Page 205 of Flirting with Darkness

He didn’t thrust in sudden and hard, but he didn’t slip in slowly, either. It was purposeful the way he entered me—determined and unyielding—and the hard certainty I’d seen in his face before came to the set of his jaw, the intensity of his eyes on mine as he filled me.

And the thick length of him stretching the very centre of me, just this side of pleasure and pain, was exquisite. I sighed at the bliss of it. At the feel of it, yes, but also the fact it made him mine and me his.

The tug at the corner of his mouth softened that hard expression on his face, but made him look no less certain. Just as I was sure I couldn’t take any more, he squeezed my thighs and paused, and I realised he was fully seated.

We stopped there. Eyes locked together, bodies, too. Each breath heaved through me, through him. My skin was alight with his every touch, with the lapping water, the slick caress of my gown, and the cool brush of air.

And in my chest, my heart was alight with…

I swallowed, consumed by his hazel eyes with their molten gold flecks.

My heart was alight withhim.

I shivered, and goosebumps bloomed over my flesh, but I had no time to think about the implications of that realisation, because he covered my mouth with his in that moment and all thought evaporated.

“Rose,” he murmured between kisses as he took up a steady, hard thrust that would’ve pushed me further into the fountain if not for his unyielding grip on me.

Lights sparked at the edges of my sight, and I couldn’t be sure if it was fae light or what he was doing to me. I didn’t care. Not when it felt so much better than anything I’d ever experienced. Not when it made me arch to meet him at such a perfect angle.

“My Rose.” His chest heaved but the words came out unwavering. “So many nights at your side, I wanted this.” He drove into me as though to illustrate his point, forcing a cry from my lips that made him grin in feral delight, canines bright in the moonlight.

Something about that expression made my body, my pleasure coil all the tighter.

“I wantedyou. My sunshine.” His words unravelled now as his pace built and that wild brutality took over.

He released my legs long enough to tear apart the front of my gown, then devoured my breasts, my nipples, kissing, sucking, biting like he was starving and I was the food of the gods themselves. And it was the sight of it as much as the feel of it that ratcheted my pleasure higher and higher.

Not for one instant did he stop pounding into me.

Harder, faster, his grip on my thighs tighter as each unrelenting thrust drove the breath from my lungs until I couldn’t cry out anymore, just give a strangled whimper. I clung to his huge shoulders, anchored myself to them, because it felt like I was about to slip away from the very world.

“That’s it.” His voice was jagged, laced with a growl as his mouth dipped to my ear. “Come for me, Rose. Come on my cock. Let me feel you fall apart.” He nipped my earlobe, the sharp clip of his canine making me jerk, bringing me tighter around him.

It was enough… too much… it sent me spiralling past the point of no return, sent me far beyond the pull of this world to a place where there was only throbbing pleasure and a low voice saying my name.

I was his. Entirely. And I couldn’t even summon the energy to care what that meant.

Because there was no way something that felt so good, so right could end in tragedy.

So as I surfaced from my decimating climax, I rolled my hips, meeting him thrust for thrust, and was rewarded with the sight of his neck cording, the feel of his fingers tightening around my legs, claws pricking my skin, the sound of his wordless shout.

The beautiful brutality of it consumed me. The wild perfection. The glorious abandon of his wild fucking, every part of his chiselled body coming together in a symphony of movement, right before he came apart with a bellow that contained my name.

The twitch of his cock inside me dragged me with him, and I lost myself in the primal pulse of my body, of his, of the lines between us blurring to nothingness.

After, his massive body draped over me, spent, though he still managed to keep much of his weight on his elbows, not quite crushing me. I wouldn’t have minded if he had. Not when his body fit mine so perfectly.

In the still night air, there was just our panted breaths and the lapping water—the gentle aftermath of our frenzy.

“Rose?” His death grip on my knees loosened, and he shifted like he was about to pull away, but I looped my arms around his neck. “I didn’t hurt you, did—?”

“No.” I shook my head, nose brushing his before I pressed a sweet, long kiss against his lips, savouring the tickle of his beard. “That was…” I blinked up at him, losing myself in the green and golden-brown of his eyes for a moment. At last I breathed the word out: “Wonderful.”

His chest swelled as he brought his arms around me and gave a wide grin. “It was, wasn’t it?” He lifted me from the fountain, kissing the top of my head, and pulled the tattered edges of my gown closed. “It was even more than I’d dared dream. You are…” He shook his head as he carried me from the courtyard. “I…” The pulse in his throat leapt, and I brushed my finger over it, but he only shook his head again, not finishing those aborted sentences.

“What’s wrong?”

“Not wrong.” He smiled down at me, looking the happiest I’d ever seen my grumpy husband. “Just… I don’t know how to say it. And I need to tell you something else first, but”—a frown shadowed his eyes, spoiling his moment of contentment—“the house won’t let me.” He squeezed me closer, like he feared losing me. “I promise I’ll explain as soon as I can. But… I’m yours. I’m your husband. Your beast.Yours.”

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