Thrall of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 4) by Bella Klaus (elon musk reading list .txt) 📕

to get away, but Valentine was too fast, too strong, too determined to uncover my secrets. His fingers slipped beneath the lace of my underwear and down to my slick folds. As he gathered up the moisture, his chest reverberated with a satisfied rumble.

Heat rose to my cheeks, and I turned my head away from his stare. To anyone observing me—including Valentine—it looked like I was turned on by the danger. I wasn’t. Goosebumps still tightened my skin, and my heart galloped around my chest like a mare in heat. Valentine just had this way of delving beneath my defenses and turning me into a puddle of need… just as he was doing right now.

The maddeningly slow swirl of his finger over my swollen clit sent sparks of pleasure to my core, making me pulse and twitch with want. I clenched my teeth, trying to stave off the pleasure, but it kept coming in a tortuous onslaught.

What the hell was Valentine doing? Enjoying one last shag before he handed me over to Kresnik? Great, now I was talking like Austin Powers. Where was Hades when I needed him? I cracked open an eye, trying to turn my gaze to the pile of ash I’d left by the wall, but Valentine’s red glower made me squeeze them shut.

The pleasure sliding over my clit built and built until I reached a precipice. I melted against the door, panting and trembling.

“You belong to me,” he snarled.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Say it,” he said with a bite of power that went straight to my core.

“I belong to Valentine—”

His furious snarl made the pulse between my legs quicken. “Say my name.”

“Valentinus,” I said, trying not to stammer the words, but they came out in a rush. “I belong to Valentinus Sargon de Akkadian, King of the Vampires.”

Valentine withdrew his finger, depriving me of his touch. I lurched forward, my jaw dropping and a huff of disappointed shock escaping my lips. Before I could protest, he removed my boots, my jeans, and the rest of my clothes, leaving me standing naked in my socks.

A cool draft twirled around the cupboard, tightening my skin, and my nipples puckered into points. My gaze swept down Valentine’s fully clothed form, and I stared up into his gleaming eye. Without thinking about it, my hands drifted toward my breasts, but his growl made me snap to attention.

“You’re mine.” Valentine draped the cloak over my shoulders. It wasn’t until he pinned me to the door and hooked his forearms beneath my legs that I realized he was trying to protect my back from splinters.

It was a sign that he still cared, but the more cynical voice in the back of my head that sounded like Coral’s said that he only wanted my body intact before handing me over to Kresnik.

Valentine reached between us and unbuttoned his fly, releasing a long, thick erection that made my mouth water. My core pulsed with need. Need for Valentine, need for that enticing length, need for one last moment of comfort before he brought me back to Kresnik. If this was goodbye, I wanted it to last forever.

I cleared my throat. “Do you want me to ride you?”

His red eyes moved from my lips to the pulse fluttering in my throat. “Do you think you can in this position?”

“Let’s wait and see.” I wrapped my free arm around his neck and wound my legs around his hips.

My legs trembled in time with the frantic beat of my heart. Valentine held me against the door for several heartbeats, his intense stare roving over my every feature. Anxiety tightened my chest, making my breath hitch. That was the expression someone made when committing another to memory. This was goodbye. Goodbye before he handed me over to his master, and—

I shut off that thought. It wasn’t like I could escape my fate, so what was the point of dwelling on the future and ruining the present?

My only hope was that Hades would reform before Valentine finished, but there was no guarantee that he would even emerge with an entire fifth of his ashes encased in clay and firmly in the pocket of my cloak.

“What’s going to happen to me?” The words tumbled from my lips before I could stop them.

“I’m going to have you against the wall while drinking my fill,” he growled into my ear. “And there’s not a thing you can do to stop me.”

My tongue darted out to lick my dry lips. Not that I objected to the having and drinking part, but it was what he planned for me afterward that made my heart stutter with fright.

Valentine’s tongue traced a path down my neck, and he released one of my legs to massage my breast. “You are perfect.”

My stomach tightened. The perfect companion, slave, or snack?

His lips grazed my ears. “Utterly delicious, utterly pliant, utterly exquisite.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing back a sob. “If you’re going to hand me over, please don’t—”

“Silence.”

My lips clamped shut. I would have kept talking, would have tried to convince Valentine to take his pleasure in my body in exchange for my freedom, but I couldn’t utter the words. His command had stuck, and I wasn’t sure if what I had said earlier about being his property had been a blood oath or if the oath I’d taken the last time we’d had sex had really worked.

Valentine leaned into me and sucked my neck, sending ripples of sensation down to my breasts. His hardness pressed into my slick core, a reminder of exactly why he had pinned me against that door.

Holding on to him for dear life, I ground myself against his thick erection, shuddering as the bulbous head of his penis rubbed against my aching clit.

His touch released an explosion of tingles and heat and moisture flooded my core. Valentine’s low growl resounded against my front and settled into my pulsing bundle of nerves.

If we continued like that, Kresnik wouldn’t need to kill me. My entire body would splinter