Chapter 12 Your Move
YOUR MOVE
Acacius
Acacius kneeled in front of her, his eyes never leaving hers. One hand slid under the hem of her dress and gripped her ankle.
He could see her pulse flickering in her throat as she stared down at him, pupils dilated with a hunger that made taking every one of her piercing spikes worth it.
His hand grazed up her shin to the crook of her knee and lifted her leg. The slit of her dress spread apart as he raised her knee to his lips.
Her mouth parted in response, a quick inhale, and Acacius smirked against her skin.
An insatiability of his own swelled, the primal need to coax even more from her.
“Ready to play with my Chaos?” He punctuated his coy question by licking up the inside of her thigh.
She spread her legs further, inviting him. “If only you are ready to dip into my darkness.”
To answer her statement, he slipped his hand under her dress, his fingers memorizing the soft terrain of her leg to the grooves of her thigh. Slowly, he worked her underwear down, the black lace instilling salacious desires in his mind, pulsing down his stomach straight to his groin.
“Oh Rina,” he purred, lowering his chin. “I can’t wait to get a taste.”
He nuzzled his face in between her legs, devouring her with slick laps of his tongue.
Marina gasped, her knuckles curling in his tightly woven strands.
Acacius gazed up, relishing in the look of pleasure on her face—eyes closed, painted lips parted.
When they were finished, she would crave his touch. No other would be able to satisfy her the way he could. A perfect form of torture.
Acacius toyed with her, enjoying the tremors in her body as he nibbled with his lips, flicked his tongue up and down, sucking, prying himself deeper until her hips lifted, greedy for more.
Her fingers twisted in a tighter grip in his hair, ripping the strands from their tie. Her other hand pressed against the wall behind her as her breaths turned quick and shallow. He could feel her tensing against his mouth, chasing the pleasure winding in her belly.
A low rumble shook out of him. “Are you going to come for me, Rina?” His words vibrated against her, and she trembled, her moans echoing in the cavern like a siren’s song. A glorious, angelic sound that called out to his divine power.
This version of her imprinted into the chasm of his mind, free and completely herself, unable to hide behind her unfeeling facade. Acacius preferred her more this way, slowly unraveling for him.
“I do enjoy this side of you.” He smiled, satisfied with himself, and ran his tongue over her one last time to savor the taste.
Her knuckles twisted in the collar of his robe, and she ripped him up, crushing her lips against his.
Acacius’s back slammed into the stone with Marina pressed to his chest.
He inhaled sharply through his nose. Warmth dripped down his spine as he opened his mouth, inviting her in. He could taste cacao and vanilla on her tongue, and the remnants of her arousal still fresh on his own. A marvelous combination that he drank in, lusted for.
She locked her hand around his nape and ground her hips into the hard length beneath his robe.
A feral desire stammered in his pulse, infusing thickly into his blood.
He dragged his hands up her hips and locked his fingers around her waist, deepening their kiss, the firm hold of his control slowly slipping under her spell. He wasn’t sure what else she wanted from him, but he would gladly do as she asked.
His tongue slid between her lips as his hand ran up her spine and cradled the back of her hair.
Marina snatched his bottom lip in between her teeth and pulled. Pain exploded in his nerves and shot down in his chest.
He opened his eyes, hooded and ravenously dark, meeting hers.
She released his lip and slithered her hand under the layers of his robe. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“I want to devour you, Rina.” His voice was rough around her name.
She unfastened his pants and took him in her hand, stroking him in a tight grip that created a tense pleasure. “You despise me, yes?”
A shiver wracked his solid frame. “More than anyone.”
Marina released him and slipped in closer, dragging her lips underneath his chin. “Then fuck me like it.”
“I’ll take that as permission then.” He spun them around and pinned her against the stone, every ounce of his self-control snapping like a limb to his Ruin. She wanted a distraction from her heartache. A request he understood, and one he would gladly oblige in.
She arched her back, pressing her breasts into his chest as he shoved the sides of her dress up to her hips. He ground his jaw, envisioning the way he would have her—up against this wall until she was calling out his name, begging for more of him.
He obeyed her command and lifted one of her legs around his waist, driving into her in one hard thrust.
Marina gasped lightly. The muscles of his abdomen shuddered as her walls squeezed against him.
Fucking hell.
Acacius nuzzled his forehead into the dip of her neck and shoulder. Pieces of his hair stuck to her damp skin.
He pulled out, exposing his tip.
