Page 76 of Lovely Violent Things

The desire to know the thing she wants so badly that she’s about to brand it into my flesh is driving me right out of my frenzied mind.

Like the white flame burning at the hottest degree, we’re at a combustible state of change, our fiery alchemy transforming our elements into an elixir to sear us together. Pain and pleasure collide, energy exchanged and heated to molten intensity to purify our souls.

Her lips fall to mine, sealing a promise through her tender kiss, right before she pierces my flesh with the glass. My muscles tense as she slices a figure into the skin of my sternum, right above the skull of the stag.

The bite of pain is pure, erotic ecstasy, and she’s never looked more alluring delivering it. Her body sheened in firelight, the white streak framing the side of her face and daring me to wrap her hair around my fist and yank her down against me.

My wrists flex against the leather binding at the thought, and when she lowers herself to my chest and licks the beaded blood from my skin, I’m a man possessed, ready to tear through my binds and ravish her until she’s screaming my name.

As Halen laves the blood, she flicks her gaze up to ensnare me, looking so fucking sexy I clench my jaw, finding the will to keep myself restrained. And as she brings her mouth to mine, delivering the euphoric taste of her mingled with my blood, she mercifully sheaths her sweet pussy around the head of my cock.

I groan against her mouth. “Halen, I’m seconds away from chewing through this belt—”

She kisses me harder and sinks down around my rock-hard erection, eliciting a heated curse from my mouth at the feel of her tight warmth sheathing me to the base. She’s fucking perfect; designed by the gods themselves, made just for me.

Fighting the demand to grab her hips and rut into her like a depraved beast, I keep my knuckles pressed to the floor, driving my hips upward to meet each sexy roll of her hips.

And I’m so lost to her, spellbound. I can’t tear my eyes off her as she rides me, expertly rocking her hips, her eyes shuttered closed and her hair falling over her shoulders in wild waves.

God, so damn beautiful andmine.

She takes me with her as she gives in to her desire, panting sighs spilling free, her hands roaming my chest, nails clawing my skin to tease at her promised pain. Her fingers smear the pooled blood over my skin, the burn of the fresh cuts sparking untamed need to meld that fleshly pain to the anguish I always feel drifting below her surface.

To take us to catastrophic heights, to hear my name chanted from her sinful mouth and conjure a force of destruction all of its own to unhinge me utterly.

Halen rocks me into her with sensually slow undulations, shredding any sane level of control. I swear she’s fucking infusing herself beneath my flesh, tethered to my sinew. I follow her movements, an echo of my other half, to meet her on that higher plane.

“Do you trust me?” The words leave me on a rushed breath.

Her movements slow as she looks into my eyes, the question a bridge between us, my apprehension tangible and mounting until she lightly nods, whispering a simple, “Yes.”

Herwantto trust me should be enough.

Yet the maddening way in which I crave to have her fused to my damn soul grips me wholly, and I bring my banded arms over her head and capture her lower back, hauling myself up against her chest.

“We’re about to find out,” I say, stealing her mouth in a fiery kiss to burn away the last remnants of my control.

Wrists bound, I pull her hips against me, driving inside her with a desperation to ruin us both. Her moans gather tight in her chest, falling and tangling with mine with each deeper thrust. She arches her back as I rut into her from beneath, her thighs splayed against me, my cock spearing inside her tight channel until her walls pulse around me, her orgasm hovering on the brink.

She bears down on top of me as she meets my fierce rhythm, her skin licking hot against mine to match the swelling flames of the fire.

“Goddamn …so fucking beautiful, you kill me.” I lick her breast, scraping my teeth over the peaked bud, loving the way she shivers in my arms.

“Kallum—” Her voice comes as a plea between clipped breaths, and I thrust harder, my body demanding her screams. She’s so close to breaking.

“Not yet, sweetness…” My voice is gravel as I deny her what we both crave.

Hands twisted in the hair spilling down the center of her shoulders, I tug her head back and drop my forehead to her chest, seeking the frenetic drum of her heart. I fashioned the idea of her from the most violent part of me, aware of the dangerous trade I was offering.

But my beautiful muse was so much more than I could have dreamed.

When she nearly slipped into the void, I used my own blood to charge that first seal on her shoulder. A damn hermetic seal, locking her up tight. But it’s what she needed at the time, after her mind refused to accept such a horrifying reality. The threat of her mental state unraveling was clear. So I made a choice to lose her in order to save her.

The most selfless I have ever been.

But I almost damned us both.

When our chaotic nature threatens to destroy us, we need a scapegoat.

---