Page 40 of Scent of Desire
I craned my neck back to Radcliff with the most dazzling of smiles. “This is heaven!”
I fell into the bath of flowers, which held me like arms so I could lie in this bed of dreamy pink. Radcliff grabbed a few petals from another tub and slid them between his fingers with an amused grin. This was probably the only natural smile he’d ever given me. It wasn’t controlled, nor artificial. It was honest and free.
One by one, the petals met my skin, and I rose up, catching them like a child on a quest. I succeeded in taking one and pinned it behind my ear as a trophy. My laugh echoed in the shed, and I whirled around until I felt dizzy, wanting to be consumed by this sweet madness.
“I don’t want to leave this place,” I chuckled, taking another turn faster. “You should come!”
I spun and spun until the shades of pink and copper blurred my vision. I looked back at Radcliff when I noticed his shadow wasn’t on the balcony anymore. “Radcliff?”
I stopped spinning, coming back to my senses slowly.
Why didn’t he say something?
There was only silence.
“Radcliff, where are—”
Hands snatched my waist.
A whisper tingled my neck.
Warmth invaded my core.
“Right behind you.” His lips teased my ear in a haunting breath.
In a second, he had reeled me around, and I crashed on his hard chest with a hammering heart that would defy all the laws of the cosmos. Like two opposites attracting, Radcliff’s pitch-black aura met my pink, floral one and the probably crimson of my cheek. I craned my neck to the balcony.How did he jump?I hadn’t heard him, nor seen him. I plunged into the darkest pit of his eyes, short on breath, trying to solve the mystery that he truly was.
He is the Devil that captured my soul.
The monster that blossomed my heart.
The man that bloomed every dying root in me.
Lost in the purple calla lily of his eyes like he belonged to another galaxy far away from my universe, I craved to reveal the enchantment he had bounded me with. “How did you do this? How did you come to—”
He cut me off with a kiss, the kind that made the earth shatter and rip apart. A kiss that would explode our hearts into tiny particles floating around us so he could steal them afterward. He would stitch them together to form a new heart that he would plant in my chest and empty his.
He eclipsed all the questions in my mind and made our demons dance in heaven as he pinned me against the wall of the cauldron, my legs wrapped instinctively around his waist. I was possessed by something stronger than desire. An emotion that had consumed me whole, one that had taken root in me for some time and grown to be as destructive as it was beautiful.
He cupped my jaw with dominance, and his lips branded my mouth again and again, binding me with him. Our tongues swiveled into a hot tango, one that would lift every corpse around us by the intensity of our flicks. That kiss belonged to dark magic.
We fed on our demons, craving to bleed the other as a contract inked in blood. I yearned to hurt him as much as he yearned to hurt me—with possession, passion, and care. But that kiss was also our humanities taming each other, learning to trust and exchange hearts. Light and dark in an eternal battle.
My fingers intertwined in his sleek hair, pushing him toward me with a longing for more. As for him, he had seized my waist to the point of breaking me, mastering perfectly the fine line between pain and pleasure.
He cupped my breasts over the top of my summer dress before releasing them. His lips left mine to close on my nipple, worshipping me by sucking, nibbling, licking.
I moaned under the danger of freeing Radcliff’s humanity. I wanted it all. The bad. The ugly. The twisted. The hopeful. The mix of his earthy scent with the roses was like the most enchanting contrast inebriating my senses.
I unzipped the fly of his pants, and he uncuffed my wrist, which banged against the copper wall.
“I hope you weren’t attached to this dress,” he threatened with the rasp of his voice.
A tearing sound echoed. Radcliff had ripped the middle bottom of my dress in one strong grip, exposing my panties. A bolt of electricity rushed through my veins, and I raked my nails over his satin shirt.
“I hope you weren’t attached to your fancy shirt,” I countered, cocking an eyebrow. I opened it in the same animalistic way as he did with my floral dress, breaking each of his buttons.
I licked my lips, observing all of his godly body. I caressed his strong abs, coming across his scars that aroused me. They were maps of his past. His strength. Him.
