Resting Witch Face (Stay a Spell, #5)

by Juliette Cross

He turned and walked away, but not before I saw a single tear escape and fall down his face.

“When we dated, when we broke up, I wasn’t the woman I am now.” He said nothing, holding perfectly still, the moonlight gilding his blond hair silver and contouring the sharp angles of his beautiful face.

He didn’t say it with sarcasm or pity but as a fact. Like he’d been waiting to have this conversation a long time and had the facts at his fingertips. Perhaps he had.

His chest rose and fell faster, his breaths quickening. “I might’ve bitten you. Back then, had you asked me to,” he admitted, which somehow eased the pain of the loss of time. “But I won’t now. Not ever.”

I had no intentions of toying with him, and I’d fully expected him to follow me. The fact that he still didn’t understand that I was as bewitched as he was surprised the hell out of me.

“I’ll take anything you’ll give me.”

“I’ll beg at your feet for a pathetic glance, a simple touch.” He coasted his open mouth across my belly, searing me through the thin fabric of my gown. “I’ll be your slave. Anything you want, Juliana. Just put me out of my goddamn misery.”

This time, I wouldn’t be relieving myself the way I had for over a decade. I’d be right where I belonged when I came tonight.

“This fine body, this brilliant mind, this tender soul, it’s all fucking mine. And no man will ever touch you again.”

Somewhere on the normal plane of my consciousness, I was also aware that she didn’t even know the depth of our connection yet and perhaps wasn’t prepared for my demands. But there was no way I could pretend for one second longer that she wouldn’t always be mine from this moment forward.

She’d let me back in, and I’d kill any man who tried to take her from me now. I’d die myself before I let that happen.

“Say, ‘Yes, Ruben.’” My fangs were painfully sharp. I scraped the tips right under her jaw along her neck without breaking ...

“Mine,” I whispered around my sharpened canines, my blood burning and mind hazing at the unfathomable pleasure of being so deep inside her. “Fucking finally,” I ground out.

“No getting away from me this time, Juliana.” Another deep thrust and circle of my hips, then back to stroking out all the way to my tip and driving hard back in. “You’re going to take me. Every inch of me. Every single one.”

The primitive need kept driving me on, urging me to take, take, take what was mine. What she’d kept from me. Somewhere in my brain, I was concerned I might bruise her too much, but the beast inside me wouldn’t relent. He wasn’t yet satisfied.

I’d never made these sorts of demands when we were together before. Of course, I’d never taken a twelve-year hiatus from sex because my mate had denied me. Now I needed her to yield to me exactly as I pleased.

She wouldn’t give me her blood, but she would give me her body precisely as I demanded it. The vampire who owned my body, heart, and soul required his mate in full bodily surrender.

Though the urge was near painful to sink my teeth in and drink her blood, I wouldn’t ever cross a line that would separate her from me. Never again.

“As my queen commands.”

Ruben had always liked to suck on my skin. A vampire thing, I suppose. And since he couldn’t mark me with his teeth, he left the next best thing. He was one-hundred percent leaving visible signs for anyone to see that I was well and truly taken.

“I’ll try to be gentler, but I have to warn you, I will be on you as often as possible for a while, making up for lost time.”

He seemed in a trance, his warm palms never stopping their slow movements. It was delightful. “What are you doing?” I teased. “Petting me?” His expression remained grave, serious. “For so long, I was forbidden from touching you. Now I don’t want to stop.”

“I’ve missed you,” I admitted with heady emotion. His metallic gaze shot to mine. I couldn’t say aloud how deeply I felt for him. I knew I was falling for real this time, not into a frenzied, manic obsession, but into a strong, powerful connection.

To be truthful, I’d been falling for him all this time, especially in the last few years when we seemed to constantly be working together. I fought against my own heart, but he’d been seducing me slowly back into his arms.

“I know myself better now. And I know what I want. Who I want.”

But I couldn’t say it, couldn’t admit it yet. Because I knew if I lost him this time, it would kill me.

When he pressed his forehead to mine, his eyes were closed, and I could feel the overwhelming emotion radiating outward.

“One thing you don’t understand about most vampires, darling, is that we are more animalistic than even the werewolves. Trust me when I tell you that I need you to do this. Wear my scent, and I might not maim or kill one of my own men when they get too close to you today.”

