Free Pure Healing by Aja James

jumped reflexively, and Valerius could not hold back a gasp at the contact, his face contorting in a different kind of pain.
“But we both know the test you would fail,” Rain continued as if they were having a casual conversation. “So why wait until tomorrow to meet your fate? Let us end the madness today.”
Her eyelids lowered in a sleepy swoop, and her hands spread wide on his pectorals. Slowly, leisurely, they roamed over his naked flesh, around his shoulders, his collar bone, his throat, jaw, cheeks and brows. By the time they were winding their way back down again, Valerius had forgotten how to breathe.
It did not escape Rain, as she delved into a detailed exploration of the Protector’s body, that he was in excruciating pain. His body gave off waves of anguish far greater than when she’d literally set him afire. But she would not relent. This was not simply a point to prove. It would be better for them both if he withdrew his application.
She didn’t know why, but she feared the
consequences down to her very soul if he didn’t.
Methodically, her small hands glided back over his sweat-dampened chest, her thumbs pausing to rub softly over his pebble-hard nipples. His stomach sucked in at the touch, then pushed back out as he released a shuddering breath.
She drew a path over his ribs, counted the iron ridges of his abdomen, trailed a finger down the deep groove bisecting his middle to his navel and further down to the fold of towel tucked low around his hips.
Like a hunted animal caught in a trap, Valerius’ pupils dilated with fear and pain, but he could not shut his eyes against his impending doom.
He could not fail. He would not fail. Please, Goddess, don’t let him fail!
With a gentle pull, his last covering fell away, and his body was bared completely before her. There was a moment of hesitation as she drank him in, and then her hands were back on his body, one hand sliding up his torso to the back of his neck, the other resting lightly on his hip.
“Shall I give you a taste of what’s in store?” Rain asked softly, her breath warm against his skin. “Will a glimpse of your life for the next thirty days convince you to retreat?”
The hand on the back of his neck exerted only the smallest pressure, but it was enough to bend his head down closer to hers.
“Shall I show you what it means to Serve me, warrior?” she whispered against his ear, as the hand at his hip curved inward to grasp his penis, already painfully erect.
Valerius could not prevent the moan that escaped.
He was on fire. He was on ice. His body vibrated with tension as he struggled to control it. His muscles strained so hard the steel restraints creaked in protest.
She stretched upwards until she was on tiptoes and brushed her lips against his throat, once, twice, wetting the throbbing vein there with her breath.
“It is not too late to back out,” she tempted him, grazing her elongated fangs over his tender skin the same time that she squeezed his staff firmly in her fist and pumped it once hard.
Valerius’ breath came in harsh bursts, and to his utter shame and defeat, his eyes blurred with tears. They would not fall, he thought fiercely. He would not fall!
“Just tell me to stop,” she urged him, the hand at his neck kneading the bunched muscles there in silent persuasion. “You can end your torment right now.”
He never knew what it cost him, but somehow he turned his face closer to hers, pushing the vein at his throat tighter against the sharp tips of her fangs.
“No,” he answered her, his deep voice quiet but firm. He would not back down. Not then, more than two millennia ago, and not now.
“So be it.”
The words hissed from her lips a moment before her fangs penetrated his skin, inserting deep into his vein. With her first long pull, Valerius’ body began to transform.
His muscles seemed to enlarge and tighten, standing out in stark relief, each sinew and line sharply defined. His veins pushed out against his skin,