Free Pure Healing by Aja James Page B

taking this trial too far, even farther than the trial of pain and endurance. But she was addicted. One taste of him and she could not stop.
Just a little longer, she thought as she continued to suckle him hungrily. She’d been starved for far too long.
Valerius’ body strained for release. The pressure within him was so intense every cell ached. Even the roots of his hair hurt. Instinct had taken over, and all he wanted was to get inside of her, fill her to the brim with his blood, his seed. He’d never, ever, felt this way, not even in his dreams. For the first time in his long, stoic existence, he yearned for something more. Not for his people, not for the world he protected, but for himself. He wanted to matter.
To her.
On a shuddering breath, Rain withdrew from him all too soon, her hands and lips reluctantly releasing his still swollen cock. It bobbed in protest when she took her touch away and jutted toward her as if begging her to suckle some more.
Shakily, she stood up but kept her head bowed, her hands held demurely in front of her as if she were suddenly embarrassed.
He could see that her face was flushed from passion, and her body all but hummed for more of him. But before he could offer himself once more, she said quietly, “I choose you.”
With a flick of her hand, his restraints came undone. He rubbed his wrists absent-mindedly, barely registering that they were raw and chafed from his struggles as his body conformed to her needs.
Her head still bowed, she said in the same soft voice, “I choose you, but on one condition.”
Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet his. “You must never fall in love with me, for I will never fall in love with you. Over the course of the Phoenix Cycle you will Serve me as a Mate serves his female. But I will not return the same to you. You will feel ever unfulfilled, even when you find sexual release. You will always hover painfully between want and completion. You will grow weaker with each passing day, as if you are dying, but at the end of the thirty days, you will gradually recover.”
She moved away from him to take a long white robe from a side table and handed it to him to cover himself. The soft terry cloth of the robe felt oddly abrasive against his still sensitized skin as he shrugged into it and tied the belt at his waist.
“With your healing abilities, I imagine you will recover far more quickly than others.” But even as she said so, Rain sounded hesitant and worried. “As long as you don’t fall in love,” she added so quietly he almost didn’t hear.
Abruptly, she squared her shoulders and met his eyes again. Her next words stunned him even as he felt soothed by them.
“I’m sorry for pushing you too far,” she said, though he didn’t know precisely to what she referred, the second trial or the third just now. “I’m sorry for being cruel. I-I don’t know what came over me. But I have been harsh and unfair with you and I am neither.”
She bowed her head again and whispered, “I know you are doing this out of some misguided sense of duty, I know you don’t want to be here, that you despise being touched.”
He tried to reach out to her, but she moved away. “I want you anyway. I have no pride where you’re concerned. And apparently, after two thousand five hundred years, no self-control either.”
He began to shake his head. She was not at fault. He was the one with the demons to overcome. And when he was with Rain, he felt he could finally have a hope, a chance of putting them behind him.
“I will try not to make this more difficult for you than it has to be,” she continued, not seeing his expression. “Perhaps we don’t need to…” she waved her hand around as if expecting the air to fill in the words. Finally she said, “perhaps we can avoid intercourse unless…”
She darted a glance at his impassive face and couldn’t finish her thought.
“Well,” she finally said. “You should rest as much as you can over the next day. For the