Page 81 of Fanged Embrace
River’s patience was endless; my hunger, once unlocked, surprised us both. Before I knew it I was spasming, the world crashing down around me, and I couldn’t have cared less. My nails dragged down her bare back, my body rocking and rolling beneath her, pinned to the mattress by her welcomed weight. I kissed her like I was ravenous, until my lungs burned for breath, and she kissed me back—even when my head bucked back against the bed and my eyes rolled back in my skull.When release finally came—slow-building, world-tilting—it felt like shattering chains I’d carried my entire life.
My arching back collapsed flat on the mattress and I lay there, twitching and gasping as wave after wave of pure elation crashed over me. River held her fingers in place as I rode out the final ripples of what I now knew was an orgasm.
When she lifted her head, ochre eyes locking onto mine, all I could do was stare at her. Slack jawed and in awe while she smiled back at me. As the heat haze dissipated and reality set in, I was profoundly aware of my own body again, bare before her in all its skinny, scarred glory. But I wasn’t ashamed, I couldn’t even find it in me to feel embarrassed.
River finally removed her fingers and sat back on the bed, catching my eye as she lifted two slicked-up digits and licked them clean. I stared, shocked into silence—and then a small, disbelieving laugh crackled out of me. River laughed in kind, a satisfied chiming of bells that had my cheeks flushing.
My chest was heaving and my limbs were twitching and all I could do was stare back at her, grinning like an idiot. The sudden awkward switch from insanely aroused to giggling like school girls felt precious. Undeniable proof that this moment was real, unscripted.
Entirely ours.
39
River
Laurie’s breath still stuttered in her chest—soft, uneven exhales that warmed the hollow of my collarbone. Her face was flushed rose-pink all the way to her ears, lips parted in a lazy grin I suspected she didn’t know she was wearing. It was, without contest, the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
I lay on my side and watched her ride the fading waves of pleasure, fingers drifting down the slope of her sternum. Her skin pulsed beneath my touch—flexing with each steadying intake of breath—and I skimmed my palm lower, until my hand paused above the faint, silvered scar that curved across her lower abdomen.
Her clinical explanation of events tugged at my heart, heavy as lead when I remembered the blank, removed look she wore when she relayed the details of her pregnancy. I wanted to pry further, to understand exactly what happened to her lost child, but the smile on her face was too rare to disturb. So I stroked just below that ridged line of skin, circling fingers on soft flesh until the tension in my own chest eased.
Eventually Laurie surfaced from the contented, blissful haze she’d sunk into after we’d lain down—blinking up at the ceiling before turning shy eyes on me. “Um.” She propped herself up on one elbow, and her voice emerged hoarse and heady. Her hand hesitated, fingers stretched out halfway toward me. “Should I… y’know… reciprocate? Because you didn’t get to?—”
When she reached for my underwear, I halted her with one gentle hand on her wrist. “I’m perfectly content.” I pinned that wrist to her chest and guided her down on her back again. “Watching you spasm around my fingers was—” my grin curved wider as the faint flush creeping up her neck bloomed a deeper shade of scarlet, “—more than enough.”
“But I…” Laurie held my gaze for a beat, then looked away. Then she scooted closer until her nose fit beneath my jaw, hiding her face in the curve of my neck. Her voice was muffled when she spoke again. “But I feel kinda bad. I didn’tdoanything.” She huffed her frustration into my throat. “I just lay there like a dead fish.”
“Uh—Like a very alive, very vocal fish.” I amended her statement and laughed when Laurie burrowed deeper with a mortified groan.
“Was I really that loud?” Her question came out timid, a peek under that snarky cover to the vulnerable version of Laurie lurking just beneath.
I chuckled and coiled an arm around her, tipping us sideways so she lay sprawled across my chest. “Yeah. It was music to my ears.”
She swatted my ribs—with no real heat behind the action—then went still, fiery hot cheek pressed over my heart. I listened to her breathing and let my aura drift outward until it melded with hers.
The surface of her aura glowed with a warm, cloudy satisfaction, but underneath, I felt crosscurrents. Curiosity,anxiety, guilt and remorse. I could understand the conflicting emotions. This kind of intimacy was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid. She was scared of what it meant for both of us. But now that we were here, now that we’d crossed the threshold…
I threaded my fingers through her hair, combing gentle lines. “You don’t have to sprint through every new experience in one night, Laurie. We have time,” I murmured, then dropped my voice lower, doing my best to keep the bittersweet pleading from my tone. “If that’s what you want.”
The words hovered in the air above us, delicate as a soap bubble. I felt Laurie turning them over, tension and longing tilting back and forth on the scale in her head.
Finally, she sighed, lips brushing lightly against my clavicle. “I’d like that.”
There was a twinge of sadness in her tone, an undercurrent of quiet resignation. She wanted this, despite herself. She wanted this, despite what she planned to do. Her hesitation was borne of a crushing guilt, a deep fear that taking things further was going to hurt me.
I curled my arms around her, holding her fast against my chest. Laurie’s breathing evened, matching the slow cadence of my heartbeat. I stroked patterns along her spine, letting the hush settle over us, but internally, my mind churned. That carved scar on her stomach, the artificial pregnancy, the ghost of her past that haunted her still. I could read each knot of fear in her aura—even now, turmoil writhed under the afterglow.
It was torment, knowing what she was feeling, watching from a distance as her conflicting emotions ripped her apart from the inside—finding myself powerless to help her, even with centuries of experience behind me. Even with all of my powers.
I wanted to tell her to just hold on a little longer. That it was okay to let go, and let herself be held. I wanted to tell her that Iwas going to do everything in my power to help her, everything in my power and beyond. Ihadto. Because I was too happy here, too content. Lying back on the vast expanse of my bed, with Laurie spent and satiated on my chest, was too perfect.
I couldn’t relinquish this—couldn’t lose her to the lethal plan she kept in her back pocket.
Somewhere between the crashing thunder of her release and the quiet vulnerability that emerged afterward, some kind of irreversible alchemy occurred in my chest. She’d wound her way into my heart, and there she would stay. Losing her now would mean losing a piece of myself. So Ihadto help her.
The picture was complete. I couldn’t give her up now.
Not now and not ever.
