Till Death Do Us Part: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Vows Duet Book 1)

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

2,725 Years Ago

Eurydice’s laughter rings out as I give chase and pluck my lyre with a jaunty tune at the same time. I catch sight of naked flesh as she darts through the forest, having already been half-stripped by me before she decided to play her game.

For not quite a full fortnight, since our spontaneous wedding, my wife and I have been inseparable. Our days are filled with games, laughter, and intimate moments, and our evenings mirror the days but take decidedly more erotic turns as we do things under cover of night that we do not act out in the light. After taking my wife’s virginity, she’s been an insatiable little thing.

I stop playing, keeping the notes warm in my chest as I hum them softly, and ensure my lyre is secured to my body by the carrying strap I installed a few days ago, tired of accidentally leaving the instrument abandoned with my attention only on Eurydice. I step lightly, attempting to mask my movement, hunting my prey.

The forest seems to hold its breath as even a nymph—a child of the forest—cannot hide from me.

Squealing when I grab her, Eurydice gives no effort to escape me again, holding onto me instead. One of her breasts is bared proudly, five purple marks circling the plump flesh where my fingers gripped too hard, while the other hides beneath her unraveling tunic. Her mouth finds mine, teasing me with soft kisses and softer declarations of love.

As has been the case for days, teasing turns to something hotter, fiercer, and I cannot stand anything between us a moment longer. I peel her tunic off fully, casting it aside, as Eurydice fumbles with ridding me of my lyre and clothing. The moment our bare skin connects, we both moan, clinging to one another with such fervor that it is hard to believe we have copulated several times a day for twelve days. It is like every encounter, while satisfying, only can tide our cravings to be close and as one for a limited amount of time.

Eurydice watches me, without a single ounce of mistrust, as I lean her back and lower her to the moss covered ground. Tawny hair splayed around her, green eyes shining with love and lust, she appears as divine as the little goddess she is.

I do not rush. I do not hurry to shove my cock into her. I savor the look of her underneath me; trace the curves of her body with my fingers; take my time to appreciate my wife. Once I have had my fill, I shift to her side so I can bring her pleasure.

So I can worship her.

My teeth bite gently into the soft flesh of her ear before my lips trace a path down her neck. I find every ridge of her collarbone, tracing it with my tongue, savoring the taste of her skin, like fresh morning dew on the mulberries we picked for breakfast this morning. She watches me with a soft sigh as I continue my exploration, pressing kisses over the swell of her breasts until I reach the dusky brown nipples.

She squeaks when I bite one of the hardened nubs, just hard enough to elicit a reaction. The second she does, I suck it deep into my mouth, swirling around the point with my tongue at the same time. I mirror the actions on her other breast, rolling the nipple I just played with between my thumb and forefinger.

“Orpheus,” she whimpers, her fingers tugging at my hair when I don’t release the suction I have.

I release her breast with a pop, and when I press my hand down on her belly—a belly that has hopefully filled with our child by now—her legs fall open for me. I shift again, leaning back on an arm so I can watch her face as my hand moves. My fingers drag through the slickness of her perfect cunt, her breath hitching in response, and I press two inside her opening.

Eurydice’s eyes narrow at me when I don’t plunge them straight in, instead taking my sweet time to tease the entrance. I grin when her hips buck, trying to force my hand to do her bidding, and lean down to kiss her. I capture the moan she releases into my mouth when I add a third teasing finger.

But her moan is nothing like the scream I devour when I thrust all three fingers inside her, spreading them, stretching her. My hand is drenched after a few moments of fucking her roughly, our kisses turning to something primal and wild, all tongue and teeth and animal-like grunts and groans.

Tightening around my fingers, Eurydice lurches up with a cry into my neck. Her body convulses, my name spilling from her lips, as she meets the thrusts of my hand with ones of her hips. Her hand catches hold of my shoulder as she rides out her pleasure, holding me close.

Slowly, she settles, her breasts heaving with panted breaths. Collapsing back to the ground with her eyes closed and a wicked smile on her face, she makes a surprised noise when I withdraw my fingers from inside her. There’s no surprise in her expression when her eyes open, finding me settling on top of her, my body firmly planted between her legs.

“Orpheus!” she cries as I line up and slam inside her, her arms wrapping around my neck.

I groan, pressing a kiss to her arm as I rut her on the forest floor like an animal. She holds her legs open wider, giving me the ability to press deeper, our bodies moving together. She sings for me with every thrust, the sound more beautiful than anything I could produce with my voice or my lyre.

Already driven to the point where I’ll be, once again, filling her womb with my seed, I roll. Eurydice groans as I arrange her atop me, ignoring how twigs and rocks dig into my ass.

“Go away,” she mutters, swiping at the air where two bees are buzzing around her head. They fly away as she rises on her knees and rocks back and forth. After a moment of adjustment, she picks up a rhythm, sliding up and down on my cock with wet sounds that echo around us. Leaning forward, her breasts sway in front of my face, tempting me.

I lurch into a sitting position, crushing her breasts against my face, my mouth licking and sucking at her sensitive nipples, my hands gripping the ripe, round mounds roughly.

“Yes!” she keens, hands holding me in place. Her hips jerks and she picks up speed, bouncing hard against me. “Don’t stop!”

