Page 59 of Gothikana

‘Did you get her help?’

‘Don’t you already know that?’

‘I told you, I want to hear it from you.’

Corvina nodded, her eyes tearing up as she remembered the day. ‘I already realised there was something not right when I was in my teens. She’d let me go to the post office in town once a week to send out orders. That’s where I researched more and came across the institute. I debated for months if I should or shouldn’t. I’d be all alone if they took her away, you know?’ Her voice cracked on the last words.

He pressed a soft kiss to her skin. ‘But you did it anyway, didn’t you, you brave, beautiful girl?’

Something inside her flourished under his words. She felt a lone tear streak from the corner of her eye. ‘It was the day I turned eighteen. I phoned them, and they came the next day to take her away. She was so angry,’ Corvina whispered.

‘Is she still angry?’

Corvina huffed a humourless laugh. ‘Sometimes I wish she was. She barely remembers me most days now. Her dementiahas grown worse. The medicines they have her on have dulled her memories. It’s a side effect.’

‘And you, little crow?’ he asked against her flesh. ‘What about you?’

She swallowed, knowing her admission might change things. ‘I hear voices, too. Always have, one particular voice. Ironically, he’s the one who told me about my mother needing help.’

‘He?’ His tone was curious.

‘Mo,’ she told him.

‘Ah.’ He chuckled. ‘I don’t know if I’m relieved or not knowing it was a voice and not a man in your head when I was fucking you.’

Her eyes went to the beautiful metal and glass chandelier just as his fingers pulled her panties aside. ‘So, you hear voices.’

‘I used to hear just Mo,’ she corrected. ‘Maybe one or two others rarely. I admitted myself at the institute when they took Mama in to get myself tested. Just to be aware, you know?’

‘And?’

‘And negative,’ she informed him as his finger began to circle her nether lips, making her clench. ‘The doctors told me I didn’t have any symptoms, and basically wrote Mo off as my subconscious’ way of coping with an absent father in a lonely household. But then, I was too young to show the signs properly, so they told me to keep an eye on things.’

‘There have been other signs?’ he asked, his words warm right against her core.

It took Corvina a long second to focus on his words and hold back a full-body shudder. ‘Since coming to Verenmore, things have escalated. I’ve started hearing more voices, seeing things,’ she told him, the fear of her memory with the mirror and the pleasure of his mouth in the present fucking with her mind. ‘It’s never happened before.’

‘Do you think it’s your mind or this place?’ He voiced the one question she’d been struggling with for months.

‘I truly don’t know,’ she murmured, her hands finding the edge of the piano and holding tight as his tongue flicked out over her. ‘There’s a part of me that wants to believe it’s Verenmore, that the things I’ve been experiencing are something external. But I don’t know how that makes anything better, because I’m still the one hearing voices and seeing things. Whether it’s internal or external, it means I’m not okay.’

‘It could very well be his place,’ he spoke against her flesh. ‘There are too many things in this world without any rational explanation, things that happen without logic. I wouldn’t dismiss that just yet.’

Her breasts heaved as he swiped his tongue over her again with the last word. One of her hands tangled in his hair as he pulled her hips off the edge, canting them in the air and angling her as he wanted, her body his to direct in the moment as he wished. He didn’t ask her any more questions, his tongue diving deep inside her before coming back out, finding her clit, circling it with a skill she knew was both gifted and polished over time.

She clung to his hair, twisting it in her fingers as her hips writhed on their own, one of his fingers penetrating her as his mouth wreaked havoc on her nub. Her nipples tightened to sharp points on her breasts, unrestricted under her sweater, her mouth opening on a gasp as he curled his finger inside her, finding a spot so deep it sent waves of intense pleasure rolling over her body, blackening her mind, her heart crashing against her ribs with each beat.

‘Oh god, oh god, oh god,’ she chanted as her body shook, her heels digging into the air, trying to find some kind of purchase, some kind of anchor lest she get lost. He held her steady, letting her ride wave after wave of pleasure with a wantonness she’d thought herself incapable of until that moment, his mouth slowly decreasing the intensity of his sensual assault, bringing her down on the piano.

Corvina blinked up at the ceiling mindlessly, her legs limp and her arms on the piano, her chest heaving in large gulps of air. It took her a moment to realise he was arranging her panties back into place, tugging her stockings up and skirt down. She lifted herself on her elbows, watching him as he slowly stood up and leaned over her, his hands flat on the piano by her side, his hair messed from her fingers, his lips glistening with her orgasm.

It sent a thrill through her to see him so undone by her, see the cool facade crack open, and reveal the untamed man inside.

He slanted his mouth over her, giving her a kiss so thorough it made her insides clench all over again, the taste of herself on his lips something so forbidden it sent a delicious shiver over her skin. His righthand cupped her breast, less with intent and more with ownership, as he pulled back slightly, his silver gaze molten on hers.

‘This is happening, little crow,’ he whispered softly against her lips, pinching her nipple between his fingers. ‘I’m done denying this. You’ve haunted me long enough. And I don’t care if you’re haunted by forces beyond your understanding or if it’s all in your head. You’re mine now. For as long as this madness ensues.’

Her jaw trembled as she looked up at him with burning eyes. ‘For as long as this madness ensues.’

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