Chapter 53 #2
Fangs grazed her, sparking shivers through her core. Her lust spilled down his wet chin as he continued to feast like a savage. His hand snaked up her front, and her dress tore away in his claws, releasing her breasts. Shadows swarmed her, stroking her sensitive flesh, and Alora sighed in delight.
He was everywhere. Invading. Demolishing.
The sear of that immoral tongue slid through her from tip to end.
She barely had time to convulse before it speared straight through her center. Her eyes rolled with a cry. Rune’s growl vibrated against her slick warmth, one clawed hand gripping her thighs tightly with bruising force.
His mouth was wild, annihilating her with every ounce of restraint breaking free. She melted against him, legs going numb, her fingers desperately clutching the glass fogging beneath her wild breaths.
His savage growls were all fire and fury, darkness wrapping around her like arms of smoke and silk. Then the air changed, the shadows lashed out, and something hard and sharp pressed into her lower back.
Horns.
Rune heaved back but Alora quickly turned around. His hulking form was hidden in the dark. All she could see was the hellfire in his wild eyes.
Swallowing, she whispered, “Don’t stop.”
She hooked her other leg on his shoulder again, leaving her completely open to him. Her core throbbed beneath his ragged breaths.
“Feed,” Alora commanded. “Drink as much as you desire.”
Rune snarled.
In the next blink, he had her flat on the bed. His mouth descended on her with a fervor that stole the air from her lungs. She was lost to every sinful onslaught on her body, hips writhing with equal frenzy.
Then his tongue plunged deep into her core.
The sensation left her nearly sobbing as she came again.
She held onto his horns as he practically lifted her off the bed, drinking in her arousal as if it would never be enough. He held her so tight, his claws nearly broke the skin. The sting heightened everything.
Another orgasm was quickly climbing, but Rune’s mouth drew away before it could fully surface.
His fangs flashed in the dark. The shadows flipped her over and around and next thing she knew, she knelt on the edge of the bed with Rune seated beneath her. Dragon scales coated his cheekbones, sharpening his features, the slitted pupils blown so wide his eyes were nearly black.
Take your pleasure, Alora. His claws lightly grazed her thighs. Ride me into oblivion. I want your sweet nectar spilling down my throat.
Then he made her sit.
A moan dragged from her throat, hips spasming against his mouth. She took hold of his horns, spreading her legs wide as his forked tongue slid through her folds, flicking her throbbing bud. The sensation was the one thing anchoring her in a world where all else had gone molten.
She could feel the sharp edge of his control, the untamed brutal hunger burning in his crimson eyes as she rode his face.
Sweat coated her skin. Everything was wet. The lewd sounds of their bodies meeting, his hungry groans.
Pleasure surged through her body like a rising tide when he thrust his tongue into her. Stars burst behind her eyes. Her moans grew louder, more frantic, everything unraveling as he brought her closer to the brink.
Alora gasped his name, not even knowing what she begged for. He growled in answer, tongue thrusting faster, deeper. Her body burned as his fangs grazed her sensitive flesh.
Come for me, Alora, he snarled in her mind. Let me drink in your wonder.
Then Rune bit into her thigh.
And she was done.
Alora’s head fell back, mouth open in a cry as pleasure rocked through her like wildfire as she came. The sounds Rune made as he hungrily devoured everything she gave was pure animalistic and it sprouted goosebumps all her body.
Everything shifted.
His markings flickered red, scales blooming beneath her thighs like dark blossoms, sprouting across his shoulders and chest. His horns curled higher, darker, as if feeding on his desire. Wings snapped at his back.
but Rune tore away from her with a snarl and shadows swarmed the room, darkening her vision. She fell back, startled and confused, her legs weak and still trembling.
She wanted to see him but he backed away into the dark room where the moonlight didn’t reach. His shoulders heaved with low ragged breaths, long claws at his hands, markings flickering on his skin like currents of lava. She couldn’t see anything but those burning eyes and the shape of his horns.
She took a step forward. “Rune?”
“Stay back,” he said raggedly.
She stared at him, startled and confused.
“That cannot happen again,” he rasped, voice wrecked and raw. “It’s safer.”
Her heart sank, the sting searing straight through her chest.
“For whom?” she demanded, her eyes widening. “Why won’t you speak to me? If it’s my magic you hunger for then take it! I don’t want it.”
“Stay there,” Rune snapped when she tried to move closer. At the hurt on her face, his expression softened. “Please.”
He took a shaky breath, and she felt the pull of magic as his glamor fell back into place. Only then did he move out of the dark, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes.
She didn’t care about scales or fangs or shadows that kissed her like silk and sin. What broke her was the space between them.
“Why do you keep pulling away?” she whispered.
“If you could see me, you would not ask why.”
“I see you,” Alora whispered to him, his red eyes softly burning. “Perhaps a little too clearly.”
He was quiet for a moment, shadows quivering.
“Have you once considered that perhaps this hunger you feel would wane if you simply took what belonged to you?”
His heavy breath drifted to her. “We cannot meet like this again,” he murmured, wiping his mouth. “Don’t sing for me anymore.”
Alor wasn’t prepared for how much those words hurt.
She wrapped her arms around herself, fighting to hold herself together. “Do you mean to never see me again?”
There was a second of silence where neither of them breathed.
“It’s for the best,” he said, then headed for the balcony doors.
He was a selfish creature, arrogant, relentless, bound to no one but his own whims. But never with her. With her, Rune had always yielded. Always turned back. He had let her break his rules, test his patience, press her palm to the monster in him and call it something worthy.
So why now? Why hold her at arm’s length when she was already drowning in him? Alora’s mind spun, trying to understand. If he didn’t care, he would have taken what he wanted and left ruin in his wake. But he hadn’t. He’d protected her.
Even from himself.
Alora swallowed, her vision blurring with tears. “Rune… do you love me?”
He halted, his back to her. When his faint reply came, it dove deep between her ribs. “What do demons know about love?”
Alora’s fingers trembled at her sides. She’d seen his tenderness, the way he watched her like she was a prayer he wasn’t allowed to say.
But if Rune truly believed he was incapable of love, then no amount of her wanting could save them.
Her tears fell freely now, mourning something that had never been given a chance to be.
Rune’s fists shook at his sides as he turned around, his expression broken. “You must stay away from me, Alora. Or I will kill you… and I cannot endure that again.”
She faintly gasped.
The darkness swallowed him and he was gone. Only the shadows remained, curling around her ankles like smoke that didn’t want to let go. Until even they disappeared.
She bit back a sob and collapsed on her knees. He left her alone. Shivering from the absence of his warmth and shock. From the ache of his words.
Because it at last confirmed two things.
They had met before.
And it ended in her death.