Page 74 of Cast in Shadow
Sweat coated my skin, my legs trembled, and every muscle in my body was pulled tight as a drum. I was so damned close, but when I started to tip over the edge, doubt crept back in and hauled me backward.
So, I focused on the sensations coursing through me. Bringing myself to orgasm wasn’t hard. Considering the decades I’d spent alone in my own bed, my body was alandscape I knew well, but after the second time release eluded me, my frustration boiled over.
“Fuck,” I panted. I opened my eyes to find Emerson watching me.
Was it because he wasn’t in charge? Was that why I couldn’t get there?
Was I so broken that I could only climax with him if I felt powerless?
My fingers twitched around his neck, and he winced. A shot of illicit excitement rang through me, reigniting the fire that had been starting to fizzle.
Nope, it wasn’t about him being in control.
He watched me without saying a word. I released my grip on his throat, biting my tongue against the guilt that reared its head at the angry red imprint of my hand against his skin. I was obviously hurting him, but the only protest he’d lodged was for me to let him in.
When he tried to sit up, I laid my palms on his chest and used a pulse of magic to press him back into the mattress. That crimson glow flared again.
Was he as frustrated as I was? Was I pushing him to his limit?
He hadn’t tried to take more control, but he was clearly struggling to hold back.
I set the pace again, slow and punishing. He was deliciously hard inside me, filling me up in just the right way. His fingers dug into my hips, adding another layer of sensation to the mix. Then his energy brushed against my defenses again.
I pinned him with a look. “Stop it.”
“Let me in.” The angry handprint was already gone, but his voice was like gravel.
Still, those three syllables made my insides clench, and a familiar tingle spread through me, leaving a trail of heat in itswake. I was there… right there… on the fucking cusp… and all I could think about was how tragic it would be to come this far only to be too afraid to open myself up and find out the truth.
It would have been so much easier to just let him have control. Then my intrusive thoughts wouldn’t matter. He could drive me to the edge and send me careening over it like a car with no brakes.
The temptation was real, but I knew once the buzz wore off, that gnawing doubt would still be there.
I dug my nails into his chest and raised my hips, dragging myself up until just his blunt head teased my center. More magic bled from my hands, pinning him in place as I stared into his eyes. I could practically taste the violence and chaos swirling inside him even with my defenses up, and it bordered on terrifying.
No more running.
In one swift move, I closed my eyes, plunged down, and let my walls fall. Emerson’s swollen cock impaled me with the most delicious bite of pain, and on the heels of that momentary bliss, an overpowering rush of thoughts and emotions slammed into me.
Fear. Fury. Desire. Possession.
And a hope so fragile it made my heart ache for a fraction of a second before the world around me fell away.
A brutal wave of pleasure crashed over me with my next breath, tossing me this way and that, sending me tumbling into the deep with no idea which way was up. I clung to Emerson’s chest as an anchor, but he broke my hold and rolled me. His weight as he drove into me relentlessly was the perfect balance of suffocating and soothing, and when he peaked a few moments later, his cock hot and pulsing inside me, he took my mouth in a bruising kiss.
That was the moment he broke me.
I could barely process the thoughts and emotions barreling into me, but when he kissed me, one truth rang clear above it all; he loved me. Not in a timid or sweet or even tender way. His love was scorched earth. He would never stop coming for me, and he would burn anyone or anything that got in his way.
27
Emerson rolled to the side and gathered me up in his arms, pulling me tight against him. His chest rose and fell like I’d just given him a solid workout, and despite the shock still riding me, I preened a little.
There was something supremely satisfying about seeing him ruffled.
Moonlight spilled through the windows behind the bed and glinted off the sheen of sweat coating his skin. Without thinking, I ran my tongue up his salty neck.
A groan vibrated his throat. “You are insatiable.”
