Page 84 of Fragile Heart

“Oh, God,” I gasp, the words broken and breathless as he continues licking me, the scrape of his beard against my sensitized skin enough to have me hurtling back toward the edge.

“Give it to me, princess,” he says without ruining his pace. “One more before you get my knot.”

My body races to answer him, every single thought draining from my mind as he fucks me with his tongue. I tilt my hipstoward his mouth, desperate for whatever he’ll give me that will relieve thisachefor him. He chuckles against me and then pinches my clit. My back bows, my mind empties, and I scream, loud enough that my voice breaks. His touch softens at once, bringing me back down with a practiced touch that’s just as addicting as it was a decade ago.

I’m still trying to catch my breath when he stands, shucking off his clothes in a matter of seconds. The small light from the street lamp catches on a large tattoo tracing up his entire left side.

“A phoenix,” I breathe.

It’s red and orange with just a smattering of black, the opposite of the one that now sits behind my left ear. The color is hardly faded, though it must be a year old at least. The small lines that outline each feather are pristine, too. I can’t help but trace a portion of it, the tail feathers that follow the line of his Adonis belt.

“They rise from their own death, the ashes of their demise,” he says.

I nod. “They do.”

Without breaking his gaze, I tilt my head just enough to expose the new tattoo covering Brett’s final mark on me and my life.

His smile this time is softer, less guarded or fueled by lust. And then it’s gone, and he’s guiding my hands above my head, holding both wrists in his unyielding one-handed grip. His callouses catch on my skin with every slight adjustment of his body above mine. My nipples ache, and I can still feel my pulse in my clit despite the double orgasm.

“Ethan,” I whisper.

I push against his hold, but he only squeezes my wrists in silent warning. He shakes his head as he sets a knee on the bed.He strokes himself slowly. And then, without warning, he wraps an arm around my leg and pulls me to the edge of the bed.

His cock presses against me, thick and hard, and I tilt my hips, squirming against his hold. He smirks, those blue eyes sharpening as he teases me with just the tip, testing me like I’m some untried virgin. As if he wasn’t the one to take my virginity in that barn ten years ago.

“Patience,” he says. “You don’t expect me to rush this when I have all night, do you?”

He pulls away and then presses in again, the same agonizing inch of his cock giving me just a taste. Another bolt of need blasts through me. With a moan, I cant my hips, wrapping my knees around his waist, pulling him into me. He palms my belly, forcing me immobile, continuing the slow intrusion until my body trembles and I clench around him hard enough that he grunts.

I mutter a curse, and he smirks, his free hand running up my leg, pushing it into my chest at the same time he pulls out and then pushes back in. My back bows, but his hold on my wrists is unfailing as I moan.

“Please,” I whimper as he continues, each slow movement of his cock making my body ratchet tighter, my pulse beat faster. I writhe under him, my mind melting under the onslaught of sensation. He finally increases his tempo, and my toes curl as my knees tighten around him.

Sweat coats his skin, dampening the hair dusted across his chest and running from his navel to his dick. His lips are turned down, his eyebrows bunched, his gaze intent on me, roving over my body with each hard thrust of his hips. In the low light, he looks like an avenging angel, intent on one purpose alone, and that thought has another lightning bolt shooting down my spine, another ragged curse falling from my lips.

“You have such amouth,” he says with a grin. He looks up from where we’re joined. “I’ve never heard you say anything so crude before. Does Caleb hear this, too? Or is it something just for me?”

How in theworldis he able to make stupid jokes when he has me so close to the edge that one small breeze across my nipples will send me over?

All I can manage is a moan, and he laughs, pulling me more thoroughly against him. He releases my hands in favor of dropping one of my legs and pressing it into the mattress, keeping me exposed to him. His callouses catch on the sensitive skin already roughed up by his beard, and I tremble, tilting my hips to keep pace with his. My noises grow with his tempo until my begging, breathless pleas drown out everything else.

“There we go,” he murmurs, moving my unpinned leg to his shoulder and circling my clit with a lazy, practiced touch. “Give it to me, princess.”

My mind is gone, turned to rubble under the wicked skill of his hands and body. The orgasm surges through me, taking away all thought and reality with it. I cry out, the moan a broken and breathless thing. Ethan follows me over the edge with a rough grunt. His head drops to my shoulder, his teeth biting at my skin just hard enough to sting. His hand on my thigh tightens, and then my body’s overwhelmed again. His knot locks us together between one heartbeat and the next.

“Oh, fuck,” I gasp. It’s practically a cry for help.

I run my hands down his back, scratching long lines across his skin, trying to get closer, trying to find an outlet for the overwhelming sensations. He twists a hand into my hair and runs his lips along my collarbone and throat.

“Easy, princess,” he whispers. “Breathe through it.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” My nails bite into his sides and then I let out a wordless mewl that carries way more than just my body’s pleasure.

Ethan lifts away from my skin, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips turned in a deep frown. He loosens his hold on my hair and drags his hand down my neck, letting his thumb trace the hollow of my throat. I can’t help the slick that drenches us both, arousal still so strong in me. His chuckle is a little breathless this time, maybe even a bit awed.

Slowly, my body calms and my mind returns, the need to have him carve himself into my essence lessening with each passing minute. My cheeks flush as his knot releases us both, our combined mess spilling onto the sheets of his bed.

“You all right?” he asks.

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