Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Joy
Enzo stood before me, his skin gleaming with a fine sheen of sweat that traced the contours of his shoulders and chest. The rose tattoo climbing up his neck unfurled its petals against his pulse, crimson ink stark against his throat.
When he moved, light caught the ridges of his abdomen, casting shadows that drew my eye downward to where he was hard and ready.
Heat bloomed across my skin as desire coursed through me, pooling low in my belly.
I spread my fingers wide against the door, bracing myself for what was about to come.
But instead of slipping his flesh inside me, Enzo knelt before me, his dark eyes looking up with hungry devotion.
The first touch of his warm tongue against my sensitive folds sent ripples of pleasure through my body.
I quivered uncontrollably, my fingers digging into the firm muscles of his shoulders to keep from collapsing.
His tongue moved with deliberate slowness, tracing delicate circles around my swollen clit, each stroke building a mounting pressure deep within me.
I arched my hips, and he responded with perfect intuition, pressing deeper until stars burst behind my eyelids.
Heat spiraled through me like honey catching fire, each nerve ending singing its own desperate melody as the pleasure built—first a whisper, then a hum, then a symphony threatening to shatter me from within—until finally I broke apart, trembling and breathless, unable to contain the storm he'd summoned.
His name escaped me like a prayer as waves of pleasure crashed through my body. "Enzo," I gasped.
His dark eyes found mine, a wicked smile spreading across his face as he savored my reaction. His calloused palms traced a deliberate path along my quivering thighs, leaving goosebumps in their wake.
"That's what I like to hear," he murmured.
As he rose to his full height, I reached for him, wrapping my fingers around his hardness, feeling the pulse beneath the silken skin. The hard intake of his breath, the way his pupils dilated—it was intoxicating.
"That's what I like to hear," I whispered back, my lips curving into a smile.
He lowered his head, his dark hair brushing against my cheek as his cool lips pressed against the hollow of my throat.
The wicked points of his fangs grazed down my skin—not breaking the surface but leaving twin trails of shivering sensation that made goosebumps rise across my arms and a tremor run through me from crown to toe.
He lifted my thighs up off the floor, and I released his thick flesh.
“I want you now—no holding back,” I whispered.
He thrust his hard flesh deep into my core, the pressure sending waves of heat through my body.
I locked my trembling legs around his sweat-slicked hips, pulling him closer.
His rhythm picked up, urgent and demanding, and he slammed into me again and again, each movement drawing a gasp from my lips.
I arched my back and met him thrust for thrust, our bodies moving in perfect, desperate synchrony.
Dizzy with want, I tilted my head back. "Bite me.”
He bent down, his cool breath ghosting across my feverish skin before his fangs pierced my neck—twin needles of ice that melted into liquid heat.
Shockwaves raced from the puncture wounds down my spine, branching through every nerve ending.
I cried out, my fingers digging into his marble shoulders.
Our hips moved in desperate rhythm against the oak door, building and building like a gathering storm, heading toward an eruption that promised to shatter us both into stardust.
Pleasure burst inside me like a supernova, radiating from my center outward until even my fingertips tingled with electric sensation. My orgasm shook me to my very core, muscles contracting in waves that left me gasping for breath.
Enzo's fangs retracted from my throat with a wet, delicate sound. Thick droplets of my blood—darker than rubies—trickled down the sharp angle of his alabaster chin. His head fell back, midnight hair cascading across broad shoulders as his chest heaved with each labored breath.
He drove into me one final time with savage desperation, every sculpted muscle in his immortal body going rigid against my feverish skin.
The scorching heat of his release pulsed deep inside me, wave after merciless wave, while he gripped the soft flesh of my hips, anchoring me against him as if he feared I might dissolve into mist.
I pressed my lips to the curve where his shoulder met his neck, tasting salt, and wrapped my arms around him, feeling the corded muscles beneath my fingertips.
"Is that what you wanted?"
I tilted my head back, meeting eyes that had darkened to the color of burnished copper. Love and desire warred inside me—he was everything I needed. The nightmare was over. No more dimensions separating us. No more torture. Just us, finally together. “Yes. Oh yes."
