Chapter 45 #2
I whimpered again and nodded.
“Don’t hold your breath, Summer. Just trust me to get you there,” he whispered softly, his voice at odds with the ruthless way that he was now taking me.
But the building sensation was so all-consuming that it seemed impossible not to lose my breath and focus on the orgasm.
“Breathe,” he ordered more firmly, punctuating the demand with a commanding thrust that nearly pushed me over the edge.
I sucked air into burning lungs, and the orgasm danced away from me just like I knew it would. But Sage kept going at that perfect pace with the perfect pressure on my clit until my body had no choice but to obey him.
“That’s it. Keep breathing like that for me and trust me to get you there.
You are going to come,” he promised, talking me through the part when I would normally have become impatient and lost focus.
And something about him taking charge of my orgasm like that seemed to be liberating on a cellular level.
My body erupted with the most devastating waves of ecstasy that seemed to pulse through every inch of me from my toes all the way to my scalp.
“That’s it! Keep breathing. Keep coming,” he growled through gritted teeth as he maintained his pace in order to wring every second of pleasure from me that he could.
Feeling me come around his cock seemed almost more than he could handle, but he was determined, and I was thankful for it as the orgasm went on and on.
The ecstasy gradually exhausted itself, and he slowed his frantic pace to help bring me down from the glorious high gently. I meant to lay back on the stone floor beneath him to watch him come next, but I hadn’t anticipated the sudden emotional whiplash that surged through me.
Before I knew it, I had burst into tears, and they were not the pretty ones that Orlaith shed, but a hot torrent that was unleashed from some painful cavern inside.
A deep sob tore out of me so hard it felt like it had split my chest open on the way out.
I was mortified by the outburst and tried to turn my face away from Sage, expecting him to be confused and uncomfortable with the strange display.
But I should have known better.
Sage shifted down, gently dislodging himself from me before I was really ready to be parted from him. I thought he would pull away then, but he had only moved down so he could plant a series of the most tender kisses across my forehead and down one temple to my jaw and neck.
“It’s okay,” he breathed. “It’s okay.”
I tried to reassure him that everything was fine, he had not done anything wrong, I had no idea why I was crying, but I could not seem to say the words.
There was pressure in my chest, a crushing sensation that was somehow both painful and euphoric.
All I knew was that I was finally safe enough to unleash all the anguish that Orlaith had been so public with.
Because this fragile part of me would only ever belong to Sage alone.
“It’s okay,” he said again. “I know, Summer.”
“How can you know? I don’t even know!” I objected tearfully, unable to help lifting my face for more kisses.
“I know you carry pain, and sex can be healing. I was expecting this,” he tried to reassure me.
“You expected it?” I verified incredulously while he continued to pepper my face with kisses.
He hummed in confirmation before the tip of his tongue began lightly tracing the tear tracks on one cheek.
My eyes widened at him when he rose to switch sides, but he just smiled down at me before licking up the tears on my other cheek too.
“I love you,” he whispered, and his gentle sincerity had tears prickling in my eyes all over again.
“I love you too,” I breathed back before closing my eyes as the fresh tears rolled free of my lashes. I smiled this time when Sage moved to lick them off me again.
Safe. Cherished. That was how he made me feel.
“I cannot ever be without you. Never again.”
Sage hummed his agreement before he kissed me with gentle lips that helped settle my heart until my emotions had levelled out again. But as he shifted down to suck on my neck a little, I felt his cock brush my thigh.
“You are still hard!” I realized aloud in astonishment. In all my life, I had never known a male to ever prioritize anything over his own cock! Especially if it was hard.
“I am,” he smirked against my throat, and I felt even worse for bursting into tears before he was able to come. My hand darted down between us to try and remedy the situation for him, but Sage snatched my wrist.
“I need you to know that sex between us will never be transactional. Making you feel good is a reward in itself,” he assured me sternly.
I hesitated, struggling with the concept of sex as being anything but a transaction. It was alien to me. I had often used my body in the way one might use coin to purchase my safety and comfort. Sometimes it had been the only acceptable form of currency I had to offer.
But I nodded, trusting in Sage to show me differently, even if I did not yet understand fully.
“Good. Now… I would prefer to come inside you this first time together. Is that alright?” he asked tentatively, those sensitive eyes watching closely for my reaction.
And just like that, the heat was simmering in my lower extremities once again.
“Yes,” I blurted eagerly and tried to push him onto his back so I could get on top. “Let me—”
“I want to come inside you. And I want to claim you,” Sage insisted, keeping me pinned to the floor with a little more force than he used before.
“Claim me?” I asked him in confusion.
“Yes. I want to make you mine,” Sage tried to explain, his powerful body growing tense in anticipation just from talking about it.
He wanted to dominate me. He did not need to say it explicitly for me to understand what he meant.
