Page 36 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
There’s a pause of silence. There’s stillness. I smile.
“What?”
The blood surging in Ashen’s body is the only sound between us aside from the ragged, shallow breaths caught in his chest. I cast him an innocent glance over my shoulder and his eyes burn back at me with fury. I smile when I turn ahead once more, inspecting my nails as though I have all the time in the world. “Blood heading back to your brain, Reaper? It’s okay, I’ll wait.”
Ashen roars with frustration and presses his chest to my back as he pumps into me, bearing down on my clit with an urgency that makes my core clench with pleasure and desire. His hot breath floods across my neck, just below my ear. “I will fuck you into an abyss of pleasure and then we will talk.”
“We’re already talking,” I counter, and he lets go of my panties to slap my ass. I cackle a laugh and he slaps me again. Ashen seals his lips over the nick on my neck and sucks as hard as he can until the flow of blood starts back up. I feel it, our connection like a vibration that ignites sparks beneath my skin, twisting me in a storm of ecstasy. Every thrust of his cock and press of his fingers sucks me under, drowning me in desire until I come apart in a rush of stars, moaning his name.
“Come for me again,” Ashen says close to my ear before leaning back, pumping into my ass as he doesn’t let up with my clit. I’m covered in sweat, my dress damp with it, our arousal dripping down my legs. “Do it, my Queen. Come with me. Come as I fill you.”
Ashen’s fingers press and circle my swollen bundle of nerves as he pistons in and out of me. The pleasure is already rising again. It builds and builds until it feels like I’ve been absorbed by some other dimension, pushed into some other universe. I’m melting into a need that has me nearly mindless, my body shuddering as Ashen thrusts into me, over and over. He repeats his demand until it becomes a plea, until he leans close to my ear once more, his voice low and rich. Dark and tempting. Adorations and praise and encouragement color his words like flowers blooming in the shadows before me.My Queen. My Lu. My beautiful goddess. That’s it. Come for me. One more time. I know you can do it again. That’s it, Lu. Such a perfect Queen. Just a little more. Let me fill you as you come apart.
My orgasm rips me apart and I cry out, a brutal, heart wrenching sound of pleasure. It pulls tears from the corners of my eyes. It crushes the breath in my chest, shatters my heart into a million shimmering fragments of light. Ashen spills into me as my muscles tremble and lose all strength, my hands sliding from the gilt edges of the throne. I collapse into his iron embrace as his thrusts begin to slow.
“I’ve got you,” Ashen whispers. He lifts me from the throne, still pulsing ropes of cum within me as he turns us toward the Council table. I shudder with the last quaking aftershocks of my orgasm as he slips out and sets me down on the table, climbing up to lie beside me, pulling me close as we both gasp for breath.
My eyes are closed. My slick forehead is pressed to my forearm as my heart deafens me. There doesn’t seem to be enough air in the room. I feel too hot and too cold at the same time, my body still trembling. And my thoughts are just…everywhere. And nowhere. Both as clear and still as the mist that gathers over a lake, and as teeming with movement as the life that lives below the surface.
“You utterly destroy me,” Ashen says, his hand stroking my hair and flowing down my back.
I don’t answer.
In fact, other than the breath in my lungs and the heart that rages in my chest and the tremors that quiver in my muscles, I don’t even move.
Because I’m trapped in an epiphany. One that Ashen has banged right into me. Or out of me, I’m not sure. Probably in, all things considered. It makes more sense, doesn’t it, logistically speaking. But either way, it’s freaking me the fuck out. Which I know happens a lot here in the Shadow Realm. And self-realizations cause the worst freak-outs of all.
Specifically, the realization that my joke was no joke at all.
My joke about him choosing me.
Oh, trust me. I know this is probably ridiculous. Possibly insane. I think we’ve firmly established I’m a little unhinged, so I don’t think anyone is too surprised. I’m trying to convince myself that it’s just my crazy acting up, or that it’s just a melodramatic vampirism to be weirded out about the concept of marriage. Or rather,notmarriage. But it’s not working. Even though I know we’re mated, and Ashen has done all these incredible things for me that imply he chose me all along, and even though marriage might seem like just a formality…I still want it. Maybe that’s stupid. Maybe it’s unfair to feel annoyed that Ashen persistently calls me his wife. But I do feel that way. Actually, I feel oddly…hurt by it.
And now, in the throes of my freak-out about how much this actually matters to me, and the fears that still burrow into my chest about choice and loneliness, about history and secrets, I remember something foreign, but vitally important.
I can feel him. And he can feelme.
…shit.
“Lu? Oh Christ,Lu…did I hurt you? I will never forgive myself if I hurt you,” Ashen says, panic rising in his throat like a vicious tide. His hands are pressing into my sides as though searching for an injury, though how it would be up there I don’t know. It’s not like he fucked my rib cage. Ugh, what a grotesque thought, fucking a skeleton. I shake my head, as much to clear that weird imagery as to answer him, but if he’s seen it, he seems too panicked to care, judging by the way he keeps repeating his question.
“No,” I whisper. I shake my head again.
“Then what is it? Something is wrong.”
I try to suppress a groan as Ashen rolls me to the side so that I’m facing him. His big, calloused hand sweeps hair from my face and he looks…terrified. Legitterrified.
He blinks at me.
I take a deep breath, looking away to the throne, marveling at how beautiful it is in the dim glow of the forever twilight beyond the windows. I can smell the blood gathered in the armrest. I try to focus on these things. Seeable, smellable, touchable things.Realthings.
“Lu?..”
I shift my gaze to Ashen, who looks just as troubled as a moment ago. The brittle smile that fleets across my lips only makes it worse.
“Nothing. Just…I don’t want…you shouldn’t…” Ugh. I shake my head. I give a dismissive wave. I try to smile again, and I think it comes out better this time. Maybe.
Ashen doesn’t look convinced.
