16. Azzie
Sixteen
Azzie
A tiny, rational voice in my brain said I needed to slow down. Be cautious. Consider what might be going on here. My adrenaline-fueled, fighting brain needed an outlet. Needed to be closer to this man who hadn’t even told me his real name.
“Should we be worried there are more of those things?” His question was breathless and punctuated by nibbles along my skin.
This was more than the desire that came with a fight. This was almost like a drug. Like an intoxication I’d lost the willpower to ignore. “Not when there’s only one.” Talking about anything but getting naked took more effort than I wanted to give the task.
“So… Sometimes one just wanders off alone and gets lost?” He dropped his hands to my ass and pinned me to the nearest wall, molding our bodies together. The need was so potent, feeding it was life. If I pulled my mouth from his, if I fought the hunger spilling inside, I might stop breathing.
“Something like that.” The feeling that this moment was all that mattered, that if I let go of Zee or listened to the warning bells clanging loudly behind all the lust, was more terrifying than being attacked by a draugr. I didn’t have control. I didn’t want to. “Besides, we’re safer together.”
Now was when I should stop. Acknowledge that his past and mine being so alike was something I needed to pay attention to. Walk away. Forget Zee and find another blacksmith.
Or now was when we should fuck. That was the only thought I could keep in my head for longer than a second.
He held me so tightly, his erection dug into my hip. I fisted his shirt and ground into his cock, my hips working back and forth.
Zee let out a strained chuckle. “You’re going to dry hump a hole in my dick if you keep that up.”
“So… keep going?” I teased while he tasted my lips.
“Or…” He dragged his mouth up my jaw to my ear. “We move to the part where we fuck until neither of us can walk.”
Yes, please . Was this considered falling off the wagon? Did I care? “You have condoms?” I did, but if he said no , maybe the answer would be enough to bring me to my senses.
“Bedroom.”
Thank the gods. “Where?”
He half-guided me and we stumbled in a tangle of limbs and desperation to get clothes out of the way. We’d lost our shirts by the time we reached the bedroom door, and my bra fell to the floor before we reached the bed.
He stepped back, and my body whimpered at the loss of contact, but I did like the way he raked his gaze over me. “If I lick hard enough, do the freckles come off?” he asked.
“Only one way to find out.”
He cupped my breasts and lowered his mouth to one nipple while he teased a thumb over the other. He sucked and nibbled, moving back and forth between the two nubs, until I was gasping at the throb between my thighs.
He moved his mouth to my ear again, still kneading my breasts. “Not sure I dare go lower.” He meant the knives attached to my waistband.
I twisted my mouth in amusement. “I’m not the one packing a magnum.”
“This?” He grabbed his erection. “It’s not a— Oh . You mean this.” He unbuckled his belt, loosening it and the holster attached to it. “It’s not a magnum either.” He set both to one side of the bed, closer to him than me.
“Yes, I do mean that .” I removed my holsters as well, and set them out of his reach. The teasing was fun, the literal disarming was stupid, and the loss of contact had stretched out too long.
I needed to feel him again. My entire mind rebelled at the thought of ignoring this and walking away. My gut churned and my hands shook. No reason to let that happen. Instead, I reached for Zee. For his jeans, to undo the button and zipper.
I shoved the rest of his clothing to the ground while he kicked off his shoes. Fuck he was sexy. Ink decorated his arms and chest, curling along muscle, and highlighting his physique. His cock stood upright, and I wrapped my hand around the shaft, earning myself a long groan from him.
He fumbled with my jeans, and I tried to toe off my boots, but they were laced up tight. I bent at the waist to untie them, but he didn’t wait. My pants stopped at my knees, immobilizing me while I fumbled with my laces, and leaving my bare ass in the air.
Zee slid a hand along my skin, and I forgot what I was doing, lost in a moan. When he dipped between my legs, my skin pulsed for more. My skin was slick with anticipation, and his fingers dipped inside me easily.
He pumped in and out, enough to tease. Enough to make my breath come in short pants. He slipped out too soon. Having a thicker, longer part of him buried inside me would be better, but that would happen soon enough.
My disappointment vanished as he glided forward, to circle his touch around my clit. The noises that tore from my throat didn’t sound like me; it was as if I’d been possessed by an animal.
I stopped fiddling with the laces on my boots, too focused on rocking against his hand. My gasps grew shorter, and I worked my hips harder, angling my body until he hit that perfect spot.
Gods . Climax surged inside, and I barely dared move as he stroked me. Was that me crying out? I wanted to keep riding his hand, but his touch was too much, and I had to pull away.
The desperation encircling us hadn’t faded. Even with both of us working, we couldn’t strip off the rest of my clothes fast enough. I did manage to snag a condom from my pocket though.
I was barely out of my socks when I nudged Zee onto the bed on his back. I ripped the foil open on the condom, as I held it up.
He raised an eyebrow and quirked his lips in an unasked question.