I should have expected nothing less from a male who revelled in leaving my body covered in his love bites.
Sage might be gentle and sensitive, and I had no doubt he would always be extremely generous in pleasing me.
But he still wanted to conquer and possess.
The impulse to assert himself like that might even be stronger with his anam.
The thought of a male dominating me sexually would have normally been abhorrent, because with anyone else, it would have felt like a form of violence. But I knew that what Sage actually wanted from me was unflinching trust. It was all he had ever really wanted from me.
So I softened beneath him, the tension bleeding out of my body in a wordless agreement he understood instantly.
And yet he continued to wait, his powerful body coiled to pounce the moment I gave him the word.
His face was a mask of barely restrained resolve, the breathtaking colour of his eyes sharp and bright as if the fire magic in his blood was flaring.
I realized there must be something more that he wanted from me.
“Before I was taken… you said that you wanted me to mark you,” he reminded me haltingly, and my pulse jumped in excitement.
“You want to mark me?” I verified.
“If you are not yet ready—and you may never be—” he began backtracking, but I quickly leaned up to seal my lips over his and cut him off with a deep kiss.
Sage made a harsh sound that was somewhere between anguish and relief as he kissed me back.
I felt him tremble from the effort of staying composed with me before he suddenly tore his mouth away from mine.
“Summer, say yes,” he pleaded, and fuck, there was nothing quite like the high of hearing such a confident and self-assured male begging. “Tell me I can mark you.”
“I am yours, Sage. Yes. Mark me,” I urged.
He gave a rough groan, restraint snapping completely, and then he was kissing me hard.
He ruthlessly devoured my mouth, greedily drinking down every gasp and groan, his hands in my hair and on my body.
There was a frantic urgency in him now, an edge of desperation that ignited a similar eager hunger in me.
After several frenzied moments, Sage broke the kiss without preamble and reached down to guide himself to me in a sudden thrust. I cried out in surprise and elation as his thick cock plunged into me again.
And then it was all I could do to hold onto him as he began to fuck me harder and faster than I was expecting.
But I loved every second of it.
Sage was relentless, hiking my knees up high to open me to him while his hips drove into me. And the sounds he was making? Absolutely feral and uncompromising.
He was going to destroy me in the best way.
I caught the scent of his honey and cedarwood blood at the same time he gave a guttural groan.
I realized that my claws had raked down his shoulder blades in my frenzy and was about to apologize for maiming him.
But instead of withdrawing in pain, Sage merely laughed and reached up to wrap a hand around my throat.
“I should have known my fierce little mate would not submit so easily,” he panted.
And then he was squeezing. Not enough to cut off my oxygen as before, but enough to exert command over me. And I was uncertain what it was, but there was something about having his hand around my throat that made every ounce of willpower drain out of my body.
“That’s it. Eyes on me,” he ordered softly even as his hips continued to pound into me mercilessly.
“Sage…” I groaned in shock when my body quickened suddenly with the promise of another orgasm.
He felt it too and groaned roughly before dropping his forehead down to mine. I felt a subtle heat beginning to emanate from him, and the air grew heavy as the water on our skin and all around us began to evaporate.
“Don’t… Please don’t stop,” I begged breathlessly.
He gave another groan, this one agonized, and I knew he must be close.
The heat on his skin indicated as much. But he kept up the brutal momentum until I was coming apart and crying out beneath him.
My eyes squeezed shut as I was consumed in ecstasy, but I snapped them open again when light suddenly hit my eyelids.
Fire. There was liquid fire under his skin, and I had never seen anything more beautiful.
At least not until he came, raw and utterly uninhibited with a deep bellow. His massive body shuddered over me, and I felt the jets of heat begin to fill me.
His hand had slid from my neck to help brace himself, but he still almost crushed me as he seemed to lose every one of his senses. It was several moments before either of us could regain any semblance of composure.
He shifted, dislodging his softening cock and began to nuzzle my shoulder. I could hear him drawing in my scent there deeply, his nostrils flaring as he located the mating gland I had somehow hit perfectly when I bit him.
And then his teeth cut me. There was nothing pleasant about his bite, and I had to battle my instinct to retaliate, but the instant shift in my scent was intoxicating.
Sage held on a moment to ensure his mark was deep and undeniable. Then he released me and shifted his head to my other side where he bit and marked again.
I wanted to get up and mark the other side of his neck.
But I lay on the stone floor, feeling thoroughly fucked and claimed, as he rose to his knees to survey me with clear satisfaction.
His grin only widened when he looked down at where I could feel his cum seeping out of me.
I was not sure what to expect, but it was certainly not for him to gently push it all back inside me.
Then he looked back up at me with so much male pride in those striking purple eyes that it made me smile languidly back at him.
“Yours,” I said, and he grunted in fierce affirmation as he bent back over me to kiss me deeply.
“Mine,” he agreed.