Page 7 of Invidia

My vision blurred once I finally took all of him, the stretching sensation just on the right side of the pain-pleasure dichotomy.

Evrin groaned, writhing slightly beneath me. “The power coming off you… I’ve never felt anything like it. You’re so… decadent.”

It was borderline too many compliments. This was about sex—I didn’t need to start swooning.

My fingers tightened on his shoulders as I began to move, and in the confined space, there wasn’t enough room for me to do much more than roll my hips, grinding my clit against his pelvis with every motion. Evrin’s hands were everywhere, the faint scrape of his claws alerting me to his movements. As addictive as his words of praise had been, the ragged, desperate attempts at keeping quiet were just as sexy.

“I shouldn’t knot you here,” he whispered brokenly, though the grip he had on my ass cheeks belied his words. “Someone could walk out. They could hear you. I’d kill them. I’d have to.”

I clenched around him at the show of possessiveness. Why was that doing it for me? I’d never liked high-handed guys before.

“Don’t pull out,” I breathed, digging my blunt nails into his shoulders. “I want you to knot me. I’m on birth control. Please.”

Evrin said something in a language I didn’t recognize, though, I was pretty confident from the inflection that it was a curse word.

“Stay quiet,” he growled, punctuating his words with the tiniest prick of his claws, even though he was the one who was making all the noise.

I did as I was told though, biting down hard on my lower lip to muffle the moans I couldn’t let free.

I slipped a hand between us, circling my clit with practiced ease to push myself over the edge. Evrin cursed again the moment I clenched around him, roughly pulling me down as he thrust up, lodging his knot in place. At first, it wasn’t too noticeable, and I couldn’t help but wonder what all the fuss was about.

But then it kept growing.

I let out a squeak of alarm, but Evrin was entirely relaxed, tugging me forward so I was laying against his chest, my head resting on his shoulder.

“S’good,” he slurred. “You’re so good. Relax. I’ll take care of you. Relax.”

Despite my uncertainty, I found that I was able to sink into the warmth and strength of Evrin’s body.

And then immediately tensed up again, because the slightest movement seemed to set off a chain of orgasms that I was helpless to stop. The thick, solid knot rubbed against my hypersensitive inner walls so perfectly that it felt like he was always meant to be there.

I hadn’t got it before when the others talked about having their minds blown by Shade sex.

I got it now.

I totally got it.

My eyelids felt like they weighed a ton each, but I forced them open so I could stare blearily up at Evrin’s face in repose. God, he was gorgeous. And the chemistry was unreal. And he had such a soothing presence and didn’t seem totally put off by my high-strung nature, even though I’d made almost no effort to hide it the way I usually did.

Maybe I’d been as lucky as Ophelia had been, and met my match—the Shade who would become my mate—right away too. It was more than I had even dreamed of hoping for.

Chapter 2

“Oh my god, I need an ice bath for my lady bits,” I sighed, sliding down the sofa until my legs were hanging off in a slightly ungainly manner, taking the weight off the achy parts. “We’re not ever returning to the human realm, right? Can we make a pact or something? I miss Wi-Fi and I’d sell a kidney for some chicken nuggets and an icy soda, but the sex. I’m not going back to regular sex after that.”

I fanned my face dramatically, reveling a little in the shocked looks I was getting from Ophelia, Verity, and Meera. Astrid had disappeared somewhere as she was wont to do, slinking off like an aloof house cat whenever she was in the vicinity of social interaction.

“Oh!” Ophelia said, trying to make a quick recovery. “Um, I didn’t realize someone had caught your attention—”

“Who did you fuck?” Verity interrupted bluntly, dark eyes shining with interest. She didn’t outright say, “I didn’t think you had it in you,” but her expression pretty clearly conveyed that sentiment. Not that she’d ever pressured me or Meera to keep up with her voracious appetites, or anything like that. It was more that Verity seemed slightly confused about why we wouldn’t just want to sample all the goods on offer.

And now that I’d had Shade sex, I could sort of see why. Last night had been incredible. Evrin and I had the kind of chemistry that couldn’t be replicated.

It wasn’t like me to be dreamy and irresponsible and hope for something as permanent as a mating bite right away, but my dreams had been filled with visions of it last night.

“I’m not going to kiss and tell,” I replied primly, though my motives were a little less respectful of Evrin’s privacy than I was making out. Mostly, I just wanted to keep him to myself. He wasn’t a name that had come up at court, and he hadn’t been one of the Shades who had congregated around us like moths to a flame in the dining hall.

He was mine, and I wanted to keep him that way.

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