Page 46 of Last Ride of the Umbra Fae

The roped candy hung from her mouth like a cigar, and her hair cascaded in soft waves. With every stride, they swayed with the curve of her hips.

“I’m starting to believe you’re truly the devil, looking the way you do,” I said, feeling the hollowness inside my chest swell. “Here you are, striding into my life, stealing away every breath I take along with my candy.”

The corner of her mouth twitched in amusement, maybe satisfaction.

“A man willing to give his last breath to me?” She took another small bite. “Sounds intriguing,” she teased, draping an arm over my shoulder.

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, darlin’. Who said I’d let you get away with it?” I grinned, draping her other hand over me as I plucked the licorice from her soft, supple lips and stuck it in my mouth with the other. I couldn’t help but wonder at the thought of those perfect lips wrapped around my cock and how they’d feel as she sucked me into oblivion.

We saw each other as something we wanted to claim. That was the side of her I strived to chase. No matter how far or dark it got, I was ready for that ride.

My hands had killed, but so had hers. For the time being, maybe they both could be tender for one another. As I slid one around her waist, the other slowly roamed down her thigh until she lifted her leg, allowing me to grip the back of her knee. Another yank, and her body was flush against mine.

I lifted her up, taking a firm hold as my hands cupped her ass. Her legs straddled my hips as she took my hat and placed it on her head.

“Looks like your hands are tied, cowboy. What are you going to do now?” She then stole back the roped licorice and tossed it behind herself onto the bed.

I couldn’t give two fucks about the tug of war with that rope anymore, because now she was in my range.

“The very thing I’ve been wanting to do since the moment I first laid eyes on you.” The vow I’d made pushed to the front of my mind. The one where I would cross every line with her until I could claim her as mine.

The anticipation hung in her eyes, a hooded stare as I moved us over to the edge of the bed. I gently placed her onto the mattress, watching the way her dark hair fell away behind her shoulders, making those soft streaks of highlights disappear.

“You have been a disturbance in my mind, invading my every thought since I met you,” I confessed, slipping my hat off her head and placing it somewhere to the side. Then I removed her boots, massaging her legs and ankles. I knew she had been sore, and alleviating some pain was the least I could do.

The tips of my fingers trailed the hollow of her neck and brushed away a rogue strand of hair. With a light touch, I traced her arm along her scars, loving the way her bronze skin slipped into a star-filled darkness as my hands linked with hers. A touch that was made of shadow and light. She clasped my hands, biting her lower lip as the anticipation hung in her eyes. I leaned down and tilted my head, licking the column of her neck as my hair brushed against her collarbone. She moaned, rolling her body, a move that drained all thought and flowed straight to the swell of my cock.

I kissed and nibbled on the soft flesh just beneath her ear, eliciting another moan from those perfect lips. I caught her moan with my mouth, stroking my tongue inside in abrasive perusal. We became nothing but clashing tongues and teeth.

“I’m going to take your breath as mine, Desert Rose. When I’m done with you and we are both spent from expelling every power that makes us the monsters we’ve become, you’re going to be mine. I don’t think any forced bond could take that away from us.”

She pulled away, staring at me long and hard with burning desire. I knew it was a bold move. I was ready to take a dagger to my heart for wanting to claim such a thing, but the way darkness ignited in her eyes as she grabbed a fistful of my shirt and pulled me down for another bruising kiss, it was enough for me to know that, by the end of the night, she would truly belong to me. She was not gentle about it, meeting me with the same abrasiveness as her tongue swept across my lips, deepening the kiss, and gods-damn, she was wickedly talented. I was ready to take everything she had to offer me and more. She was the remedy for my deprivation.

Time didn’t exist with her, and I nearly lost track of how long we stayed in that position, though a subconscious part of me knew it must have been nearly midday. I ran a greedy palm down the length of her thigh as she linked her legs around my back. I groaned, exhaling her name and something else—words that fell away as she pulled me in for a deeper embrace. My hand dragged across her top and pulled it down, circling my thumb around her nipples that were firmly pressed against the mesh fabric of her undergarment.

“All I’ve been thinking about is who I’d have to kill to see you in this color, and here I am, wanting to rip your clothes to shreds.” I licked against the fabric in desperation, cupping my mouth around her breast because it simply wasn’t enough. She gently nudged herself up and removed her top. I sat back on my knees to watch her every move. My length bulged and throbbed against my pants. When her top fell away, the sight was nearly painful.

I tugged my shirt off, tossing it far from reach. Her eyes went to the plains of my chest. She slowly reached forward. She seemed to like the chest hair as she ran her fingers through it, gliding her thumbs along the raised flesh of my nipples. Her gaze flicked to mine. With a flirtatious smirk, she gently pinched them. My heart nearly leaped as she dipped her head, running her warm, soft tongue over them, licking and biting. I exhaled deeply and tipped my head back as I combed a hand through her hair, caressing her working jaw with the pad of my thumb. My fucking heavens, the things she could do with it.

Vessa kissed her way down, swirling her tongue along each ab before those perfect hands began to unfasten my belt. I watched the curve of her back as she worked the latch with her ass sticking in the air. It was a shame she was still wearing pants. She could see my desire leaking through the fabric, and with a smile, she tugged them down.

My heart thrummed like a feral beast when my entire length flung out, hard and beaded with pleasure. Her cheeks heated seeing my desire for her. The thought of her pretty little mouth wrapped around it caused an ache. I wanted to be inside her more than ever.

As she leaned down, I stopped her midway, pulling her back a little with a gentle caress across her shoulder. “Naughty girl, you still have your pants on. If you’re going to wrap those lips around my cock, the least you could do is grace me with the sight of that beautiful ass, nice and arched.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip and smiled.

My heart thundered as she leaned back and removed those pants. I sat back on the mattress and watched as she clumsily took them off, discarding them to the side. A rush of hunger surged through me seeing that little bush of hair atop her mound as the memory of my nose buried against it flashed across my mind.

She leaned down, and that beautiful face was inches from my cock. She inhaled my scent and moaned. Something I hadn’t been expecting her to do. I chuckled, probably sounding a little insecure, and thanked the fucking heavens I’d bathed this morning. While her lips brushed along my length, I soon forgot that feeling, because in the next breath, they were wrapped around the tip, then she slid her mouth down.

A feral moan rumbled in my chest as I bit my lower lip, holding back another untamed sound that wanted to escape. I leaned back onto my heels, gripped the sheets, and tilted my head back as my eyes widened when I felt her slide down to the base.

Gods-damn. She was everything I could have asked for.

I fell into her snare as she worked my cock and bobbed her head. I felt the power of wind emerge from my flesh in warm, calming orbs. It was a call for hers, touching on the edges of a bond that wanted to be formed.

Sure, this could have been any one-night stand—most fae could fuck without any strings attached—but this felt different; it was a calling only she could quell. One I couldn’t have fully understood until I’d kissed her for the very first time. While the power ofNai, my wind, drifted in the space around us, the constant flutter down my arms sensed her opening that thread.

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