as I finished my scan.

She was fine. Nothing other than a couple of small bruises where I’d gripped her hips too hard. Thank the goddess, I hadn’t hurt her.

“Are you sure your magic makes you a blood god?” she asked, not opening her eyes.

Confused, I frowned down at her. “Yes. Why?”

“Because sex god might fit better.” She opened one eye and peeked up at me, that grin spreading across her face.

I couldn’t stop the frown that creased my brow. “Minerva?—”

“Shhh.” She put a finger to her lips and shushed me like a child. “If you say one negative thing, I’m kicking you out of my bedroom until you’re not so moody.”

“I—”

Minerva lifted her head, opening both eyes to stare me down. The light tone of her voice vanished. “I’m serious, Tal. If it’s something other than how amazing that was, I will throw you out of my bedroom.”

I couldn’t stay silent. “I could have hurt you, Minerva.”

Her jaw clenched, the delicate line becoming sharp. “Did you want to?” she asked, her eyes narrowing. She tried to roll beneath me. I moved back to give her room, and she sat up, reclining against the pillows at the head of the bed, her hands folded over her waist.

“No, but I wasn’t in control.”

“Okay, then I guess we’re not having sex anymore,” she replied.

“What?”

“Well, if you can’t be trusted not to hurt me, it’s best if we avoid situations where you could hurt me. So, no sex. Also, you can’t use your magic around me since that already ended badly once. Maybe you shouldn’t even be here at all. Cari’s cottage is available to rent again now that Sela is mated to Sheriff Kent. You could move in there.”

I had no idea how to respond to her words. I opened my mouth, then closed it again. Her argument was perfectly logical, even if it sounded extreme. Minerva seemed to know I was floundering because she smirked at me. She reached for one of my hands, taking it in both of hers.

“Neither of us will ever be fully in control when we’re in bed, Tal,” she stated. “I couldn’t control my magic either. But did you want to hurt me? Kill me?”

“No, but I wanted to consume you,” I admitted, unable to look away from where her small, pale hands cradled my larger, darker one. Minerva’s personality and her magic were so fierce that it was easy to forget how tiny her body was in comparison to mine.

“You say consume, but I don’t get the impression that you mean you wanted to filet me and have me for dinner,” she said.

I winced at her choice of words. “Of course not!”

“Then, what do you mean?”

I didn’t want to see the look in her eyes, but this conversation required eye contact. I met her gaze and answered, “I wanted to drink your blood and fuck you until all you could think about was me. All you could feel was me. Because all I could feel, all my thoughts, were centered on you.”

Minerva stared at me, her body completely still. Finally, she inhaled, slow and deep, and leaned forward, gathering her legs beneath her. She crawled across the short distance that separated us on the mattress, coming to kneel in front of me.

She kept a few inches of space between us, close enough that I felt the residual chill coming from her body, smelled the lavender and mint of her skin, and saw the thrum of her pulse at the base of her neck, steady and warm from the blood that ran through her veins.

Her hands rested on her thighs as she continued to look up at me. “Yet you still think you could have harmed me, Tal? That you wouldn’t have noticed if you bit too deep or bruised me?”

It was difficult to swallow past the lump in my throat as I thought about her questions. She was right. I’d been so focused on her pleasure—not my own—that I would have been aware if she even flinched or gasped in pain. It would have been as obvious to me as her arousal.

As she had before, Minerva knew my answer even though I didn’t verbalize it. She reached out, taking both my hands in hers and bringing them to rest on her bare thighs. Her skin felt shockingly cool when my knuckles brushed her legs. Her magic was still very close to the surface of her skin, keeping her body cooler than mine.

“I’ve never said this to anyone other than a family member,” she began, her voice low and serious. “So, I want you to understand exactly what I’m offering you when I say this.”

I nodded, not wanting to speak. Her expression and the fine tension in her body told me everything I needed to know. Whatever she was about to say was important to her, and I needed to pay close attention.

“I trust you, Tal,” she said. “I trust you not to hurt me. I trust you to watch my back and to help me when I need it. I trust you enough to share my body with you.”

It was a start, but what of her heart?

I wanted her to trust me with every part of her. To know that I would cherish every piece, whether broken or whole.

She paused, licking her lips. “I know you want more from me, but I’ve lived behind the walls I’ve built for a very long time. I had to protect Ally even more than I needed to protect myself. It’s not something I can change at a mere thought. I’ll need…” Minerva sighed. “I’ll need some time.”

Cautiously, I tugged on her hands, pulling her toward me. She came willingly, slipping her knees between mine. She leaned forward, her cheek resting over my heart.

I wrapped my arms around her holding her close. “But you’ll try?”

She nodded, her skin warming against mine. “I will.” Minerva tilted her head back to look up at me. “I am.”

I lifted one hand to brush the wild tangle of red hair away from her face. “That’s all I can ask.”

I wanted her to know that I fully comprehended what she’d just shared with me. “You are my equal in all the ways that matter most, little witch. Anything you’re willing to share with me will make me happy.”

Her smile faded as her gaze searched my face. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

I nodded.

She wiggled one arm from between us and cupped my face with her hand. Her thumb brushed over my bottom lip, the touch light and tender.

The way she looked at me in this moment…

It pierced the wall of my chest and grasped my heart in a vise. I was afraid to breathe, not because it hurt, but because I didn’t want to break the spell that swirled between us. Silence surrounded us, yet my heart heard everything she couldn’t bring herself to say.