Chapter 14 #4
I arched my back, pressing against him. Needy for more.
His lips brushed my ear. “You will take every inch of me.”
I moaned, arching further.
“I will ruin you,” he continued, his finger moving even lower, pressing firmly against the slick heat between my legs. “I will fuck you, until you crave nothing but me. Until my name is the only prayer on those sweet lips.”
I was already his. My thoughts. My very existence. Every thread had unravelled for him, leaving nothing but raw desire.
He traced my jaw with his lips before they ghosted over my neck. His teeth grazed my delicate skin.
“You will worship me,” he whispered against my fluttering pulse, “as I worship you, Elira.”
A violent tremor wracked my body. His words sank into my bones, igniting something carnal.
He shoved his knee between my thighs, forcing them apart.
“Eyes on me.”
My eyes snapped open.
With one swift, brutal thrust, he slammed into me.
I screamed.
Dalkhan growled, grabbing my throat as he set a punishing rhythm. Each thrust wrecking me—each snap of his hips owning me.
“Just like that,” he snarled, his pace unrelenting as he shifted, hitting that devastating angle repeatedly.
Stars burst behind my eyes.
“Let them hear you. Let everyone know who you belong to.”
I screamed until my voice broke, my body trembling. The pleasure building to unbearable heights.
He drove into me harder, his power coiling around my body like serpents made of flame. Fire licked up the walls, dancing across the ceiling. The world outside this room didn’t exist.
There was only him.
“Say it,” he demanded, his hand tightening its grip on my throat. He forced me up against him until we were chest to chest. “Tell me who you belong to.”
“You,” I gasped, clutching his shoulders.
His grip tightened, just enough to make the edges of my vision blur. “Louder.”
“You!” I cried, the word torn from my soul. “Only you, Dalkhan. Always you.”
A wicked sound escaped him.
He flipped us in one swift motion, his hands on my hips, positioning me over him.
“Ride me.”
I sank down, my body stretching around his impossible size.
“Fuck,” he growled, his bruising grip guiding me.
I moved, wild and desperate—our bodies slamming together in a frenzied, merciless rhythm. His power pulsed through me. Unravelling me. Consuming me. Each time I rose, he pulled me back down harder. Deeper.
“Look at you,” he praised, his eyes raked over my bouncing breasts. “Fucking flawless. Made for me.”
Pleasure built like an inferno at the base of my spine. Rising. Surging. Tighter and tighter. His thumb pressed precisely where we were joined, circling in time with our movements.
“Come for me,” he commanded. “Come around my cock, Elira. Now.”
As if my body existed only to obey him, I broke apart.
I unleashed a scream, spasming around him as waves of pleasure flooded my every nerve. I threw my head back, hair cascading down my back as ecstasy possessed me.
Dalkhan followed with a final thrust, his hips lifting us both off the bed as a vicious sound ripped from his chest. He spilled inside me, his arms locking around me and his body shaking.
For a long moment, we lay tangled and breathless. His flames dimmed, spent.
Dalkhan didn’t push me away. Didn’t order me to leave.
Instead, his arms tightened, and for the first time, he kissed me gently.
Not out of hunger or desperation, but something else. Something much more dangerous.
I shifted, but before I could move away, his hand closed around my wrist.
“Don’t.”
It wasn’t a request, but I’d already had no intention of leaving.
We spent what felt like forever tangled in each other’s arms. Dalkhan never grew restless. Never tired of me. Never ceased in his relentless pursuit.
He wrung me dry—dragged me back from the brink only to ruin me again.
My body was slack with exhaustion, skin painted with the evidence of his claiming. Teeth marks along my throat. Fingerprints blooming purple across my hips. The tender ache between my thighs that pulsed in time with my heart.
And still, his thirst remained unquenched.
The room bore witness to our night. Sheets torn and twisted around bed posts—the wooden headboard splintered where his hand had grasped too hard. Scorch marks blackened the walls.
Golden streams of morning light filtered through the open balcony, replacing the silver caress of moonlight. I stretched my limbs, wincing at the pleasant soreness.
