CHAPTER 273: (+18) VAMPIRE HUNT 33

The kiss deepened, and Selis felt the heat in her chest spread like wildfire, every nerve alight.

She could taste the faint metallic tang of his earlier bite, but instead of making her wary, it only seemed to pull her closer.

His hand found her waist again, thumb brushing slow circles against her side as his gaze searched hers, almost as if giving her one last chance to retreat. Selis didn’t.

Instead, she reached up and cupped his face, her thumb brushing the sharp line of his cheekbone. "You don’t have to hold back."

Something in his expression shifted then — not just hunger, but a raw, unguarded intensity that made her heartbeat thunder in her ears. His lips captured hers again, and this time there was no restraint.

The kiss was fierce, consuming, a collision of heat and need that stole her breath and replaced it with his. Her hands slid into his hair, feeling the soft strands between her fingers as she pressed herself closer, answering every movement with her own.

When they finally pulled apart, they were both breathing hard, their foreheads touching, the air between them charged like the sky before a storm.

"Selis . . . ," he said her name like it was both a warning and a promise.

She smiled against his lips. "I told you, Captain. I’m not afraid of you."

His answering smirk was wicked. "You will be."

And yet, from the way his thumb brushed her skin so gently, from the way his gaze lingered on her face as though memorizing it, she knew that whatever came next . . . she didn’t mind in the slightest.

He kissed her harder, almost punishingly so, as if every second apart before this moment had been a wound that only now could be healed. Selis met his intensity without hesitation, her nails raking lightly across his shoulders, feeling the taut lines of strength beneath.

Her body pressed against him, molding to his frame, and she caught the low growl in his throat when her hips brushed his arousal.

The sound alone sent a shiver racing down her spine. Lucian’s mouth moved to her jaw, then lower to the curve of her neck, where his fangs hovered—not biting, just grazing—letting her feel the dangerous promise in his restraint.

Selis’s impatience broke through whatever restraint she’d been holding. Her hands slid down between them, fumbling with the button of his trousers before dragging the zipper down.

Her fingers slipped inside, curling around the hard, heated length of him. For a man of his lean frame, he was big—thick and heavy in her palm—and the sudden twitch at her touch made her breath hitch.

Lucian’s low growl vibrated against her lips. His control snapped. In a swift, almost feral movement, he stripped her clothes away. She tried to help, afraid that if she didn’t, he’d simply tear the fabric apart in his urgency.

Within moments, the air was cool against her bare skin, her pulse hammering as his gaze roamed over her like a predator marking what was his.

They were naked when her back met the cold stone floor again. The chill barely registered before Lucian’s mouth was on hers, his kiss fierce, almost consuming.

His hands caught her wrists, pinning them above her head, holding her in place with a dominance that sent a thrill straight through her.

Then his lips trailed to her neck, the scrape of his fangs skimming her skin, and in the same heartbeat, his body surged forward. He buried himself inside her in one deep, unhesitating thrust.

Selis gasped, a startled cry spilling from her lips. The sensation was sharp and overwhelming—heat and fullness she hadn’t known her body could take.

Shock flared through her; she hadn’t realized she was untouched until now. But Lucian didn’t pause. His hips moved with a rhythm that was both punishing and intoxicating, as if her resistance, her inexperience, only stoked something primal in him.

His fangs pierced her skin in the same motion, and the world narrowed to nothing but the molten pull of his mouth and the relentless drive of his body.

Her blood flowed into him, and with each swallow, his pace grew rougher, deeper, as though her essence was fueling every movement.

Selis clung to the moment, torn between surrender and the sheer, unbearable intensity of it. Pain and pleasure tangled together until she could no longer tell them apart.

Every thrust sent a shockwave through her, every draw of his mouth at her neck dragged her higher into a haze she couldn’t escape—and didn’t want to.

Lucian was lost in a trance, his breath shuddering against her skin, his body moving with an urgency that bordered on desperation.

The deeper he drank, the more he seemed to lose himself in her, and the more her own body betrayed her, meeting him, taking him, craving more.

She had known passion before—intense, consuming encounters that left her satisfied—but nothing compared to this.

This was something else, consuming, a joining of hunger and desire so complete it made her dizzy. She could feel every push, every drag of his cock inside her, the slick glide and the deep, slow pull that left her gasping for air.

And beneath it all, that dangerous, intimate connection—his mouth on her neck, his teeth in her skin, his cock buried deep inside her—bound them in a way that felt far more permanent than she’d expected, or perhaps even wanted.

Her pulse thundered in her ears, each beat echoing in the places where their bodies met.

Lucian’s breath came hot and ragged against her neck, his fangs still buried in her skin, his hips grinding forward with an unrelenting rhythm that left her trembling beneath him.

The stone beneath her was cold and unyielding, but his body covered hers entirely, his weight and warmth anchoring her in a whirlwind she could barely keep up with.

The world beyond them ceased to exist—no sounds, no thoughts, only the pulse of his hunger and the fire growing in her veins.

He shifted slightly, releasing her wrists just enough for her to thread her fingers into his hair. The silky strands slipped between her knuckles, and she gripped them, half in invitation, half in desperation.

His answering growl vibrated through her, and when he pulled his mouth from her neck, the sudden absence made her gasp.