“Me too,” she says with a sigh and throws the blanket down to the ground so she can sit. “I feel like I haven’t taken a breath since I got back from the Fae Kingdoms.”
“Do you…remember anything about your time there?” he ventures.
She frowns at him and shakes her head. “No. Remiel said that it will come back to me, maybe in my dreams.”
He bites his tongue at the mention of her new sire and takes her hand again. “Will you share it with me, if it does?” he asks.
She looks up at him in surprise. “Of course. Although, I am kind of hoping that I don’t remember. Who knows what he made me do?” She shudders. “I don’t suppose you are going to tell me what I said to you?”
“I told you, it doesn’t matter now. All that does is that you are here, safe, and that you have given me my daughter. The most precious gift.”
She smiles sadly, but she drops the subject and moves closer to him. He pours them both a glass of champagne and she sighs happily.
“I love you, Constantine,” she murmurs. “I don’t want anything to ruin this.”
“Well, I can’t promise that some trouble won’t find you,” he says with a smile, “but for now it’s just us.”
She leans up to place her lips against his. He grips her hair tightly and deepens the kiss.
He pulls away and settles her against him, reaching for the strawberries as he does so. Aefre eats with delight and it makes him smile.
“You enjoy it now, don’t you?” he asks.
“Mm-hm,” she answers, her mouth full. “The best.” She swallows and then climbs onto his lap. She kisses him sweetly, tasting of strawberries and he moans into her mouth. “Take me,” she whispers.
He wastes no time in stripping her clothes off, not caring if anyone can see her naked body in the garden and buries his head between her legs. He licks her and then sucks on her clit until she screams.
“Yes!” she cries out. “Again!”
He chuckles to himself, ignoring her request. He rises over her and moves his fingers inside her. She bucks underneath him, pushing her tits against him. He has to taste. He can’t wait any longer.
With a growl, he snaps down his fangs and bites down sharply on her nipple, making her come instantly, throbbing around his fingers. He suckles on her fiercely, drawing her nipple into his mouth until she cries out in pain rather than pleasure. He releases her and thrusts once, his cock impaling her desperately. He needs this. He needs her.
“Oh, Aefre,” he moans, as she moves her hips against him. “My sweet, I do love you.”
All other words are forgotten as he rams into her harder and harder. He can feel the bliss that he is searching for just within his grasp. Aefre screams his name and it brings him ever closer. She wraps her legs around him, trying to drive him even deeper even as she shudders in his arms as her next orgasm hits her. It’s too much. The scent of her, the feel of her, her blood coating his tongue.
He grunts loudly as he shoots his load into her. He feels like his heart is about to burst through his chest. It isn’t enough. It is never enough. He needs to strip her essence and take it into him, but he fails.
He stills and she pants in his ear. He can no longer take her essence into him as she is no longer his charge. He has lost that with her. The loss is profound, and it hits him hard. He pulls away from her and turns his back.
“What is it?” she asks, instantly worried.
He plasters a smile on his face and turns back to her. He can never tell her of this loss to him. She would hate him if he knew what he did to her in these moments. “I…I feel the loss of our bond sometimes,” he answers carefully.
“Oh,” she says, looking down. “You know that we are still bound, through the ritual?”
“I need more, sometimes,” he says, watching her.
“Like what? We are married, we have a child together. What more can I give you?” she asks, desperately trying to fix what she thinks is broken.
Your essence. To tether your life to mine so that we are truly one life. But how can I ask you to do that?
“I don’t know,” Constantine says eventually with a sigh. He shouldn’t be thinking these thoughts. He had made a decision to let her be who she wants to be. It is all he can do now after what Sebastian did to her. Any demands on her now will be met with rage and distrust. “Just lie with me here, in my arms, and let me have this moment where there is only us.”
She readily agrees and snuggles into him. He pulls the blanket over them and soon he feels her body relax and she falls asleep.
Chapter 14