Page 62 of Dark Princess Ascending

He kissed her again, deeply, passionately, and as she melted into the kiss, he drew back and, with one forceful thrust, plunged all the way in.

For a split second, the pain was almost blinding in its intensity, and Morelle cried out, but then the pain was gone, and only a stretching sensation remained.

They were finally joined, and it felt incredible.

"Are you okay?" he whispered in her ear.

"Yes. Just give me a moment."

She counted to ten in her head, and when she reached the last digit, the discomfort was gone, replaced by an almost frantic need to have him move inside of her.

She wrapped her arms around him and bucked up slightly, letting him know that she was ready.

He lifted his head and looked at her, and when he was satisfied that she was fine, he withdrew andthrust again, and this time, there was no pain, only pleasure.

She moaned and lifted her hips to meet the next thrust and the next, and the one after that.

"It feels so good," she murmured in his ear, giving him permission to let go.

Her words snapped Brandon's restraint, and he turned rougher. Grabbing her bottom in both hands, he lifted her and held her in place as he drove harder and deeper with every stroke.

It was glorious, and soon she was racing toward another climax.

When she screamed his name, he hissed and clamped his hand over her head, twisting it sideways. He swiped his tongue over the spot he was about to bite, and he struck, sinking his fangs into her flesh.

She didn't even feel the incisions, and as the venom hit her body, she climaxed again and again, and then she soared.

37

JASMINE

Jasmine paced the length of her and Ell-rom's bedroom, her phone clutched in her sweaty hand. The number was already pulled up on the screen—she just needed to press the call button. Simple as that.

Except it wasn't simple at all.

She hadn't spoken to her father in over a year, and their last conversation had been...well, typical. He'd criticized her career choices, her lifestyle, the men she dated, and her entire existence, really. And now she needed to call him and ask about using his hunting cabin in hopes of getting him there alone so she could interrogate him about her mother with the help of a Guardian.

"Just call him," Ell-rom said softly from the couch. "What can he do to you over the phone?

She shot him a look. "Make me feel worthless, stupid, a colossal disappointment."

He rose to his feet and pulled her into his arms. "He can say whatever he wants, but none of that is true, and you know it. You are a wonderful and incredibly gifted person, both paranormally and normally. You are also gorgeous, kind, and loving, and you make everyone around you feel good, unlike your father, who seems to thrive on making everyone around him miserable."

"Thank you." She kissed his cheek. "You always know the right things to say."

"I only say the truth." He let her pull out of his arms. "Anything else I can do to help?"

Jasmine shook her head, running her fingers through her hair. "Unless you can magically make my father less judgmental or give me ideas for what I'm going to tell him about my life. I'm no longer acting and working in customer service, and I'm no longer living in the apartment I've been renting for years."

"Actually..." Ell-rom rubbed a hand over his jaw. "I have an idea." He took her hand and led her to the couch. "How about working for Perfect Match? They're known for their secrecy, right? You could say you're training in their secret location."

The idea appealed to her. "That's perfect. I can evade all his questions by saying that I signed a nondisclosure agreement and I can't tell him anything. Then I can say that I'm about to finish the training program and would like to spend aweekend in the cabin with a great guy I met there. A software engineer. He's going to love that."

Ell-rom chuckled. "What's this special someone's name?"

"Eli." The name slipped out without conscious thought. "Eli Romulus. It's close enough to Ell-rom that I won't slip up but common enough not to raise questions."

"I like it." He wrapped an arm around her. "See? You've got this. A perfectly reasonable cover story that explains everything without revealing anything."