Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Luka held Izzy as she gasped and then moaned through her release, her body clenched around his fingers. He kissed her again, slowly withdrawing as she shuddered, so he could wrap himself around her.
He’d never experienced anything so exhilarating, so utterly overwhelming.
He’d wanted Izzy for so long. Dreamed of her, thought of her, wished for her.
The moments they’d shared in his room were potent, but this was even better.
She was naked, gleaming in the misty starlight, spread out for him like a vision.
Let’s do that again.
Luka grinned. His beast was making more and more sense. He would give Izzy a few minutes to catch her breath, and then they could start again. But then she slipped off him, turned, and straddled him, her pussy hot and sweet against his aching cock.
Gods, yes.
He ran his hands up her sides, luxuriating in her damp skin, her gentle curves, how soft she was. Steam wreathed around her in the flickering glow of the distant torch. But his night vision was excellent—especially with his beast so close to the surface—and he drank her in.
She looked down at him where he lay, propped up against the rocks, a small frown slowing growing on her face. “What about your back?”
“What?” All he could think of was the feeling of her body over his. His back was irrelevant.
Her frown deepened. “I don’t want you to get hurt on the rocks,” she murmured.
He tucked a damp strand of hair behind her ear. She was the kindest, best person he’d ever known. “I’m okay,” he replied, “fully scaled.” He lifted an arm to show her. His beast had covered most of his body with scales in its push to get closer to her.
She smiled then, resting her hands on his chest as he settled his on her hips. She was so close to where he needed her that it was almost impossible to think, but he needed her to be safe, and he had to ask. “Izzy, do you want this?”
She bit her lip, looking down at him with a mix of curiosity and bemused fondness. “Yes, Luka. I know what I want. Do you want this?”
She was offering herself—the one thing he’d wanted for so long but never thought he could have. Did he want to turn her away when she planned to walk into danger in mere hours? No. He wanted to take this chance, to hold her and touch her and fill himself with everything she was.
It was just for tonight. He knew that. When everything was over—if they both survived—she would go back to living in the town, and he would go back to his long days and lonely nights without her. That’s what they’d agreed.
His beast’s tail flicked. I don’t think Izzy agreed to that.
He ignored his beast; she’d said it herself. This was a moment outside of time. A bubble. Bright and perfect and fragile. “I do want this,” he admitted roughly. “I want you to be happy.”
“Good.” She smiled. “Because I just want you.” And then she lifted slightly onto her knees and closed her hand around his cock, and he groaned. “What about…? I don’t have a sheath.” He swallowed. “I’ll pull out.”
“I’d rather you stay with me,” Izzy whispered. “It’s not that time in my cycle… and I have herbs I can take tomorrow, just to be certain.”
On the rare occasions he’d taken a woman back to his room, he’d used a sheath and pulled out. But this was Izzy. He wanted her in every way, and now she was finally here with him.
Still, he had to protect her, to keep her safe. Her hand around his cock was making it even harder to think, but he kept his gaze on her eyes. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Izzy leaned forward to kiss him, her mouth moving over his, nibbling and licking down his jaw to bite gently on the straining tendons of his neck.
Her grip on his cock had him panting as she guided him into the perfect position to slide through her lips and nudge her clit every time she moved.
It was her turn to surround him. Izzy drove every thought from his head as she ground down on him. Every inch of his body was hers. All he could do was hold on to her and follow where she led.
She pressed a hard kiss to his lips and then leaned back. She set her hands on his chest and dragged her slit over his cock, driving him mad. A flush traveled up her chest and over her breasts, and he skimmed a hand over her skin, wanting—needing—that heat everywhere.
He plucked at her beaded nipples, loving the tight points, focusing on them, on building her pleasure, as she built his. Izzy shuddered and leaned forward to guide him inside her body. Gods of fire. She radiated beauty and power. She was everything. And then she started to move.
His beast’s rumble roared through him as he rocked with her.
She found her rhythm, riding him with a sensuous intensity, and he bent his knees, setting his feet on the rock so that he could meet her thrusts, straining up to meet her.
He kept one hand on her breast and found her mound with the other; then he settled his thumb on her clit, circling and rolling the swollen flesh as Izzy shuddered, moaning, soaring ever higher with him.
She whimpered, and her hips lost their easy glide, shuddering against his as he thrust up, deep inside her. Izzy dropped forward, her breasts pressed against his chest, the hard nubs of her nipples rasping on the rough hair as she kissed him open-mouthed.
They panted together, incandescence spiraling between them. Then she rose up once more and dropped her head back, gifting him a view of her beautiful breasts and glowing skin, before she reached back and cupped his balls.
