Page 42 of A Lost Light

She obliged, squirming as she tried to get away. “Not again. I don’t think I can take much more of this attention,” she muttered.

I grinned against the soft skin over her solar plexus, my hands skating higher to cup her heavy breasts. “Mmm… and yet, I've no doubt you'll find a way to survive. Somehow. I mean to savor every inch of you, Oleander.”

She sighed, but I knew the put-upon sound was just her way of teasing me. Bracing myself over her, glorying in the brush of my skin against hers, I drew one of her nipples into my mouth, savoring, rolling my tongue over the hard nub the way I knew she loved. I suckled lightly, and she moaned as I finally pressed our hips together, letting my cock press along the wet heat of her slit.

I nibbled at her collar bones and tasted her throat as she arched up into me, grinding along my cock in a way that made us both moan. Her hands came to my back, and she clung to me as if her world was coming apart. Finally, I kissed along her jaw and made my way to those sweet, deliciously plump lips.

Andy hummed into the kiss, her breasts flattened against my chest, one leg coming up to wrap around my hip and give her better leverage in order to rub against me again, providing the friction I was denying us.

I moaned, pulling back to rest my forehead against hers, my eyes falling closed as I breathed deeply, centering myself and breathing her in at the same time. “I know what you want, Andy,” I whispered. “I'm just as eager as you are. Probably more so. But I'm afraid I won't last more than a single second once I'm inside you, my beautiful goddess.”

She huffed a laugh. “Goddess? Careful, or I might get used to all that flattery.” Then her hand came to rest along my cheek. “Elijah. I don't care. It's not like this is some grand performance. You don't have to try to be perfect. You alreadyare.I just want to share my body with you. I just want this.” She kissed me softly, then withdrew, and I opened my eyes to meet her gaze, so filled with love and adoration that I scarcely thought I deserved. “I just want you. Us. I want you to feel as amazing as you've made me feel every day since we met.”

My wings flared out behind me in a blinding flood of magic and emotion. Shifting my weight, I guided my cock downward, stroking the head across her clit and through her folds. Then I slowly pressed home.

The feeling was like nothing I'd ever experienced. Her heat enveloped me, and she arched into me with a low moan. I pressed a hard, graceless kiss to her lips. Then I was lost.

Sensation overwhelmed me once more and I was reduced to nothing but the slide of my flesh over and inside hers. My aura slipped from my conscious control, reaching for her, craving the feeling of hersoul.

The next thing I knew, we were one. One body, one being feeling the sensations and emotions of two. I gasped, pressing deeper, harder, determined to drive us both to the pinnacle of this maelstrom offeeling.Andy gasped and clutched at me, her nails digging into my flesh. Everything was too much, every sensation too strong. And even over the intense floodof sensations, the beauty of her soul sang, warm and all-encompassing. It sang forme.

Slamming home, I let out an unholy shout as I spilled inside her, feeling as though I had just been turned inside out.

I slammed back home into my own body, the dual sensations fading, and opened my eyes to look down at the completely blissed out woman beneath me.

“Holy shit,” she mumbled.

I let out a surprised chuckle. It was a very Andy response. “Indeed,” I said, kissing her forehead before gently withdrawing to lie beside her and gather her up in my arms.

As I was trying to catch my breath, I felt a strange sort of… twang in my chest. I frowned when Andy rubbed the same spot on her own body.

I was about to ask what the strange sensation could be, but as I opened my mouth, someone started pounding on the bedroom door.

“Andy!” Niamh called out, her tone one of tight impatience. “You just got another letter. And it's on fire.”

“Fuck me,” Andy groaned, flopping onto her back and closing her eyes.

I chuckled and leaned over to kiss the tip of her nose. “I'm pretty sure I just did.”

She shook her head. “No. No snark from you. I get enough of that from all the other assholes. You just keep being sweet.”

I laughed as I went to gather our clothes.

Even though my chest still hurt.

Chapter 23

Andy

Istared at the flaming envelope on my kitchen table. The flames didn't falter or die out and yet the table remained unharmed, and the fire didn't spread.

“Itscreamedwhen it arrived,” Zhong said, watching the envelope with wary yellow eyes. “Scared the hell out of me and made me nearly cut my finger off.” He gestured to the abandoned cutting board, where he'd been prepping things for dinner.

“More ancestral bullshit?” I asked dryly, arching a brow at Dyre.

The necromancer looked a bit more peaked than usual, his hand touching his chest, then dropping to his side and he shook himself out of whatever thoughts he'd been lost in. “Yes,” he said evenly. “I can sense threads of Lovell magic.” He sighed. “And a hint of my own as well, now that I know to look for it wherever Lovell blood is involved.”

I shook my head at him. We were not going to revisit our lineage right now. “Reaching out, I passed a hand through the flames. As I suspected, they didn't burn me. They weren't evenwarm to the touch. Illusion. Bella was apparently a big old drama queen.

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