CHAPTER 50 MAX
T hat night, I can’t sleep. I pace the living room, occasionally glancing down to make sure Port’s still asleep. Every time I see his mouth half-open, taking soft, low breaths, my heart clenches in my chest.
Everything today went perfectly. Sex was, frankly, amazing. Mili didn’t get claimed by Kar. My perpetual emotional armor is slowly being chipped away, and I don’t even mind ... much.
Why, then, can’t I sleep?
The bedroom door slowly creaks open, and I whip around to see Mili creeping into the living room, oozing of sex. She stops short when she sees me, and I find myself standing a little taller under her gaze.
She makes me want to be brave, I think. I actually shake my head to clear the sudden, tender thought away, and she smiles softly at my strange motion. I roll my eyes at her, but point to the front door, a silent question. She smirks back and nods, then the two of us walk quietly together outside.
“I’m glad it’s not just me,” Mili whispers, once we’re standing a few paces from the door.
I sigh. “Me too. You still shaken up from today?”
“I tried not to be, but it didn’t work.” A dry chuckle escapes me, as she shrugs, smiling bitterly. “I’ve never been attacked like that. Ever.”
A chill runs through me. She talked about everything that happened once the White Warlock, Kar, psychically transported her ... but not before. “What exactly happened, Mili?”
“If I talk about it, I don’t know if I’ll ever leave the house again.” She laughs, but it’s hollow. I glance sidelong at her, struck by the sudden sense that I’m looking in a mirror.
I weigh my words carefully, but eventually say, “That bitterness –that hollow fear you’re feeling?”
“What about it?” she sighs.
“It will eat you alive if you let it.”
Mili groans and covers her face with her hands. Before I realize what I’m doing, I rest a hand on her back, right between her shoulder blades. She sighs and lifts one hand to rest on my knee. An air of quiet intimacy fills the space between us, and my breath catches.
Eventually, the faery turns to me and says, “Max, can I ask you a question?”
I shrug. “I guess.”
“You might not like it. Actually, I know you won’t like it.”
“Ha!” I cough out, smiling softly. “Well, since you’re being honest, I’ll allow it.”
She exhales heavily and asks, “What hurt you so badly?”
“Ah ... that.” I frown, but she shows no signs of relenting –her gaze bores into me, all genuine care and concern, and I find myself continuing. “You know the Eastern Realms where Chrysthinia hails from?” Mili nods. “Well, I’m from there, too. My father was a shifter, and my mother was a warlock. Neither of them were good people, not by any means.
“I grew up wild and alone. The desert raised me, so I learned the world’s cruel indifference before anything else. The sand and the Sun –they don’t care whether a small shifter lives or dies. I took that to heart, especially in combination with my parents’ rage and violence.”
Mili frowns, and I force out a small smile to reassure her. “I’m okay because I fled, but it didn’t come without a price. Port and I met on the run, though he’ll have to tell you his side of the story another day.”
“Of course,” Mili interrupts, gently squeezing my knee. “You can only speak for yourself.”
I sigh in relief. “Exactly. I wouldn’t want to –I know how I’d feel if someone was speaking before me, so I’d never want to do that to him.” Mili nods her understanding, and I continue. “We became assassins eventually, after a few years as paid vigilantes. Following that sort of noble pursuit ... it never earns you enough to put food on the table. As a result, we spent a few years making enemies, breaking vows, and living callously in hopes of building a better life for ourselves.”
“That’s how you met Cory?” she asks. “You were running away?”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “I’m not proud of it – of needing him– but we were desperate. We wanted to put that life behind us.”
Then, with no warning, Mili throws her arms around me and buries her head in my neck. My eyes widen with surprise at first, but the smell of her cinnamon and chocolate scent brings me so much peace that it’s easy to wrap my arms around her, too.
“I’ll never let that happen to you again,” she announces. She speaks with such determination that I almost believe her.
