Page 101 of Empire of Light

My mouth dropped, my tongue slipping out to press against her forehead, swiping at the pain that quickly collected there as I lifted her up, my feet quick to get her out of that dank cell. I headed toward the circular staircase leading up and out of the undercrofts.

We only made it to the third step before her legs wrapped around me, her voice cracking on my name, begging as she could barely breathe. “Damen, it hu—hurts, it?—”

I dropped to my knees and set her on the step just above me. Leaning her back even though it had to be uncomfortable, the stone steps jutting into her back.

Her hands shaking, she dragged my head down so my lips weren’t on her forehead, but meeting hers in a kiss that ravaged me to the core of my soul.

The energy exchange between us instant, surging out of her and into me, and back into her.

Giving both of us what we needed from the other.

Lost and found, the energy as visceral and primal as it had ever been, as though we’d been born together in the roiling lava of Mount Olympus and had parted for too many fucking eons.

A whole new level that caught me by surprise, when I’d thought we’d already found our way to the heart of this celestial energy between us—that I already understood it. I didn’t.

My hands pawed at her clothes in the same instant she started ripping at mine. Buttons flying. Fabric ripping. Flesh. More flesh.

Until we were both naked and frantic on the steps, my hands not able to touch enough of her body all at once for my own liking.

Clothes gone, my mouth had found hers again and I drank of her deeply, our tongues warring, teeth scraping. Blood on my tongue and the metallic taste of it sent me rabid, the red clouding into my mind—the same as a malefic rage, but so different when I was with her—for it was all brutal passion that could not be denied.

Her hands locked onto my hips, her fingernails digging into my butt muscles and she pulled me down into her spread legs with all her might.

My cock already full and stretched to pain, I didn’t need more, and I slammed into her, seating myself fully into her channel, her inner walls already soaked and throbbing, clenching around the length of me.

Fucking hell. This was where I wanted to die someday. Balls deep in her, her body pulsing around mine. Her specific warbled gasps that echoed in my ears after every time I drove into her like this. This was the only place I wanted to live on this earth.

The energy coursing through our mouths now able to make a perfect, symbiotic circle. Her pain sucking into me, then dropping down, spinning into pleasure that my cock sent back into her. I needed her pain. She needed my pleasure.

My hips started to piston. Hard. No time for reverence or taking her breasts into my mouth or molding her body into mine. Only my cock in and out, my mouth on hers, my body waging a battle against the torturous energy that thrived in her body. Action was the only thing necessary at the moment—everything I could do to steal every last bit of pain from her body.

Her screams started, swallowed by my mouth at first, until she pulled back, her neck craning, her head thrashing on the step with every thrust I sent into her. Her screams, her nonsensical begging echoed along the ancient stones around us. Her hips bucking, her legs clamped onto my thighs, toes digging into me in desperate need to urge me onward.

Fuck, I needed her to come. Now.

My mouth went onto the flesh of her neck, every cell in my body ready to burst, every muscle straining against that very thing. A breathless plea from the agony coursing through my veins. “Come for me. Come. Come now.”

The order sent her over the edge and her body seized under me for one second, my cock in a vise, before she detonated on me. Her inner walls clenching so ragged and brutal on my cock it devoured every last touch of control I could manifest.

I splintered, but continued to pump into her, desperate to elongate her orgasm even as my cum sank in hot rushes deep into her. My mind consumed by the carnal cries I could still make escape from her lips.

Until I collapsed, grabbing her body, and I spun, keeping her on top of me.

As suspected, the stone stairs weren’t the most comfortable, but each one had a smooth rounded edge dipping down in the middle from centuries of feet shuffling over them. Score one for the ravages of time.

On top of me, Ada curled into my body, the raving energy in her now calm. I couldn’t detect the slightest bit of pain in her, but still, I worried.

My hand landed on her bare back, running down her spine. “Is it gone?”

Her nose pressed into the flesh on the side of my neck, her lips a tickle against my skin as her words came breathless, drowsy. “It’s gone.”

I granted permission for my muscles to finally relax.

I heaved a breath and her body lifted and fell on my chest. Angling my face downward so my lips could meet the top of her head, I brushed my words along her scalp. “I know it’s a stupid worry, but I sure hope memories don’t make it into the fetus, because that one would definitely leave a mark.”

She laughed. Hearty, her whole body shaking, and she shifted her head along my shoulder so she could look up at me. “It would at that.” She paused, staring at my face, her eyes alive in the brightest springtime green, with not a trace of the underlining darkness from earlier. Her hand lifted, her fingers tracing along the line of my jaw. “Thank you for what you did down here for me.”

Her look shifted upward. “I don’t know how I feel about what I had to do and only you would come up with this bizarre idea in the first place.” Her look dropped to me, her stare intense. “But I am forever grateful you did. You made me prove to myself I was capable of something I never thought I would be.”

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