Page 159 of Creatures that Breathe

Greedy.

Proud.

Lust filled.

Check check check.

She undoes my belt while I kiss her, fumbling and eager, and I remember that she said she wasn’t fertile, and tell her, and by the time she’s shoving my pants and underwear down, we end up sliding together. I’m a little too hard, she’s a little too wet. It’s all too right.

She gasps, loud, sucks in a harsh breath.

Smiles at me. Rocks against me, holds me, kisses me.

It’s what we should have had for our first time. She’s not nervous. She’s in love. I’m in love. And I tell her that. Every time I thrust. Every time she cries out and shudders around me. An erotic sonnet spoken only in the language of desire.

I play with her pierced nipples, eliciting tremors while she unravels my entire existence. Better than ambrosia, better than the Elysian Fields, better than anything. Better than me.

And yet she’s mine.

We’re slow and fast, and when I mutter about how I’m losing my fucking mind from her, she twists her new piercing like she’s taking a picture. She clenches around me and my fingers leap into a frantic hard swipe over her clit as I bite into her shoulder just in time for us both to succumb to euphoria.

Limbs heavy, breaths thin, I press a delicate kiss to her cheek, still deep and throbbing inside her. “Your best plan yet, pyro.”

Legs loose around my hips, fingers playing in my hair, she releases a stunted laugh before she sighs. “Cross?”

I’m numb from pleasure, exhausted and keyed up. “Anything.” I kiss the nearest swath of skin, the top of her shoulder and gather her closer.

“Can you …” She laughs again, fingers pressing into me. “Can you pull it back just a little?”

My eyes are heavy, thoughts slow. She’s fucked me senseless.

“Cross?”

“I’ll pull apart the realm for you once I can feel my legs, love.”

Another lazy, beautiful laugh. “In the meantime, gather your shadows. I’d really like to see your face.”

I hazily blink and realize that the entire shop is blacker than the depths of Tartarus, shadows spiraling out from me, curse surrounding us. Self-defense. Because the curse knows, just as well as I do, that Leni holds the key to my happiness, which makes her my biggest threat. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

43

Leni

home

“Do you think you only like me because I remember you?”

It’s not a fair question. Jumping ship from our line of his ‘what’s your favorite color’ and ‘Where do you want to go next’.

Anywhere you are.

Boring. Obvious.

He wanted to play the question game. No rules attached. Ha! As if I wouldn’t take advantage of that.

He stares at me, onyx eyes calculating, face unreadable, a master spy playing his game, unable to resist a challenge.

He’s no more spy to me than he is the faceless male, the Blackguard’s secret stealer, the miscreant, the villain, the abomination devoid of morals. He’s just …

---