Page 87 of By the Pint

I wasn’t ready. For immortality. After waiting a lifetime for it. I wasn’t ready.

Immortality was in Dima’s arms.

Don’t let this moment be over, I said.

Dima slowed his movements, lifted his head from the crook of my neck to gaze into my eyes. And I knew he understood what I was trying to say, even if I didn’t understand myself. “You’ll always be the you I want. No matter what temperature your skin is, or the colour of your eyes. No matter if you remember me or not. Stay with me for as long as you like. When you’re ready, I’ll make sure everything is taken care of.”

What was he suggesting? Was Dima giving me full control of my immortality? Was he removing Killian from the equation? Offering to pay the turning fee? What would his terms be? Did I still need Killian? My mind whirred with a thousand new questions, and all the new emotions swelling in my chest were threatening to tear me open. That needle-sharp pain in the dead centre of my heart was back.

Was it heartbreak? Was this what having a broken heart felt like?

“You don’t have to decide right now, baby,” Dima whispered, pushing the hair from my forehead so he could drink in my face. Memorise it. His gaze came to rest on my lips. His mouth parted, his fangs slipped out of their sheaths. “Let me break you first. Let me make you feel like only we exist.”Alive or undead, there is only you and me.

Okay,I replied, because there was nothing else to say or think. Even if there would never be another moment like this, it didn’t stop this one from being utterly perfect.

Dima brought his lips down to mine, and kissed me softly, his hand wrapped around my nape. And I kissed him back, firmer, hungrier, sliding my bottom lip under his fang, pushing it up and deliberately tearing the skin. He paused. Brushed his tongue against the graze. My mouth filled with the ferrous tang of my own blood.

“Oh, baby,” he whispered against my cheek, his voice gritty, sharp. “What have you done?”

In one swift movement, he slid my body down the seat, seized my wrists, and lifted them above my head. At the same time, he pushed my knees up, wrapped my legs around his waist, and rested my heels on his ass cheeks. Invisible bonds held me firm. The icy pins and needles of Dima’s telekinesis tingled against every part of my body. Even if I wanted to wriggle free, I wouldn’t have been able to.

Dima picked up his pace. Hammering into me. Fucking me. Relentlessly. He buried his face against my pulse, and tongued the spot where it ticked in my neck, but he never let his teeth sink in. Occasionally he popped his head up, sucked my lip into his mouth again, sucking the blood from the shallow wound, forcing his tongue into it. The pain would momentarily rip through me.

He braced his hand against the wall of the car. His cock pistoned in and out of me, as he forced my knees higher and higher. His moans, the breaths being pushed from my lungs, and the filthy slapping sounds of skin on skin were the only things I could hear. Drowning out any thoughts and doubts and worries and second guesses I may have had.

“Casey, fuck, I’m—I need to get you there. You—fuck.” He reached into the gap between our bodies, wrapped his hand around my cock, and began pumping. He slowed his thrusts but didn’t stop, and watched me with eyes so dark I could no longer see any red. “Casey.”

And I simply lost it. His cool touch against my skin, the metallic scent of him, his face contorted into agonised control. Like he was desperately keeping afloat. Waiting for me to drown with him. My orgasm washed over me. It shot across my chest and stomach, and coated Dima’s hand. He kept thrusting, kept massaging my prostate through my climax, until he broke too.He slammed into me and held me firm against his body as he cried out onto my pulse, filling me with his release over and over. And for one last time, he sucked my split lip into his mouth, whisking his tongue over it, collecting any residual blood.

As he came, his mind opened. His barriers dropped. His thoughts swarmed me. Too chaotic and messy to hear any one individually. I could only pick out snippets.Love … Casey … Killian … Forever … Turning … Wingball … Quilting …

He was still thinking about quilting.

He really did love quilting. A sob bubbled in my chest, but I didn’t let it reach the surface.

Suddenly, the icy tingling vanished, and I could move my arms. I wrapped them around him and brought him down to me.

We stayed like this for a few moments. Me on my back. Him on my chest. I tightened my mind-bag while my heart rate returned to normal-ish.

“I need to clean you up properly when we get back to the hotel,” Dima said, zooming his shirt into his hand and using it to wipe the cum from my stomach, and his stomach, and his hand, and my thighs.

Together we dressed, quietly shooting each other glances and smiles. Occasionally, Dima would mockingly lament all the mess we’d made. “I’ll just buy Wayne a new car,” he said, and we both started laughing. “I’ll give him a million silvers as a bonus.”

“At least leather wipes clean,” I said, which made him snort with laughter.

A few minutes later, a door at the front of the vehicle opened, someone’s weight dropped in, and the door closed again. The intercom buzzed.

“Just letting you know that it’s me, and not some random hijacker,” Wayne’s voice echoed. “Are you ready to leave, Dima?”

Dima took my hand in his.You don’t have to make any decisions right now. I’ll be here for you, always. If you wantanother week with me, or a year, or a decade, or forever. I will always be yours. And if you decide to go through with immortality, I will wait for you.

Dima—I made to speak but he interrupted me.

Unless you tell me not to. Okay? I need you to know you’re in full control.

I nodded because I wasn’t sure that I could answer him. Even inside my head.

I held the control. Of Dima’s heart. And his heartbreak.

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