Chapter 24 Chase the Dark
She’s setting me on fire.
Aria whimpers and reaches down, undoing my pants and yanking down my underwear.
“Fuuuck.” Sparks burn my nerves when she fists my cock in her hand, her breath hitching as if she’s shocked at how thick and hard it is.
Her thumb brushes the tip, and I groan, my eyes seeing white.
Pre-cum drips down my length. Wetting it. Getting it ready to be in her tight, hot pussy.
No. I can’t. I came here to see her for the last time before the Benefaction. To kiss her and have her kiss me back before she hates me.
I can’t fuck her when everything blows tomorrow.
It’s not right.
Not when this may be the last time she wants my hands on her.
But my body isn’t listening. Instead, my hips are bucking up to her hand moving up and down my dick, spreading my pre-cum all over, sending more seeping out.
“Yes,” she whispers. “I need…I want you.”
Fuck.
My hands grip her waist as she moves on top of me. I wish I could see her. I wish I could see that tight little body moving on top of my cock like she’s desperate for it, like she’s choosing me.
But I want to meet her in the dark this time. My version of honesty.
Aria’s breath hitches as my cock glides through her wet core, grazing her clit with each thrust.
Wet sounds fill the room—our bodies slick and sliding.
“Fuck me,” she begs. “Fuck me, Reaper.”
An inhuman growl tears out of me. I thrust harder, wilder, a heat burning from my balls up my shaft, spreading to the rest of my body.
She whimpers again, her fingernails clawing my forearms, digging deep.
I hiss from the flash of pain, followed by the heady pleasure as wetness pools on the surface.
She’s drawn blood.
“You’re going to come,” I rasp. “You’ll come so hard, you’ll never have another orgasm without remembering this. Remembering me. Remembering who once made you feel fucking alive.”
“Yes,” she moans.
The headboard slams against the wall, a rhythmic thunder vibrating through the air. She bucks harder, wild like an untamed mare.
I fist the perfect handfuls of her tits and she cries as I twist her hard nipples again.
I need to taste them. Suckle them. See if she tastes as sweet as she sounds.
Her hands reach for me, dragging up the hem of my T-shirt like she’s desperate for me to be naked against her.
But I stop her before she gets past my abs.
My scar.
I can’t let her feel it. Not tonight. Not like this.
This moment belongs to Reaper and Aria. No one else.
Instead, I grab her waist and slam her back onto me. I slide one hand between us and pinch her clit.
Her body locks. Her muscles seize tight.
“Come, Aria. Make a mess on me.”
Fingers yanking her hair, I lurch up and bite her plump lip. My cock drives through her wetness, hitting her clit again.
She screams, her body convulsing like she’s been shocked with a live wire.
Every muscle aches inside me, drawn up so tight I could snap from the lightest breeze.
“And now,” I heave in a ragged breath as I grip my pulsing cock, “I’m bathing you in my cum.”
One jerk. Two.
“Fuck yessss.”
Wetness streams out in sharp pulses, the furious sounds of my hand pumping my cock cutting through the air.
I hear my cum spatter over her body as she wraps her arms around my back, pressing her ear against my chest.
My heart riots as my dick unloads, spurt after spurt, but it’s not enough.
The fire hasn’t abated. If anything, it’s burning hotter, like it knows tonight is the last chance it’ll blaze through the dark.
I’m overloaded with her sweet scent of cotton and honey, the searing sensations of her pressing a thousand kisses on my jaw, the tentative licks of her tongue, and her lusty moans.
“Aria,” I rasp. “My Aria.”
My dick throbs between us as she fists my hair and kisses me hard.
“More,” Aria whispers, once again moving on top of my cock. “I need you, Reaper. Inside me. Around me. Fuck me.”
No hesitation. No fear. Aria gives me everything she has—everything I don’t deserve.
Her words blow out my hearing, snuffing out the last thoughts in my head.
I flip her back under me in a swift motion, then drag my tongue down her jaw, her neck, her arm, past her tattoo, to her fingertips before suckling them into my mouth.
She moans but accepts me so beautifully, her legs spreading as I release her fingers.
Mind drunk with lust and something more, I grab a condom from my pocket, tear off the foil with my mouth, and roll it on my dick.
Her hands reach for me.
My heart aches for her.
Without another word, I notch my cock against her opening and slam home.
