Page 135 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
My fingers dragged against the waistband of his trousers, feeling the hardness of his desire against my palm.
‘You,’ I answered breathlessly against his lips. Driven half to madness with that desire, even if it led me to nothing but ruin.
Pleased with my answer, his hands ran up my bare thighs, over my hips, dragging my nightgown up and over my head, forcing me to let him go. Unburdened with it, I felt the coolness of the room, chased away by the heat of his gaze as he took me in.
He knelt between my spread legs, exposing every inch of me. The chill of his magic brushed down my body like a physical touch, bowing me off the bed with the need for more of it. More of him.
Answering my silent demand, his palm ran from the curve of my neck, possessively dragging down between my breasts, the rough callouses of his fingers calling me towards the sensation as he continued over my stomach, then down lower until a needful sob escaped my lips, his thumb dragging over the aching centre of me. Slow vicious circles, watching every tremor of my pleasure as I bit my lip to stop any more cries leaving me.
He didn’t stop, leaning over me, one hand braced in the bed to brush the barest kiss against the top of my breast, right over my heart before his lips moved further down. My hands were in his hair as his mouth ran down my stomach with teasing bites. A torturous dark worship of me as I was spread before him. Then he went lower.
‘Ala Eria,’ he whispered in Kysillian against my hipbone.My beautiful love.
I felt those words deep within my soul, real and undeniable as his tongue traced the shape of every curve as he went lower to kiss my thighs.
‘Emrys,’ I cautioned, unsure of what he was doing, my heartbeat too fast, my skin too flushed. Ignoring me, he nipped the sensitive skin on the inside of my trembling thigh, tongue dragging across the bite as my heart stuttered in my chest. Having no words, no breath.
Then he kissed the centre of me. My back bowed, hands knotting in his hair. Flutters of something in my stomach, stronger than before, unsure what to do and not wanting it to end. Needing more. His hands cupped my backside, fingersdigging in as he dragged me closer to his mouth. Devouring me as my other hand grasped hopelessly at the sheets – at the pillow beneath my head, at anything, wondering if you could die from this sensation.
Wildness made me raise my hips, wanting him to give me more as a rumble of a growl left his chest, making the feeling only more forceful. His hand slipped down my calf with knowing authority, pushing my bent leg up so more of me was bared to him. His tongue firmer in its play. Then his fingers joined his mouth. Deep ruthless strokes that stole what was left of my breath.
‘Fuck,’ I panted from the intensity. I could almost feel him smiling against my skin before he heightened that sensation with another ruthless curl of his fingers deep within me. Feasting wildly on my desire. Deeper and stronger than before.
I was unable to do anything but rise to his command, feeling the mischievous bite of his magic brushing over my bare breasts, wanting more. Curling gently around my wrists to pin me with its torturous play. Touching every inch of me and driving me further into that madness, until a different warmth spread through me.
Rapturous pleasure washed over me. My breath stuttered through my lips as I lay there, unable to do anything but gasp his name. I trembled weakly in the aftermath as it rolled through me, tension leaving my limbs as delicious warmth brushed every inch of my skin. Suddenly too sensitive and limp. Emrys’s lips traced the inside of my thigh as his fingers withdrew, his other hand sliding up my calf in reassurance, wet with the wildness of the pleasure he’d drawn from me.
He worked his way carefully back up my body, with lips and teeth. He buried one hand in the bed at my shoulderas he rose over me, eyes considering every inch. From my exposed centre he’d given all his attention, following the flush across my stomach, the glow in my veins from my magic. His eyes were pitch-black, able to reflect the glowing lavender and blue hue from my skin. My magic content and close to the surface.
His knuckles barely grazed the still-exposed centre of me and my breath caught on a moan. The dark wickedness in his smile made me ache all over again. His eyes filled with a satisfied gleam as he watched his fingers drag a teasing trail from my hip, across my stomach and up between my breasts. My back arched in response, needing his attention as he ducked his head to kiss my breasts again, working up to my throat, his hand cupping the side of my face.
Then his fingers ran through the tangle of my hair across his pillows. ‘Beautiful.’
I smiled slowly, curling my hands around his forearms to feel the sturdiness of him, raising up onto my elbows so my tongue could trace his bottom lip, tasting what he had. My hand slipped lazily down the contours of his chest, reaching his waistband, fingers slipping over the edge of his trousers to undo the final button.
He kissed me, allowing me to taste all of that passion as a groan rumbled through his chest. His hand dragged around my bare waist to bring me closer. The rough palm moving over the uneven, thick scarring of the mutilated flesh across my lower back. Secrets I’d forgotten in my desire.
He froze above me, feeling it for the first time and the warmth of my need drained from me, replaced by nothing but paralysing terror.
Pink streaks of scarred skin stood out boldly down my back in brutal long strikes, evidence of everything I neverwished to think of. Demons in different form, made of memory and pain.
That lazy passion bled from Emrys’s gaze to a harder fury and what little fire was left in the hearth was extinguished. My whole body went tight, air seeming impossible to drag into my lungs, the room darkening at the edges with my fear.
Run, that voice hissed in my mind. Dizzy for breath, I snatched my hands back from him, curling them to my chest. Covering myself. Shaking my head as I choked for breath, needing to flee. To run. I lurched forwards but found myself curled into his arms, completely covered by his warmth. Pinned gently with a strength it was impossible for him to possess. A reassurance in the firmness of it, his weight pressing against me, my breaths stuttered against his neck.
‘It’s all right,’ he whispered softly in my ear, hand cradling my head, forcing those panicked breaths against his throat. ‘It’s all right, Kat.’
I could feel his heart beating against my trembling palms, strong and reassuring. The strangeness of his magic was there too, gently curling around my limbs, cocooning me in the force of him.
Beg, that ghost of a voice hissed sharply in my ear. I flinched, closing my eyes as I tried to breathe through the panic and shame, hands moving to his shoulders. Nails digging in.
Emrys’s hold changed as if he could hear the torment in my mind. He tightened his hold as I concentrated on the strange authority of his magic, the coolness of it as it reassured my own. I pulled in a deep breath filled with nothing but beasam bark and forbidden things. Him.
I was here. Not there.
I felt the weight of the memory dissipate opening my eyes as he tipped his head to see me. Tears leaked from my eyes silently and my lips trembling.
‘Who did that to you?’ There was a feral nature to the quietness of him.
