Chapter 53 Jasmine
Ezekial: Come to my office.
I read the text then scoff.
What happened to manners? Please and thank you? I place my phone on the grass and refocus on Kacey.
“So just one kiss and…”
“Yep. That’s all it took.” She laughs. There’s a flush of embarrassment, but mostly joy. It warms something in me.
Raelynn still hasn’t woken. Kacey said they brought in a mage who recommended a spell-induced coma. Three days, they estimated. She should wake the same day the barrier drops.
I try not to think about it.
About what—or who—might be coming. Alexis, Javier, Louise, Lewis, Ferne… maybe even August.
Unless Brutus—
I shut that thought down fast.
Right now, I just want to be here. Kacey’s happy, and she deserves this.
“So you haven’t…” I raise a suggestive brow, deliberately not saying ‘shag’ because I know it’ll fluster her.
She shakes her head, nibbling her lip. “I mean… it’s not like I don’t want to. I just—I don’t really know how.” Her hair’s down, strands catching in the breeze as she looks away. “Even the kiss…”
“Amon was your first kiss?”
My heart sings for her, for this powerful woman who’s had so much taken, and now… she’s getting her firsts.
But behind the warmth is a flicker of bitterness. Not at her, never at her. At the not-knowing.
I used to think August was my first everything. Maybe not. So many things I thought I knew about myself, but now…
There are pieces of me I don’t recognise, flashes of instincts I can’t explain.
A century of memories forgotten.
“You okay, J?”
Kacey’s never held anything back from me, always speaking the full truth with her chest—every time. True friends don’t need to hold back or lie.
So, after a deep exhale, I tell her. Everything.
The last five years. The Inferno and the family I thought I had. How I’m bonded, how we always have been. And then, I end it with a kicker.
“They think I’m about a hundred.”
“Shut the fuck up,” she gasps. I’ll never get over hearing Kacey curse, it’ll always make me smile. “You don’t look that old.”
My smile fades. “Thanks, K. Really appreciate that.”
“Sorry, right, that’s obviously not the right thing to say when you reveal such a live-altering piece of information.” She trails off, eyes sweeping the grass between us.
I give her a moment to focus, because I’m still reeling too.
A hundred years. A whole life I can’t remember. How much have I lost? And what if… what if I don’t want it back?
When Kacey’s gaze lifts back to mine, her shoulders are set. “I got my new beginning when I came here. If someone offered me the chance to forget my old life, even if it meant forgetting whatever good there was… I think I would’ve taken it.”
“Really?”
She nods. “I know it must be scary, not knowing who you were. But J… this is your new beginning.” She gives me a small, but firm smile. “And as selfish as it sounds, I’m really glad I get to be a part of it.”
She holds out her hand, her whole hand. Not her pinkie in a glove, just... bare skin.
I stare at it, then slowly raise my eyes to hers. “Erm… Kacey?”
She nods at it. “Go on,” she says encouragingly. Still smiling as she waits.
Cautiously, I lift my hand, hesitating just before our fingers touch—
She clasps it.
There’s a thin shimmer of Kacey’s power around her skin, and a flicker of shadow clings to mine, but that’s it.
We’re holding hands. With no gloves.
Wisps of our powers curl around each other as I glance around, almost expecting something to go wrong—ghostly creatures, a pull of pain—but there’s nothing.
“Amon’s been helping me,” she explains, eyes on our joined hands, her smile never fading. “I was so scared of touching anyone, of losing control or hurting them. But he made me realise… it’s just my power protecting me, reacting based on my past. It only hurts people I don’t trust.”
I stare at our hands, at the soft purple glow of her magic wrapping gently around mine.
“Hey, Kace.” She glances up at me, and I squeeze her hand. “Just don’t bond to me, okay?”
A laugh bursts out of her, startled but bright, and I join in.
We sit for a while, our fingers still laced, resting gently on the grass between us. Everything is quiet and peaceful as we talk. Like nothing could touch us here, beneath the glass-blown sky of this fragile sanctuary.
Until something does.
A warmth slithers up my spine. I release Kacey’s hand, glancing over my shoulder at the shadows.
They flicker. Subtle and brief. But still enough to make me question it.
“J?” Kacey’s voice tightens. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
I rise to my feet in a single motion, my darkness flaring to the surface, pulsing in defensive warning.
But there’s nothing.
I turn back with a shaky breath. “False alarm—”
Hands are on me. Warm, strong, large hands.
