Chapter 22 Collision
Collision
In music, a heartbeat tempo is a musical pace that aligns with a pulse.
ORION
There’s a moment where anticipation fractures into surrender, where desire collapses into defeat. A reckless instant suspended in freefall, powerless against gravity. That dangerous edge where longing ignites into madness.
It’s the destruction of the boundary.
At this terrifying brink, hunger sears so viciously, so ravenously, that pain itself becomes a necessary shackle.
Until restraint snaps, and you fall willingly, helplessly, into ruin.
Staring down at the ethereal angel in my bed, my gaze roaming over her beautiful, alluring body, I’m past the point of famished. I’m a goddamn frenzy of atoms, hellbent on annihilation.
With one last reverent sweep of my thumb over her cheek, I savor her softness.
Trailing my knuckles across the tender bruise, my touch is a careful brush against her abraded skin.
This is where gentle dissolves into rough.
Where the tremble in my strained muscles from holding resistance gives, and sinew and tendons harden into steady force.
It’s a surrender so pleasurable, it’s almost orgasmic.
Collins blinks up at me through her captivating lashes, her mouth parted in invitation, as my hand settles at her throat. The shocked breath that slips past her lips urges my palm close to her jaw, fingers firm against the delicate column.
I glide my tongue over my bottom lip, tasting her delectable scent in the air before I lower my mouth to hers. I lick into her mouth, goddamn feral as I taste her slowly, thoroughly, before I deepen the kiss.
“Spread your legs.” The demand is delivered in a deep timbre against her mouth, and her pulse flares in wild revolt against my fingertips.
Her hesitation brings a dark, crooked smile to my lips. I let my body fall heavy over hers, securing my grip around her neck.
She swallows hard, the flutter beneath my fingers quickening.
“Have it your way, angel.” My legs invade between her knees, the soaked fabric of her skirt a restrictive barrier that only heightens my desire to shred it. In an urgent move, I wrench the wet material up her thighs and force her legs apart.
A flash of fear ignites behind her darkened eyes, and fuck, it’s as intoxicating as her scent. “I can practically taste your arousal,” I say, my voice all friction and groan.
My elbow digs into the mattress as I let her feel my weight. Hips flexing in painful need to be inside her, I drop a tender kiss to the slope of her shoulder, tongue delving out to further torture myself.
This next part I make quick for her. Shoving my hand between us, I yank open the buttons of her skirt.
She releases a clipped curse, and the breathy sound of it winds hot through my muscles as her fingers curl into the blanket.
I skim my fingers beneath the waistband, and the reactive flutter of her abdomen unleashes a guttural groan.
I brush my lips across the joint of her shoulder and neck, scraping my teeth over her pulse, before I fist my hand around the band, and—pushing back—drag her skirt down her hips.
Dim light streaming from the other room bathes her in a contrast of shadow and light, revealing the sexy contours of her body. And I visually trace every intimate curve. A shiver racks my spine, and the motion elicits the softest gasp from her.
I drag my hand over my mouth as I hungrily take her in. “Fuck, you are so beautiful, I don’t know where to begin.”
My heated gaze absorbs the delicate angles and bends of her, admiring the sensual swell of her breasts, the sexy dip of her belly, her curvy thighs and hips—every fucking inch of her body I savor, letting my eyes have her first before I dare give my hands permission.
With an impatient grunt, I flip her onto her stomach.
Collins presses her hands into the white blanket, fingers digging in for purchase as I pull her skirt down past the middle of her thighs.
I allow myself one lingering gaze at her sinful ass before I grip the collar of her shirt and tow it down her arms, binding it around her forearms.
Then I quickly have my hand around her wrist, bringing it to the small of her back and bracing it between the two slight dimples. I push the flat of my palm beneath her pelvis, angling her ass up to me. “Holy fuck—you have no idea how crazy you’re making me.”
I’m devolving into a crazed madman at the need to taste all of her at once. It’s taking all of my willpower not to tear through her, to ravish her so thoroughly it leaves nothing of either of us behind.
As her breathing escalates, I press hard against the rising pulse in her wrist, my fingers centered over the inked stars that point toward the fiery heart of her.
It will be blinding and swift, the utter immolation of my humanity. For her, I’ll incinerate whatever boundary I have left, burn myself to a hollow husk in that radiant fire.
And when the void swallows the last of my soul, these heartbeat stars will be my tether.
