Chapter 27 #2
He brushed my bottom lip with his thumb, and my mouth parted, tongue flicking out to taste his skin.
A low vibration moved his chest, and then his mouth was on mine.
Crushing. Ravenous. Claiming. I sank my fingers into his hair, fisting and pulling him closer, cradling him to me as I opened for him, tongues meeting in a primal dance of surrender.
He covered my body with his, hands skimming and sliding down my body to grip my waist, my hips, to pinch and squeeze.
Then lower, cupping me through fabric, pressing down on my heat.
I lifted my hips, wanting his touch, needing it.
Fingers of flame licked at my skin, and the next moment, there was no fabric between us.
We were flame to flame. His powerful body kissed mine, his hips insinuating themselves between mine, nestling, hot, and hard at my core.
I rolled my hips, wanting to feel him there, and he sucked in a sharp breath.
“Fuck…” His golden eyes flared, skin gleaming as if fire danced beneath it.
“I told myself that I wanted to talk to you…” He met the roll of my hips with delicious pressure, and a pulse of hunger rocked through me. “I told myself that was all, but Leela. I need you.” His voice cracked, gruff and vulnerable. “I need this. Us.” He reached down, parting me with thick fingers.
A soft cry spilled from my lips as he thrust with his fingers. Opening me. Deeper. Wider.
“Araz…Gods…”
“Fuck the gods,” he growled. “They have no place here. Not between us.”
He crushed his mouth to mine in a kiss that swallowed my cries and my gasp, his thumb circling my swollen clit, his fingers thrusting deep. I met him with my hips, head swimming, heat swelling in my chest and traveling up my neck as release hurtled closer.
He growled low against my mouth, then broke the kiss, dropping his lips to my neck. He grazed my pulse with his teeth in a promise of pleasure and pain, and oh gods, I wanted his mark on me. I wanted him to claim me.
“Leela, gods, I’m starving for you.” His words vibrated against my skin. “I’m starving for the way your pulse jumps beneath my tongue.” He licked my neck, and I groaned, my body arching toward him, hips moving with him.
I was so close to release, but I wanted it with him. I wanted us to find it together.
“Araz, I need you inside me. You…Please…”
He withdrew his fingers and licked them clean. My heart jolted, my core clenching around air.
“Please.”
He positioned himself at my entrance, my eager pants rising between us as his fingers tightened on my thighs.
“I want you to come for me,” he growled. “I want you to say my name.”
I looked deep into his eyes. “Which one?”
His eyes flared, flames dancing in their depths, and in that moment, I could see the god in him. Iblees. Ancient and powerful and mine. “The one that’s etched on your heart.”
He entered me with slow undulations of his hips, each one taking him deeper, stretching me to accommodate him.
My lungs grew tight, each breath shallow and faster as he filled me.
The spot at my solar plexus tingled and flared, tightening, knotting, and pulsing as if pulling him in.
Pulling him closer. Heat soothed over my skin, rising to hug my throat like phantom fingers squeezing and holding me down as he seated himself inside me.
“Araz…” His name was a whisper. “Mine…My love. My heart.”
ARAZ
She says my name, and everything inside me stills and moves at the same time. The god Iblees settles into Araz. Into me, and for a moment I am whole. There is nothing but her.
Us.
This.
The feel of her tightening around me as I drive deep, her breath breaking against my lips, thighs shaking around my hips, drives me to the edge.
Every thrust is a promise. I love you. I’m here.
I’ll stay, always. I want to show her what she means to me.
Show her with my body. With every thrust and every caress.
“Araz…” My name is a plea on her lips as she comes apart with me buried deep in her heat. Her eyes go blind with release, hips grinding and jerking against mine, her body milking me as if she’s trying to pull my soul from my body.
I hold on tight, giving her all of me, hips snapping against her, deeper and harder until my rhythm stutters. She drags me over the edge, her nails digging into my shoulders. I fall. Spilling endlessly inside her. Wanting nothing but to merge with her forever.
Mine.
My Leela.
My flame.
She trembles with the aftershocks of our lovemaking, and I hold her tight, loath to let her go, but I feel our time running out. Feel her body rising into consciousness.
There are things I wanted to say to her, but I don’t regret saying them with my body. This union strengthens our bond, our connection, and it matters more than words. So I use the time we have left right now to tell her the essential parts. The parts I know she will worry about.
I take a moment to simply be with her. To simply rest inside her. To hold her and breathe her in until urgency forces me to speak.
“Leela?”
“Mmmm…” She nuzzles closer, her eyes half-mast. Drifting into sleep while asleep.
I’m loath to disturb her, but it must be done. “I need to tell you things. Are you listening?”
She blinks, eyes widening. “Time’s running out tonight, isn’t it?”
“Yes, so listen, love. When you expel him from my vessel, he will be weakened. He will need to regroup. To find a way to attack again. His immortal vessel was destroyed in the prison, so he cannot unmake this world without a replacement.”
“Araz…” Her large gray eyes fill with questions. “You mean he can take another body?”
“Not anybody. It will need to…fit. My vessel works because it is primed for an ancient god.”
“Araz, there are tons of ancient gods in Aakash Sansaar.”
“No, Leela. The Asura are not as ancient as Iblees. Their vessels could not house the primordial evil…”
“What is he? Who is he?”
“Old as time itself. He is something that came before the gods.”
She shakes her head. “Why does he want to destroy us?”
This part will confuse her heart, but she must be told the truth of it. To come to terms with it, and to be sure in her path going forward. “It is the purpose of his existence, and it was stolen from him.”
“What? His purpose is to destroy?”
“Destroy so that new life can begin. The Source of creation must be replenished, and it was his role to do so. To end worlds so that new ones could be born. To manage the cycle of life and death for this universe.”
I can see her mind working. “The Asura stopped him?”
The closer I remain to the core of me, the more I remember, and I owe her the truth. “No, Leela, the Deva did. And now he wishes to complete his task.”
“To end our world…” She chews on her lip.
“What they did to him…that was awful, but what he’s doing now is unfair.
The universe hasn’t collapsed because our world lives.
It still stands. It still functions. He doesn’t have to end us.
He’s choosing to because…He wants revenge.
” Her gaze whips up to meet mine. “I won’t let him destroy this world.
We can’t let him hold the mantle of deciding which worlds live and die.
He’s not right in the head. Not anymore. I’ve seen the madness in his eyes…”
I stroke her cheek. “It will be all right. You will find me in time. You will bring my flame to me, and I will expel him from my body. Do you believe me?”
“Yes. He wasn’t evil when they trapped him, but…but the things he’s doing now…he’s becoming what they named him.”
“If enough of us believe that evil can be felled, then it will be felled.” I hug her closer. “Now tell me of your plan. How will you get to me? Maybe I can help formulate a path.”
She settles against me, her head on my chest. “I’m going to take the portway that’s inside the sea. At least that’s what we think the sea monsters are guarding.”
Portways? We drohi suspected such doorways existed for some time, but the suspicions had never been confirmed.
“I did wonder if the human settlement locations were strategically chosen to guard portways, but it made no sense to make humans a target for the devouring force. Now I understand that by placing the settlements at portways, the Asura were deterring attacks.” I can feel her slipping from me. Her form getting softer. Mistier.
She frowns up at me. “Araz, I think I’m waking up.”
“I know, my heart. But it’s all right. You will sleep again, and I will find you. I will always find you.”
She reaches up to touch my cheek, but the contact never lands.
Leela is gone.
Until the next time.