10. Escalation
CHAPTER TEN
Escalation
I’d never seen anyone run away from me so fast, and I’d spent the better part of my teens trying to scare random campers. She’d kissed me, and then she’d run.
She’d gotten to the house, and I’d had to follow to stop the tug of the bond, but I would have followed her anyway. She ran to her room, and I walked into mine, closing the door and flopping down onto the bed, my heart racing and the heat neither of us could hide still spiraling.
She’d put a spell on me, and it had nothing to do with ancient flowers and magical bonds.
It had everything to do with the way she had bitten her lip while focusing on her computer, worked through a problem so complex I could barely fathom it, and bossed me around.
And then I’d complimented her and she shone almost as bright as the night before.
That had sealed my fate. If I could make her shine like that again, I would do everything in my power to make it happen. Get to the light.
That was the thing. No one had ever told me to do anything. No one had told me to make breakfast for my siblings so they wouldn’t go hungry until Mom felt like getting out of bed. No one had told me to get two jobs in high school to make sure the power stayed on.
No one had told me anything, but if I didn’t do it, everything would have fallen apart. And I’d done it, over and over again, and now Motthew was going to get into Stanford, and I was still making deliveries.
Lucia had told me what to do.
She had told me what to do, and I had liked it. She’d called me good boy, and it had been half-teasing, but…
What if she’d said it while looking at me the way she looked at her notes? Like I had something she wanted, and she just needed to break me open to get it.
Fuck, I was still hard. Would she like that? Would that make her glow? It had when she’d kissed me.
She was into me, just like I was into her. Neither of us could deny that fact, but she’d done her best to keep her distance. I understood. The bond made things complicated. But it wasn’t the magic that compelled me.
It was her.
It was that fire I’d seen when she’d solved her problem.
It was how, despite the sadness clinging to her, she kept moving forward like a solution was inevitable if only she could unravel it.
I wanted her to unravel me in a way I’d never felt before because she was capable and smart, and I knew she’d put me back together.
She really liked my hands. I knew that much. The heat had been unmistakable, her eyes locked on them as I worked.
Would she enjoy watching me touch myself?
I shimmied my hips and slipped the sweatpants down, and the scrap of lace poked out of the pocket. I’d forgotten about them, and now…
Don’t do it. Don’t.
I did it.
I had meant to give them back—I really had! But then we’d gotten so busy, and now her panties were in my hand, and then they were in my mouth. They were clean, but I was sure I could taste her, just a little bit, and a spurt of precum leaked over my piercings and fingers.
I clenched my jaw and my cock. My hand moved up and down, and I rolled my piercings until pressure built at the base of my spine. A small whine escaped around the fabric in my mouth, and I knew she would like that.
Good boy, Hawk. Show me what you like.
Fuck, I twitched so hard against my palm, imagining her hazel eyes locked on me as she wet her lips. If I was good enough, would she wrap them around me? I would do whatever she wanted if she would just look at me like that. My hips pulsed as I fucked my hand, wishing it was her.
Hawk…
My name. Her lips.
I groaned as pleasure shot up my spine, and I came all over my hand and stomach. Fuck, that had been fast. But I’d imagined she’d said my name and—
“Hawk…”
I froze.
I hadn’t imagined that.
My antennae perked up as if they could hear too, and I wished my heart would stop beating if it meant I could hear better.
Then I heard it again—a beautiful moan—and her voice echoed through the shared wall between us.
A fresh wave of heat pulsed through me so hard my still-dripping cock rose again.
Oh gods, the bond. I hadn’t even thought about the bond. All I’d thought about was her.
Had she just…come?
Pleasure was still rolling through me in echoing waves, and, oh gods, she had.
And she’d said my name.
My cock was aching with it, like I hadn’t had release in weeks, not like I hadn’t just come thirty seconds ago.
I grabbed my—her—shirt and wiped myself up hastily, practically tripping over my own feet to get to her. She was right there, touching herself when it should be me. I should be the one she was using—my face, my tongue, my cock.
I threw my door open and half ran, half flew to hers. I grabbed the doorknob…and paused.
I’d felt her get turned on watching me in her tiny shirt. I’d heard her moan through the wall. But opening this door now…
No, I couldn’t.
If she wanted me, she would say so. She was trying to resist, and despite the throbbing in my cock, I could too.
