Chapter 15 A NEW FORM OF REVENGE #2
During their first encounter, she’d barely touched him, and now here he was, the small motion of her knuckles twisted in his strands pulling his center taut.
He kissed up her chin and devoured her lips. Her mouth parted for him, and he swallowed her breath, intertwining their tongues. She tasted like dark chocolate and white wine, and he consumed it ravenously.
His hands moved at an impatient speed shoving the sides of her dress up. The slits met her upper thighs, making the task easy.
To his surprise, Marina ran her hand down his torso, her fingertips grazing every etch of muscle down to his waistband. His abdomen quivered, and he swallowed the groan climbing up his throat.
She fumbled to undo the buttons on his trousers. He broke away from her lips and cupped her breast with his hand, lightly massaging her nipple between his teeth. The urgency to remove his clothes stalled as she clung to his waistband.
Small, breathy noises hummed in her throat.
Acacius grinned against her skin and took over the task, freeing himself from his pants. “Are you ready, Rina?”
She squeezed his waist with her legs. “Put it inside of me already.”
He plunged his hips, entering her entirely.
Marina gasped.
He swallowed it with a kiss, catching her bottom lip in between his teeth. The base of his spine tingled. His eyes fluttered closed as he gave her body a chance to adjust.
More, his Chaos whispered. Split her apart until there is nothing left.
He wanted to shatter her, like a toy, into hundreds of pieces. Break her until what she hid inside poured out for him alone.
The muscles in his arms surged, his body straining to set the speed slow. He pulled his length out, only to reenter halfway. This time, he wouldn’t give in so easily.
She held a firm grip on his shoulders, using it to anchor herself up, pushing him deeper.
He removed himself and released her lip. “You won’t get what you really want until you end this trick.” He traced his tongue up her neck and bit down on her earlobe. “Lift your Night, Rina.”
She raised her hips, chasing what he wouldn’t give. “And if I don’t?” He could hear the frustration in her voice.
Ecstasy washed through his body. An insatiable hunger, like the ache of Chaos, desperate to be relieved.
He drove deeply this time, granting her what she desired.
An apparition of his divine power floated above. Moths flurried out of its cloud and swarmed around them, their wings tickling Acacius’s arms and cheeks.
She moaned out. The sound trembled through him. He curled his hands into fists, and pieces of her hair tangled in his fingers.
More.
Tendrils of his power slithered around her wrists and bound them over her head.
He pulled out to the tip, just to taunt her. “Do as I say, and I will give you what you need.”
She arched and writhed, pressing her breasts against his chest to taunt him back.
Tremors of pleasure surged through Acacius’s middle and straight into his groin.
He set his jaw, warring with the urge to spin her around and plunge into her like a starved fiend.
“No,” she said, breathless, her resolve weakening.
He withdrew himself, slowly building her agony. “Stubborn goddess.”
“Among many other charming attributes.” She loosened her thighs around his waist enough to slip her arm in between them and take him in her hand.
“Fucking hell, Rina.” The friction trembled in his synapses, and his body stiffened, clinging to his self-control to avoid racing after the pleasure.
He wouldn’t break first.
He refused to give her that satisfaction.
She moved skillfully, caressing and kneading, up and down, up and down.
Acacius’s breath hitched, the last of his willpower draining through the cracks of his resolve.
But to his surprise, her face came into focus through the all-consuming cloak of her power. Like nightfall under the moon, a silver gleam spilled through the temple windows and formed a chiaroscuro around the goddess.
Her long hair lay spread around her face against the altar. Her hand stopped moving between them, and she stared at him, mouth slightly parted, regarding him in a slight awe that he wasn’t sure he was meant to see.
He searched her face, baffled as to why her Night had lifted. The realization that they could see one another didn’t break the spell that she was under.
Instead, the aggressive, cold energy between them softened, like dawn melting away the darkness of the world. The shackles of his divine power dissolved from her wrists.
