Page 31 of Prisoner of Darkness and Dreams
“A side effect of the location spell,” Leon says, his hands caressing my sides, tracing my ribs. Having him inside me has unlocked something new—maybe because we’re now physically sharing the same location. When he leans down and kisses the skin between my breasts, the touch of his lips flutters across my chest. It’s like a ghost of the kiss repeating itself, dancing on my nerves.
“Really?” I stare at him in wonder. “That’s some spell.”
He doesn’t answer, just captures my mouth with his, possessing it as he pulls his hips back then slides into me again. I make a keening noise as I feel every inch entering me doubled, the echo of sensation dragging the motion out so it lasts for whole minutes instead of seconds. I grab onto the back of his arms, trying to ground myself against the onslaught of pleasure.
“Is it too much?” he murmurs, and I hear his breathlessness. When I lookup, it’s clear his eyes are dark with a wildfire that’s barely contained. He feels this too.
“No. It’s exactly what I need,” I say, laying a hand against his cheek. “Keep going.”
“Like this?” He lifts my hips so that his cock hits just the right spot, sending explosions of ecstasy through my body.
“Yes.” I take a ragged breath, clutching him tighter. “More. Please.”
He fucks me slowly, and for once I’m not impatient. There’s no rush to climax when the journey there feels this amazing, this fulfilling—this healing. I savor the weight of his thighs against my legs and the grip of his hand on my hip every bit as much as the gradual, unstoppable climb of my desire. Being close to him like this is everything I need. He’s all I can feel, all Iwantto feel. If I could, I’d stay like this forever.
Eventually, however, his thrusts quicken, stretching me wider as he takes me to the hilt. I open up for him, my body hungry for all of him I can get as his muscles tighten and he spills into me. I close my eyes, focusing on the sensation, and so I miss him reaching down for my clit until sensation rockets through me like a lightning bolt. His groan of satisfaction mingles with my own delighted moans as he sets off fireworks at my core.
I finish with him still inside me, but I don’t open my eyes even when the last ripples of orgasm fade. I’m not ready to return yet—to leave this place of perfect pleasure and comfort, to face the ugliness that lurks at the corners of my mind.
Idoopen them as Leon withdraws from me. I feel horribly empty without us joined, like I’ve lost the only thing holding me together. But then there’s the creak of bed springs, and a weight settles between my legs. I inhale sharply as fresh pressure, hot and slick, lavers my clit.
I bury my hands in Leon’s hair as he tastes me, making my desire flare anew. It’s like he can read my mind and knows I’m not ready for this to be over yet. Every teasing flick of his clever tongue tells me he’ll draw this out as long as I need. I buck against him, and he grabs my thighs, pulling them across the bed until they hit his shoulders, and he’s all but lost in me.
The heat builds inside me, as if I’m about to take flight right off this bed.All the weight of the last few weeks shrinks away, making me lighter than air.
“I’m close,” I gasp, and Leon slides two fingers inside me, curling them upward as he brings me to the edge with firm, patient strokes.
“Come for me, Ana,” he murmurs, sending vibrations across my skin. “Let me taste how good I make you feel.”
He doesn’t need to say the rest—that he’ll keep on making me feel good, so I never have to go back to that dark place of pain and prison cells. That’s what being with Leon means—always being found, always being put back together again when I’m coming apart.
I see stars when he finally takes me over the edge. Beautiful, sparkling stars that remind me of the clear night sky above the fields of Otscold.
Chapter 10
Leon
Ihadn’t been ready for the sawlamoor’s effects. Whatever I’ve heard people say, whatever Phaia had told me, it couldn’t have prepared me forthat. Every caress and brush of skin against skin, the hot, heady tightening of muscle around me and the taste of her on my tongue—all of it doubled in intensity and stretched out in time until I wondered if we’d get lost in each other forever.
It was magnificent. Intoxicating. And it shouldn’t have happened.
When I realized what the spell was doing to us, I should’ve drawn back, given the mooring some time to fade before we…encouragedit. Phaia has warned me about that. But Ana needed me,beggedme to help her forget all the darkness that I can see has been left in her heart by the Temple.
And gods,Ineededher. Only now with her by my side can I see how close the time apart drove me to insanity. It took losing myself in her again for that edge of madness to finally soften and fade away.
So I ignored the warnings in my mind and made love to her, and I didn’t fight the bliss and contentment that engulfed me as she fell asleep in my arms afterward. I shift and pull her closer now, soaking in the way it feels to hold every inch of her soft, jasmine-scented body against mine. There are no words for how precious she is to me. Knowing that, any lengths I went to in order to save her—no matter how drastic—were totally justified.
I could tell her. Explain to her the real origins of the sawlamoor, that it’s more than just some location spell. But the less she knows about it, the less of a hold the spell will have on her, and we’ll be able to avoid the biggest side effects. There are more extreme elements of the mooring that can be awoken. Ones that would bind Ana to me in inescapable, lifelong ways that she didn’t know she was choosing when she accepted the mooring in her dream. Her ignorance should protect her, however. The spell thrives on the commitment people make to it, and if she’s not fully conscious of the spell’s nature, there are limits to how far it will progress.
I know the echoes we felt when we touched each other, the sound of our heartbeats ringing in each other’s ears, are only the beginning of what the spell can do. It’s a tantalizing prospect, but we’re not going to find out about the rest, because as long as she doesn’t know the implications of it, she’s free.
Free to make her own choices, without anything being forced on her. Invoking the sawlamoor wasmychoice, not hers, and I won’t pressure her into accepting everything that comes with it. As badly as I might want something as strong and tangible as the mooring tying me to Ana, as much as I’m intrigued about what other connections might come with it, what I want doesn’t matter as much as her right to independence.
She stirs, stretching against me, and I press a kiss to her neck. It earns me a sigh of contentment as she opens her eyes, and I wonder what I’ve done to be rewarded like this. To be able to pull that peaceful sound from her and have her blink up at me with eyes full of joy.
“I realized something right before we went to Bastion,” I say, not bothering to second guess myself. This needs to be said.
She looks at me, listening, and she’s so beautiful I have to interrupt what I’m saying just to kiss her again. She laughs against my lips.
