Page 224 of Evil Hearts

“Aw, fuck,” he said, all but gasping out the words. “I didn’t mean to do that. Have a little patience with me. It’s my first time—”

His pleading expression and light humor was wiped away when I growled in frustration and started rocking my hips, keeping my clit up against the shifting press of his crest. “Don’t you dare stop,” I snarled. I planted my hands on his chest and rode him harder, picking up the pace. “God didn’t give you a built-in rabbit vibe just for you to fuckingturn it off.”

“You… want it?” Ruven’s lashes fluttered as he relaxed away from the sharp tension, his hips lifting and tail sliding up around my waist to wrap around one breast. His tail-tip flicked across my nipple with a sharp burst of pleasure, and at the clench of my pussy around his cock, his tentacles started vibrating again—gently at first, but then in stronger pulses, rubbing along my clit and folds.

I’d used vibrators before, of course. I’d even had boyfriends use them on me, or let me hold a bullet vibe against my clit while they fucked me. Most of the time, I couldn’t get off without a vibe or suction, and since I refused to fake it, I got rid of the men who sulked over their dick not being magic pretty damn fast. The combination of a good dick and a better vibrator was my favorite way to get off.

It didn’t even compare.

Ruven’s cock flexed as he met my rocking thrusts, grinding the thickest part of his shaft against my g-spot with unrelenting force and never managing to thud into my cervix with painful force despite his length and girth. His crest of tentacles massaged me, the waves of vibration timed to his motion. Two held my clit between them, moving in counterpoint to each other, an endless, glorious press of throbbing vibration and manual stimulation.

Heat and tension flooded through me. The pulses of vibration wound me closer and closer to ecstasy. Everything built like floodwaters behind a dam, my core spasming on Ruven and my pussy so wet he glided in and out of me like he’d been lubed. Iwent from ‘hot for it’ to ‘whimpering mess’ in minutes, my arms shaking so hard I couldn’t hold myself up.

When I collapsed down onto him, Ruven snarled like an animal, wrapped his arms around me, and started pistoning his cock into me with hard thrusts of his hips.

“Come for me, paradise,” he growled into my ear, breath hot and voice insistent. “Come on my cock. Come so hard you milk me dry.”

I whimpered, pussy closing on him with a flash of pleasure that dragged me to the edge of orgasm, the imminence as all-consuming as the moment of anticipation before the roller coaster drops. His textured cock rubbed against my sensitized channel, everything glowing with need. His tentacles rubbed, and vibrated, andrubbed—

“Come for me,” Ruven said again, desperation creeping into the words. “Come for me, come for me, come for me—” His pace sped with each repetition, hard slams that bottomed him out in me, leaving pleasure radiating through me like the heat of the sun. “Avalon—” he pleaded.

Everything broke. My whole body arched back as ecstasy slammed into me with physical force. My breath caught in my throat. White-hot glory raced through my veins, my core closing down on him over and over again, waves of pleasure crashing through me like a stormy sea battering the shore. Distantly, I heard his hoarse cry; distantly, I felt heat pulsing into me as he came with me, my soulmate losing himself in me.

The euphoria flooded into my body, muscles going lax, leaving me shuddering on Ruven’s sweat-slicked chest. I could hear his heart pounding under my ear. His cock flexed hard inside me, and I whimpered, my body’s answering spasm sending an aftershock through me that almost had me coming again.

“Av,” he whispered, stroking my hair out of my face. “Av,” he said again, sounding like he might cry.

I made myself blink the haze out of my eyes, pushing myself up enough to look into his eyes. “Are you okay, sweetheart?” I asked, searching Ruven’s expression. Those slanted brows, that pleading look, the gleam of unshed tears in his beautiful dark eyes… it wasn’t the bliss I’d expected to see on his face after I’d claimed him.

“I feel like— I feel like I’m being torn in half,” he said, half-sobbing the words. “Av, darling, paradise, I… Iwantedthis, I need this, I want— want you—”

“I love you,” I said softly, cupping his face in my hands.

He froze, ears dropping down, naked yearning lifting the inner corners of his dark brows. “What?” he whispered. His voice shook.

The world was standing still for us—had been standing still this whole time. Waiting for us to find that final piece of alignment and for everything to slot into place. I could feel it, the same timeless anticipation still wrapped around us, like a concert hall when the conductor raises her baton.

“I love you,” I said again. A soft smile started warming my face, the flush of post-orgasmic bliss melding with the heat of my affection for him. “You, this…” I dropped a kiss on his nose. “Us.”

“You… do?” The corners of his mouth trembled.

“Idiot,” I said, feeling like I had a star in my chest. “Nincompoop.” I brushed my nose against his. His breath warmed my face. “Of course I do. I love you, Ruven.” My lips skimmed against his with each word. “I loveyou,” I murmured, and pressed my mouth to his.

Something in me settled as with the sensation of a sigh, or a key turning in a lock, everything so right with the long lines of his body against me and his lips moving with mine in mutual longing. It was the same feeling as my fear evaporating from having Ruven under me in the shape of a horse, except that instead of the lack of fear, it was the birth of certainty. Nothingelse in the world mattered but the man in my arms. I was safe. I washome.

Hewas my home. He would always be my home.

We were home together, forever.

Our lips parted. For one long moment, Ruven didn’t move, his eyes closed and lips parted, an expression of total focus on his face as he savored the feeling of my kiss—and of the soft balance of our soulmate bond.

He let out a sharp exhale, then started laughing breathlessly. “Oh, gods, that’s embarrassing.” His tail wrapped around my thigh. “You getting on my back? Riding me here bareback, and laughing for the joy of it? Grabbing me by the cock and taking from me everything I barely dared to offer? Nope, not good enough.” Ruven dropped his head back and draped an arm across his face to hide himself. “I had to hear you fuckingsayit.” He smiled, a helpless expression, happiness suffusing his face.

“Gods,” he said, cupping the back of my neck with his warm hand and looking back up at me. “I love you, too, Avalon Hartley. It’s bliss to become yours.”

Affection warmed my blood, the heat of his body the perfect counterpoint to the cold sweep of the river across my legs and the golden glow of the sun. “Weren’t you already mine?” I twined my fingers in his loose hair and gave it a soft tug. “I know you’ve been waiting for me. Giving me time, and letting me learn to trust that you’ll always be there to catch me.” I leaned down and brushed my lips against his again. “You were very patient with me.”

“I would have waited far longer than this had you needed it, friction burns be damned.” He brushed his thumb along my jawline, a gentle expression of yearning affection softening his face. “I’m rather foolishly in love with you, as it turns out.”

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