More?
Fuck, I’d give her more.
I drove into her, hard and fast.
Her hair was full of bracken; her skin smudged with river sludge.
I definitely should’ve waited until I had her in a bed.
But...I couldn’t help it.
Couldn’t stop how unhinged she made me.
I lost myself to the prehistoric rhythm of making her mine as hard and as deep as I could.
A flash of frost covered her.
She struck me dumb with how beautiful she was.
How she glittered with snow, her eyelashes spiky with minuscule icicles, her lips a life-defying shade of blue.
And I couldn’t do it.
A roaring fire broke out of me as I sank as deep as I could, singeing the tree leaves and sending them scattering with raining charcoal.
Her eyes flared as my skin danced with flames but...I didn’t hurt her.
Everything else caught fire but not her.
Because she was my perfect opposite.
“What am I supposed to do with you?” I kissed the tip of her white-frosted nose. “How am I supposed to survive after falling head over fucking heels for you?”
She gasped as I kissed her.
Her tightness and heat undid me, triggering predatory instincts to hold her down and ravage.
Her core clamped around me as I gave her everything.
I took her.
Right there on the ground.
I couldn’t stop as her breathing turned tattered and every muscle in my body contorted with pleasure.
I wanted to come.
Shit, I wanted to come.
Her previous orgasm made her hot and wet and...fuck, I couldn’t last.
I didn’t want to embarrass myself.
But how?
How was I supposed to survive this?
How was I supposed to survive her?
Burying my face in her frost-crackling hair, I thrust again and again. The head of my cock slammed against the top of her core, tearing a guttural grunt from my chest.
She moaned.
I tried to stop. To check she was okay—
“If you stop, I’ll kill you.”
“But I’m not going to last.” I chuckled as I kissed her ear. “You’re too much for me to handle. Especially on my first try.”
“You told me we’d practice.” She turned her head to capture my mouth. “So...practice.”
We kissed hard and messily, panting and drowning.
My hand dove to where we were joined, finding her clit and making her tremble.
She wanted me to break? Fine. But she’d break with me.
She cried out as I rode her.
She tensed as I stroked her.
And instead of breaking her, I broke myself because...I was nothing.
Nothing without her.
Feral urges took control. I needed to conquer this woman, to make her mine, to mark her. My teeth sank into her neck as I drove her to that tipping point.
She screamed as she fell again, her body clenching around my cock.
I couldn’t stop myself.
I bit her hard enough to break her skin.
Her blood hit my tongue—icy and sweet and potent.
And the same thing happened as before.
That bond between us flared white-bright. An unbreakable chain forged between her heart and mine, locking tighter with every thrust.
I pulled away to look at her; my breath punched out of me.
She looked like a glacier backlit by the sun. An inner light gleaming from beneath her beautiful skin, leaking out with every rock.
“You’re...you’re glowing,” I breathed, my pace slowing in wonder.
But she just locked her ankles behind me, arched her hips, and...I didn’t stand a chance.
With a savage little scream, she rocked against me and sent me shattering.
I jerked and snarled as the most intense release tore up my legs and exploded out of me. I lost myself to pure ecstasy—her inner muscles demanding more, forcing me to come and come, threatening to make my heart burst.
“Feel that?” I grunted as a full-body shudder stole my ability to breathe. “That’s twenty-nine years of waiting for you and finally finding where I belong.”
She shimmered like starlight. Emotions churned in her stare. That silver-white ring around her pupils turned luminous and I collapsed over her, capturing her lips in a vicious kiss. My tongue plunged in time with the lingering wakes of pleasure, my cock twitching deep inside her.
And when we broke apart, she slung her arms around my waist in the sweetest hug.
I gave her all my weight as I scooped her up in the tightest embrace of my life, crushing her against the ground.
I clung to her, suffocated her, and refused to let go when she tapped my back to release her. “Eh, Lucien.”
“Quiet.” I buried my face in her icy hair. “Don’t make me move. I refuse.”
“Look!”
Her panicked tone made me frown as I pushed upright and followed her terrified gaze.
My eyes locked onto something that should’ve been an impossibility.
Something that was impossible—before the past few days had happened.
With a wince, I withdrew from her and staggered to my feet.
Naked, I bent to grab her hand, hauling her upright to join me.
And we just stood there.
Looking at what we’d caused.
“Well...fuck.”
Chapter Forty-Four
THE VALLEY WAS NO LONGER SHROUDED in darkness but lit up by fire.
It looked like the aftermath of a meteor strike. Entire trees glowed like torches—burning from the inside out as if his fire had threaded through their roots. Half-charred leaves spiralled around us as the fire chewed its way down the river, infecting every bush and tree—sap popping with bright flashes.
Birds took wing from burning branches. Insects scurried. And thick, grey smoke coiled toward the stars.
The drunken haze from having the best and only sex of my life vanished.
This...isn’t possible.
Spinning in place, everywhere I looked was alight with blooms of orange and gold. “What...what did you do?”
“I...” He tensed. Completely naked with wild black hair, red-ringed eyes, and a piece of warped metal over his heart, he looked half man, half something else. “I felt a spike of heat when I released but...I didn’t know I’d unleashed this.”
Had it been him?
My mind literally couldn’t accept it.
But...logic said if it wasn’t him, then who?
After all, I’d seen him detonate in the caves. I’d seen him lose control and had the bruises from the powerful shockwave to prove it.
Wait.
My fingers strayed to my chest where the punch of his power had slammed me backward.
I didn’t have any bruises.
My eyes locked on him—searching where there ought to be a row of black stitches from stabbing him but...they were gone. The small sutures from removing the port cuffs no longer existed. The cuts on his neck from when I’d held a knife to his throat had disappeared, and the numerous silver scars from other injuries when he was younger were no more.
Even the wound on his finger from healing the tear of taking my virginity had vanished...
And his eyes...
God, I lost myself in them.
Scarlet-ringed and alight, he glowered at me with such hunger, such possession, he made my entire soul jump off whatever path it was on and collide firmly with his.
Fear trickled, then flowed, then overflowed.
Because what the hell was he?
What the hell did all of this mean?
My fingers strayed to my empty throat, the habit too ingrained after a lifetime of reaching for my pendant, bracing against an impending migraine.
But the migraine didn’t come.
And my necklace...
“My necklace. W-Where’s my necklace?”
His face turned guarded as he stopped looking at the hell he’d caused and landed on the empty hollow where my pendant used to live. His jaw clenched as his eyes dipped lower, lingering on my bare breasts.
