Page 49 of King of the Dawn

She laughed, afterwards. She smiled at me, and kissed me with that look of adoration that could make me melt. When I didn’t join her afterglow, she stroked my face, whispering a sweet, “What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t speak. The words were stuck in my throat, so I didn’t try.

I pulled her to me and kissed her cool cheek, letting her hair surround me in the fragrance of lilacs and that haunting musk, her sweet arousal still on my skin.

It would have been polite to clean her, to take her to the shower… but I didn’t want that. I wanted her coated in my cum, marking her for one last time.

My heart squeezed, and my arms tightened.

“Jericho,” she gasped, “You’re hurting me.”

I instantly released her and looked down.

“I’m okay, you were just holding me really tight,” she said quickly, seeing the worry in my eyes.

I kissed her. Devouring her strawberry lips, and she responded beautifully. Just as I knew she would.

“One more,” I begged, gruffly. She soundlessly complied, her legs spreading, her moans spurring me on as I gazed into her face while I made love to her. I memorized every divet in her furrowed brow, and every curve of her lip, and the line on her lip when she bit it in ecstasy.

I buried myself deep inside her until I was lost in the images of her, round with my child. And it hurt.

It stabbed at my chest knowing that these visions would never come true, and that our journey was ending.

After burying myself with the delusions of making her round with my child, she collapsed on the bed, tired, her breathing labored and exhausted.

“You’re insatiable, Mr. Vasiliev,” she whispered with a little happy giggle. “You’re the husband a woman dreams of having.”

I touched the curve of her shoulder as she turned away from me, getting ready to curl for sleep.

I’m not the husband you dream of, I thought bitterly.

I lay behind her, curling her into my abdomen, and cupping her breasts in my hand. I hardened again, and I mentally kicked myself, knowing that I should let her go now. I should leave her alone. Let her rest. She starts the rest of her life tomorrow, and I was selfishly demanding she give me more of her attention, her body, her soul…

I couldn’t help but pinch the little pink nipple, and she gasped.

“Again?” She asked, surprised, turning her head to me.

The back of my eyes burned with unshed tears. I cleared my throat.

“Just one more.” I promised. More to her than to myself.

“You’re so far from me,” she said, looking concerned.

“I’m right here,” I whispered, indicating where her back lay flush against my front, and my legs tangled with hers.

“You know what I mean,” she said, her tone worried.

“It’s nothing,” I kissed her throat, nipping on her creamy skin.

I bit down on her shoulder, taking the skin between my teeth and sucking it hard until she gasped, but I didn’t relent. I continued to bite and suck until I was assured that there’d be a purple mark - my mark on her skin.

I made love to her like this, feeling her in my arms, my face laying in the pillow of her wild red curls.

After the fourth time, she fell asleep in my arms. I didn’t dare move. Not even to turn off the bedside lamp. I lay awake all night, memorizing her in the moonlight that streamed from the open window. Then, in the dark blue of the dawn, as it gave way to the oranges and purples of the sunrise.

I traced my free hand over the curve of her hip, the narrowing at her waist. I traced every single scar on her legs and back, worshiping each one. Not for the pain they inflicted, but for the strength it took for her to endure each one. My daughter and sister had a very specific kind of strength. One born in a gym, in combat, in the ability to close in on an enemy and kill them.

But Eve’s strength lay in her quiet perseverance. Her mental strength to endure, and keep her kindness and goodness intact. A lesser person would have descended into cruelty and blackness, but not her. Even when she thought I was the same as Alastair Green, she was still ready to step between me and my daughter if she thought I hurt her. When she had only one avenue of escape, she gave the last of what she had to save a girl who was a stranger to her - Kira.

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