Chapter 37 Something to Live For #2
I couldn’t fight the moan as I pressed him harder against him, capturing his lips in a silent demand. All of his control vanished, his hands grasping my hips as he kissed me back.
He lifted me from the couch, my legs wrapping around his hips as he stood. Shadows wrapped around my thighs like velvet restraints, holding me open for him. He positioned himself at my entrance, the head of his cock pressing against slick heat. His eyes met mine, blazing with need and fear.
“Melanie,” he growled.
Then he pressed me back against the wall and claimed me in one brutal stroke.
I gasped at the stretch, the perfect fullness of him buried to the hilt. The shadows tightened around my thighs, spreading me wider, and he groaned. “Gods, you feel incredible.”
His hips snapped against mine, each thrust driving me harder against the wall. The shadows held me in place, keeping me exactly where he wanted me, and I could do nothing but take him as he claimed me with bruising intensity.
His lips captured mine again, tendrils of darkness caressing my skin, slithering up to tease my nipples as he pounded harder into me. I was so wound up, it took mere moments before I was on the edge.
“Gods, you’re so tight. Are you going to come for me like a good girl?” he growled against my lips. I whimpered, digging my nails into his shoulders as I rocked my hips against his. He sank his teeth into the sensitive skin of my neck. “That’s it, Tealeaf. Let go.”
The orgasm hit like lightning. I screamed his name, body clenching around him as pleasure crashed through me in waves. He groaned, hips stuttering, but didn’t stop, driving into me through the aftershocks, prolonging it until I was shaking and gasping.
Then the shadows shifted, supporting me as he pulled back from the wall. Still hard inside of me, he began walking us to the bedroom. Each step sent friction sparking through my oversensitive nerves—his cock shifting inside me, the bounce and slide of our bodies with every movement.
I whimpered into his shoulder, overwhelmed by the constant stimulation. His hands gripped my ass, supporting my weight.
“Feel that?” he murmured against my ear. “How perfectly your body takes mine? You were made for me, Mel.”
I moaned in response, biting and sucking marks into the side of his neck that made him gasp, waves of pleasure building with each step until I was trembling.
He laid me down on the bed, never withdrawing.
His body covered mine, one hand bracing beside my head.
Then his other hand found mine on the mattress, fingers lacing, pressing our wrists together.
Six pomegranate seeds, his mark against mine.
The contact sent electricity racing up my arm, through my chest, settling hot and bright in my core.
He set a relentless rhythm, each thrust hitting that spot inside that made my vision go white.
The shadows returned, coiling around my ankles, spreading me wider.
Tendrils of darkness slid up my inner thighs, circling my clit in time with his thrusts.
The dual stimulation was too much, too intense.
He captured my lips again, swallowing my cry.
The shadows circled faster, pressed harder, while his cock drove into me until I was drowning in the sensations.
Our birthmarks burned where they touched, a physical reminder of three thousand years of belonging.
“Mine,” he groaned, hips slamming against my own.
“Yours,” I gasped, voice breaking. “Always yours—Kian!”
The pleasure built to an impossible peak. The shadows tightened, his fingers squeezed mine as he drove impossibly deeper.
I came harder than I ever had, gushing around him, wetness flooding between us as the pleasure obliterated every thought. My inner walls clenched and fluttered, milking him.
“Fuck—Melanie—”
He followed a heartbeat later with a guttural moan, spilling hot and deep inside me.
The shadows gentled, releasing their hold, becoming soft caresses against my skin.
He collapsed against me, both of us shaking and gasping for breath.
His lips pressed desperate kisses to my collarbone, my temple, my mouth.
He didn’t say goodbye, but I felt it in the way he clung to me—his arms wrapped too tightly, his heart hammering against mine like a countdown.
I answered the only way I could. I kissed him everywhere I could reach, showing him in every touch that I wasn’t letting go.
Not tonight.
He withdrew, gathering me into his arms. He kissed the top of my head as I pressed my cheek to his chest. After a moment of breathing together, I tilted my face to look up at him. In the low light, his wild curls mussed from my fingers, shadows playing across his cheekbones. His eyes were warm.
“You’re staring,” he murmured. His thumb brushed across my cheekbone.
I grinned. “You’re pretty.”
He chuckled. “You’re dangerous.”
I slid my palm across his chest, letting my nails graze. “You like danger.”
“I do.” His voice dropped, rougher now. “Especially when it’s you.”
I rested my chin on his chest and studied him. “You look… different.”
His brow lifted. “Different how?”
“Like the weight doesn’t exist when we’re like this,” I said.
He shifted so he was lying on his side, facing me. He kept his arms wrapped around me. “That’s what you do to me.”
“What? Give you back muscles?”
His hand slid into my hair, cradling the back of my head. “You give me something to live for.”
The breath caught in my throat. My chest stung with the ache of it.
“I’ve spent centuries in shadow,” he went on, his fingers threading through my hair. “And I never minded it. It was easier being in the dark. Quieter. But with you…” He shook his head, eyes turning reverent. “With you, I remember what sunlight feels like.”
Something inside me cracked so deeply I almost sobbed. “Aidon—”
His mouth sealed over mine before I could finish his name.
“I tried to stay away,” he whispered against my lips.
“But every second, it felt like the space between us was humming. And I…” He swallowed, his forehead pressing to mine.
“I’m not a good man, Melanie. I’ve done things that would make your blood freeze.
I’ve been a god, a tyrant, a monster. But…
” His thumb stroked my cheekbone. “When you look at me like that, I feel like I could still be something better. Something… worthy.”
“You are,” I asserted, framing his face with both hands. “You’ve always been worthy.”
His eyes softened, his smile devastated.
“You undo me,” he whispered.
“I rebuild you,” I whispered back.
He exhaled a laugh, a quiet sound of surrender.
“You’ve changed so much,” he murmured. “But your nature never has. Not once. You’re always unapologetically you in every lifetime. You terrify me. Not because you’re dangerous, but because I’d follow you into any fire without hesitation.”
I blinked at him, lost in the burn of his gaze. A feeling of dread settled in my stomach.
“Aidoneus,” I tried again, voice trembling. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He only kissed me. Not like earlier, when it had been all heat and helpless hunger. This was gentler, more certain. I wanted to beg him to speak, but his lips moved over my cheek, my jaw, my throat.
His hands mapped me the same way, every curve committed to touch. And when I whispered, desperate, “Please, just tell me—” his only answer was a kiss placed on the inside of my wrist, along my birthmark.
He kissed me as though if he worshiped me hard enough, maybe I wouldn’t notice the dread hollowing out his eyes.
And gods help me, I let him.
If this was all he would give me tonight, his terror softened into devotion, his silence turned into worship, then I would take it. I would take every touch and every kiss and press them into my skin like armor against the storm I could feel gathering, just out of reach.
I held him back just as desperately.