I forced myself to take a step back when I heard—
“Come in, Hawk.”
I tripped over my wings I pushed the door open so fast.
She was covered by her sheet, but my antennae were going haywire.
The whole room smelled like her pheromones, and gods, they smelled good.
My antennae swooped around my head, drinking in as much of her scent as they could, which only made my head spin more.
Paired with the heat thrumming back and forth along our bond, I was ruined.
I watched her eyes drop to where I was rock hard in her thin gray sweatpants, and her tongue darted out just like I’d imagined it would.
For a few heartbeats, we just stared at each other.
“Would you like to join me?”
“Yes…yes, please.”
She slowly pulled back the sheet, giving me time to flee if I wanted.
But there was nothing I wanted but her.
She was a goddess, her pale skin dotted with freckles everywhere, flushed red from exertion and the orgasm that still gently pulsed through the bond. But I was both a moth and a man, so all my attention immediately focused on the sweet nectar dripping from her soft, pink pussy.
As I stared, she spread her legs wider and teased a red suction toy over herself, then down between her glistening lips. Her eyes never left me as she turned it on, and a hot bolt of pleasure shot through the bond, bringing me to my knees.
“Come here, Hawk.”
“Yes, boss.”
I crawled across the hardwood floor until I was at the edge of the bed. She sat up and moved so her legs framed me, the toy still buzzing beneath her hand. But her gaze was fixed on mine.
“Hawk.” She stroked my hair with her other hand. “It hurts. Can you help me?”
I nodded so vigorously my antennae snapped back and forth. “Please, please let me be good for you.”
She nodded with a warm smile. “You’re such a good boy, aren’t you?”
My cock jolted so hard it was painful, and I lifted her legs over my shoulders.
I kissed up the insides of her thighs, and she squirmed as my antennae gently caressed and tasted her too. I kissed higher and shoved that godsdamned toy away.
That was my job.
I unfurled my tongue, and she gasped as I licked a long stripe up from her entrance to circle her clit. She tasted delicious, just like her toxic plants. Sweet and earthy, but cut with a bitterness I knew I could get addicted to, one that made my head spin and set every nerve on fire.
She fell back, her spine arching, and her pleasure sent a hard shiver through my whole body. This was what had been happening before, our pleasures merging to the point that I didn’t know where hers started and mine ended. But now that I had my mouth on her, it was so much better.
I licked up into her nectary, wanting the taste of her from the very source. I pushed in deep, using the full length of my tongue until I pressed against the very end of her, and her legs locked around my head.
“Oh, fuck. Hawk!”
Her hips bucked off the bed, and she ground against my face and nose.
I pressed into her harder. Yes, use me. Show me what you like.
She circled her hips, my nose piercing catching occasionally and making her twitch.
I thrust my tongue in and out, dragging against every wall until I found the place that had her moaning.
“Right there, right there…”
She told me, but I felt it deep in my gut as my cock throbbed, making an absolute mess of these abused sweatpants.
She hooked her legs behind my back and tugged on my hair, pulling me just a bit deeper.
The sharp tug, me moaning, her moaning, the vibration through the bond—it felt like I might come apart right there, my wings flapping erratically behind me.
They stuck straight out when she traced a finger up the flagellum of my antenna, the sensation so overstimulating I had to draw back and gasp for air.
She let out a needy whine, and I replaced my tongue with two fingers, finding that same spot again and curling against it over and over as my tongue found its new target.
I placed the hollow tip directly over her clit and sucked—hard. My balls pulled tight as her warm pussy clamped down on my fingers, her pleasure and mine reaching the breaking point.
She was so close.
No, I was so close.
Fuck, it didn’t matter. It felt better than anything ever had before.
“Hawk!”
She screamed my name as more of her delicious arousal dripped down my fingers, and she was coming…wait, no, I was coming.
Fuck, we were both coming.
My body shook, but I never stopped the rhythm of my tongue and fingers until I felt the final wave pass through her and tip into overstimulation.
I finally sat back, breathless, as my pants clung to me in a sticky mess.
But as she lay panting on the bed, she was radiant.
A flame like none I had ever experienced before.
She was glowing, inside and out, and for the first time since we’d met, she was free of the clawing darkness that had woven itself into her.
I had done that, if only for a little while.
And I never wanted that light to go out again.