Brink of Eternity (Guardians of Ascension #2.5)(21)
Author: Caris Roane

She chuckled and smiled. “We never did seem to quit too early in the game, did we?”

“The usual was at least three rounds, but who’s keeping score.”

He straddled her and walked up the bed with his knees. He could have mentally untied the ropes but he wanted his c**k close to her face so that he could tease her a little more, as he slowly undid the knots. He let his fingers do the looking because he knew Elise and he wanted to watch her. She liked having her mouth on him and he wanted to keep himself just out of reach.

He watched her lips, her tongue, trying to get to him, so he shifted this way, then that, just so he could watch her mouth open. He wanted to see himself inside her, but this was a good way to begin.

When she finally released a frustrated huff, he freed the ropes so that she could now move her arms and hands and put them wherever she wanted them. He rose up just enough and touched the head of his c**k to her mouth. With her hands now on his hips, she met his gaze as she opened wide and he fed her, slowly, one inch at a time.

At the same time, she slid her hands over his bu**ocks and began to knead his flesh.

Holy shit.

If his mouth on her felt anything like this, then he understood why she enjoyed his tongue as much as she did. He closed his eyes and savored as she began to move her tongue over his c**k and to suck, then lick, then suck. He drew himself out of her slowly and she sucked just a little harder until a stream of air left his throat, something close to a hiss.

He was torn. He wanted to keep doing this, but he was already a little too far gone—but then he usually was when he took her blood. Still, he didn’t tell her to stop, and now there was a soft warble in her throat. His hips began a slow pump and her mouth moved with him.

His gaze fell to the left side of her neck. He wanted more of her. Her black hair lay fanned out on the pillow beneath her. He could see the pulse in her neck. His mouth flooded with saliva, which always happened when what he wanted was inside her vein.

Her fingers worked the muscles of his bu**ocks and she’d begun moving her head up and back so that she could stroke part of his length with her mouth. He closed his eyes and gave himself up to the pleasure for just a few more seconds. Just a few more. Oh, dear God.

But when his thighs tensed and his back started to bow, he pulled out of her mouth, slid backward, leaned down, and planted a kiss on her lips. “Next time,” he murmured. “Right now, I need something different.”

She arched her neck and kissed him back. He remained where he was for a long moment as he gazed into her eyes. Would it be so bad, being with her, long-term? Could he? Could she?

The thought of coming home to her each morning after a night of battling death vampires drew his heart into a hard, hopeful knot. Shit, he shouldn’t be having these thoughts. These decisions had already been made. Right?

She slid a hand to the back of his neck and pulled him down to her. She kissed him again, warm and deep. She looked at him. “Don’t fret. Not right now. Just make love to me and make it good. We’ll worry about tomorrow … tomorrow.” She smiled.

That was something she’d always done; she’d always known the right thing to say to put him at ease.

He had just started sliding down her body, ready to finish what they’d started, when his phone rang.

“Shit.” He maneuvered to the side of the bed and folded his phone into his hand. “Give.”

“Hey, don’t bark at me,” Seriffe said, but he chuckled. “Sorry to disturb, but we’ve been summoned to the palace.”

“The palace?” He turned and looked at Elise, who was leaning up on her elbows, still beautifully naked. “When?”

“The next ten minutes. Can you be ready?”

He looked down at the missile that was his c**k and sighed. “Sure.”

“Get a patch through to Jeannie at Central for the fold.”

He dropped his phone onto his jeans.

“What’s going on?” Elise asked.

“It’s your ascension ceremony.”

“I thought I had to endure a series of attacks for three days?”

He shrugged. “The sequence was wrong for your rite of ascension. Leto should have offered you the choice first before the death vampires attacked. Endelle probably forced COPASS to give her this concession. Hey, don’t worry. This is good news.”

This timeshe looked at his c**k and sighed.

Chapter Seven

Elise stood in front of Madame Endelle, in one of the large white marble rotundas of the official Second Earth palace. She was waiting for Her Supremeness to start the ceremony. She might have been awed by her surroundings if she hadn’t been completely overcome by the reason for her presence in the massive, formal dwelling.

She was ascending.

Endelle had argued her case before a hastily convened COPASS, stating that because Elise hadn’t been offered her choice of alignment before the attack at the White Tanks Borderland, the attack had been completely illegal.

Greaves had agreed to permit the ascension without further repercussion. It was that, or the actions of one of his generals would be brought to trial and the general could risk execution for violating COPASS law. So, naturally Greaves conceded.

So here she was, at Madame Endelle’s palace, at nearly midnight, with Duncan standing off to her left side and serving as a witness. Gideon stood behind her and to her right just a couple of feet. He wore a formal military tunic in black silk and a sleeker version of the usual battle sandals. He had a purple cape flung over one shoulder. Again, ancient Rome came to mind.

Elise wore a simple black dress for the ceremony and basic black heels. She’d worried that she wouldn’t be dressed appropriately, but frankly, Endelle hadn’t seemed to notice what she was wearing or anything else about her.

Her Supremeness smoothed a hand the length of her earring—the same feathered earring that Elise had seen in one of the visions she had recently shut down. The feather was very long, a foot perhaps, and narrow, with the coloring of pheasant. Endelle wore a black ceremonial robe that reached to what Elise knew to be some of Her Supremeness’s favorite footwear: black stilettos. She held a large book in one hand and with the other flipped through the pages.

Elise felt dizzy and overwhelmed. She was ascending, beginning a new life in a new dimension. She would be free to explore her powers in the open and if the itching up and down her back was any indication, she would develop wings in the near future. She couldn’t wait.

“It’s late,” Endelle said, “and my thong is bugging the shit out of me, so let’s get this done.”