Page 94 of Heart Cradle
Her voice cracked. “Don’t…”
“Tell me!” he shouted, chest heaving. “Would you have let him live if I died screaming your name?!”
Tears flooded her eyes. “This isn’t about us…”
“Yes, it fucking is!” Eiran roared, fury crashing like a tsunami. “It’s always about us. I would burn the fucking world before I let someone touch you like that again.”
She staggered back, water spilling over the edge of the bath as she climbed out. “You don’t get to stand there and pretend it was noble.” Her voice trembled with fury. “You didn’t do it for justice, you did it because you’re scared.”
“Of losing you! YES!” Eiran was shouting now like his throat might split. “You want the truth? That’s it. I was terrified. I still am. I see you hurt, or bleeding, or gone, and I lose my fucking mind, Maeve!”
She was sobbing now, not from weakness but from fury, pure and blistering. “You can’t love me like that, it’ll eat you alive. It will eat us both alive…”
“Too fucking late!” he barked, following her.
They stood, panting and torn open. Two fires colliding, burning everything between them. Then Maeve stepped forwards, her hands shook as they reached for his. They stood in the wreckage of it all, raw and aching and still holding on. Maeve closed her eyes. “We’re at war, but if we forget who we are, if we become them, we’ve already lost.”
Then she kissed him, not soft or tender, she collapsed into him like a wave breaking, wild, furious and starving. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, pulling him in with all the anger and grief still boiling in her chest. Eiran froze for a breath, stunned by the force of it then answered like a man drowning. His hands seized her face, fingers tight in her wet hair, mouth claiming hers with brutal emotion. There was nothing gentle about it, justteeth, heat and the desperate need to feel something that wasn’t pain. “Mine,” he growled into her mouth. “You are mine.”
He pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, his grip firm on her jaw. “Don’t ever fucking doubt me again, Maeve.” His voice was low, clipped, lethal. “I have only ever done right by you.”
Then he leaned in and bit her neck, not in fury, but with ruthless intent. His teeth dragged against her skin, not enough to break it, but enough to make her shudder and moan. Maeve tried to speak, but he kissed her again, silencing her with heat and possession. His hands slid down her waist, strong and unyielding, guiding her back, pressing her to the cold wall. She gasped at the shock of it, but his body was already pinning her there, hot and solid and utterly in control. “Look at you… trembling and dripping, love,” he growled. “Tell me to stop. Go on.”
She shook her head, lips parted.
“Say it.”
“No,” she breathed. “Don’t you dare.”
He smiled, a dangerous, knowing thing. He caught her wrists in one hand and raised them above her head, pinning them to the wall. His other hand slid between her thighs, parting her, finding her wet and wanting. “Open for me,” he ordered.
She obeyed, heart pounding and Eiran watched her, studied every flicker of her breath, every twitch of her thighs as he stroked her clit. And then, with exquisite slowness, he slid two fingers into her, watching her crumble. Maeve gasped, bucking against him, but he didn’t release her wrists. His mouth crushed hers again, and this time the kiss was domination, deep, consuming and totally unrelenting. When he broke it, he bit her lower lip, sucking it before letting go. “I’m going to fuck you now,” he whispered, dragging his cock along her slit. “And you’re going to take every inch that you were made for.”
He pushed into her in one slow, devastating thrust. Maeve cried out, her back arching, legs locking around his waist instinctively. She was soaked and stretched around him, every inch of her clenching and fluttering. Eiran groaned low, not from surprise, but from the ruthless control it took not to lose himself in the heat of her. She gripped him like a vice, her body pulsing with need, and he had her, completely and utterly, just where he wanted her. “Good girl,” he growled, beginning to move.
Every thrust was measured, controlled. He didn’t pound into her wildly, he claimed her deliberately, with the rhythm of a man who knew exactly how to unravel her. Her cries echoed off the walls, the cold stonebehind her a stark contrast to the heat building in every nerve. “You’re mine,” he said again, biting at her throat, “and I will kill anyone who tries to take you from me.”
Maeve shattered once, hard, keening into his mouth and he didn’t stop.
“Again.” He grunted.
“I… I can’t, ”
“You can.”
She did as he kept her close, his arms firm, his breathing steady even as hers faltered. Then his voice came low again. “You’re mine. But I’m yours, too. Every brutal, broken part of me.”
His hand slipped between them, gripped her thigh, hitched her higher, withdrawing his cock, hard, hot, and already leaking, and rubbed against her slick entrance, dragging a desperate sound from them both. He met her eyes, all fury and adoration, then he thrust into her in one deep, claiming stroke. Maeve cried out, her head slamming back against the wall, the sound echoing off the stone. He filled her so completely, so suddenly, it stole the breath from her lungs. He growled her name like a prayer and a curse, pulling back only to slam into her again. The rhythm was relentless, every thrust driving her harder against the cold wall.
“Eiran… ”
Her nipples peaked from the chill and the friction of his chest against hers, her moans turning into sharp, helpless gasps. Eiran bent his head to her breast, teeth and tongue worshipping her there, sucking bruises into soft flesh. He rasped, voice wrecked. “I’ll never stop needing you. Never.”
She clenched around him, nails digging into his back, legs trembling from the sheer force of his possession. “Then take it,” she panted. “Fucking take all of me.”
He fucked her, trying to exorcise every ghost of his past. Every bit of doubt, every scream and every shadow. His hand gripped her throat, not choking, but holding, steadying, claiming, and wild. Maeve shattered, her climax crashing through her, and still he didn’t stop.
“Come again,” he growled, voice barely human. “I want to feel you fall apart again.”