“Reaper,” she cries out. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Her legs tighten around my back.
Damn. She takes me like she’s molded to undo me.
“You’re so tight,” I grunt, hips snapping a new rhythm. My pulse roars in my ears, every inch of me on fire from her perfect pussy gripping my hard cock like it was made to take it.
She slurs something unintelligible as I power into her.
Need to get deeper. Brand myself into her. Inside her.
“You’re taking me so well.” Slap. “So fucking well.”
Slap. Slap.
A shudder ripples through her body, and she arches her hips up. Her fingernails once again dig into my forearms, swiping through the mess she made earlier.
“Vicious, Aria. Feel it. The blood you drew?”
She gasps, but then her body clenches hard around me.
“Fuck, you’re bad, aren’t you? A bad girl who needs her cunt railed by a bad man like me?”
The words pour out of me without filter.
Her body tightens again. Those fingernails dig deeper. Harder. Clawing all the way into my heart like she’s making a permanent mark on me.
Oh, Aria, you don’t need to try so hard.
You’ve already scored yourself deep into my soul.
I yank her hands off me and lock our fingers together before slamming them above her head.
“Fight me.” The bed bangs harder against the walls. The hinges squeak. “Don’t fight me. It doesn’t matter. Because I’m taking this cunt, aren’t I? Because you’re giving it to me. Because it belongs to me, doesn’t it?”
“Re-Reap—” Harsh breaths break out of her, grazing my skin.
I jackhammer into her now. She’s squeezing me tighter, making me lightheaded.
A new inferno blazes through me, rupturing every cell.
“Come for me, Aria. Let me hear you break apart for me like I’m breaking for you.”
Wetness shoots out from where we’re joined, dripping over my cock, my legs.
Then she lets out a keening moan, her body spasming beneath mine as she comes apart.
The wildfire overtakes me. My balls draw up, a pressure shooting through my veins until it condenses at the base of my shaft, then moves up, up, and up until everything explodes.
“Yesss,” I roar as I power into her.
Into this woman who has stolen my heart without me noticing. Who has made the god of death see light again.
This woman.
My everything.
Shudders upon shudders roll through me, and I collapse on top of her, making sure I brace myself on my arms so I don’t crush her.
Aria trembles underneath me, her sweat-slicked body moving against mine—legs grazing my jeans, fingers roving up and down my back like she can’t stop touching me.
I wrap her hand in mine, pressing a kiss on the pulse at her wrist before grazing her palm with the strokes representing my wish for her.
安. An. Peace. Safety.
She lets out a sated sigh and burrows deeper into my arms as we slowly come down from our cataclysmic high.
I’m winded. Exhilarated. Like I died and was reborn. I want to make vows of undying devotion. Turn on all the lights so I can see every beautiful inch of her in color. I want to take her to my parents’ cabin and read books by the fireplace.
I want to pretend I’m not an assassin who kills without remorse. That I’m not a soldier whose life isn’t his own.
I want to pretend, just for a moment, that I’m a man who deserves her.
But as the AC drifts over our bodies and reality slowly reclaims my shredded sanity, I freeze.
I crossed the last line and stole from her something she never should’ve given me.
What have I done?
If she finds out the truth tomorrow, if our plan fails and Cornelius reveals everything to her—who I am, what I did to her, how Blake fits into all of this—will I survive the fallout? Or am I doomed like Icarus when he fell from the sky?
“R-Reaper?” Her hand grazes my cheek.
I kiss her palm before slowly rolling off her and getting dressed.
She hitches a sharp breath. A painful one.
I’ve hurt her. It’s the last thing I want to do, and yet I still did.
But staying would be worse. Only a monster would stay.
As much as I am one, I don’t want to be a monster to her.
“This didn’t change anything, did it?” she whispers. “You’re still not meeting me in the light, are you?”
My fingers jerk as I fuss with my belt buckle.
I stride to the wicker basket—my wicker basket—knowing if it all goes down tomorrow, it’ll be the last time I’m using it.
Agony carves into my chest as I grab my gun, keys, and jacket, then head to her window to yank open the slightest gap.
Not turning around, I pause at the threshold.
“I can’t,” I finally answer her. “But trust me, if I could, there’d be no force strong enough on earth to keep me away from you.”
Then I jump into the darkness.
The curtain falls behind me.