Page 69 of Audacity

She did not tell me that a man would pin me like a butterfly and use his mouth on the most private, most sacred part of me and make me cry out.

She did not tell me about the heat. The need.

He braces above me on one elbow and lifts my leg over his shoulder, his muscles bunching beneath my calf. I feel swollen and achy where his mouth was; I feel half-crazy with some mysterious need. He’s pushing against my entrance now, pushing in, and the force of his blunt instrument as he breaches me is so intense and so shocking and so invasive that yes, I might die from the pleasure of it.

Every part of my body is screaming. I’m delirious with overwhelm as he stretches me and stretches me, huge and endless, until he pushes so deep inside my body with a grunt that I’m sure he will split me in two.

‘This is what it means to be with a man, Athena,’ he tells me, looking into my eyes. In this dim light in this canopied bed, his eyes are diabolical black pupils with the loveliest rings of purple-blue that recall dusk on a clear night. ‘This is what it means to give yourself to a man in every way, and I will be the first, and likely the last, man to watch you give every morsel of your flesh over to this pleasure. You will experience the miracle of heaven on earth, and I will be your only witness.’

He begins to move in great, greedy shunts. Every time he drags himself out of me, I want to die, and every time he pushes deep, so deep, inside me, that silent screaming inside me begins anew. With my leg over his shoulder, his body is rubbing at that same place that his mouth teased so mercilessly, and with every rub, the heat grows more insistent.

I do not think I can overpower it.

I do not think I can survive it.

‘That’s it,’ he croons, his mouth so close to mine, his breath hot on my face. It’s only when he says this that I understand how my sounds have turned from kitten-like mewls to full cries, and I am powerless to stop them. Trapped like this beneath him, impaled by his very body, they are the only outlet I have for this strange, animalistic need building inside me.

‘You can’t fight this,’ he grits out, and I understand that he is a mind reader, too. ‘You can’t outrun it. Surrender to it. Give it to me. It’s mine, do you understand? Every single piece of you is mine tonight, sogive it to me.’

His thrusts grow more frenzied, and that friction of my flesh against his body grows more frenzied, too, and his own moans grow deeper, more pained. He grips my thigh to anchor me as he drives and drives and drives, and the strange, molten heat inside me builds so impossibly that it feels as though a cannon will explode inside my body.

All I can think isthisandhimandyesandmore. This is a terrifying alchemy, my body its vessel.

The cannon is released. I am a ball of iron and metal, soaring through the air into realms so distant I could not have imagined them. My entire body is a furnace, wholly alight, its heat source this lord and the mystical acts he can perform with his body.

It seems my flames ignite his, because he goes rigid and curses before thrusting into me, over and over, with cries thatwould terrify me if I did not understand that they come from the same place as my cries.

He was correct.

I could not outrun it.

In surrendering everything to him, I set myself free to soar.

CHAPTER 35

Gabe

‘Permission to break character.’

I mumble the words against her breast, and she giggles, her hand running up and down my bicep. ‘Hi.’

‘Hi.’ I pull my face away enough to look at her. ‘You okay?’

‘Defineokay. Am I now considering running away with you to some grubby D&D community where you can exercise your feudal rights over me on a daily basis? Absolutely.’

‘Ah, the simple life. Having a toothsome wench like you to cook and clean for me. I dunno—could be a lot worse.’

She swats me on my bicep. ‘I wouldn’t call me toothsome if you value your testicular health.’

‘So punchy after an orgasm.’ I stroke the soft skin of her back. ‘Might need to give you another one.’

‘Do you want the virgin or the whore this time?’ she asks. Her tone is jokey, but there’s something else in her voice—something vulnerable—that gives me pause and has me choosing my words carefully.

‘Deflowering the virgin was far too much fun… but now I’d like to be with the strong, incredible woman who shows up at my place of work every day and owns every single ounce of her sexuality. Becausethat’sthe sexiest thing to me.’

She swallows, her enormous eyes drinking me in. ‘So the whore, then.’

‘Don’t call yourself that. I just want you.’ I pause to tuck a lock of silken hair behind her ear. ‘The real you.’

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