Page 4 of The Dark Rises
Laying me across the bed, he skims his lips across my neck, then continues down to the rest of my body, but there’s a frantic urgency to his movements as if he’s barely restraining himself.
I throw my arms around his neck and pull him down to me, his weight a physical reminder that he’s here with me. “I don’t want to play. I need you. Inside me. Now.”
My heart stopped the second the blade plunged into him. Logically, I knew it wouldn’t kill him, but the idea of him dying was almost my undoing. Thankfully, the fiercest of anger rose, and I was able to stand my ground against our enemies. But now I need the kind of reassurance only he can give.
I wrap my legs tightly around him and brush my body up against his.
He shudders, and with a harsh exhalation, sinks into me. Our bodies fuse together, and he raises his head to stare down at me. “I don’t have much control,” he warns, his eyes tracing my blank forehead. “You’re my fucking queen, and I want to imprint myself until all you know is me. All you feel is me.”
He slides out and thrusts into me again. Harder. Deeper. “You’re mine.” His hips piston in and out as he proclaims his love in a hundred different ways, including the words he knows I need the most.
Life. Heat. Urgency. Him inside me, heart beating, I reach up to pull his face to mine. Capturing his firm lips, I pour everything into him. If our future were to end tomorrow, I want this to be my last memory. The depth and strength of us. I release his lips and gasp at the pleasure rolling over me.
My body trembles on the verge of coming, and he stops, holding still until it subsides.
“I’ll tell you when you can come,” he growls, the words barely coherent.
Blue eyes turn to black, bleeding out the white as his body grows bigger until he’s halfway between man and beast, his body surrounding mine while inside he stretches me completely. My senses see and smell only him. Dark and broody with the hint of The Underworld. My head thrashes from side to side as the heat rises again. I grip his hard muscles, scoring them with my nails and magic, needing to come but not wanting him to let me.
Sharp teeth clamp down on my shoulder, and he stops. My body moves restlessly, and he tightens his bite. I finally find some control, but it’s harder than I thought it would be. His cock throbs inside me, wall to wall, hard and pulsing, and it takes every ounce of my will to keep still even as my desire climbs to a peak.
He shifts. A micro movement. Out an inch. In an inch. My entire body shakes against his.
Lifting his mouth from my shoulder, he moves it to my ear. “Don’t come.”
Everything coalesces into a single moment. Balanced on the knife’s edge, close to falling, every stroke of his body connects me to him in a way that goes beyond the physical. Alive, still fighting, here by my side, this man is my forever.
A tear slips down my cheek, and he swipes it with his tongue.
“This. Us. I love you, Cormal.”
Breathing harshly, he rasps, “Nobody will ever take you away from me again. If I have to burn every kingdom to the ground to keep you safe, I will.” He pauses. “Love is such an insipid word for what I feel for you. It needs no structure or boundaries. It simply is. It exists because you and I exist.” He pulls out and thrusts into me. “We’re never-ending.”
“Never-ending,” I repeat, knowing he needs the words, too, even though he would never admit it. “You’re mine. Man, beast, and everything in between.”
The words spur him faster and faster, and my body flies higher and higher, until I’m again at the edge of the precipice.
“Cormal!” I cry out, unable to hold myself back any longer.
“Come,” he orders with a growl.
We fall together, our releases chasing each other, tremors cascading over us both, trapped in a whirlwind of rapture. Time passes slowly as the world around us creeps back into focus, intruding on the bubble we’ve created. Large hands gently stroke my hair and down my back as he holds me to him, unwilling to let me go even now.
I lean back to stare up at him as his body adjusts to his usual size. “Does it hurt?”
Blue eyes appear, making the black recede. “Sometimes.” He shifts his body into a more comfortable position but remains inside me.
With a shaky exhale, I move my leg, intertwining it with his. “Was it like this before? Between us?” The pieces of the past are still hidden somewhere in my mind, but I can’t help but wonder if it always been this intense.
“It was sweeter. More innocent,” he reluctantly tells me. His hands still, and he grips me tighter. “I was cocky. Thought we would live happily ever after.” A derisive chuckle fills the air. “Losing it for so long changed both of us and the very essence of what’s between us. It’s sharper, and the innocence is gone, but strangely, there’s more depth. And for me, there’s an almost feral need to protect it at all costs. To hell with everyone and everything else. Maybe one day, the memories of the days without you will ease, along with the fury, but it will take several lifetimes to soften those edges.”
“Pieces are coming back to me,” I tell him. “While I don’t remember everything, I don’t like the thought of you making a pact with her to save me. Although, I know I would do the same for you.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it again.
With a lift of my chin, I claim his lips, trying to reassure him that I’m here and not going anywhere. Rolling him onto his back, I shift until I’m on top. With him still inside me, I rock back and forth, staring into his darkening blue eyes.
“For me, love is a powerful word. Full of possibilities and hope. I love you, Cormal. More importantly, I’ll fight for you and us. Against all odds,” I promise him.
