Page 77 of Phoenix Falling
The thought weakened my knees even as I arched closer. “I certainly hope so.”
He chuckled, arms coming around me, pulling me tight against him. “I hope I can last long enough to prove it to you.” He lifted me against his chest, and my legs came up automatically to circle his waist.
“You feel so good against me, Imogen.” A sound almost like a purr vibrated through him. “It’ll feel even better when you’re surrounding me.”
My head fell back, all of my focus on that hard length sliding between my legs. “Yes.”
Demetri ducked his head to scrape his teeth delicately along my neck. “I want to taste you, mate. In more ways than one.”
“So taste me,” I begged. “Please.”
He laid me on the covers. The loss of his body heat left me chilled in the cool room, but soon his chest skimmed over my feet, my knees, my thighs. Hard hands gripped my legs and tugged them outward.
“Oh. Oh!”
Not the tasting I’d been thinking about, but Demetri knew what he wanted and took without hesitation. He tucked his nose against my mound, and a sharp inhale devoured my scent. When his head lifted, his eyes had changed, the pupils no longer human but slitted like a cat’s. His lips were parted, his tongue tasting my scent on the air. And then he dipped to run that tongue along my folds.
“Demetri!” I bucked up.
He growled, literally growled against my core. Teeth nipped at my skin. My knees fell open of their own accord, inviting him in, my pelvis tipping to encourage him deeper.
A wet tongue slipped inside me.
Oh God.I might not survive this.
Reaching up to grip the pillow on either side of my head, I held on tight as my mate consumed me. All I could think about, all I could focus on was his tongue, his fingers, the rough stubble along his cheeks and the soft brush of his hair and breath against my thighs—and the rising tension inside my body. When he took my clit between his lips and sucked hard, a thousand stars exploded behind my eyelids. I was lost in the brilliance until Demetri crawled up my body to lay at my side. His kiss tasted of the two of us together, wild and sensual, and I slipped my tongue into his mouth for the first time, searching out more, desperate to be one with this male who’d shown so much care and given me so much pleasure. I could feel his need in the way his body rocked against mine, in how wet his cock was as it brushed against my belly. He hungered, and I wanted to ease him. To ease myself as well.
“I need you,” I whispered into his mouth.
Fingers slid between my legs to find my opening. I kissed him again.
One finger slipped inside.
I groaned. Demetri purred. “So wet for me.”
Another finger joined the first, stretching me wide, thrusting in and out. Demetri flattened his palm against my clit, putting pressure exactly where I needed it. I started to pant.
His mouth trailed down to my jaw, my ear, along my throat. I arched into his fingers.
Almost there.
And then his hand disappeared and something much wider pushed against me. My fingers in his hair urged him closer. “Please, Demetri. Please.”
A sharp prick pinched my neck right at the throbbing vein. His fangs bit deep. At the same time, he tipped me onto my back beneath him and pressed into my body. I couldn’t stop myself; I cried out as he forged his way inch by inch, breath by breath, until he was buried deep inside me.
Demetri roared against my throat when he finally hilted.
Time stopped. My eyes were closed, but I swore I could see us together, Demetri’s beautiful body above mine, his tight back arched, hips thrusting forward. All I could do was clutch my mate to me and let him fill me to the brim. And fill me he did, over and over and over again until the tide rose, the sensation peaked, and the waves crashed down on top of me, drowning out everything but the pleasure racking my body. Another roar as Demetri took his pleasure as well, reawakening my own, shattering reality as I knew it. And in the long aftermath, when it all died away, only one thought remained:
Demetri’s love had changed something fundamental inside me. No matter what happened in the future, no matter where life took us, I would never, ever be the same.
ChapterThirty
GRIM
Dawn was breaking over the wings of the golden phoenix as I walked out into the King’s Garden. Now Sun’s garden, except my mind still hadn’t adjusted to that reality. Solomon had been king for as long as I’d been alive, and though I’d traveled alongside Sun on his journey to the throne, it was still difficult to comprehend that my closest friend was, indeed, king. I stood for a moment, letting my heart absorb the fire as the fountain lit up the sky. So much majesty and beauty in a split second. But being king wasn’t like that. It was a constant demand, a constant drain, made a thousand times worse with the Anigma threat, and the stress of this situation with Risk was only going to add to the pressure Sun would have to endure.
When I turned, it was to see Sun sitting on the same bench his father had always occupied, directly across from the fountain. Not a good sign. If I needed any indication as to where his mental state was, him seated in the same place where he’d been castigated on a near-daily basis told me everything I needed to know.
