Page 27 of Midnight Companion
Reiter laughed, and then drew back his hips and began to rock in and out of me at a slow, steady pace. I cried out, arching a little as his great heat thrust inside of me, stretching me wide. My cock bobbed with each movement of his hips. I could feel my passion building low in my belly. And then Reiter’s hips pushed into me and went still. I clenched around his length, glancing back at him in surprise. He suddenly leaned over to pull me off my hands so I was only on my knees, the change of angle making my toes curl and my hole tighten. “I am going to please you in a way that no other man can,” Reiter purred, and a shiver went through me.
“You already have,” I whispered back.
He hummed a soft laugh before his hands slid down my hips and went around me. I braced my own hands on his thighs, unsure what he was doing, until he lifted his head from in front of me, and then the wet warmth of his mouth closed over the tip of my cock. I let out a sound I was sure I had never made before in my life, my fingers clenching in the fabric of his trousers. My passage tightened around him, and he let out a soft sound of appreciation as he guided his own head down my length, inch by inch, each one sweet agony as I writhed under the movement.
If I had thought I was feeling pleasure before, I was eating my words now. My mouth was open wide, cries and moans and tiny screams escaping my throat. My hands reached behind us to clutch desperately at his hips, unsure where else to put them. And then he began to move again, his hips thrusting in and out of me, his hands moving his head in rhythm so when he thrust his dick deep inside me, it also pushed my hips forward into his eager mouth, his tongue rubbing the underside of my cock. He made soft noises as he swallowed around me with each thrust, and I had momentary illogical concern that he would not be able to breathe before the shove of his hips deep inside of me made me see stars and unable to form any more coherent thoughts.
Each thrust of his cock inside of me drove a cry of pleasure from my lips, trying to form words that I was sure were nothing more than babbling sounds, my voice raised in praise the likes of which that church had never seen. I yanked at his trouser legs, so violently I might have ripped them in two without knowing it. When my passion spilled out of me only moments later, my vision went white, and I lost all ability to do anything but scream as my cock bucked inside Reiter’s mouth.
Still the stimulation continued as he thrust into me, his tongue and throat working eagerly over me as my over-sensitized cock jumped, a whine of pleasurable torment escaping my throat, his arm around my waist and cock inside of me the only things holding me upright. If the pain from Katrina taking my soul from my body was unbearable agony, this delicious torture was the answer to it. He grunted around my length, making my cock give another feeble pulse in his mouth before he thrust once more, deep inside of me and stayed there, gripping my hips as his own pleasure rocked through him, sending a shudder through his entire form against my back.
I do not know how long we stayed there, him plastered against my back as I gripped him. I only know that when he pulled out of me, my body felt a cold, hollow loss, and then I was lying on the floor, curled on my side as I breathed. His head rested next to me, his forehead against the top of my hair, and he pulled his jacket from under my knees to drape it over me. I drifted in a haze for a very long time, content to just have him near me as my eyes closed into the best sleep I had had in a very long time.
When I woke up, Reiter had already cleaned himself up, put aside my clothes, and had heated water for me to wash. “You are such a gentleman,” I teased as I cleansed myself with the water and cloth.
He sat and watched me from the front pew, head once again resting on his lap. “Should I not be?”
I laughed at that. “I appreciate that you are.” I had pulled on my pants and was reaching for my shirtsleeves when the sudden burst of agony hit me. I screamed, my hands clasping to my chest. Water spilled, and I heard Reiter saying my name over and over as I spiraled once more into darkness.
When I awoke later from the wave of pain, Reiter and I were curled on a bed of blankets on the dais again, his front pressed to my back as he stroked my hair gently. The warm weight of his head was against my chest, and I could see that his head was tipped so he could listen to my heartbeat as he rested there against me. I nestled back into his embrace.
“Has it all passed?” he asked.
“Yes,” I assured him, relaxing back against him. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Always,” he said. “I am so sorry you are having to endure this torment.”
I threaded my fingers with his. “I would rather experience this torment with you by my side than never having met you.”