It took everything he had to keep thrusting steadily, to keep the pressure on her clit as he thrummed the swollen bud.
Ecstasy spread through his body in waves as coiling tension climbed from his balls and up his spine.
“Izzy, gods. You take my breath away. You’re…
. I need you,” he admitted roughly, too far gone to think of holding back.
His beast let out a long, rumbling growl of possession, and her body clenched, gripping him with white-hot pleasure, and she screamed, shuddering around him.
Now.
He let go, thrusting in almost desperate need as his body spasmed and emptied into her. Ecstasy flooded through him, his beast howled within him, and he flew through the blinding light into the most intense, most shattering orgasm of his life.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his body as they shuddered and moaned and finally slumped together.
Izzy gave a soft sigh and nestled into him, her face tucked into his neck. Slowly, he returned to earth, to the gentle bubble of the water and the drifting steam, the moon now climbing through the sky above them, bathing Izzy in silver light.
She pressed a gentle kiss to the sensitive skin under his jaw, and he shivered. What they’d shared was more than anything he could have prepared for. He rubbed his hand down her back, soothing himself as much as her. Losing her now would hurt him in ways he hadn’t imagined. He cared for her more—
Not care… love, his beast rumbled loudly.
God of Chaos. That was even worse.
Izzy lifted off him and turned sleepily in his lap, curled against him, trusting him to hold her.
He pulled her closer, making sure she was safe…
and that was when he felt the burn, a sharp throbbing ache in his hands.
He lifted one into the moonlight to see blood dripping down his fingers and—far more shocking—a set of lethal, curved claws.
He flinched, staring at his hand, and Izzy opened her eyes to look at him. She glanced at his clenched jaw and then followed his line of sight to rest on his trembling hand.
“Oh!” She reached out a small finger to stroke the vicious blade at the top of his finger. “Oh.” She said again, more gently. “That’s—”
“What is it?” he demanded, more roughly than he intended. “Why do I have claws?”
“Why do you have claws?” Her voice was soft as she repeated his question. “Luka…” Izzy’s words trailed away as if she was suddenly uncertain. She moved off his lap and sat beside him on the ledge.
He watched her warily, not wanting to reach for her as blood dripped down his burning hands.
She gave him a small smile and reached out to take his hands in hers and press small kisses to his knuckles. Her eyes were wide and shocked, but her touch was kind. “Who taught you about what to expect from your beast?” she asked.
Luka grunted and shrugged. No one taught him. Why would they? He and his beast had been alone, and they’d figured out what they needed to know by themselves.
“Right. Okay.” She took in a slow breath. “Someone should have told you. Rayan should have told you.”
“Told me what?” He tried to pull his hands back, uncomfortable with her soft skin so close to such sharp blades, but she held him tighter.
“Your beast has given you… gifted you….” She bit her lip. “You have claws now.”
That was obvious. “But why?”
Because she’s our mate, his beast replied smugly.
What?
Izzy tucked her hair behind her ear and gave him a wobbly smile. “It thinks we’re—”
He stood abruptly, cutting her off with a rough growl. “Don’t say it.” He wasn’t ready. He might never be ready for that kind of risk.
If she was his mate, what would happen when she left?
What would happen when she went back to her shop—and her life—without him?
What would happen if he lost her? Everyone knew the stories of mates driven mad in their grief.
The anguish he’d felt when he lost Rayan was bad enough.
The desperation he’d felt when Izzy moved out of the castle was even worse.
If she was his… if he…. Gods, he couldn’t breathe.
He stomped away, turned roughly, and strode back again. His chest ached, and his hands were in agony. “Izzy, this…. We only have tonight.” He cleared his throat. “We said….”
“I know what we said, Luka.” Her voice was small and shaky. He glanced back down at her, where she’d wrapped her arms around herself, her face no longer flushed and glowing but pale and drawn.
“Izzy, I….” He left the sentence hanging. What could he possibly say? She saw his claws as a gift, but he knew them for what they really were. A curse. A guarantee of utter, catastrophic heartbreak.
She watched him for long moments, hurt and pain growing in her eyes until he thought he could drown in the desolation. And then, when he still hadn’t said anything, she stood up and picked a path away from the pool. She didn’t look back.
He followed closely, watching for danger but finding none other than the misery that raged inside him… and in her. They dressed in silence as he frantically looked for the words to make this right, but couldn’t find any.
You hurt her again.
He had. He knew that, and he wanted to fix it, but he didn’t know how. Izzy’s movements were jerky and stiff, and he wanted to hold her, to pull her into his body and comfort her, but he didn’t know how to do that either.