One wraps around my mouth, muffling my gasp, maybe a scream. The other locks tight around my waist, hauling me back into something solid. A broad chest. A wall of muscle and warmth.
Kacey’s eyes widen, her mouth parting in shock as I’m yanked from view—
Darkness.
My stomach drops. My breath catches.
“You flit from us, you wear that skirt, then refuse my order?” Ezekial’s voice is a low growl against my neck, every word dipped in threat, but all it does is send heat crashing through me.
I squirm in his hold, and when he lifts me clear off the ground, I kick out. It earns me nothing but a low laugh.
My darkness coils around him, but instead of fighting, it runs slick across his skin like it’s flirting.
The traitorous bitch.
He strides across the room, unbothered by my attempts to escape. When he sits at his desk chair, he drags me down, planting me in his lap, pinning my arms back and tight against his chest.
I thrash immediately, but it’s pointless against his hold.
“Shhh.” He slides one arm away from my waist, but his shadows take its place, winding around me, holding me even tighter than before, until I can’t move an inch.
The other hand stays pressed firm over my mouth.
“When your lord calls for you…” His fingers drift down slowly, trailing along my stomach, curving over my hip, reaching the hem of the very tiny skirt I definitely wasn’t meant to wear “…you come.”
His fingers brush over my thigh, under the edge of my skirt.
“When you flitted, you turned my brother and I feral.” His fingers curl under it, gradually shifting it up. “You said you’d make it up to us,” he murmurs in my ear. “Then, you wear this, and behave like a brat.”
He yanks my skirt up to my hips in one quick action. I gasp against his palm.
“Shhh, I’ll teach you how to follow orders.” His lips trail over my throat, and I find myself tilting away so he can reach more. “Show you what happens when you defy me.”
I’m being lifted, but not by hands, by shadows with metallic flickers that surround my waist and legs. When I hear him unbuckling his belt with one hand, the sharp sound sends tremors through me.
“I was ready to worship you,” he whispers, the clink of his belt hitting the floor, “spread you out on my desk.” His shadows lower me again. “But you didn’t behave.”
When I feel something incredibly hot and hard beneath me, I look down.
Right there, nestled between my thighs parted by his darkness, is his bare cock. Resting right against the thin fabric of damp underwear.
I stare at it. I think I gasp, I make some type of sound, because it’s… it’s so much bigger than I remember. Thicker.
I try to squirm back, away from it.
“What’s wrong, ana mea?” he asks in a dark drawl, finally dropping his hand from my mouth to place them both around my waist. His hands are so large, his fingertips nearly touch.
“I…” I swallow. “I don’t remember it being that… big.”
He chuckles against my throat, murmuring, “Don’t worry, you’ll be so wet by the time I fuck you, you’ll enjoy the burn.”
He suddenly pushes me forwards, rocking me against his hard cock—
Holyyyy fuck.
He does it again, his hold on my waist letting him take control, using me. Another slow, hard rock up against him and I moan.
“That’s it, don’t act like you weren’t asking for this.”
The mouth this man has on him… but fuck, if it doesn’t make me want to grind against him, or try.
Because when I do try to push forwards, to increase the speed, the friction—he holds me still.
He controls every movement, all at his tediously slow pace.
Soon, I’m whimpering from the relentless tease.
“You want more?” he whispers against my flush cheek. “Gonna behave for me? Ready to be good for me?”
I nod instantly, desperately.
One hand lets go off my waist, and I watch transfixed as he lowers his fingers until the very tips brush over the centre of my drenched underwear.
A soft moan falls from my lips when he trails them along my slit, up and down, the fabric so wet it clings—everything so swollen and sensitive.
When he peels the fabric to the side, allowing me one small rock against his hot cock with my bare pussy, a breathy whimper is all I manage.
He stills. “Thank me for it.”
Is he… is he fucking serious?
I’m panting, staring down at his cock right against my pussy, desperate to move.
But he won’t allow it.
I snarl. He chuckles, shadows ripping away my underwear, sliding it out from beneath me.
Then he pushes me—hard—against him. Then stills, holding me there. Feeling him.
The throbbing heat, the hardness, the size.
Fuck, I want it in me.
“Thank me,” he repeats.
Giving me another slow rock. Just fucking one.
A breathless whine slips out, but that’s it. Because I’m not saying it.
He thinks he can just kidnap me? Flit me away? Then make me thank him? No way am I—
He slips a finger inside my heat, bites my neck, rocks me so slowly. Keeps gliding in and out, my clit against his cock, his lips and fingers and teeth never stopping.