He let out a soft sigh. “I have never known true peace until you were here with me.”
My heart ached at that as I stroked his hair, his temple resting against my torso as he cuddled me from behind. “I always want you to feel that way.”
“Ichabod,” he said softly, and I shifted so we could better see eye-to-eye. “If we succeed, and I no longer exist in this world, will you be all right?”
The question gave me pause. Reiter had lived alone for so long. If this plan failed, I would die, and he would once again be alone, trapped between worlds, watching people be killed in his name. But if we succeeded, there was no telling what would happen to him. Perhaps his soul would leave forever, hopefully to find peace, but where would that leave me? In the same position I had been in before I met him, but bereft of the only person in my life who had ever mattered to me, the only person I could say truly loved me. I would have to go on without him. “I would hurt,” I said honestly. “For a very long time. But if it brings you peace after all you have suffered, that will be a comfort to me.”
He was silent for a long moment before his arms tightened around me just a little more. “If I am no longer with you, I wish every happiness upon you. I wish for you to find love, a greater love than I, and to never feel sorrow a day in your life.”
Tears made their way silently down my cheeks as I squeezed his hands. “I will always love you,” I said, taking his palm and pressing it to my chest where my heart beat inside of it. “As long as I live, until I die, whether that is tomorrow or a hundred years, I will always love you.”
His hand pressed to my chest, as ferociously as if he wished to keep my heart trapped inside of me. I would have given everything in the world for us to stay right there and never move again, for time to stop and for us to simply be.
Chapter Nine
Theharvestwasnotas plentiful as it usually was; the storehouses would barely make it through the winter. Reiter heard whispers of it amongst the townspeople almost constantly. I hoped that this would work in our favor. He had glimpsed Katrina a few times and said that she indeed looked more haggard than she usually did. It gave me pleasure to think that she was struggling, having only patchwork pieces of my soul to work with.
The evening of the harvest party, neither of us talked as we sat side by side on the church steps, watching the sun sink behind the trees. His hand clutched my own, his head resting on my lap. Late in the afternoon, we would catch occasional sounds of the villagers making their way toward the Van Tassel estate. Wagon wheels scraping along, horses clip-clopping, a joyful burst of laughter. It was so strange to me to think that in only a few hours, one of those cheerful people would fall victim to the dark witch and her blood magic, and whatever poor soul it was would have no idea until it was too late. If I could put a stop to it, I had to do it. Not only for my own sake, or even for Reiter, but for the sake of every person in the village who unknowingly suffered under the Van Tassel family’s cruelty.
As the last rays of the sun vanished behind the tree trunks, the soft sound of hooves crunched the nearby leaves of the churchyard, and the shadowy, black steed appeared from around the side of the church. Reiter smiled and scooped his head from my lap before his body rose and moved over to take the reins that were already attached to the horse’s head. He stroked over its side, and I heard him crooning to it, pressing his forehead to the horse’s. Daredevil rumbled and nudged him back, and I smiled at that. If Reiter was able to pass on to the afterlife, I hoped the majestic steed would go with him so they could ride together.
Reiter came back to me, pulling on his riding gloves before offering his hand to me. I took it and let him help me up from the churchyard steps. “Ready?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, determined to not let my courage fail me in this final hour.
Reiter set his head on the pommel of the saddle, then lifted me up with both hands on my hips so I could sit behind the saddle on the massive beast, who flicked his tail and whickered. Reiter stepped into the stirrup and slung himself over the back of Daredevil with practiced ease. I wrapped my arms around his strong waist, and then we were trotting through the churchyard, past the final resting places of early Sleepy Hollow residents, onto the path, toward the bridge. I glanced back at the church that had been my home for almost a year, and Reiter’s haven for many more. I wondered if he was sad to leave it, or perhaps scared that he would come back to it alone in only a few hours’ time.
We reached the bridge, and the hollow clop of hooves on it echoed around us as the cold stream rushed below. Just before we reached the end of the bridge, Reiter pulled Daredevil to a stop, his hand sliding to catch mine around his waist. “I love you.”
