44. Chapter 44 #3
Just like then, the wind tugged at my hair and the stars sparkled in a sky so dark, it looked like you could reach out and touch it. Before, Erix had stood and watched me escape, but to be chased by him—to know he would catch me—was so much better.
As I crested the top of a dune, my fingers reaching out to dig into the sand and help me climb its steep side, Erix’s weight crashed into me from behind.
I yelped as his arms wrapped around my waist, bowling me over so we rolled down the far side of the slope.
I squirmed and wriggled, trying to end up on top, but it was no use.
As we skidded to a halt in the valley between two dunes, Erix’s weight landed on top of me, his thighs on either side of my hips and his hands pinning my wrists to the ground. He stared down at me with silver eyes bright enough to make the moon jealous.
I wriggled against him, but I didn’t really want to get away. I wanted more.
A growl echoed in the back of Erix’s throat as he granted my silent request and crashed his lips against mine. I kissed him with all the ferocity with which I had fought for him and nipped at his bottom lip hard enough to taste blood—the tangy, copper proof that we were both alive.
Erix released his grip on my wrists in favor of reaching for my clothes, blindly pulling at the sash around my waist until my vest fell open.
I gasped as my breasts were exposed to the cool night air, but Erix wasted no time enveloping a peak in the heat of his mouth.
With my hands free to roam, I plunged them into his hair and tugged on his curls hard enough to make him moan.
In a matter of moments I was gasping for breath, trying to grind my hips against Erix’s in search of friction—or perhaps to goad him into doing what I truly wanted. Erix’s mouth began traveling lower, and I whined in satisfaction—but then he slowed.
I raised my head from where it had been thrown back to see him contemplating my chest—and the large silvery scar right under my breastbone. It looked as if it were years old, but I knew it had only been a week.
I cupped Erix’s cheek, bringing his gaze to mine. I didn’t speak—I didn’t need to. Not as the bond between us sang, telling him that I was here and I was safe. We were whole, and so was the desert.
Without breaking eye contact, Erix bent and pressed his lips to the scar. My heart fluttered beneath his kiss, as if telling him it was his in every sense of the word. I sat up. Pushing Erix back onto his heels as I did so.
He went willingly, letting me pull his pants down his hips and wriggle my own off as he lifted his tunic over his head. Then I crawled into his lap, placing my thighs on either side of his. His breath hitched as my slick center rubbed over his hard length, and my own stomach clenched with desire.
But for a moment, I just laid my hand on his chest, right over the hammering of his own heart. His hand drifted up to cup the side of my throat, where his fingers traced over the pulse fluttering there. We were full of life, even in that brief moment of stillness.
Then, I sank down onto his length, nearly blinded by the exquisite stretch of him—of being one in every way. Erix’s strangled expletive nearly drowned out my own whimper as I rolled my hips.
His fingers tightened at my neck, his other hand landing at my hip as I found a steady rhythm. Muscular thighs flexed beneath me as he matched me, thrusting up until the stars in the sky were nothing compared to the lights bursting behind my eyes.
As our pace picked up, and I began grinding against him more insistently, my whimpers turned to broken moans. Erix leaned in and his teeth found my earlobe and tugged before he rasped, “I believe I promised screaming.”
Taking my hips in both hands, he pulled me down onto his length as he thrust up brutally.
Sure enough, a cry of pleasure escaped me, but Erix did not relent.
He drove into me harder and deeper until the lines between his body and mine disappeared, and I found myself falling into a bottomless well of our shared power.
It had always been beautiful, but now it was otherworldly—as if I could now see the whole picture when before I had only been able to admire a small piece. As the swell of magic built around us, my legs began to shake, and every breath was punched out of me by Erix’s hips slamming into mine.
My fingers tightened on his shoulders, my nails gouging deep enough to draw blood. I felt the heady pinpricks of pain in my own mind as Erix and my consciousness melded together. Feeling so close—knowing he would be a part of me until the end of my life and beyond—tipped me over the edge.
I came with a wordless scream, Erix’s release melding with mine as he spilled himself inside me and buried his face in my neck. We floated there for long minutes, lost in each other’s magic and the aftershocks of pleasure rolling through our bodies like the rumble of thunder in a retreating storm.
Finally, I pressed a kiss to Erix’s shoulder and raised my eyes to his. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against mine. I felt it in the quiet hum all around us—in that moment, there was balance.