I rolled the protection onto his cock, and straddled his legs, raking my gaze and my hands over his body. Why did it feel like I fit here? Like a puzzle piece slotting into place.
Your equal and oppo ? —
He gripped his shaft and slid the head along my pussy, and my thoughts evaporated. Being closer to him was the only thing that mattered in the moment.
I slipped along his shaft and not letting him penetrate me while his hard length glided along my skin.
He gripped my hips and rolled us both without hesitation. The way he was built was yummy, and I wanted to lick and bite the ink running along his chest and arms.
When he pinned me down with his full weight, half a dozen ways to kick him off raced through my mind. I wasn’t interested in separating from him, though. And when he finally entered me, stretching me out, I arched into the feeling.
I swore I felt the magic flowing between us as he thrust inside me harder. Faster. Pounding me until it was too much, and still going until I tumbled into another orgasm.
Our frenzied rhythm continued to build, drawing out my climax. His breath caught and he paused.
When Zee came, it was with a stuttered grunt before he resumed the frantic pounding. The climax wrapped around us like an invisible circle and tied us together. We were one and nothing could break that bond.
As he slowed to the stop, the potent feeling dimmed, but it didn’t vanish.
Still, it was enough for my mind to clear. This wasn’t anything magical or any sort of fate. It was great sex, and otherwise I’d been reading too many prophecies.
The compulsion to be close to him lingered, and I ached when he left the room long enough to get a washcloth. His gentle touch as he cleaned me up helped soothe the lingering edge of desperation.
When he was done, he lay next to me, and I curled up with my head on his chest. Cuddling was never a smart idea, but this felt so right. Dangerously right.
The same way his past sounded like mine was eerie.
Where did that thought come from?
“Ezekiel,” he said. “That’s my real name. But everyone calls me Zeke.”
“Azrael.” I never gave people my full name. What was I doing? “Azzie for short.”
Zeke trailed his fingers lightly along my shoulder. “Angel of death?”
“Prophet of god?” I suppressed the shivers of contentment racing through me at his soft touch.
“Mhm.” The guttural sound rumbled from his chest and through my cheek. “My mom was… interesting.”
“I know that feeling.”
“Are you here to fight me to the death?” His question was as calm and quiet as those that came before it.
Tension coiled through me. Why would he ask me that?
I already knew, and I’d been willfully ignoring the answer. I wanted to continue to do so. “I’m here to get an elven knife repaired.”
“The knife that was a gift, because you have a destiny.” He made this sound like any other conversation.
It wasn’t too strange that he and I shared some things in common. We were the same age, some of our experiences would be similar. The pull I felt to him was unusual, but sometimes another person was just that attractive.
But so many details from our pasts overlapped. Given we’d both been holding things back—almost everything—it was a big fucking coincidence that the pieces we’d shared were so similar.
Davyn insisted there were no coincidences, and I tended to agree with him.
“A destiny to meet someone just like me,” I said.
“Except in the ways that they’re completely different.”
This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. But?—
I rolled and reached for my knives at the same time he pushed away from me to grab his gun.
We faced each other again, both of us naked, weapons pointed at each other. The mood in the room shifted in an instant, and tension coiled through my every muscle. I was fast, but not faster than a bullet. Could I disarm him before he pulled the trigger?
“I might not be your counterpart.” I’d keep him talking while I thought through my options.
Zeke’s gaze never left me. “Do a lot of prophecies feature pairs of people like us? Does this happen often enough that you might be fated to kill a different same-but-different individual?”
Not as far as I knew. “Maybe. This could all be a coincidence.”
“Do you believe in coincidences?” His question mingled with my own thoughts.
I didn’t know anything about guns. Was his loaded? Why hadn’t I learned about them? Because guns weren’t useful against immortals.
They could still hurt very-mortal me.
His finger wasn’t on the trigger—I could tell that much. On TV they always knew when the other guy’s gun was loaded. Should I be able to tell that? Did he have to pull the top back like they did in the movies?
When it came to the screen, people also wore their swords on their backs, which was the stupidest thing I’d ever seen. I probably shouldn’t be basing my decisions on anything I’d seen.
He wasn’t moving beyond watching me. We were both frozen. What now?
Slaying draugar and killing the shadows that came after me was one thing. Executing another person? One who was only a threat to me because I sought him out? I didn’t care if this was my destiny—the idea of killing Zeke made me want to curl up in a ball and hide.
“I really am just here to get my blade repaired,” I repeated.
“But you know who I am now. Why wouldn’t you kill me?” His tone was curious more than accusing.
I was asking myself the same question, and the only answer I had was because I don’t want to . “You haven’t done anything to me.” Nothing bad, anyway. Those orgasms…
“I have a gun pointed at your head.” He nodded toward the weapon.
“For a good reason, let’s be fair.”
One corner of Zeke’s mouth twitched up. Was he fighting a smile? Was the tension dropping in here?
Once again, I’d been searching to make the prophecies happen, and now my chance was right in front of me. Was I really going to ignore this opportunity?
Fuck , I didn’t want to kill him.