Chapter 24 #3
I shook my head, turning to face her. “No. We decided to wait until you woke up. Rasmus was in an especially combative mood, though.”
She flinched and murmured, “Sorry about that,” eyes dropping to the street below.
The silence stretched again, wide and awkward. Even standing this close, she felt a thousand miles away. She was a dream I couldn’t quite touch. Calix’s words echoed in my mind, reminding me of who she was and who I wanted to be.
I needed to be brave enough to face her storm, even if it tore me apart.
Straightening my spine, I drew in a breath. “Why?”
The word came out too raw, too close to a whine. Shit.
I tried again, running a hand through my hair. “I mean, did you mean to call him that? Ras. Why give him that kind of power?”
She blinked, startled. “Power? What kind of power?”
I shifted my weight, exhaling hard through my nose. “Aniyah, calling him your boyfriend puts him ahead of the rest of us, the ones you keep at arm’s length. The ones who only get... pieces.”
She threw her hands up, groaning at the sky. “Ugh! I don’t get it! Alic’s my bodyguard. Maso was hired by Nova. You’re my second-in-command, and Lucus is a VIP member! You all mean more to me than just a casual hookup! Why would calling Rasmus a boyfriend suddenly make him more important?”
I searched her face. Past the fire. Past the deflection. There was fear underneath, and it cracked my heart open.
“Because it’s something we want,” I said quietly. “Something deeper. A connection that lasts.”
She shook her head and backed up a step, trying to compartmentalize everything into the box she’d crafted. “But a boyfriend isn’t forever. It can fall apart in a moment.”
I stepped forward, closing the space. “So, that’s why you avoid the mate bond conversation.”
She froze. Even with her head turned, I saw the way her shoulders locked, her nails digging into her arms. Whatever storm raged inside her, I knew this wasn’t the time to push, but I also couldn’t stay silent.
I wrapped my arms around her. She made a weak attempt to pull away, but I only held her tighter. Her head dropped against my chest, and I breathed her in, that warm, sweet, musky scent that was hers alone.
“You’re my flame,” I whispered.
She tensed and tried to pull again, harder this time, but I didn’t let go. I anchored her.
“You’re it for me,” I said, “but it’s not just the mate bond. It’s because you’re fierce. Loyal. You take care of your people like they’re your own. You lead, you fight, you feel.”
She stopped struggling, and I kept going.
“You’re a little bratty,” I added with a soft laugh, “but it’s so fun I don’t care.”
She huffed a quiet chuckle, and I smiled against her hair.
“You’re everything I want in a partner, in life, in business. No one else even comes close. The way you take over my mind, my body…. There’s no one else who could fill that role.”
I kissed the top of her shoulder, and she shivered in my arms.
“I’ll wait,” I said, the words steady, sure. “Until my last breath. Until you’re ready to see me. I’m not going anywhere. Ever.”
*Cold, soft hands slipped beneath my shirt, her fingertips trailing fire as they melted the skin they touched. Her lips ghosted over my chest, breath warm against my skin. “I don’t want you to go. Ever.”
The dam inside me shattered.
My hands moved on instinct, tangling in her hair as I tilted her head back and kissed her. Hard. Desperate. This kiss was meant to brand her with memory, to stake my place in her life with something she couldn’t forget.
We collided like starving flames—mouths open, teeth clashing, tongues claiming. Fingers dug in, bodies pressed tight. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was years of repression. Every second we’d denied this, us, ignited between our lips.
She raked her nails down my stomach, and I moaned into her mouth, the sting of it anchoring me deeper into the moment. Her marks were mine to carry now, proof that I was hers in a way no one else could be.
I fisted the back of her hair, yanking her head to the side as I ran my teeth down her neck. She gasped, trembling, and when I licked over her pulsing vein, she moaned like it unraveled her.
My hand cupped her breast, thumb brushing over the nipple until it peaked beneath her silk dress. I lowered my head and took it into my mouth, sucking around the fabric, licking the taut nub until her knees buckled.
“Van... oh, fuck, Van,” she whimpered, her fingers yanking at my hair until my scalp burned, but I welcomed the pain. Craved it.
Just the sound of my name falling from her lips had my cock straining, thick and hard, pressing up between her thighs, aching for the fire I knew she was keeping just for me.
One moment I was in control. The next, her wings flared open. She spun us around, slamming my back into the railing. My pants were around my ankles before I could blink.
Then her mouth was on me.
My legs nearly gave out, so thank the gods for the rail behind me. I gripped it like a lifeline as she swallowed me down, hot, wet, relentless. My stomach clenched as her nails trailed up my abdomen, then scraped down in eight searing lines that made my vision spark.
Her tongue swirled around the head of my cock, teasing the pierced metal balls with a flick that made my eyes roll back in my head.
She wasn’t just a woman. She wasn’t a fairy. She was a demon, a succubus sent to steal my soul through my dick, and I was going to let her. Fuck, she could have it all if she wanted it.
When her hands gripped my ass, spreading me apart and anchoring me like she was preparing for something deeper, I knew I was done. There wasn’t a force in this world that could save me from her now.
She opened her mouth wider, tongue fully out, before shoving me in farther, gagging around me as my cock hit the back of her throat.
My entire body convulsed. If someone had asked me my name right then, I couldn’t have answered.
I was nothing but the moans, gasps, and incoherent groans that only she could pull from me.
Then came the real blissful torture.
She'd pull back just slightly, keeping her lips tight, and her teeth would gently tug the metal balls, making my eyes go cross-eyed before she slammed forward, taking me all the way again, over and over.
This wet tug-of-war with my cock that was driving me beyond mad. By the third time, I was a wreck.
My spine arched, metal creaking beneath my hands as I thrust forward and bellowed into the night.
“Fuck! Ni!”
I exploded in her mouth, cum pouring down her throat as she drank it like nectar. My breath came out in whimpers, my mind blank as I stared down at her like she was the universe. My universe.
Her lips were still wrapped around the base, sucking and licking like I hadn’t just given her everything I had.
When she finally pulled off, she looked up at me, a wicked glint in her eye, the picture of sin incarnate.
“Now, you know what it feels like to be owned, even when I’m the one on my knees.”
I nodded, willing to agree with anything and everything that came out of that perfectly plump mouth. I didn’t know if this was her plan all along, to scramble my brain and wreck me so fully I couldn't think beyond her smiling face.
All I knew was my all-consuming need to kiss those cum-slicked lips and make them mine again. I grabbed her by the arms and hauled her up, crashing my mouth to hers. My tongue plunged deep, claiming her, tasting myself on her lips, and all I wanted was more.
* Song: Touching Me by Chandler Leighton