Page 70 of Scythe & Sparrow
Static crackles on the line. And then, “I’m here, over.”
“I’m on the second level of the haunted house. Someone puked all over the floor,” I say, casting a glance to the dead man hanging from the wall as Fionn casts the blanket aside and rises from the bed. “I’ll clean it up, but can you shut it down? Over.”
“Yeah, the last group just went through for the night anyway. Do you need help? Over.”
“No, I’m all good, thanks. It’ll take a while, but I can finish here. I’ve got keys so I can do a final lockup. I’ll see you tomorrow. Over and out.”
I turn down my walkie-talkie, sliding it into my pocket as I let out a long stream of air through pursed lips. My arms tremble. My heart slams so hard against my sternum that it could break bone. Fionn is standing in the center of the room, unmoving, eerily still. He watches as I pull the jester hat from my head and let it fall to the floor. I must look fucking deranged with my hair in wonky pigtails and my black-and-white makeup probably smeared with sweat and my clown costume streaked and stained. Maybe I am as unhinged as I look. Maybe that’s what he’s thinking as he looks at me, his expression unreadable. The music and screams stop, plunging us into silence so abrupt and all-consuming it nearly hurts.
This has gone too far. This time, there’s no coming back. I just don’t know how to be anything but what I am. Mayhem.
“I started it,” I whisper. But I think we both know that I’m not talking about Matt Cranwell. And for the first time, I feel remorse for what I’ve done. The choices I make might suit me, but maybe this life is only meant to be lived alone.
A tear breaches my lashes. Another quickly follows.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
Fionn breaks his haunted, motionless vigil. He strides toward me.
And the moment his lips touch mine, I know I’ll never be the same.
DARK CORNERS
Fionn
This isn’t just a kiss.
This is what it feels like to break wide open.
I frame Rose’s face with my bloody hands. I devour her with need. She grips the back of my neck and consumes me with equal desire. This kiss is all bite. It’s teeth clashing. Moans and whimpers and sweeping tongues. It’s urgency and demand. It’s an unleashing of desire that we’ve pushed beneath unraveling rules and conditions for far too long.
I’m drowning in her, swept away in a current I couldn’t escape if I wanted to. Her scent. Her taste. The more I take, the more I want. The more she gives, the more I need. I don’t know how I ever lived without the feel of her mouth on mine or the vibration of her moan on my lips. Her electric touch hums in my flesh. It’s the most alive I’ve ever felt.
I slide a hand down her face, her makeup smearing beneath my fingertips, deepening the kiss as I push her toward the bed. We both fumble with our clothes, me with the buttons of her costumeand her with my belt. When we make it to the bed, I break the kiss just long enough to push the top sheet and mannequin off the edge and onto the floor.
“Anyone could walk in here,” Rose says, her tone breathless as I guide her down to the mattress.
“I don’t fucking care.” I catch a glimpse of her smile before I dive back into the kiss, pulling her baggy pants down and then the leggings and thong beneath. I bite her neck just hard enough to make her gasp. I soothe the nip with a kiss as I run a finger over her pussy, trailing the liquid heat of her arousal over her clit. I swallow her moan, lavish her tongue with mine, consume every sound of pleasure she makes as I swirl my touch over her swollen bundle of nerves. She writhes beneath me. She hums at my touch. She breaks the kiss to frame my face with her hands, her eyes dancing between mine.
“I want you, Fionn.” Her tongue sweeps across her lips as her gaze flicks to my mouth. “Ineedyou.”
The air stills around us. Time seems to slow. She’s said words like that before. So have I. But it feels different this time. I raise my hand to her face as I hover over her, sweeping the fringe from her brow. She might have a crazy costume on, a face painted in smears of black and white, but all I see is Rose. Beautiful and bright. Shining through her mask like she was never meant to live behind one. I don’t think she ever has. And for the first time, maybe I know what that freedom tastes like.
“I need you too,” I say, my heart a molten core in my chest when her eyes flutter closed as my caress trails down her cheek. “I think I always have. I just didn’t realize how much until you showed up and changed everything.”
Rose’s eyes open, inky pools in the dim light. They don’t leave mine. She reaches between us and tugs my jeans and briefs down to grasp my length with a firm hand. When I shed my jacket and shirt, she lines me up to her entrance. I watch every subtle change in her expression as I push into her tight heat. Desperation and relief, pleasure and need, hope and secrets. All the things I think we both still want to say but are afraid to put out into the world in case they’re too fragile to thrive in the dark. But they’re still there, blooming in the night.
When I’ve slid all the way to the base of my erection, I pause, leaning closer, savoring the sweetness of her scent and the longing in her eyes. No one has ever looked at me the way she does. And I’ve never wanted anyone like I want Rose. Never admired anyone, never been as enchanted or enthralled by anyone. I’ve never been as awestruck by anyone, this woman who doesn’t just live her life but blazes through it like a comet burning through space, setting fire to the sky. I’ve never wanted to open up the darkest corners of my soul and show them to anyone like I have to Rose.
I’ve never loved anyone like I love Rose.
I close the distance between us and seal my lips to hers. I pull out slowly. Push back in. We pick up a rhythm, slow at first, gentle amid the horror and violence that’s melted into the backdrop like a distant memory. Rose’s fingers trace patterns on my skin, following the ridges of my spine. She hooks a leg across my back and takes my cock deeper. Every gliding stroke is heaven, her heat an embrace that I never want to leave. I break the kiss to press my lips in a line down her neck. Across her collarbone. Down her chest. I pull the cups of her lace bra down and expose her breasts. She gasps when I take her nipple in my mouth and tease it with my tongue. Iscrape it with my teeth just hard enough to make her clench tighter around me. Then I soothe the whisper of pain with my tongue.
“I’m not going to last,” she breathes as I piston into her, the rhythm more urgent with every thrust. “I want to come with you.”
I take her delicate wrist and guide it down between us. Her fingers trace the muscle of my chest and the ridges of my abs until I turn her hand down to her clit. “Then you’d better touch yourself. Because I’m about to fucking fill this perfect pussy.”
I seal my mouth to hers and swallow the moan that tumbles free. Rose’s touch circles between us. The current builds at the base of my spine. I feel her channel constrict around my erection. Her muscles tighten beneath my hands, one of them folded around her neck, her pulse a hammer against my palm. Her head tilts back but the kiss never breaks. Not as a desperate scream threatens to burst free between us. Not as my balls tighten and I spill into her, pushing as deep as our bodies will allow. Not as the orgasm rolls through me in waves until my heart threatens to break out of my chest, its furious beats deafening in my ears. Not even when Rose’s muscles start to relax, her body boneless as my strokes gentle until they still. Even then, the kiss lingers. What was desperate becomes sweet. Soft. A tender, wordless conversation in the dark.