Dalkhan shifted beside me, propping himself up on one elbow. His dark eyes raked over my body, lingering on each mark he’d left behind. He reached out, tracing a finger along a purple bruise forming on my collarbone.
“You’re mine,” he declared, pressing his thumb into the tender flesh.
A spike of pain-pleasure shot through me.
He moved his hand to my jaw, fingers spanning from ear to chin. “Say it.”
“I’m yours.”
A satisfied pulse of heat swept across the room, rattling the remaining intact furniture. His grip tightened, pulling me closer until our breath mingled.
His voice dropped to a low register. “Again.”
My stomach clenched with need. “I’m yours, Dalkhan.”
I grabbed his wrist, not to escape, but to anchor myself to him.
An approving growl rumbled in his chest. He released my jaw only to seize my hand, yanking me up from the bed.
He dragged me toward the bathing chamber, my feet barely even touching the floor.
As we stepped inside, the air transformed.
The great stone basin erupted into motion, water churning as if stirred by invisible hands. Responding to him, just like everything else. Mist rose in spirals around our ankles, climbing our legs with ghostly fingers, warm and alive with magic.
“Get in,” he commanded, releasing my hand.
I stepped into the scalding heat, sinking until it lapped at my collarbone. Dalkhan followed, the basin rising as he settled behind me. His powerful legs bracketed mine, his arms snaking around my waist to pull me flush against his chest.
He reached for the soft cloth hanging on the basin’s edge, dipping it into the steaming water before dragging it across my shoulders. His other hand gathered my hair, twisting it aside to expose my neck to his mouth. His lips found the sensitive spot behind my ear, smiling against my skin.
I melted into him.
He swept the cloth over my shoulders—over the curve of my breasts, lingering just enough to make me tense up.
“Relax,” he murmured. “I won’t have you breaking before I’ve had my fill of you.”
I shuddered, sinking further against the steady rise and fall of his chest. He was burning, his body heat seeping into my very bones. The ever-present hum of power beneath his skin made the water dance around us.
His hands wandered lower, drawing idle circles on my stomach before dipping beneath the surface. My breath hitched as his fingers brushed over my already too sensitive flesh.
“If I come one more time, I might actually die,” I mumbled, my voice weak with exhaustion.
Dalkhan chuckled as his hand returned to my throat, pulling my head back against his shoulder.
“You’ll take what I give you.” His teeth scraped against my neck. “I’m not finished.”
A bolt of desire shot straight into me. Even spent and quivering, his words ignited something deep inside me.
“I will never tire of you,” he said. “I could take you a thousand times and still hunger for more.” His lips blazed a trail down to my shoulder. “And I will.”
“And I will never tire of you,” I admitted.
“Good,” he murmured. “Because I’m not letting you go. You’re staying in my bed.”
A strange feeling settled in my stomach. I wanted to stay—to remain trapped in his warmth, but the rational part of my mind whispered names I had almost forgotten.
Theo and Tavrik would worry—would wonder where I’d vanished to.
Dalkhan’s fingers tightened on my throat, as if he could feel my mind wander beyond this room. Beyond him.
“I already spoke to Jasila,” he said casually. “She will tell your friends that you are safe.”
I twisted in his arms, water sloshing violently as I turned to face him, my brows drawn together.
“When did you tell her? I never saw you leave.”
A wicked grin spread across his lips, sharp and smug.
“As I feasted on you for the fourth time.” His voice dropped lower. “I knew I wasn’t done with you, so I spoke to her mind.”
My eyes widened. He had done it so effortlessly—spoken into another’s mind while his body had been buried inside mine.
I had been too lost in him to even notice.
His power was limitless, and he had used it to ensure I stayed.
Sleep pulled at me, my body finally surrendering to profound exhaustion.
Dalkhan stood, water trailing down his body as he lifted me from the basin. He didn’t bother to dry either of us before carrying me back to bed.
He laid me down, slipping me beneath the soft sheets. My bare skin melted into the silk. His arm draped possessively over my waist, our legs tangling.
There was a soft rustling. I lifted my heavy eyelids. Azmik appeared as if summoned, his obsidian scales catching the morning light as he slithered across our intertwined bodies. His little head popped up between us, slitted pupils expanding as he studied my face.
