27. Callan #2
Her fingers trail up the sides of my neck and all I can do is hold my breath.
Every inch of skin she touches burns, but in the best way; it’s not dying, it’s coming to life.
Her lips part as she brushes them across mine, feather light.
It’s like having been in the desert for years without water and she’s the promise of a godsdamn hurricane.
“I’m not above begging,” I say onto her lips.
She laughs, then kisses me fully and without reservation. I curse at the first taste of her, sweet and sinful and fatally addicting. I swear on every god that I haven’t taken a deep breath in weeks. Not until now.
I yank her closer, tilting her face into mine and moving my lips across hers at a maddeningly slow pace, groaning at the gentle brush of her tongue against my own. Then everything catches fire.
Her lips part for me and I’m ruined when she whimpers into my mouth, her hands fisting the collar of my shirt holding on like I’d ever fucking let her go.
I can’t believe all the time I spent not kissing her.
All the time I spent talking myself out of ever crossing that line, because how could I not?
This…it’s… insatiable, the feeling of her skin heating through the fabric of her dress and the little sounds she makes when my hand slides back into her hair, tugging slightly on the still-damp curls.
My hand skates across her thighs, and my teeth graze her bottom lip, then I feel her smile against my mouth when my fingers freeze at the edge of the bunched fabric.
She pulls away, only far enough to look me dead in the eyes. “It’s okay,” she breathes. Her pulse flickers along her neck when she takes my wrist and pushes it up her thigh, guiding me past the line I’d drawn for myself. My blood is pumping so hard I fear my heart will give out. “You can touch me–”
She gasps when I take myself the rest of the way, my thumb brushing straight up the center of her underwear. “Here?” I ask, and Lucina nods, her throat bobbing as she swallows. I toy with the edge of the lace, memorizing the way her eyes burn. “Use your words, Chaos.”
“There,” she stutters when I tug on the sides of the pale white lace. “Please.”
And there goes my last shred of self-control; it was hanging on by a thread anyway.
I stand abruptly, and she barely has time to throw her arms around my neck. I toss her down onto the bed, that beautifully untamed hair fanning around her as she scrambles up to her elbows.
“Callan…” Lucina squirms backwards, something like fear flickering across her face when she sees the intensity in mine. “You have a crazy look in your eye.”
“I’m sure I do.” My finger crooks in her direction. “Come here.” I snatch the ankle of her boot and yank her towards me. Lucina goes flying across the comforter, right up to the edge of the mattress. She lets loose a string of curses but falls deathly silent when I drop to my knees.
Two thuds against the hardwood, and she stills.
Apparently, that’s all it takes to tame chaos.
“You know the rules,” I murmur, just loud enough for her to hear. “Tell me to stop and I will, but Lucina…” I wait until her eyes meet mine, holding her gaze as I grip the edge of the lacy fabric and tug it down her hips. “Now is the time to stop me.”
“And why is that?” She flashes a taunting sort of smile; the kind that makes me want to simultaneously kill her and bind her life to mine. Whatever the fuck that means.
I shrug, pulling the lacy material over her boots and tossing it to the ground. “Because I won’t be able to stop once I start.”
Her eyes darken to a shade so deep that all I can see are her pupils and a faint ring around them where the gold flecks still linger.
The sheets dip as she sinks her elbows further into the mattress and slowly, sinfully she drapes her leg over my shoulder.
Her head falls to the side when I groan.
She’s unrivaled and striking in every sense of the word, and gods, it looks good on her, that power.
It ripples off her skin, and I don’t even think she’s aware of it.
“Go on then, Captain,” Lucina taunts, and I grin.
That. Fucking. Name.
I wrap my arm around the thigh she’s laid across my shoulder, then my other hand presses into the back of her knee, pushing it towards her chest. She curses when my teeth graze along her inner thigh, light enough that her skin pebbles, then she gasps when I separate her with a slow brush of my thumb.
Running it straight through the slickness that’s already gathered there, and I drink in the way it glistens.
Lucina curses and her head falls to the mattress. My palm splays across her lower stomach, holding her in place.
“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I murmur into her skin, then we both groan at the first drag of my tongue straight up the center of her—warm and soft and fucking perfect.
She springs back up to her elbows. “Callan.” I can’t tell if it’s a plea or a warning, but it’s too late for the latter.
I shake my head, unable to lift it. “Lie down, Lucina.”
