Ronan’s thrusts became shallow and Naya urged him deeper with her heels, rolling her hips up to meet him. His lips formed a half smile before his jaw locked down. When his mouth parted to kiss her once again, crimson stained his skin.
This time, Naya lunged for him. His blood added a sweetness to his mouth that she hadn’t expected. Rich and heady like an aged burgundy. A trickle of power pooled in the pit of her stomach, not enough to manifest magic, but it gave her a taste of what dabbling in such mediums could yield. Ronan was like an electrical outlet, and Naya was some inanimate thing, useless until plugged into a power source.
She’d never known true power until now. And it came from this inexplicable bond that tethered them.
Naya lapped at his mouth with the starvation that spurred Ronan. She licked his bottom lip, his tongue, taking every last drop of blood into her mouth. The act drove Ronan into a frenzy and he renewed his pace, thrusting hard and deep, each jerk of his hips more powerful than the last. He pulled away as he drove into her, incoherent grunts echoing in the quiet room as he fucked her with mindless abandon. Naya gripped his biceps, her nails digging into the flesh as she rolled her hips up to meet his.
Naya’s eyes drifted shut and she let her head fall back. Ronan cupped the back of her neck and her eyes snapped open to find his wild and silver, trained on her face. “Look at me, Naya.”
His voice was gruff, commanding, and a thrill chased through her. Pleasure built within her, cresting like a tidal wave that threatened to sweep her out to sea. “Oh, gods, Ronan, don’t stop.” If she didn’t find release soon, she’d burst out of her skin. “Please. Don’t stop.”
He drove hard and deep and Naya’s nails broke the surface of his skin. The orgasm swept her up, rocketed her past her own body, her own consciousness, leaving her floating in a vast universe. A formless mass of never-ending sensation.
“Ronan!”
His name burst from her lips as wave after wave crashed over her. Each sobbing cry intensified with her pleasure, and just when she thought she couldn’t take another blinding second, Ronan buried his face in her neck and bit down. Another orgasm came on the heels of the first, sweeping her world out from under her once again.
Ronan pulled away from her throat with a roar, pounding into her with such force that it rattled Naya’s teeth. She held on to him, met him thrust for desperate thrust as her voice grew raw and ragged from her impassioned cries. His body went rigid and a shout burst from his lips. He pulled out as he came, striping her stomach with jet after heated jet. So hot on her already-sweat-dampened skin.
Quiet settled over them and the sound of Ronan’s music carried to Naya’s ears in lilting tones that brought tears to her eyes. It occurred to her that the pitch-perfect tune wasn’t the force that had attached itself to Ronan but the magic that was their bond. The tether itself was a mystical force, and it served to reason that where Ronan felt that bond as a vampire was meant to feel it, Naya heard it. That beautiful music that made her chest swell with emotion was the sound of their tether.
Amazing.
“You’re so quiet.” Ronan nuzzled her ear, kissing a path down her throat. Chills broke out over Naya’s skin and she smiled against his shoulder.
“I’m listening,” she murmured.
“To what?”
“Our tether. It makes the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard.”
Ronan guided her chin up and searched her face. “You can hear it?”
“Mhhm,” she replied dreamily. “It’s…” She swallowed the lump that rose in her throat. “It’s the perfect song.”
Ronan kissed her softly. Once. Twice. And again. “Your words are too lovely to offer to someone who rutted on you and marked your skin like a horny beast.”
Naya smiled. “Mmmm. Is that what that was about? Marking me?”
“You drive me mad with desire. I couldn’t help myself. It was all I could think of—seeing my seed spread across your stomach.”
She knew the feeling. Her fingertip traced over his shoulder, down into the valley that curved his biceps, and back up over the hill of muscle. In the wake of her touch she left a blush-and-gold-colored trail. “Well…? How does it look?”
He rose up on his knees and her stomach flipped as his eyes raked her from head to toe. “It looks as good as I thought it would. Makes me want to do it all over again.”
Again, and again, and again. A contented sigh slipped from between her lips. She’d never get enough of him. “I like it, too. And if you haven’t noticed, I’ve put my mark on you, too.”