He gathered me against his chest and carried me from the door, his heartbeat thundering against mine. We clung to each other as he lowered me onto the bed, the cool silk of the duvet raising goosebumps along my fevered skin.
"I have to tell you something," he said, his tongue tracing a warm, wet path along my neck, sealing the twin puncture marks with his healing saliva. The slight sting faded to a pleasant tingle.
"What?" I asked, trailing my fingertips along the defined ridges of muscle that lined his back, feeling them shift beneath his cool skin.
"We're supposed to go to dinner tonight at eight."
"I know. Serenity told me." I glanced at the vintage clock on the nightstand, its ornate hands pointing accusingly.
Enzo shifted beside me, his warmth seeping into my skin. Every minute that ticked by was another minute here, tangled up in sheets and him, and the thought of disentangling—of showering, dressing, making conversation with anyone else—felt almost cruel.
I let myself have one more moment—his breath against my neck, the weight of his arm—before reality won. “We have less than two hours. I suggest we get ready."
His powerful shoulders slumped slightly, a flicker of disappointment crossing his otherworldly features. "We'll take a shower first—together," I whispered against his ear.
Enzo slowly withdrew from me, the sensation making me gasp softly.
He grasped my hand with long, elegant fingers, pulling me from the soft comforter.
He led me across the hardwood floor into the bathroom.
My thighs trembled and glistened with evidence of our passion, but the slight discomfort was a badge of honor—physical proof I belonged completely to him.
He immediately turned on the shower and then kissed me as the water heated up. Steam filled the bathroom. He led me into the shower, the water pulsing down his back.
I put my hand on his chest. “Now it’s my turn to taste you.”
His eyes darkened to obsidian as I lowered myself to my knees, the cool shower tiles slick as river stones beneath me.
I kissed the flushed tip of his flesh, tasting salt.
He sucked in his breath—a ragged sound that made me hyperaware of my own heartbeat—and I savored the heady power of making his muscled thighs tremble.
I ran my tongue along the velvet-smooth length of him, tracing every ridge and pulsing vein with deliberate slowness.
I circled back to the sensitive crown, then parted my lips to take him in, establishing a rhythm that made droplets of water from his chest splash against my upturned face.
He wound his fingers through my soaked hair, guiding my movements with increasing urgency until tension snapped through him, his release accompanied by a guttural moan that echoed off the steamed glass.
I wiped my mouth as I stood. “You taste wonderful.”
He leaned in close, his breath warm against my ear.
"And you're mine." The shower gel glistened like liquid pearl as it pooled in his palm.
He worked it between his hands until it foamed into a constellation of tiny bubbles, then drew his fingers across my collarbone in featherlight circles.
Steam curled around us as he traced every inch of my skin, his touch washing away the ugliness and the horrors of the Elder Dimension, replacing memory with sensation until I felt clean again, whole again, human again.
“Oh, Enzo.” I moaned.
Every nerve ending in my body hummed, my skin flushed and hypersensitive to his touch.
I ached for him to fill the emptiness he'd left behind.
His eyes met mine, darkened with understanding, and he pressed forward, stretching me deliciously as he sank deep.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, my heels digging into the small of his back, urging him closer as we found our rhythm again—slow at first, then building to a desperate pace.
The pressure constricted tighter inside me until I shattered, waves of pleasure washing over me as he followed moments later, his body tensing against mine. We remained embraced, his forehead resting against mine, until the once-steaming shower turned to icy pinpricks against our cooling skin.
He kissed me, his lips lingering at the corner of my mouth, warm and soft against my skin. "Are you sure you want to go to dinner?"
I laughed, the sound brittle in the dim light of the room. "Do you really want to infuriate the Vampire Mafia King? He's not exactly known for his forgiving nature."
"We eat, and then return here,” he said, his jaw tightening as he stepped back, eyes hardening to flint. "I'm still not done with you."
I quivered with anticipation.
We disentangled from each other then exited the shower. In less than fifteen minutes, we were dressed.
I linked my arm through Enzo's as we left his room. My dark hair was still wet, falling in damp waves down my back, and I'd thrown on a simple black dress. But none of that mattered. What mattered was that we were together, heading downstairs side by side.