The tempo of a pulse falls somewhere between one-twenty and one-thirty beats per minute, and I map her rhythm, scoring the beat of her heart into my bones like notation onto staves.
Jaw flexed tight, I grasp my belt buckle and tear the damp leather free of the loops.
She quakes with a whole-body shiver at the sharp sound, sending a wicked thrill coursing through my heated veins.
I slip the leather tip along the column of her spine, and she trembles under the threat of it, her pulse spiking against my fingers.
Reluctantly, I drop the belt on the bed next to the silver case, then I grab her ass, callused palms greedily feeling her, relishing the lurid way her hips roll as I slide my thumb between her crease.
“You are so goddamn sexy, starling. Let me hear those throaty whimpers.” I skate my thumb down the hot center of her pussy, biting back a savage groan at the feel of how wet she is, so close to undoing me. “Fucking hell, once I feel your hot flesh against me—”
She bucks a little at the intrusion of my thumb, and suddenly I’m desperate to see her writhing against this bed. Her body tenses as I glide the tip of my finger through her slick lips.
“Breathe, Collins.”
Her back rises with her deep inhale, splintering a measure of my control. The second she releases a slow exhale, I sink my fingers inside her, jaw clenched at the sight of her ass kicking up from the pressure.
“Oh, Jesus. Fuck—” I bite off the words, teeth gnashed against the gratifying feel of her tight cunt sheathed around me. Skin to fevered skin. Nothing between us. And the erotic sight of her twisting below—Christ. Hell.
Her arms bracketed at the small of her back by her shirt, I grip her wrist tighter—for her, for me—to keep us here at this torturous edge a moment longer before I’m fucking us both into oblivion.
Intrusive images from too many bloody and violent scenes claw their way to the surface, and I can’t force them back below the dark tide.
As if sensing my struggle, she moves her hips, igniting a feral lust as she clenches around my fingers. I unleash a guttural curse and press my thumb to her sacrum, massaging that erogenous zone at the base of her spine. And god damn, she’s so receptive, wet heat floods over my fingers.
Her thighs press against my legs. Unable to squeeze them closed or spread them wider, she’s trapped by the band of her skirt.
Hushed by the blanket, she makes a helpless sound that attacks my restraint with a vicious craving, encouraging me to sink deeper, rhythmically inserting my fingers.
Truly feeling her for the first time. Her heat, her arousal. Her soft, slick flesh.
“This cunt is so goddamn needy and mine,” I say around a growl. “You need to tell me how this feels,” I demand, curling my fingers deep inside.
She releases a throaty moan, and with a tug at the restraint binding her, she nods her head against the mattress.
“Collins, I need you to use words.” The edge in my tone cracks on the demand.
“It feels good…perfect,” she says. “Orion, you feel perfect. I want more of you.”
“Goddamn, you want to destroy me.”
Keeping this gradual, maddening pace, I’m slowly torn mad, lost to the arousing sensation of her soaking my fingers. Driven out of my mind with need as she arches her back, grinding against my hand in demand for more.
Seeing her rock her hips so shamelessly strains another thread of control. And having her bound, at my complete mercy… Fuck. Those dark filaments stir and lash, pulling me dangerously close to the brink.
Keeping my hand leashed around her wrist, I count each furious beat of her pulse, waiting a torturous length of time until the cadence of her heartbeat steadies. I keep fucking her with my fingers, priming her to take me. Because the second I do, there will be no more holding back.
Draping my body over hers, I push my fingers deeper, loving the way she writhes beneath me. I’m losing the battle when I remove them to taste her, unleashing a low growl. “Fuck. I could make a meal of your pussy alone.”
Harnessing a level of control, I smooth her damp hair away from the side of her face in a tender sweep, dropping my palm to the nape of her neck. I brace her there as I press my mouth to her ear. “Stay just like this.”
Her breathing intensifies, her back crashing against my chest. I raise up just enough to lower my zipper, and the severe sound cracks the tense silence.
“Orion—”
My name leaves her lips like a plea. I’ve barely lowered my pants before she begins to twist away, her body moving across the bed in a brazen act of defiance.
“That will make it so much worse,” I warn her, my voice a dark rasp as I push my pants down.
Forearms still bound behind her back, she pushes herself with her knees. The forbidden sight of her struggling to escape soaks my bloodstream with a euphoric rush of adrenaline.