Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Shay
We walked back into our room to spend one last night—my parents insisted on a homecoming celebration to be held tomorrow, and after all we’d been through and all I’d learned? Well, I was willing to stay an extra day for a little more time with them.
The second Dirge shut the door behind us, his hands were on me, and I forgot all about the outside world.
I was just as eager to get my hands on him after what we’d both been through.
But in the back of my mind, there was a niggling reminder that I had to grant him access to my immortality.
It sounded like it should be easy, given the bond we already shared.
But there was no manual for these things, and the fae powers?
They were still new and mostly untried. Flying?
Holy shit, that was something else. One moment, I’d been plummeting toward certain death; the next, it felt like a nuclear bomb had gone off inside my chest. Power ripped through me, everything burned, and then I was soaring.
In one second, I went from who I had been before to who I was now. There was no other way to wrap my head around it.
But that new energy buzzing in my veins was practically clawing at me to get closer to my mate, and I was happy to oblige.
Maybe we needed a little physical connection to make the magical connection?
Stranger things had happened, and I’d learned early on to trust the wolf, trust the pull, and lean into the bond when I felt like this.
Dirge pressed me up against the wall, devouring my lips with his own as if he felt the same pull I did.
He peeled my shirt over my head with practiced ease, tossing it to the ground in a rumpled heap as I quickly did the same with his.
The press of velvet skin was heady, and within minutes, we’d both stripped each other bare, reveling in the feeling of coming home.
Because that was what Dirge was for me—home. We could be in any realm, and as long as I was with him, I was home and safe.
His fingertips delved between my soaking folds as he continued to kiss me, mimicking with lips and tongue what his fingers were doing to my core, driving me wild with every touch, every stroke.
It didn’t take long for me to fall apart in his arms, succumbing to the pleasure he stoked with joyful determination.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured against my neck as he held me, letting me breathe for a moment. “I’ll never get tired of watching you fall apart, no matter how many centuries we spend together.”
“All of them,” I promised, nipping his bottom lip as I pressed back, urging him toward the massive bed. He went easily, gripping my waist tightly as if he was still afraid I was going to disappear. I pushed back on his chest, but he shook his head, not letting me chase him back onto the bed.
“Not this time, love,” he growled, the low, promising sound making me clench in all the right places.
“Anything you want,” I whispered teasingly against his lips, egging him on. Dirge was usually easy to please in bed, and anything I wanted, he wanted. But every now and then, he craved more intensity, and I was always more than happy to give it to him.
He growled again, then lifted me by the backs of my thighs and stepped up onto the mattress with his knees, carrying me across it to the headboard.
It was fancy, carved out of something shiny and most likely expensive.
But it had horizontal rails, and he spun me, leaving me on my knees facing the headboard.
His hands guided mine to a rail at about shoulder height, and as he dropped a heated kiss on my bare shoulder, he said, “Don’t let go. ”
I was breathless with anticipation as he positioned himself behind me, lifting my hips to exactly where he wanted them. He plunged inside with a single stroke, making me lose my breath with the glorious, all-consuming stretch as he sank in to the hilt.
His fingertips dented my hips as he held me, fucking me deeply with every frantic stroke, as if he couldn’t bear to leave me for more than a few seconds at a time.
Teeth came down to scrape over that first mating mark he’d given me through our shared dreams, and I shuddered, arching my neck further, encouraging him to do whatever he wanted with me.
He nipped and kissed and teased that spot even as he kept up a brutal pace with his hips, snapping against mine with punishing perfection.
“Dirge.” His name was a breathless plea on my lips, for what, I didn’t even know. But pleasure and power were building to unbearable heights in my chest, and I was about to go mad with it all.
It wanted out. It wanted him.
He reached down and circled my clit with talented fingers a second before he struck, biting me again and snapping our bond to rigid attention between us.
The orgasm took me, body and soul, and it felt like I was flying above myself as the bond in our chests burned brighter than ever before.
Silver flames licked along the golden threads, chasing the bond to my mate, engulfing him in the white light of my fae magic as he roared out his own release, muscles tensing and back arched with the force of it.
And then the magic settled, floating down like feathers and curling to rest in my chest like a snoozy cat, ready for a nap.
Dirge must have felt something similar, because his head dropped to my shoulder, and his arms came around my waist in a sweaty hug. “Did you just… Was that…?”
“Immortality?”
He nodded silently against my skin.
“I think so. We can ask my mom tomorrow. I think she’ll be able to tell.”
“Tomorrow,” he agreed. “Right now? You’re mine. I’m not letting you out of my sight, ever again.”
He was still rock hard where he’d slid out to rest against my thigh, and I chuckled. “Impatient much?”
“For you? Always.”
He kissed me again, and I turned, pressing his back to the mattress as I slid on top of him for round two.
“Always.”