“You don’t have to say that. I will never hurt you. I have never hurt anyone. Well, anyone innocent,” he whispered.
 
 “I’m not. I’m saying it because... Because I like you. I want to be with you. I... I learned about some couples in Pine Ridge. Ghosts and humans getting married—not that I’m in a hurry to get married! I just mean... This doesn’t have to end here. I don’t want it to,” she murmured, arms reaching up to slide around his neck.
 
 “I... You don’t have to choose me. There are so many others. I have nothing left, and I cannot even be sure of all of mymemories. The truth is so tangled and the past so distant,” he lamented.
 
 Grace shook her head, her hands now moving to lock around his strong jaw. “Cynthia wanted you for money. I want you for love. Love is free and doesn’t have to have any accessories. Okay?”
 
 “Love?”
 
 “Well... Yeah.”
 
 “Love,” he repeated, and he shot into the air, a hurricane gust that pushed her off her feet and carried her up the stairs without letting her feet touch a single one.
 
 SHE LOVES ME. I HAVEnothing; she has it all. I am dangerous, and mad, and perhaps evil to some, but she... My Sunflower loves me despite this.
 
 “Tell me what you learned. I will make an honorable woman of you, I swear by everything that moves in shadows,” Nyx growled, sliding her onto the bed and smothering her with his humanesque form.
 
 Grace only moaned as his hands roughly tugged her clothing off, leaving it in shreds and puddles of threads. He needed her bare and full of him.
 
 Needed to taste her. Fill her. Feel her on every part of him.
 
 His shadows spiraled outward from his spine, moving with his desire. He pinned her legs back to leave her pussy pink and spread, helpless to shield herself from his hungry eyes and hungrier mouth.
 
 “I have longed to taste this nectar. Longed to feel you squirming and crying out my name.” His head dipped, and his tongue darted. Segmented. Seven splits of darkness went towork, all licking frantically. He captured her nub in one slick tendril while others parted her soft, plump lips, and others invaded the wet, tight tunnel. He could feel her spasming in pleasure and overstimulation. That part of him that was not truly good, nor truly human, reveled in that.
 
 “You look like a gift. All wrapped in black ribbons,” he muttered against her pussy, slurping up the juice sheeting from her.
 
 “I... I like being your gift.”
 
 His cock jumped. “You like being bound to me? Boundinme?”
 
 “Oh, God, yes. I... It’s safe and sexy, and I just get to enjoy you.”
 
 I make her feel safe. And happy.“I want you to show me how much you enjoy it. I must hear it, Grace. Let me hear that you love what I do. That you love me,” he begged. His mouth sealed over the hard little pearl at the top of her pussy, sucking greedily while shoots of shadows sprang from his chin to keep her pussy packed full.
 
 Grace wailed as he sucked on her, and his shadows danced in her hot, tight little box. He hated to think of the other beings in the portal below the bed listening, but he felt a sick sense of satisfaction that they could only overhear, never enjoy. Never get through.
 
 “You are all mine,” he spoke between hard sucks.
 
 “God, yes. Yes, yes,fuck, yes!” Grace whimpered, her hips moving in desperate little bucks.
 
 “Do you love what I can do to you?” he whispered, dragging his hands down her bound thighs.
 
 “So much!”
 
 “Say it for me!”
 
 “I love being bound by you! In you, to you, with you, all of it!” Grace cried before her voice turned to one long, trembling scream of delight.
 
 That was enough for him. He loved that she was not faking her pleasure, and he wanted his cock buried in her so he could feel those divine pulsations of her clenching walls. Without a pause, he went from sucking her clit to splitting her pussy open on his cock, making it extra wide and long so that he didn’t mess a single spasm.
 
 “Nyx!” she keened when he forced the extra width in.
 
 “Ohhh, Grace. My taste of heaven here on earth,” he sighed, enraptured. “This is what it is supposed to feel like. Cynthia’s body tolerated mine. Yours craves me. It’s mutual.” He kissed her throat, his hands pressing into her small breasts, finding the thick nipples and squeezing them as he fucked her. “I crave you. I would gladly spend my eternity in this room if you would visit me each day. Bring me life and light with your smile, all while soaking in my darkness.” His shadows split again, this time forming a second phallus and sliding it into her tight second entrance. The little ring of muscle was lubricated by her juices, but not as wet as her pussy. He made himself small—just the right size to fill her without hurting her.
 
 GRACE WAS LOST IN Ahaze of pleasure and broken boundaries. Nyx had her tied up tightly, her knees strapped in shadowy ribbons to her thighs, her pussy stretched wide around a cock that was almost too big, and her ass stuffed full of something that was just right to drive her crazy. Helpless and loving it. Only, not really helpless. If she said “stop,” she wouldhave been freed—and that would have been terrible, because she was going to come again, even harder this time.
 
 “How come you’re so good at this?” she moaned as his hands owned her breasts, tugging her nipples and making her pussy twitch on each twist and pull.