Chapter 32 #3
The moment our bodies truly found their rhythm, she made a sound I’d never heard from her—half gasp, half whimper, her wings lifting off the mattress in a trembling arc. She clutched me tighter, tearing her lips from mine to bury her face in my neck as her breath hitched again and again.
“Nik,” she breathed against my skin, like she didn’t know what to do with the feeling building inside her.
And to be honest, I didn’t know what to do with it either. It was electric. Nothing like I’d ever experienced before. To feel her warmth tightening around my cock was mind altering.
“You feel so good,” I murmured, positioning myself to drive in deeper.
My hips rocked with rhythm, gently pushing her up the bed, her blue hair fanning out around her, as the moon sent beams through the window to bathe her. She truly looked like a star.
“Nik—” she whimpered, her breaths coming in quick, desperate bursts.
“Is it too much?”
She shook her head, her hands reaching up to grasp my shoulders. “No—no it’s just different . . . intense.”
I reached out, and ran my thumb over her chin, tipping it up. “Look at me.”
Her eyes found me, and I nearly came on the spot. She bit the corner of her lip, her mouth swollen from kisses. “You’re trembling. Are you okay?”
“Yes—oh!” she cried out, arching off the bed again. “Right there, Nik.”
Ebony wings flashed silver and flared outward in a sweep as I steadily thrust into her.
She never took her eyes from me, her gasps growing louder.
Then it happened like a spark catching fire—sudden, consuming, unstoppable.
Her entire body tightened around me in a wave that hit so hard she shook from head to toe.
“Nik—” she cried, throwing her head back, closing her eyes as waves of pleasure consumed her.
She came apart in my arms, and I couldn’t hold back any longer. One more thrust and I released into her with a groan, my stomach muscles clenching. She gasped again, shocked, clinging to me like she wasn’t sure the world was stable anymore.
My ears rang and ecstasy pulsed through my body. My mind fractured, never to be the same again.
Sapphire blinked up at me, breathless. “What—what was that?”
My brow pinched. “What do you mean? Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Not at all . . . I just didn’t know it could feel like that.”
It dawned on me then: the world had taken so much for her—men had taken so much from her that her own pleasure was a foreign concept.
I leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth, slow and tender. “Have you never had an orgasm before?”
A crimson blush stained her cheeks, and she shook her head softly. “I don’t think so.”
A rush of disbelief, then anger—anger at the world, at every man who had ever touched her without seeing her, without caring, without giving her anything but pain or obligation.
My chest tightened so fiercely, it almost hurt. I didn’t feel proud—not in the way men bragged about things they thought mattered. This wasn’t conquest. This wasn’t skill. It wasn’t anything like that.
It felt . . . sacred.
She was shaking beneath me, overwhelmed, and all I could think was . . . please let this be good for her. Please let this be safe. Please let her know she’s cherished.
Because it wasn’t her orgasm that floored me.
It was the innocence of it. The surprise. The way she looked at me afterward—eyes wide, unsure, vulnerable—as though she was handing me something fragile and irreplaceable.
I wanted to protect this version of her. The one who could feel pleasure without shame, without fear, without debt . . . more than I ever wanted anything before.
She needed to know that with me, she would always be seen.
I eased out of her carefully, reverently, and collapsed beside her. For a second, I just lay there, stunned, trying to steady my breathing, trying to process what had just happened—what she had just given me.
Then instinct took over.
I reached for her.
She was still trembling, her wings fluttering weakly in the aftermath, her breath catching every few seconds like she didn’t know how to come back into her body. Gently—so gently—I slid my arm beneath her shoulders and pulled her into my chest.
She came willingly, her face pressing into my throat, her fingers still curled in my skin.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered into her hair.
She made a soft sound—something between a sigh and a sob—and burrowed closer, her hands coming up to cling to the front of my chest as though she expected me to disappear if she didn’t hold on tight enough.
I tightened my arms around her instantly. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Her breathing slowly matched mine, the tremors in her body easing as I held her through every aftershock. And as her weight settled against me, warm, trembling, trusting. I felt something inside my chest settle too.
She wasn’t just in my arms.
She was with me.
Completely.
And by the light . . . I never wanted to let her go.
After a few moments, I glanced down at her to find her eyes closed, her steady breath warm against my skin. She was asleep.
I nuzzled my face into the top of her head, and pulled her closer. “I’m falling in love with you, Sapphire. And I’d like to make up for all the years you’ve suffered under cruel hands . . . if you’ll let me.”