A sound rattled in her throat. Pinpricks of black ink swelled in the air around them. He could feel her power caressing his own, thrumming hot in his veins.
She clung to his neck, her leg curled tighter around his waist, jerking her hips up to meet him.
He grinned, setting his thrusts in an intoxicating tempo. He slowed his movement, reaching as far as he could inside of her, just to pull out for an excruciating pause.
The jagged edges of the cavern wall dug into his palms as he supported himself around her.
He peeked up at her through his lashes, her teeth sunk into her bottom lip, resisting. He couldn’t have that. Not when her pride was on the line.
Acacius pulled out and spun them to the stone arch. He pushed her down with a firm grip to her nape, bending her over.
She held herself up on the arch as Acacius shoved back inside of her. “You’re going to remember this tomorrow, wishing you were still full of me.”
A breathy moan broke free from her lips.
She tilted her hips, giving him better access to plunge inside, and he grinned wickedly. The goddess enjoyed a filthy mouth, it seemed. A response that only stirred his carnal desires.
Acacius dug his fingers into the base of her neck and pounded into her, chasing the gathering tension behind his navel. Deeper, harder, faster, he reveled in the friction and the heat flushing his insides.
Dark, indigo mist floated from him and stuck to her, sinking beneath her skin like a parasite.
He could no longer resist her gravitational pull—could no longer resist the urge to allow his power to mingle with hers.
He wanted to mix himself so deep in her veins, she would feel the presence of him long after their encounter.
Their divine power connected, and an electric current flooded Acacius’s system. It crackled through him like one of Viviana’s sparks.
Marina quivered, gripping tightly around him.
Acacius shuddered, thrusting as deeply as her body would allow him to.
Tremors wracked through her, and her long fingers curled into fists against the stone. Her walls pulsed around him as a smattering of moans spilled out of her, reverberating along the cavern.
“Sing for me, Rina.” It took every ounce of his self-control to keep a slow rhythm, twisting and grinding his hips to play with her most vulnerable spots and draw out her euphoria.
“Fuck you,” she said in breathless waves, still writhing against him.
Acacius laughed. “What do you think I am doing?”
He tightened his hold on her nape and thrusted until his release came. A blissful detonation.
He slapped his hand down on the arch beside her head to hold himself up. Rapturous tingles swam up his spine. His body convulsed, and he let out a sated exhale, riding out the high as he filled her completely.
Fuck.
It’d been so long since the woe had dispersed in his chest. For the first time since Ruelle’s death, he felt lighter, like he could breathe. The feeling was only temporary, and the act was agonizingly cliché, but he didn’t mind feeding into a vice. Even if it was Marina.
Acacius straightened and stepped away until his back met the wall, letting a sweet delirium take over.
He tucked himself back inside of his pants, watching the sticky, white river of his seed leak down her thigh before she shimmied her dress into place over her waist.
A possessiveness flared in his chest, fulfilled by the fact that when she departed and returned home, she would have to face the evidence of their time together. He hoped she felt an inkling of arousal when she did so—another gratifying way Acacius could plague her thoughts.
The velvet material fell back around her legs. She smoothed her palms over the fabric.
Acacius’s eyes drifted up to her face—her makeup still immaculate, proof of her glamor—to her disheveled hair, matted and frizzed where his fingers gripped moments prior.
When she lifted her chin, Acacius met her usual blank expression, like a mask flawlessly perfected.
Acacius had just slipped through that barricade, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
There was no going back now. He’d memorized it all—the way her teeth sank into her bottom lip, how her eyes squeezed shut, the breathy cries that escaped her.
The look of rapture on her face with him deep inside of her was better than any revenge he’d plotted thus far.
“Don’t follow me,” she commanded, breaking the silence. Dark tendrils crept around her, cradling her ankles.
Acacius flashed her a smile, shaking his head as he pushed back the loose strands off his forehead. “I told you once already, Rina. There is nowhere you can hide from me.”
She tilted her head, and he swore a smirk dusted her mouth. “Your plan to revoke my title failed.”
“You’re right,” he said, his eyes glimmering. “That means it’s your move now.”
Marina stared at him, a spark dancing in her gaze, almost as if the idea of meeting again excited her.
A thrilling sensation quaked under his skin, darting quickly through his veins and manifesting a ribbon of his divine power in the space between them to reach for her.
Before it could make contact, like a gale cutting through smoke, her darkness swept her away.