Page 78 of A Court of Ash and Midnight
I cry out and fall against him as wave after wave of bliss envelopes me. He bites down the side of my neck, each mark ofhis teeth sending another jolt of ecstasy through me. When it’s finally over, he makes a sound of satisfaction like a dark little purr, and then he lifts me, carrying me to a small boulder a few feet away. The universe is still spinning as he sets me down. He drops to his knees in front of me and runs his hands up the insides of my thighs.
“Lean back, Embyr,” he says, his voice deep and rough as if there’s a beast inside clawing its way out. “I need to taste you.Now.”
He doesn’t give me time to obey but flips my dress up and buries his head between my legs. My back arches up off the stone as another cry flies out of me. Daemon’s hands slide under my ass as he pulls me toward his face. He devours me, entering me, sucking, tasting. My pleasure, still echoing from the last climax, surges again instantly. His teeth graze over my clit and the world spins. He claims me with his tongue, and within moments I am completely shattered for a second time. My screams are torn away by the wind, carried off over the ocean.
Daemon kisses his way up my stomach and between my breasts as I lay there quivering in the afterglow. “You are my queen,” he says as he kisses along my jawbone. “I will worship no other for all of my days.”
I lean up into his kiss, and our tongues tangle. “I need you, Daemon. All of you.”
His eyes darken and he stands up, pulling me with him. He pulls off his tunic, and I shimmy one strap off of my dress, and then the other. He watches, his gaze predatory. When my dress drops in a pool of silk in the sand, I shiver as the wind caresses my bare skin, my unbound hair cascading down my back. Then I step forward and take the buckle of his pants, undoing it as swiftly as I can, my heart pounding so loudly I’m sure he can hear it.
When his pants fall, my heart pounds even faster, my eyes roving over the massive length of him, his hard muscles in the moonlight, his eyes that are looking at me like he’s going to be the end of me in the best possible way. We drop to our knees in front of each other, and I place my hand on his chest, pressing so he sits back. I climb into his lap, straddling him, and he runs his hands up my back.
Slowly, I reach down, and I guide him into me.
We gasp simultaneously as he enters me. I arch forward, widening my thighs to take him even deeper. Then I roll my hips, grinding along the length of him. Daemon moans and bites the side of my neck, and I buck my hips again. His fingers dig into my back, and wisps of shadow begin to curl out around him. I move faster now, gyrating back and forth, riding him as he holds me tightly from behind, kissing and biting and sucking at my skin.
The ocean rolls up across the sand a few feet away as we move together. I wrap my arms around Daemon’s neck, my hands winding up into his hair. His shadows spin around us, and I’ve never felt more safe than I am now, in his arms, in this moment. Skin to skin, heart to heart, Daemon’s strength and magic wrapped around me. It feels like we’ve done this a thousand times, a thousand lives over, like he is the night sky, and I am the fiery stars that burn inside him.
I want to stay like this forever, but too soon I am trembling again, pleasure rippling through my core. Daemon’s length gliding in and out of me is more than I can take for long. My moans intensify into cries, and I can feel heat moving through my limbs, my body starting to glow. Daemon growls and crushes me even closer, his lips moving to mine as he claims my mouth with his tongue until I’m breathless. When he starts to shake, too, I feel myself start to spin over the edge.
“Look at me, Embyr,” he commands, his voice darker than the night. “I want to watch you come.”
And I do as he says, looking into his eyes, seeing the glow of mine reflected there. I pulse my hips once, twice, and then we’re gone together, dissolving into each other. Daemon yells and thrusts upward as I cling to him, breaking apart into a trillion glittering pieces as pleasure takes me, destroys me, drowns me, ends me.
We collapse into the sand, Daemon pulling me against his chest as we lay there. I listen to the thrum of his heart, the pounding of the waves. The glow of my body fades but doesn’t dissipate, a soft golden edge lingering along my skin.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this,” Daemon murmurs into my hair, “But now that I’ve found you, I’m not ever going to let you go.”
I rotate my face and press my lips to his, soft and sweet. “Nor I, you.” I tremble as the words leave my lips, because this whole thing seems impossible. How had my life taken such a turn, after everything else that had happened?
We lay there in the sand for a long span of time, and at one point I drift off, the waves and Daemon’s heartbeat a lullaby I can’t resist.
I am awoken sometime later by a harsh sound cutting across the sky.
Daemon and I sit up at the same time, and his head whips toward the cliffs above us. “What was that sound?” I ask, my heart pounding in an entirely different way now. “It sounded like…”
His brow furrows, his lips pressed into a thin line. “It sounded like battle horns.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
By the timewe traverse the path and reach the top of the cliffs again, we can hear shouting and the scream of horses and the clang of weapons.
Daemon turns to me, his expression dark. “I’m going to take a closer look. Stay here.”
“I’m not letting you go alone!” I protest.
“I can blend with the night, remember? I’ll be invisible.” He leans in and presses a kiss to my lips. “Do not move from this spot. Swear it.”
I nod. “I promise. But come right back, Daemon. I mean it.”
He kisses me once more and then calls night around him, disappearing from sight. My heart races in my chest. Who is attacking, and in the midst of the tournament?
Every moment that Daemon is gone, I feel a spike of dread through my gut. I know he can’t be seen, but having him so far from my side in a time like this terrifies me. I’d spent my wholelife alone, and now that I’d found someone I can’t imagine it without…
The minutes pass by, and as I wait, my anxiety builds. Then something catches my eye out on the water. It’s not the glimmer of moonlight on the waves. It’s the sails of a ship. Many ships, a couple dozen at least. Yellow sails, with some sort of design I can’t make out at this distance. They’re approaching along the cliffs opposite the cove we just visited. Still a mile or more off, but moving fast.
If Daemon doesn’t get back here soon…