I’m so close. I just need… I just…
“Thank me,” he murmurs, inside my mind.
One finger deep inside me, cock against me, teeth nipping my lobe. My hips being tilted just so—
Oh, fucking hell—
“T-thank you,” I stutter out.
But then he stops again, and I practically cry.
“Again,” he orders, but not as stern, because he’s enjoying himself too much to keep his composure.
Another slow rock, and I’m gone. “T-thank you, my lord.”
“So you can follow orders? Hmm?” he whispers, increasing the pressure of his rocks, but never the speed.
When he slides a second finger inside, I think the words ‘thank you’ fall out. But I can’t be sure, because I’m so lost, needily chasing the rising sensation flooding my body.
“Do you need more, ana mea?” he asks, the rasp in his voice matching mine.
We’re both close now, I feel it in his desperate movements. How he’s finally allowed me to move with him—together, grinding against each other.
I nod, not really sure what he’s asking, not caring, until he removes his fingers and grips his cock.
I stare down, dazed and soaked. But I know what I want, and it’s that, inside of me.
Now.
My shadows follow his hand, wrapping around his, guiding him exactly where I need him.
“You sure?” he murmurs. Not the controlling lord who had me thanking him only moments ago. And though it’s sweet… I need him back.
“Please, my lord.”
“Fucking hell,” he murmurs into my hair, then lifts me just enough that we can both watch as he positions the head of his cock at my entrance.
When he lowers me, and the tip finally enters, we both groan. But that’s only the tip and there’s so much more to go.
“Slowly,” he grits out, and I’m there with him.
My teeth clenched hard as I try to lower myself.
“You can take me,” he murmurs, letting go of his cock to brush over my clit, building my orgasm right back.
I sink lower.
“Atta girl, that’s it. Being so good for me now. Taking my cock so fucking well.”
His praise, his touches to my aching clit, the way he pushes down so slightly on my hips—not forcing me, but encouraging, because he’s just as desperate to be fully inside.
I groan at the burning stretch. “Shhh, just a little more,” he whispers, then curses when I keep going. “Fuck, that’s it. Take it, take it all.”
And I keep going, the heavenly stretch now reaching everywhere. I’m letting out needy little moans and whispered curses all the way, while he licks, kisses and grunts against my throat.
Until I’m finally seated in his lap again, and he’s fully inside. I shudder.
“I was made for you,” he says, voice darker, heavier. More feral and possessive than I ever remember.
Both hands go back to my waist, then he slowly lifts me, revealing his cock inch-by-inch until halfway. “Take everything I give you.”
He yanks me down, hard, and we both let out a shuddering groan. He’s so fucking deep.
I never want to forget it.
He pulls me up, slowly down, up. He’s using me to languidly fuck himself, and I’m enjoying every filthy second.
“Look at you, gripping me so fucking tight.” His gritted praises make my eyes roll. “Gonna come for me? Gonna stop being such a brat and follow my order, huh?”
He turns my face and kisses me hard, then he thrusts. Somehow deeper.
He increases his pace and intensity. I start moving with him, feeling him hit that deep spot inside every damn time.
His thumb brushes over my clit, never stopping, even when our pace becomes frantic and our mouths can’t keep up.
The second I feel it hitting, when everything tightens, I sink down hard. I cry out, my vision blurs, my body shakes, but Ezekial slowly rocks us through the blissful wave.
Then the liquid fire begins, rushing up my spine, but it’s less painful than it was with Kane, eased through my orgasm.
And the way Ezekial murmurs my name like a lost prayer, giving me soft little thrusts as he fills me with his hot come—soothes it further.
Just like with Kane, the pain is quickly overshadowed by a feeling of release, a subtle change in the air. A ripple in the bond.
We’re all pants and desperate breaths, revelling in the sensations I’m amplifying as I twitch around him. Then he grabs my face, and devours my mouth like a starving thing that needs my breaths to survive.
“How do you feel?” he breathes, but I can’t answer, because he keeps kissing me. “Do you need something? Are you—”
I silence his concern with my mouth, eating away his worry with my tongue.
We keep kissing, until it becomes hungrier, harder and when his hips move again, slowly thrusting up, I question if the man ever stopped being hard.
“Already?” I whisper, but I’m smiling.
“That was just a warm up,” he murmurs, meeting my smile with his own, but his is all teeth and trouble. “For this.”
I frown, caught on the sly tilt of his smile. “For wha—”
A chill licks up my spine, stealing my words.