I feel her ready to argue, but the only sound she makes is a sharp breath when I yank her hips forward, pulling her elbows out from underneath her. Then she isn’t able to argue anything. The only word she’s able to speak is my name.
Not Captain, never Captain. Not with her.
I slide her other leg over my shoulder, freeing one hand, and the heel of Lucina’s boot digs into my back when I slip a finger deep inside of her.
“Fuck,” she exhales, her back arching off the bed.
Gods, I’m going to have dreams about this. It will forever be there when I close my eyes; how perfect she tastes and how stunning she sounds when she can’t catch her breath. How her body betrays the foul curses she hurls, needing me in the same violent way I need her.
I add a second finger, curling them both, and when I let go of a trembling breath, hot air fans across the most sensitive part of her.
I’m grinning when her hand flies up to cover her mouth. “There’s no need to be quiet, Chaos. Go on and tell everyone you’re mine.”
She tries to laugh, but the sound is cut off when my teeth clamp around that swollen bundle of nerves, and then she’s writhing against me and I’m gripping her thigh so desperately I’m certain I’ll leave a ring of bruises there.
Lucina tightens around my fingers and then—
There’s a knock on the door. “Cal,” Pax calls.
“Fuck off, Pax,” I snap, slamming a hand down over Lucina’s hips when she tries to squirm away, then I give her a firm shake of my head. “I’m not done with you.”
“Callan.” Lucina’s eyes flare with urgency, then her head whips to the door when the floorboards creak in the hall.
“Delia wants to see you,” Pax adds, but I don’t think Vita herself could pull me away from this. The Dame’s going to have to wait.
I stand, and Lucina’s eyes track the movement, bristling underneath the intensity in my gaze when I crawl over her.
“Here’s what you’re going to do, Chaos.” I kick her legs back open with my knee, and she gasps when I slide my fingers perfectly back into her, whiskey eyes falling heavy.
“You’re going to ignore him—ignore everything,” I whisper against her lips, starting up a torturous pace that has her gripping the collar of my shirt.
My hand settles on her throat, brushing against that hammering pulse. My pulse. “Then you’re going to fall apart all over my fingers and watch as I lick them clean.”
Her lips pop open, and a crease forms between her brows. “Callan, I…”
“I’ve got you.” Her breathing becomes labored, and the roll of her hips stutters a second before—
All the lanterns burst, glass shattering at the same time she does, and amber lights dart across the room.
I curse, swallowing the sound of her cries, with a brutal kiss that leaves us both breathless. I coax her through each pulse around my fingers, pulling away when she squirms against me.
“Open them,” I growl when her eyes flutter shut. “I need your eyes, Lucina.”
She does as I say, the beautiful flush on her cheeks deepening when I lick my fingers clean. Gods, she tastes like heaven.
“You’re insane,” Lucina hisses, her voice raw. Raw from screaming my name.
There’s another knock on the door followed by Pax’s frustrated sigh, but I pay it no mind.
“You’re mine now,” I tell her, gently brushing loose curls out of her face.
Her eyes roll but doesn’t deny it, the tip of her tongue darting out across her swollen bottom lip. “I know,” she whispers, running her fingers across the silver chain that swings above her chest.
She allows me only a second to stare back at her, but when Pax bangs on the door again she pushes me off, sliding out from underneath me. Good thing too, because my hands are itching to rip that dress—
“Callan,” Pax says again, and my forehead falls to the mattress.
Lucina snatches her underwear off the ground and straightens herself, then she strides across the room and throws the door open with a huff.
Pax takes one look at the flush to her cheeks, the shattered glass behind her, and the death-glare I’m pelting him with, and the bastard grins.
“Wipe that smirk off your face Pax, I can practically see the shape of your ear imprinted in the door,” Lucina fires off before I can tell him to go fuck himself.
I can’t help but laugh when his face falls. I readjust myself as I cross the room, sliding a hand through Lucina’s hair then pressing a kiss onto the top of her head. “Have Hunter walk you and Gemma to the Banyan.” Her wide hazel eyes flick up to me. Perfect. So, perfect. “I’ll meet you there.”
Her gaze dips to my smirk, then she tosses Pax a childish side eye and steps past him. Her boots click against the hardwood, and I crane my neck to watch her leave. Chiaros, where the fuck did she get that dress?
“I’d hurry if I were you,” Pax interrupts my silent gawking, and then I’m transported straight back to reality. And reality is, I’m about to tell Delia that getting our people back just got ten times—no, a hundred times harder.
I’m not ready for reality, I just got to heaven.