The feeling of her cunt ensnaring me as she screams out another release has my cock jerking. I suck harder on the nipple in my mouth as I growl out my own finish. I fill her up until I can feel the warmth seep back out of her, coating both of us. Only when I’ve finished riding out the last waves of my orgasm do I release her breasts.

Eurydice collapses against me, allowing me to hold her tight as she catches her breath. Her fingers dance over my chest, brushing through the hair, and I cannot remember a time I have ever felt more content than these moments of quiet between us.

Suddenly, she jerks in my arms, her spine going rigid. “Someone is watching us,” she gasps.

I glance to where she’s looking and see someone duck out of sight. With a chuckle, I keep hold of her with one arm and drag my tunic closer to us with the other.

“We are in the forest, Eurydice,” I point out, draping the cloth over her, shielding her nakedness from anyone who might be walking through the woods.

She licks her lips, her eyes glued to the spot our watcher was. “It feels…wrong,” she whispers. “Something feels wrong.”

My brows furrow as I study her face. Gone is all the light and happiness. Even her eyes seem to have dimmed to a darker shade of green. Her posture is still rigid, perched on my softened cock, which is barely still tucked inside her.

“Come on, love,” I murmur, brushing my lips over her cheek. “If it would calm you, let’s dress.”

Scurrying off me, she wraps her tunic around herself quickly, her attention never drifting from the spot in the woods as she moves. I’m barely climbing to my feet when she’s fully covered, her arms hugging her own body, her bottom lip being worried by her teeth.

She stands just like that even when I’ve finished dressing and have reunited with my lyre. Touching her elbow, I frown when she jumps at the contact.

“Let’s go,” she urges without laughing off the way I startled her. “Orpheus, something is not setting right. We should go now.”

This serious manner is not my Eurydice. I know that. It causes me to take what she’s saying to heart. Even if it’s nothing but a troublesome satyr getting his rocks off by watching us fuck, she’s upset and I can’t stand it.

Taking her hand firmly, I walk with her, away from the spot she’s been watching. It’ll double the amount of walking time to go this way, but the other option takes us right past where the lurker was hiding. I will not make Eurydice walk that way.

In silence, we walk, her palm sweating as she casts looks over her shoulder. Fear still emanates from her with every step.

“Love,” I soothe, bringing her hand to my lips. “Everything is fine. You’ll see. When we get—”

I stumble to the side, my ears ringing, but Eurydice’s scream drags me out of the fog surrounding my mind. I’m confused all the way until I see Eurydice wrestling to free herself from another man’s grip as he tries to drag her back the way we came.

There is no pain in existence that could stop me from defending what’s mine. Ignoring the stabbing sensation that shoots through my head, I leap forward, slamming into the man as he yanks at my wife. The hit unexpected, it knocks him off his feet, sending him tumbling into foliage around us.

“Orpheus!” Eurydice yells, scrambling to grab me before I go tumbling down with him.

I snatch up her hand as soon as I’m steady, before he can recover. “Run!” I bark, dragging her with me as I force my feet to move. I hear a male voice curse behind us. “Faster, Eurydice!”

We sprint, hand-in-hand, down the path. I can’t hear anything but our own panicked breathing, but I’m not taking the chance that the attacker followed us. Eurydice’s fear is still palpable and I curse myself, even through my panic, for not listening to her when she first noticed someone watching us.

Eurydice’s hand jerks out of mine and I whirl, real fear slamming into me that he caught up with us. But what I find is so much worse.

“No!” I scream, scrambling forward as the nose-horned viper retracts from its strike to her leg.

He pays me no heed, striking Eurydice as she crashes to the ground too close to him, sinking its fangs into her neck. Her mouth hangs open in a soundless scream as she claws at the snake, successfully ripping it from her flesh and casting it away from her.

“No, no, no,” I say frantically, pulling her into my arms. Belatedly, I realize the viper could return, but when I find the wretched thing, it is slithering away into the forest.

“Orpheus,” she chokes out, fighting to reach up with her hand to touch my face. I grab at it, bringing it to my cheek, my tears drenching her skin and mine.

Desperately, I check her wound, my hands shaking as they hover over it, unsure how to fix this. “Help!” I bellow. “We need help! Please! Gods, help us!”

My voice breaks as I beg for anyone to hear me; to come save my wife.

“Orpheus,” she whispers, somehow calmer. When I look into her eyes, I can see the defeat and the regret. “Sing for me,” she requests, wheezing through her pain and injury, her neck already swelling, the punctures turning black from the venom.

“I—I can’t,” I rasp, sobbing. “Do not leave me, Eurydice! You are my life!”

Her body goes limp, a rattling noise coming from her chest. “I will always find you,” she promises, her broken voice no louder than a whisper. Those eyes—those beautiful green eyes that first drew her to me—are haunted by pain and death as they gaze into mine. “I would die a thousand deaths if it meant I found you every time. My Orpheus.”

I feel the way life extinguishes out of her with that last declaration, the hand I hold against my cheek still suddenly weighing too much. The world itself seems to stop as a garbled scream claws its way out of my chest, my grief a god that not even the birds dare defy with a chirp.

Eurydice is dead, and now I have lost my reason to live.