He pulled his head away from mine, staring down into my pained face as his realization dawned. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
Because that would have been a fun conversation. My father thought I’d have a better chance of seducing you if I was a virgin.
Okay.
“It’s fine,” I said through a strangled breath, lowering myself back to the bed and trying to ignore the way my body clenched around him—trying to shove him out. “Just give me a minute to—”
He pulled out. The sudden emptiness of my body came as a shock. He grasped a thigh in each hand, his fingers pressing into the soft flesh as he spread them wide and stared down at the space between my legs. I studied him, the reverence on his face as he watched me.
“You’re bleeding,” he said, sliding himself down the bed until his face was centered just above my pussy. He sprawled on his stomach, his beautiful face staring up at me as he touched his tongue to my center and dragged it through my flesh.
He groaned into me, the vibration of that sound making a wave of pleasure spread through me.
“Do you know what happens to a witch in the Coven on her sixteenth birthday?” he asked, his eyes drifting closed as he slid his tongue into my entrance and fucked me with it.
Finding any traces of the blood from losing my virginity.
“No,” I said, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t like it. I had a feeling my father had either unknowingly or willingly set me up for something that would be more dangerous than I realized.
“There is magic in blood and sex, some of the most potent that exists. On their sixteenth birthday, a female witch is forced to choose a partner to give herself to. A witch wouldn’t dare risk her first time being with a Vessel,” he said, dragging another slow, torturous swipe of his tongue through me.
I froze as he crawled up my body, prowling over me. He slid into me in one smooth movement, taking his time and moving slowly as he reclaimed the space that he’d made his own. He pulled back slowly when he met resistance, working the rest of his length into me bit by bit.
“Why not?” I asked, sliding my hands around to his back.
I winced when he found the newly tender tissue, working his way through it even as I gasped.
“If there is magic in blood, imagine what kind of magic resides in blood that can only be given once? It forms a bond, an obsession, between the Vessel and his witch,” he said, snapping his hips forward and burying himself to the hilt.
I whimpered, my body feeling too full as he lingered there. One of my hands dropped between us, pushing against his hips lightly to get him to pull away just a bit until I adjusted to the discomfort.
He didn’t.
“You made a mistake, Willow,” he said, finally pulling back to give me a reprieve. He pushed back in slowly the next moment, taking away the short-lived relief. “I will never stop wanting to be inside you now.”
I whimpered, my nails digging into the bare skin of his hip. He was impossibly hard against my hand, all lean, solid muscle that flexed and relaxed with each roll of his hips. His groan rattled in my ear as he dropped his weight against me, holding himself off just enough not to crush me.
A distant sort of pleasure lingered out of reach, the uncomfortable feeling inside me too much of a distraction for me to grasp it.
Gray’s eyes met mine as he continued his relentless, slow glides in and out of me. I knew he was taking his time, taking me more slowly than he’d intended when he’d shoved himself into me in his rage.
“Relax,” he murmured, the compulsion of those words sliding over my skin. My body reacted instantly, my muscles going lax. He seemed to get even farther inside of me, another tiny press as he moaned. “That’s it. You’ll get used to the way I feel inside you.”
I whimpered as he leaned forward, dragging his fangs over my neck. He sank them in, taking my blood in a feeding that I suspected was more for my benefit than his. The pain of his bite faded quickly, allowing that thick, pulsing pleasure to spread from my neck and down through my torso. It reached inside me, stroking that distant pleasure that I couldn’t grasp and bringing it to the surface.
“Gray,” I murmured, my voice trailing off as pleasure swallowed the words.
He bit down harder. My legs tightened around his hips, holding him tightly against me as my orgasm built and swelled, pulling me beneath the surface while he continued to fuck me. The warmth of his release filled me as he groaned into my neck, pulling his fangs free and licking my blood from my skin.
I fell into the darkness in the wake of blinding light, sleep pulling me under while Gray was still inside me.