Chapter Thirty-Two #2
Gleaming white-feathered wings rise over his shoulders and extend into the night sky. I release him, stepping back, unable to breathe. There, undeniably in the moonlight, Ryc stands with a set of proud, expansive wings.
They dwarf mine.
Not the sinew and bone constructs of a demon, not a singular feathered pair like mine, of the winged fae… but rather the bright, feathered wings of the nyraphim, of Life Bringers.
“You’re a Life Bringer…” the words are barely audible to my own ears.
He nods.
I can’t look away.
Ryc… and Zuriel… are half-brothers.
Does he know? Has he met Gaia’s other children—his brothers and sisters? Has he seen the heavens? Retrieved blessed souls from the veil?
No.
I don’t think he has.
We would have met much sooner. We would have fought. Would I feel what I feel?
No.
I don’t think so.
Unlike me, Ryc was given a mortal life and because his father was not Netharis, he was able to keep it. Despite the hundreds of questions tearing through my head, I don’t feel the need to recoil from him.
Ryc is a haunting, ethereal creature with wings of light and hair of shadow. A majestic set of paired wings fold behind him as he waits for me to speak, to react. I step closer, reaching, and gingerly graze the feathers above his shoulder.
He snatches my wrist, lowering it, and my eyes dart to his with surprise. His usual golden gaze darkens.
“Do not tease me, little demon,” he growls, the sound a low rumble.
He releases my wrist, and his wings vanish. Starlight falls behind him where his wings had been, raining toward the ground in a glittering cloud.
“You’re so beautiful.” My voice trembles. “So much light…”
He is opposite of me in nearly every way.
What could we ever have in common?
I’m hit with a wave of mourning and it brings tears to my eyes. I mourn the time we’ve wasted, and the time we’ll never get. Robbed of it all by Netharis.
“I cannot stay,” I whisper.
Drawing me into his embrace, his arms wrap tightly around me, his fingers digging into my back.
He lowers his face to mine. “I cannot let you go,” he murmurs against my lips.
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath.
Him not letting me go makes everything difficult—more difficult than it should be.
I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do this again—that I wouldn’t give anyone my heart again.
But the truth is, every time I dreamed of this fae, I’d given him a piece of it.
I hung shards of it on him as a means to protect myself from demons like Kassil.
“Please stay with me, Ves.” The note of pleading in his voice unravels me, turning what little resolve I have into dust.
Fate, gods, repercussions be damned.
He can be mine.
For one night.
And when I return to the hells, I’ll dream of him again.
Pulling him into me, I offer my lips. He sweeps into me, taking my mouth in a possessive kiss. It softens as his tongue grazes against the seam of my lips, begging permission. With a tilt of my head, they part and he claims me, his tongue searing across mine.
And like the night I’d thrown myself at him shamelessly, his touch, his taste, his scent, it all sets my blood on fire. A blaze matched only by hellfire, threatening to destroy me completely.
I’m lifted against him, my legs wrapping around his hips, his strong hands under me.
He moves, but his mouth does not leave mine, my arms folding around his neck tight.
My back is pressed up against the door frame, and I moan as he drives his hips into mine.
His hand travels over my leg, under my night camisole, stopping abruptly over the bare skin of my hip.
“Where are your panties, little demon?” he growls against my mouth as he slips a hand between my legs, brushing against the slick core of me. My head falls back against the door frame as my breath hitches, and he laughs, a deep, dark sound that vibrates through me.
His hand moves upward, over the silk, cupping a breast. The tight circles he traces over my peaked nipple empties my head of all logical thought, and I arch into his touch. His lips sear over my skin, kissing, nipping, licking along my jaw and down my neck. He grazes the spot where I’d been bitten—
His teeth sink into me and I shatter against him, gasping.
Between his mouth, his hands, the way he presses against me, my head empties of all other thoughts. Nothing else will ever matter as much as this—the space between us. Who we’ve been, who we are, and who we’ll become make no difference here.
We simply are.
I tug on his hair, pulling those thought-shattering teeth and lips and tongue away from my neck, returning his lips to mine. Pushing myself away from the door frame, he steps back to keep balance and pivots to enter the room.
A guttural groan rises from him, an animalistic sound from deep within, as he unlocks my legs from around him. With a swift motion, he tosses me onto the bed, climbing over me with a wicked grin. He settles himself into the cradle between my thighs, branding me with another kiss.
He presses his hips into mine, the feel of his hardened length against my throbbing core sends me into a dizzying, breathless spiral. Hooking a finger under the thin strap of my camisole, he snaps it with ease, doing the same with the other.
“I like this camisole,” I breathe between kisses.
“I’ll get you another,” he growls in a low rasp against my jaw as he slides the garment down, exposing my breasts.
My fingers bury themselves in his hair as he trails his lips along my collarbone.
Silhouetted by the light of the fire, his dark hair falls over my chest as his lips drag further south, until his breath warms my breast. With a ragged inhale, he wraps his lips around a nipple and a sharp cry is pulled from my throat as his tongue mimics the circles his thumb had drawn earlier.
As he claims me with his mouth, a finger strokes between my legs, matching the movements of his tongue. The touch against the apex of my thighs sends me to delirious new heights, and my head falls back.
I cry out his name, wanting, needing more. My chest arcs, my fingers tightening in his hair. He gives my other breast the same languid attention, leaving me panting and writhing beneath him.
This.
All of this.
And yet I still need more.
Ryc’s lips travel down my abdomen, as his hands push the lower half of my camisole higher.
