Page 171 of Eldritch
Command. The word struck me odd and out of balance, like a single wave commanding the tides. A spark commanding flame. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll keep the dagger within reach.”
The glint of intrigue that lit his eyes turned my stomach, but when he lowered me to my feet, I scampered back to where I’d dropped it and laid it on the floor beside the fireplace.
He stepped closer, the size of him more apparent to me as I trailed my gaze up his chiseled abdomen to his broad shoulders that I couldn’t see past. Palm to my back, he pressed me tight against his body and urged me onto the floor, his arm cradling me on the way down to the blanket still crumpled there. A quivering tension hummed through me as I lay staring up at him and his handsome, ruined face.
“My every instinct is wrapped around you, Lunamiszka.” His fingertips ghosted across my cheek. “Should another man somuch as breathe across your skin, I’ll drag him screaming into oblivion.”
Perhaps all men spoke those words before intimacy, but I knew all too well—his weren’t hollow promises. “I don’t want another. I want you.”
He stroked a hand down my temple, his eyes gentle but concerned. Knuckles skimming across flesh, he parted my thighs, his eyes always watching me. A long, maddening stroke of his finger, and he eased it into me, slow and searching.
My lips parted on a breathy moan, and he kissed the edge of my jaw as he plunged his finger in and out of me.
Another finger joined the first, my arousal slickening his every stroke. He inserted a third, each new violation swelling inside of me, forcing past my stubborn flesh.
I clutched at his back as he stretched my insides in a way I’d never attempted myself. In and out, his fingers plundered, until he removed them and buried his face in the crook of my neck. “By the gods, you better tell me if it’s too much.”
“I will,” I whispered.
His lips slanted over mine, and at the first prod against my entrance, my breath hitched against his mouth. “I’ll go slow, A’miszhla,” he whispered across my lips.
“A’miszhla,” I echoed, my accent nowhere near as smooth as his. “What does it mean?”
“It’s Primyrian. It meansmy love.” The words slipped between us, a promise sealed by his kiss, and my stomach fluttered at the endearment.
I gripped his shoulders, his tense muscles too big for my palms. Heart hammering, I mentally braced myself for agony, but he pushed into me slowly. So maddeningly slowly, I could hardly stand the anticipation. A sharp sting announced his entry, and I sank my teeth into the iron curve of his shoulder, breathing my way through the intrusion. He inched further, andin spite of the pain, my body welcomed him with a slick, wet glide.
His body shuddered around me, taut and flexed, as if he were restraining an army that longed to ravage me. “Gods be damned,” he rasped. “I don’t know if I can do this. I want you too much.”
“My heart is racing right now,” I whispered, kissing his cheek. “But I trust you.”
The tension in his muscles slackened just enough that they no longer twitched against my palms. His hips rolled forward with a razor-thin control. Hot, stuttering breaths fell across my throat where he kept his face buried in my neck, and strong fingers locked with mine, pinning my arm to the floor as he inched deeper.
The ceiling blurred into a mental image of the two of us—strong arms bracing a body that could easily crush me and powerful thighs flexing over mine in measured thrusts. His careful restraint and focus.
Warmth vibrated across my walls when the curved edges of his piercing breached my entrance.
Back bowed, mouth agape, I let out a grunt. My thighs shook as the piercing quivered up inside of me, tugging at an ache I couldn’t describe. A ravenous, hungry beast that clawed at my stomach. I raised my hips, desperate for something I couldn’t name.
“Are you alright?” His deep, rich voice in my ear sent a bubbling heat to my core.
“What’s…happening?”
“The enchantment. It’s designed to give you pleasure.” He squeezed my hand, inching in a small bit more.
I wrapped my legs around his back, desperate to ground myself against something, as tiny, prickling jolts tingled in mythighs. A long, droning moan unfurled in my throat, like that of a wild animal whose fight had withered.
Teeth found my neck. His muscles tensed in my grasp.
“The sounds you make.” Voice low and husky, he surged forward, stoking the flames for more. “It stirs something violent inside of me, moon witch.”
“You won’t hurt me.”
“I won’t.” The words broke from him like a promise he clung to—a desperate vow of control.
Tiny thrusts inched him deeper and deeper. The second bar breached, and I dug my fingers into his back as his flesh swelled inside of me, stretching me. Each delicious thrust dragged those metal prongs across my tight walls, the vibration surging, amplified by the second.
“I won’t go any further,” he said, his voice setting me at ease as he held himself still inside of me. “Are you okay with this?”