She tightens her arms around me and I let her. I never let anyone but Port touch me like this –it’s strange, new. Her scent is quickly becoming my greatest temptation, and I feel myself hardening in my pants. Gods, not now , I think to myself. Realm save me if I ruin this moment with my lack of control.
Mili must sense me tense up, because she pulls back to gaze into my eyes, worry coating her features. She’s so beautifulin the dark blue of night, her hazel eyes glimmering in the faint light. I wonder, would it be so bad to give in, just this once? Would it be so wicked to relinquish some control, to watch her give in to me?
Realm forgive me, I can’t help but kiss her.
She makes a small squeak of surprise when I press my lips to hers, confident and firm. Can I really be blamed for wanting her? She’s intoxicating; I need to have her, again and again.
It’s bound to be different with Port –we’re partners in crime, literally, and he has a way of catching me off guard. I have no control with him, no sway. But with Mili? With the faery, I feel ... powerful.
I’m not an alpha like Cory, I know that much, but that doesn’t mean I have to bend to the faery’s every whim. If I want her, and she wants me, I can have her. I can make her gasp, make her moan, make her scream with anticipation.
I catch her lower lip in my teeth and she whimpers as she crawls onto my lap. Any shyness of my growing erection is gone with the realization that Mili needs me, perhaps as badly as I need her.
What an honor to make this faery quiver with desperate arousal. She whines and grinds against me, and my cock jumps at the thought of her already slick with desire.
I grip the back of her waist and pull her down, hard, and she whines loudly and presses her groin on my hard bulge. I growl ferociously as I feast on her lips, bucking my hips against her as she grinds.
The friction between us grows quickly, every thrust of our hips together threatening to destroy my composure completely. Realm’s Mother, this faery –there’s no one like her, is there? The urge to watch her lose herself to her pleasure, to watch her folds spread again for me, is overwhelming.
“Mili,” I groan.
“Yes?” she rasps out.
I nip her lower lip and ask, “Would you like me to make you come?”
She immediately moans and presses down harder, and I roll us over so I’m on top. I yank her pants down with my teeth and let her frantically finger herself, drinking in the sight of her flicking her clit with raw desperation.
After a moment of watching Mili writhe and gasp, I dive down and begin to devour her. She immediately cries out, and I throw a hand over her mouth. She hisses against my palm, and I grin against her opening before flicking my tongue inside it.
The taste of her is like nothing I could have imagined. She’s warm, more than anything, and slick on my tongue. I allow myself to moan quietly, a low hum in my throat, as I lose everything to this moment.
I push my tongue in a sharp circle, and she bucks her hips up so aggressively I have to hold them to the ground with my free hand. She continues crying out, the sound muffled by my hand.
“Don’t make too much noise,” I whisper. “You don’t want to get caught, do you?”
She moans softly at that, shaking her head softly, and I swipe upwards in one long stroke until I hit her clit. She whines and grinds against my mouth, nearly suffocating me with her sex, and I lick fervently to push her right to the edge.
I hear her whine something that sounds like, oh, godsdamnit!, then she comes on my face, her clitoris throbbing under my lips as I suck her softly through the orgasm.
When I pull back, rubbing her thighs gently, her eyes are closed and her breathing heavy. I rest my heavy hands on her thighs, careful not to overstimulate her, and feel a smirk creep up on my face as she pants.
After a second, I whisper, “I’ve been told I’m very good at that.”
In response, she giggles through her heavy sighs and looks down at me. “You could say that,” she sighs, voice dazed and giddy.
I have the urge to get up and kiss her, which never happens –but this is different than the usual, isn’t it? Refusing to let my fears bind me any longer, I push myself up to her lips and give her a gentle peck. It’s the softest I’ve ever kissed anyone, besides Port, and I immediately worry she’ll hate it.
My fears subside as she murmurs happily, “That was nice.”
“Yeah,” I smile. “It was.”