Chapter 42 #2
When I set her on the edge of my bed, she looked up at me through her thick lashes. Trust and want tangled together in the most stunning way. I traced down the side of her throat, drinking in the rapid beat of her pulse beneath my lips.
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” I whispered against her.
She shook her head, whispering my name like a sacred vow.
I undressed her slowly. Kissing as fabric gave way to warm, flushed skin. Every inch of her was a miracle. Every sigh, a sonnet I wanted to memorize. She trembled, and when her breath came too fast, I paused, cradling her chin.
“This is yours to choose,” I said, my own breath coming fast.
Her fingers went to the back of my neck, and she pulled me closer. “I already chose.”
My heart soared, my soul trembled.
I lowered her onto the sheets where the moonlight caught on every angle of her beautiful face.
Her body arched as my mouth trailed down the column of her throat and across the curve of her chest. By the time my hands eased her knees apart, her eyes were half lidded, and her breath came in desperate pants.
Unhurried, I kissed my way down her stomach. Worshipping, memorizing. She lifted toward me, a moan slipping from her throat that I wanted to keep forever.
I let my hands roam, thumbs sweeping soft, taunting circles across her skin.
When I finally touched my mouth to her arousal, she gasped, her fingers fisting in the blanket.
I held her thighs steady as I started slow in a gentle sweep of my tongue meant to tease and taste, to let her feel and savor every deliberate move.
Her hips arched, chasing the friction of my fingers when I pulsed them inside her while I licked her bundle of nerves.
Her moans were soft and breathy and intoxicating, and each one dissolved into broken whispers of my name.
I held her, resting one hand on her stomach, feeling the way each breath fractured beneath my palm as I pumped my fingers inside her.
I kissed and licked her while I curled my fingers in that way that made her moan out my name. Her thighs tensed, her breath coming more ragged, and she tilted her head back as a tremor ran through her.
When she finally shattered, she came undone slowly and all-consuming. A trembling gasp. A desperate arch.
I kept kissing her through it, drawing it out with my mouth and fingers, feeling her melt beneath me.
Her breath still came in uneven pants when I kissed my way up her body. She was flushed and trembling, her eyes heavy with what we’d shared. What we were still to share. When I hovered over her, her hands slid up my arms and came to rest against my chest.
“Are you sure?” I asked, my arms trembling and erection straining.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I want us bound in every way.”
There was no fear, no hesitation. Just trust and the raw sound of need.
I made quick work of undressing. Then I kissed her, letting the weight of her words light a fire inside me.
My hands slid over the curve of her hips, up her waist, reveling at the way her breath hitched beneath my touch.
Every shiver, every sound was a gift carved into every curve and arch of my heart.
I moved, aching but careful as I slid inside her, slowly, not wanting to hurt her. She wrapped her legs around me, pulling me close so there was no space between us. Her breath caught, and I held still, holding her tightly while I whispered her name against her shoulder.
I moved slowly, letting her adjust while my cock stretched her. Gods, I’d wanted her for so long.
“Brenton,” she whispered. “My wildfire.”
The bond between us strummed with every heartbeat. I kissed her, our tongues sliding and tangling, and every movement felt more like gravity. Inevitable.
She moved with me, met each of my thrusts while her hands tangled in my hair, nails dragging across my neck and back.
Our bond thrummed, two souls threaded like a roaring current, alive and bright and wrapping around us as if we were one.
Her raspy breaths broke across my lips. I kissed her through each shudder, every tremble, and every beat she reached for me as if I were all that existed.
I felt the bond grow taut, blazing through my veins. It was more than needed. More than pleasure. It was everything I’d ever wanted.
Just as I felt her climax, I buried my face against her throat and breathed her in. Her pulse thudded wildly against my lips, and instinct, magic, need blurred together.
My canines slid into her skin.
She shattered, whispering my name as her body quaked.
Her blood coated my tongue, sweet and wild, flooding through me with a power that wasn’t just hers, but ours.
The bond snapped tighter, a rush of heat and light tearing through every inch of my soul.
Magic flared beneath my skin. Threads of shadow and death wrapped tightly with the red and gray threads braiding together.
It wasn’t simply a connection or a claim. But a homecoming.
Her gasp against my ear was sharp. Her body arched into mine as if she too felt the way the universe folded in on itself around us so that it was only us. My chest pressed to hers, our hearts locked in the same rhythm, and I came apart, spilling everything I was into our bond. Into her.
But before the last tremor faded, she moved.
Her hands grappled with my hair while her mouth went to my neck.
Her canines broke my skin, and the world didn’t just shatter this time but detonated.
A second wave ripped through me, blinding and hot, my magic roaring in my veins as I came a second time.
Her soul slammed against mine without any barriers left.
Every breath, every heartbeat, every piece of me was hers.
As we held each other, our bodies trembling and souls blazing, I realized this wasn’t the beginning of us. It was the moment everything else caught up, and the world finally made sense. It was the moment I stopped standing alone.
And because of that . . . tomorrow would come.
I felt it waiting beyond the night. The pull of the astral realm. The promise of a reckoning circling closer.
Zaicha would come for her.
And I would be there when she did.