"Not exactly."
He leaned back against the wall behind him, completely relaxed, her weight in his lap, cock buried inside her like it was the most natural place in the world for it to be.
"I think I already have too many women gathered at this point." His tone was conversational. Genuinely conversational. "Iâd probably need some time just to remember everyoneâs names."
Elenaâs eye twitched.
Just slightly. At the corner. The very controlled, very contained twitch of a woman exercising enormous restraint.
"So." Her voice came out dangerously even. "You are forgetting the names of the women youâre sleeping with."
"Is that wrong?"
She stared at him.
His hand moved from her breast. Slid down, across the soft plane of her stomachâshe felt every inch of his palm tracking over her skinâand pressed down over the soft mound just above where his cock disappeared inside her. His fingers spread, and then the pad of his thumb found her clit, pressing over it in a slow, firm circle through nothing but her own slick skin.
âOh.â
The sensation hit like a current. Elenaâs lips parted. Her hips stuttered forward the smallest amount, chasing his thumb without permission from her brain.
"Hmmâ" A soft, smothered sound escaped her. "ânghâĄ..."
His thumb kept moving. Slow, relentless circles. She could feel his cock inside her shifting with the smallest clench of her inner walls every time the pleasure spiked.
The pale moonlight spilled over them both, catching on the milky white swell of her breasts, tracing the soft curves until her pink nipples stood out, stiff and glistening faintly in the cool silver light.
"...No," she finally said. Her voice was breathier than she wanted it to be. "Just do whatever you want." She exhaled, hips rocking in a small, helpless rhythm against his thumb. "Iâll support you either way."
Ravenâs dark eyes moved to her face.
"Really."
Not a question. He was reading her.
Elena met his gaze. Her hands pressed flat against his chest, feeling his heartbeatâsteady and slow under her palms while hers was doing considerably less composed things.
"I donât have anyone." Her voice was quiet now. Honest in a way she didnât let herself be very often. "I never really did." Her thumb absently traced a line across his chest. "And whatever I am nowâwhatever this body is, whatever you made meâIâd rather have this life than whatever I had before." A pause. "So yes. Either way. Whatever you decide."
Raven was quiet for a moment.
His thumb never stopped moving.
"If I told you," he said slowly, "that youâre not from this world. That you never were." His voice was light. Almost amused. "Would you believe me?"
Elena tilted her head. Her neck arched naturally, offeringâthe old reflex, offering her throat to him in the same easy motion sheâd do it a hundred more times before the night ended.
He took the invitation. His lips pressed to the curve of her throat, not biting, just warm and present.
"I had doubts," she admitted. Her fingers slid up to curl loosely in his hair. "Certain things never added up. The way my body changed, the things I could doânone of it matched anything Iâd ever been told about the world." Her thumb stroked his nape. "But I didnât think about it much. What could I do with that information? Nothing. So I set it aside."
Raven lifted his head. One brow climbed.
"Huh." A short, genuine laugh. "I thought at the very least you were a naive woman."
He bit her ear.
Just the lobeâteeth catching the soft flesh, a sharp little nip that made her gasp and her hips jerk forward.
"Mnnphâ!" Her nails dug into his scalp, the muffled little sound vibrating against his skin.
"Naive, my ass," she shot back, voice half-swallowed by the sensation. "I just did what I could with what I had." Her jaw set. "Thatâs not naivety. Thatâs survival."
Raven released her ear, lips curving against the side of her face.
He said nothing. Which was agreement enough.
Elena shifted on his lapâa deliberate roll of her hips, taking him a fraction deeper, feeling that thick stretch readjust inside her. Her breath came out unevenly.
"Either way." She cleared her throat. "What do you plan to do with Kira? Are we staying in this city orâ"
"No."
His hands moved to her ass. Both of them. Palms spreading wide, fingers digging into each soft cheek and gripping them the way a man grips handlesâfirm, purposeful, kneading the flesh in slow, deep rolls that moved her on his cock in a lazy, grinding rock.
âSchlk... schlk...â
"You did the hard work." His thumbs pressed into the crease between her cheeks, spreading her slightly as he rocked her forward and back. "So Iâll at least go taste what you prepared."
Elenaâs thighs tensed.
"Just taste?"
"Fuck her once." His grip tightened, kneading deeper. "If sheâs worth itâ" his eyes met hers, dark and entirely certain of himself, "âIâll make her like you."
Elena processed that.
A slow smile spread across her mouth. Small and wicked and deeply satisfied.
"A vampire slut," she said.
Raven looked at her.
"Oh." A low, delighted note in his voice. "So you even know your own name."
"What did you think I was?" Her chin lifted. The smile sharpened. "Iâve known what I am for a long time."
âShe felt it before the words were even done.â
Deep in her belly. That coiling heat that had been building through every slow grind of his hands on her ass, every lazy roll of his cock inside her walls, every press of his thumb over her clitâit crested suddenly, without warning. The moonlight kissed the milky skin of her breasts again, making her pink nipples tighten even more as the wave hit.
Her whole lower body seized.
Her pussy clenched around him in hard, rhythmic spasms, and sheâ
"HahââaHHâAAHNGH~~ââĄâĄâ"
âsquirted.
Hot and messy, flooding between their joined hips, soaking his lap, her inner thighs, the concrete beneath them in a rush that didnât stop until she was shaking, thighs locked rigid around him, both hands gripping his shoulders hard enough to leave marks. A soft, muffled moan slipped from her lips against his collarbone, "mmph...âĄ"
Her head dropped forward. Breathing. Just breathing.
"After..." she started, voice barely above a whisper, wet and wrecked. "After youâve made my body react like âthisââ" She laughed once, short and helpless. "âevery time youâre near meâof course I know what I am."
She lifted her head.
Crimson eyes glowing soft and ruined and wholly his in the silver moonlight.
Raven looked at her. The mess between them. The flush of her skin, the ruin of her lipstick, the way her heavy breasts rose and fell with every shaking exhale, nipples still stiff and pink, catching the cold night air.
That slow, crooked smile.
"Yeah." His voice was warm. Low. Completely unbothered by the soaked state of his own lap.
His hand came up and tucked a damp strand of red hair behind her ear. The gesture was almost gentle.
"You really are a bitch, Elena."
She held his gaze.
And smiled like it was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever called her.
"Mmh~ Yeah?"
"Yeah."