Bunching the thin material in a fist, a lightning quick flash of light brightens the room and the scent of burning silk reaches me as the silk falls away in two halves.
His hands brace upon my thighs as he moves downward, his breath heating the slick core of me while I watch.
Lifting his head, he meets my stare and even in the low light of the room, his eyes are dark with his own desire.
I bite my lower lip, committing this to memory. I never want to forget the way he’s staring at me in this moment, his unspoken plea, the feel of his hands on my thighs.
“Yes,” I grant him permission, my voice no more than a pleading whimper.
With a predatory smile and a dark chuckle that sends waves of pleasure and anticipation down my spine, his hands tighten on my thighs as he spreads me wider. Lowering his head, he wastes no time with gentle touches and tastes.
No.
This male is going to devour me whole.
And I want him to.
I need it.
His hands holding my hips in place, I strain against him as he runs his tongue over my center.
Rolling my hips into him, I encourage his stroking velvet tongue and nipping teeth with a few breathy moans.
He plunges his tongue into me, his grip tightening in a way sure to leave me with bruises come morning.
But I don’t care. I want it all.
My breaths grow shorter and my moans louder.
It’s as if my every sense folds in on itself and the world around me melts away, all that exists is Ryc as he unravels everything I am.
Glancing down, his eyes are fixed upon my face and he nips at me again, forcing my eyes to flutter closed.
He slides a finger inside and my orgasm shatters me, raining over me like glass turned to sand, leaving me weak, trembling, and gasping.
As he rises, I cup his face in my hands and pull him to greet his lips with mine. The taste of myself on his mouth shocks my desire, sending it roaring again, like a lightning strike landing in the middle of a lake.
I need more.
With a desperate haste, my hands free him of his pants, flinging them across the room. They find a new home somewhere on the floor, as the broad tip of his cock nudges between my legs. My eyes dart between us and my breath hitches in my chest at the sight of him.
It slips in the slickness, and he reaches down to guide himself in. I can’t tear my eyes away. Hellfire erupts within me, threatening to turn me into ash as I pant against him, nipping at his bottom lip as he eases himself in. Pulling his hips, I try to force him deeper, but he resists.
He wants to control this.
He wants to torture me.
It’s the sweetest kind of torture.
Ryc presses his forehead against mine, his body trembling with his own burning and consuming want. His eyes open, locking with mine as he pushes a little further, before retreating nearly to the tip.
I’m going to shatter like stardust.
Good gods, I can’t take my eyes away from his. The molten gold that I would willingly drown in. With a flex of his hips, he pushes deeper and my eyes flutter closed.
“No,” He breathes, placing a soft kiss upon my lips as he withdraws. “Eyes on me, little demon. I want to watch you come undone,” he orders, his voice deep.
Forcing my eyes open, I frame his face with my hands. My eyes linger on his kiss-swollen lips before traveling up to the gaze that cuts through my soul.
And I obey.
I keep my eyes on him.
Retreating and advancing, Ryc fills me.
A decadent and sinful sensation that I want to never forget and always feel. He withdraws, a long movement this time. He was nearly all the way in, the anticipation of his next thrust ripples through me.
I raise my hips to meet his final, mighty push, taking him to his hilt, holding his stare.
Moaning against him, the sensation of him fully seated steals the breath from my lungs.
He groans and the sound is my undoing. Wrapping my legs around his back, my hips angle themselves to take him even deeper.
My nails dig into his back with a pain-coated encouragement.
Good gods, it isn’t enough.
I want him roaring.
I want him as lost in pleasure as I am.
Rolling my hips in time with his thrusts, he groans again and his hand travels to my hip. He sets the pace, one that I match with fervor. He begins to thrust harder, faster, as I rake my nails down into his shoulders.
My climax crashes upon me, and Ryc’s head dips, biting my shoulder, piercing the skin. The mix of pleasure with delicious pain sends me soaring even higher, my head thrown back as I voice my ecstasy with a scream.
He’s going to make me wake the whole of Ollora.
I want to wake the whole of Ollora.
“Fuck,” he growls into my shoulder, releasing a long, fractured breath.
Ryc’s thrusting grows wild and hard as I continue to ride the waves of my climax, his hips slamming into mine.
His groans turn into a rough, shouted release as he spills into me.
He rests his forehead against my cheek, his whole body trembling.
Leaning into him, my hands knead into his back as we pant in synchronized breaths, my heart a pounding mess in my chest.
He lifts his head, our eyes meeting as he runs his nose along mine.
“You’re going to destroy me, little demon,” he breathes, giving me a reminding drive that pulls a moan from me.
He chuckles, a low rumbling sound, as he flexes his hips in slow, lazy thrusts.
He’s already destroyed me.
He destroyed me the night we met on the battlefield.
My entire existence changed following that night, following him. I spent countless hours wondering about the dark-haired fae who’d been able to see me through the veil.
In a long, long pull, he withdraws and I immediately miss the feel of him.
He settles in to lie beside me as I turn into him, his hand finding a natural resting place upon my hip.
Slinging a leg over his waist, he pulls me closer, kissing me with the same slow, lazy feel.
It’s almost shameful how easily he’d be able to stroke my desire again should he want.
With a gentle caress, he brushes my hair out of my face, his eyes taking in every detail as if he’s searing me into his memory.
I do the same.
Admiring the depth in his damnable eyes, the color of his newly flushed skin, the way his jet black hair frames his face… Everything about this moment—I want to keep this image forever.
The promise of a future with him is far too easy to imagine.
I want to keep him forever.
I’ll never tell him that.
Because it would be pointless.