His tiny, forked tongue flicked out to touch my nose. The contact was feather-light. Curious, like he was tasting my scent to confirm I was really here.
“I missed you,” I said, reaching out to stroke along his head. He leaned into my touch, his scales growing hotter.
“He missed you too.” Dalkhan said, reaching out.
Azmik coiled around his hand in greeting.
“Really?”
Azmik seemed to answer for himself, abandoning Dalkhan to make his way to his favourite spot, burrowing into my hair. He twisted and turned with obvious delight, creating the perfect nest. His satisfied hiss vibrated against my scalp.
“Sleep,” Dalkhan ordered, pressing a kiss against the nape of my neck.
I closed my eyes and let darkness take me.
And for the first time in a long time, my dreams did not haunt me.
Just silence. Just peace.
Just him.
I had truly forgotten what it was like to sleep without being haunted. To close my eyes and not be consumed by flames.
A slow, wet heat dragged over me. My eyes flew open. I swept a hand across empty sheets, fingers grasping at nothing.
Dalkhan was no longer next to me.
The realisation of exactly where he was hit just as his tongue swept over me beneath the sheets. I curved off the mattress, tingles sparking low in my belly.
His broad shoulders pushed my thighs apart, hands gripping my hips to hold me still as he worked his mouth over my clit with devastating precision.
“Dalkhan!” I shrieked, one hand flying to grip his hair.
He responded by doubling his efforts, sucking hard. Tongue flicking out in patterns.
My vision blurred, and I let out a long, broken cry. I writhed, attempting to escape the overwhelming sensation, but he held me captive.
“How…” I panted, struggling to form words as pleasure built rapidly inside me. “How do you never get tired of this?”
He hummed against my core, the vibrations nearly sending me to oblivion. His hands slid beneath my thighs, lifting them over his shoulders, changing the angle to plunge his tongue deeper.
I broke apart with a shout, arching clean off the bed as my every nerve ending exploded.
Dalkhan groaned, grip tightening as held me through the aftershocks. Working me through every last tremor.
He dragged his mouth over my shaking thighs before prowling up my body, pinning me beneath his weight.
He kissed me, tongue invading my mouth, letting me taste myself on his lips. I whimpered, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him closer.
“I could taste you every day,” he murmured between heated kisses, “and never fucking tire of it.”
Before I could fully succumb to the haze of pleasure, his body tensed, nostrils flaring.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
Dalkhan didn’t answer immediately. He groaned, muscles tightening beneath his skin. In one swift, fluid motion he rolled off me and onto his feet. The sheets tore away from his body as he reached for his clothes with agitated movements.
His warmth vanished, leaving me cold and exposed. A sharp pang of frustration knotted in my stomach as I propped myself up on my elbows.
“Dalkhan—”
“I am needed,” he cut in. “I have to leave.”
His shoulders bunched with energy like he might explode into flames at any moment.
He reached for me, grabbing me and pulling me upright and into his arms, as if unwilling to let me go.
“I will take you back to your room.”
I bit my lip, unable to hide my disappointment.
He caught the expression, his features softening.
“You think I’m finished with you?” he purred, brushing his knuckles along my jaw and down my neck. “I’m not. I will see you later.”
He pressed his lips to mine, then pulled back just enough to speak against my mouth. “And when I do, you will make up for the time I’ve lost.”
The world shifted, darkness enveloping us both. When the light returned, I stood in the centre of my room.
Dalkhan dissolve into shadow, but not before flashing me a wicked grin, promising absolute ruin.
I had only just started wrapping the sheet more securely around myself when my door crashed open. I screamed, clutching the fabric to my chest.
“Theo!” I shrieked, my foot catching in the twisted fabric, almost sending me to the floor.
He leaned against the frame, not even attempting to supress the smirk growing on his face.
“How many times have I told you to knock?”
He took in my tangled hair, the flush still staining my skin, and the way the sheet hardly covered what it needed to. His brows lifted as he made an exaggerated show of sniffing the air.
“You smell like sex.”
I launched at him, smacking his arm hard enough to make him grunt. “Shh! Why are you so loud!?”