Chapter 10 Iris
Iris
His lips are fire on my skin. Branding me. Claiming me.
Even so, Basil’s kiss is surprisingly gentle. Exploratory even. I expected more… I don’t know, intensity. Instead, it’s sensual. As if we have been lovers for many lifetimes and yet, are still learning each other’s bodies.
I release the grasp I have on my shirt and bring a hand up, laying it on the back of his arm, feeling the muscles tense underneath as my fingers caress his rough skin.
A low growl begins in his chest and rolls throughout his body, flowing into mine while he prods my lips with his tongue.
My mouth opens further, allowing him entry, meeting his tongue with mine.
Stars erupt behind my eyes and shoot underneath my skin. My toes tingle and my chest clenches as I am overcome with need. For him. For more.
Fuck, I don’t even know him, and yes, he’s threatened me and all my loved ones, but right now, none of that matters. All I know is that this, whatever this is, feels like what I’ve been waiting for my entire life.
I slide my hand up his arm to the back of his neck, bringing him in closer. The tentative nature of his kiss turns to hunger. He growls into me, and I swallow his sounds, consuming them like the sustenance I crave.
As he nips my bottom lip, I begin to feel the tickle he described. It’s not at all unpleasant. It’s more akin to someone running a soft feather under my skin, leading from my chest up into my throat and working its way out between my lips.
When I start to feel a giggle working its way up, Basil pulls away, breathless and eyes blazing with heat. “I have to stop,” he says.
I don’t want him to. I want to feel more. To be seen and consumed. Whatever he did was just the tip of the iceberg, and I know there is so much more under that steely surface. There’s so much more of him.
“Are you alright?” he asks, concerned.
“Yes… no… I don’t know.” I genuinely don’t know.
My head swims. I should fear this beast before me.
The horns alone should have me running or cowering or doing something other than wondering what they feel like.
I should be concerned about him harming me or my loved ones.
Instead, all I can think about is how his lips felt against mine and how I want to feel them again.
Fuck, he is so unexpected. Prickly and demanding. Clearly, used to getting everything he wants. And yet… as I gaze into those crimson orbs of his, all I see is fire, passion, and a touch of longing. But what could he long for?
His brows furrow, giving him the most adorable crease between his eyes. I lift my hand, lightly pressing it to his skin, and rub it away. His head falls forward, ever so slightly, as he leans into my touch, with my hand moving to rest on his cheek.
“You are gorgeous, Iris,” he says, his voice low and growly as he sucks in a deep breath.
“You aren’t so bad yourself,” I respond, not knowing why I said that at all.
I try to turn away, wanting to hide from him out of embarrassment.
He’s more than okay. I’ve been eyeballing him all day, and each time I look at Basil, I find something else that intrigues me.
From his bald head and pointy horns, to the roughness of his skin, to eight abs I definitely didn’t count when he stood across from me in the kitchen.
While I didn’t search for long, nothing online said that the Boogeyman was supposed to be hot. Granted, it also didn’t say they were real… so you know, can’t believe everything you read.
I swallow, working up the courage to ask what I want to know.
“What is it, my little flower?”
“I. Um.” I pause, wondering if I’m really going to ask these next words.
“Are you able to, um, kiss, without, you know, consuming my soul?” My hand leaves his face and attempts to cover my own as I feel it redden.
Fuck. Why would I ask such a thing? I feel like I’m thirteen asking the cute boy if he likes me.
Waiting for Basil’s response is torturous.
Painful. Embarrassing. Enough to make me want to crawl into the portal myself, if we ever get it open, so that the world can swallow me whole.
His response is simple. One word. Both a confirmation and a promise wrapped up in three simple letters.
“Yes.”
Before I can think through my actions, I uncover my face, move my hand to the back of his neck, and pull his head back down to mine, crashing my lips to his. I groan hungrily into his mouth as he opens, devouring my metaphorical soul.
My insides light up, my nerves going off like fireworks as he nips at my bottom lip and then licks the sting away.
He begins to pull back, but I’m not ready to break the connection, so I put a hand behind me and push myself up, following him.
His arm slides around me, holding on as he rises, lifting me with him.
As if a natural occurrence, I wrap my legs around his thick middle, feeling the growing bulge underneath.
Despite my being attached to his face, Basil carries us back to my bedroom. He gently places me on the bed, but my legs do not let go. As I lay back, he follows, placing his hands on either side of my head, hovering over me much like he did last night. Only this time I want him to be there.
I grind against him, trying to ease the growing ache between my thighs.
He lowers himself onto his forearms, and his weight against me is the security I never knew I wanted. Or needed. Basil growls above me, his increased weight adding to the delicious pressure as he pushes against my core.
I pull away, breaking the kiss. “I want you to know, I don’t normally do… well, this.”
“Kiss Boogeymen?”
I laugh, his response filling me with light. A direct contrast to his dark persona. “No. Have sex with someone I’ve just met.”
“Oh. Is that what we are doing?”
I look at him quizzically. He must be out of practice. Any normal guy would be jumping at this opportunity. Not that I think that highly of myself, but more that they are happy to get any piece of ass they can. Then again, Basil is not any regular guy.
“I had hoped that was where this was heading,” I respond, grinding against him again, eliciting another one of those toe-tingling growls from deep in his chest.
When he speaks again, the sound is as if it grows from that growl. It’s rumbly and rocky and goes directly to my clit, making it pulse in need.
“Iris.” He pauses. My name is like a song from his lips. “I will do anything for you. I will burn the gates of Hell, I will set all the souls free, I will crawl across the flames for you.”
Woah.
“I had no preconceived notions about what was about to happen between us, for you are so unexpected that I can’t seem to think that far ahead.
Instead, I find myself grounded in you. In every second I get to be near you.
If you wish to have sex…” a growl rumbles from his chest again, sending vibrations throughout his body, and oh does it ever feel good, “then let me perfectly clear, I will spend the rest of my time here pleasing you. I will make you scream my name so that all the others know who you belong to.”
I swallow.
“Would you like that, my petal?”
Do I fucking ever.
I nod. “Please,” I respond, the simple word coming out more like a plea than an agreement, but I don’t fucking care. I need him more than I need any sense of dignity that may remain.
“As you wish.”
Before I can respond again, his lips crash back into mine. He breaks away again after way too short a time. Leaning back, his eyes roam my form.
“This will not do.” He raises his hands, flexing them above my torso, his clawed nails glimmer in the light right before he uses them to shred my top.
The sound of ripping fabric briefly fills the room, but his slice is precise, cutting through my shirt and bra, yet leaves no scratches behind.
“Much better,” he says, his eyes widening as he takes in my exposed breasts.