He held her eyes, dark like fresh espresso. What are you thinking?
Marina guided his length back to her entrance, never letting go of his eyes. She ran her hands behind his hips and pulled him into her.
He understood her request and entered as deeply as he could.
She bit her lip back but maintained the connection with his gaze.
Acacius studied every flicker of muscle and motion dancing across her face as he glided in and out at a gentle pace. The urgency was still there, but alongside it was something new. A longing for time to slow, and for this gathering in his chest to never cease.
He enjoyed watching her unravel, display her true self. Perhaps, she’d subconsciously lifted her Night, curious to see what pleasure she evoked on his face. Her curiosity felt sacred. It brought him a bizarre sense of pride.
He reached up and delicately brushed the white strip of her hair from her face.
The tender gesture snapped her out of whatever spell she’d fallen under with him, and she flinched. Her mouth closed into a tight line, realizing her mistake.
His unrivaled animosity crept back into his chest, smothering whatever sentiment he felt in that moment. The goddess was still the one who betrayed him, and he yearned to see her vulnerable, just to make it hurt all the more when he took retribution.
Acacius gave her a wolfish smirk and pried his fingers into her mouth—the same two that were inside her only moments before. “Good girl.”
The sharpness glinted in her gaze as she sat up, deepening the angle of where they were joined.
Acacius ground his teeth at the sparks shooting down his spine as he watched her take his fingers down her throat.
She leveled him with her hooded gaze as she pushed her lips to his knuckles.
His brain stuttered, delirious from the swirl of her tongue and the way her throat suctioned his fingertips.
He sucked air through his teeth. “Fuck.” His length twitched inside of her, and the muscles in his stomach clenched to keep him from spilling.
I won’t survive this.
She dragged her teeth over his skin as she pulled his fingers out, popping the tips in between her lips. “I did as you said.” The coarse, seductive timbre of her voice snapped the rest of his restraint. “Now fuck me until I’ll feel you tomorrow.”
He grasped the backs of her thighs and yanked her forward. Her back hit the cool rock of the altar. “Such a ruthless mouth.”
He thrusted deep, pounding and filling her until she swallowed him whole, again and again. The need for her was carnal, and his only choice was to sate the craving.
“Oh gods!” she cried out, tightening around him.
His eyes glazed in exaltation, almost lost in the feeling of becoming one with her. He couldn’t give in, though, not when he needed to drag their feud out as long as he could.
This small frame of euphoria was their only escape from the grief and the pain rotting their hearts. Sinking in their loneliness together made it tolerable. He wanted the reprieve to go on forever, to torture her as much as he could.
Acacius maintained a rough pace, ensuring she felt every inch of him leaving her, every inch filling her. Her face etched in rapture—eyes squeezed shut, mouth open, the divot on her chin visible, creases lining her forehead. Emotion, even the darkest, most primal kind, was divine on her.
“Say my name, Rina,” he said as he left a trail of kisses down her jawline, “and I will send you to the stars.”
He yearned to hear her say it again.
“Acacius.” The sharp tips of her fingernails scraped down his back.
He sucked in a breath through his nose, not expecting her to cave so swiftly, and quickened his thrusts. “Again,” he ordered.
She dug her heels into his back. “Acacius.”
He hooked his hips up with his next push, ensuring he hit her most sensitive spots until her body spasmed underneath him.
His name left her in a ragged breath, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, folding her body into him.
It wasn’t enough.
He slipped an arm under her back and pulled her closer, desperate to relieve the need. The speed of his thrusts accelerated until the tension gave way through his insides, a detonation of nerves behind his navel that quivered down his legs into his toes.
He relaxed his weight onto his forearms, careful to keep from crushing her, and let his rapid breaths dissolve in the crook of her neck, riding the last surges of his high.
Acacius had hoped to raze her, keep her in his tight fist, but it appeared she was slowly stringing him up just the same.