I’d never recognized this level of possessiveness when Isadora and Devraj started dating, but she’d also fallen fairly fast into his arms. I was fairly sure this level of Ruben’s dominance I was seeing was because of our long separation and his desperation to keep me.

He didn’t have to worry about me going anywhere this time, but I also wanted to give him what he wanted. What h...

Roland was a mountainous behemoth of a vampire, the scariest of Ruben’s men, especially with his clean-shaven head, giant, squared jaw, and the neck tattoos. But he was actually the most approachable and kindest of the three of them. A gentle giant once you got to know him.

“I’m insanely jealous and possessive where you’re concerned, and now that I’m permitted to show it to the world, I’m not holding my feelings back anymore.”

He looked like a little boy, nuzzling his cheek against the back of my hand with that glint in his eye. A sweet, naughty little boy. Smiling, I basked in the luxurious pleasure of being the center of Ruben’s affection for a moment, then I got back to business.

After all these years of thinking he’d been plowing through the beautiful women of New Orleans, he hadn’t been. His expression sobered, but not in a sad way, as he inched his head lower to mine. “The last woman I was with was you, so I know I don’t have anything.”

“I’m sorry, Ruben.” My voice was rusty with the emotion climbing up my throat, the apology sounding pathetic and not near enough. He didn’t say it was alright or give me platitudes like it didn’t matter. Because it had mattered. Being with another man had sickened me, shamed me. So much so that I never even tried with anyone else.

Ruben didn’t speak, but held me, watched me. So I went on and confessed a little more of my shame.

“But they aren’t soulmates.”

“No, Juliana. I mean true mates.” Werewolves and vampires—and actually grims, too, now that Livvy had told me of their ancestry—knew their mates by scent. For vampires, it was the scent of blood. Ruben had never drank my blood, but I knew as well as he did that he could smell it without actually tasting me. A mate in the supernatural world meant two halves of the same whole.

If this was true, that Ruben was mine, then yes, I’d become sick. It was like cutting a piece of myself away by laying with another person.

“What changed to make you realize it?” “I tried to date again. Like you did with Carter.” A stabbing sensation ripped me from the inside out as I clutched my hands into his shoulders. “I don’t want to hear.” I closed my eyes. “Sweetheart.” He cupped my cheeks gently. “Look at me.” I opened my eyes.

“I wish I’d gotten that sort of sign.” “You did. With Carter.” When a sob erupted from my throat, he pulled my head back to his chest.

I cried with shaking, wracking sobs. I’d never cried like this before. I’d never even let my emotions take hold of me like this before. “I’m so sorry, Ruben.” I curled my fingers into his shirt while I soaked the expensive fabric with my tears. “I’m so fucking sorry.” I hiccoughed like a child.

“Afraid?” I finally looked up at him, his ocean-blue eyes swimming with uncertainty. “Of what?” “That maybe it wouldn’t matter if I’d told you I knew you were my mate. Perhaps you’d decided I wasn’t worth the trouble regardless.” “Oh, Ruben.”

When we started working together when Mateo was cursed with that hex and with that vampire blood-trafficking ring and you didn’t seem repulsed by my presence, I thought”—he shrugged, his brow pinching with sorrow—“maybe I still had a chance.”

That’s when I finally started to hope.” “How did I look at you?” “Like you’d been waiting for me, too. Like you were afraid and excited and hopeful all at the same time. Like I was.”

Cocooned in his arms next to his body, I did something I hadn’t done in years, perhaps in my whole adult life. I let someone else carry the burden of caring for me and keeping me safe and secure and warm.

I never knew how lovely it could feel to set all my worries aside and let someone else carry the weight for a little while. I’d actually experienced this in small degrees when we had dated. But I’d been too preoccupied, worrying and planning my transition as coven leader. Even then, I couldn’t let go of the reins long enough to simply enjoy being cared for. Being adored and, most importantly, loved.

As Ruben coasted a soothing palm over my head and hair, I cherished this blooming bond. So lovely and sweet. I didn’t have the old feelings of insecurity about my place in the world to stop me.

I wanted a partner. An equal. I wanted my soulmate. My deep, true love. And I wanted him at my side, always, from this day forward. Sighing contentedly, I pressed my lips to his neck, inhal...

“You remember the day we broke up, and you told me you hoped I’d feel the regret, that I’d feel half the pain you did.” He clung to me tighter and didn’t say anything. “Well, I do. And it hurts a lot, Ruben.”