His hands in my hair, down over my breast, between my legs.
Our mouths meeting in violent kisses before breaking apart to breathe, to wreak havoc elsewhere.
The bed slams back against the wall, over and over again, a dizzying bass-driven beat at the bottom of my skull rising, taking over my world, his cock reaching parts of me I never thought possible.
“Fuck,” I cry out again, and this is intense, this is so intense, and I’m staring up at him, the way his brows are knitted together, the pleasure and the wildness in his eyes, lost, utterly lost to me, and I’m utterly lost to him.
My back arches, wanting him to take me completely, I want him so much more that it’s driving me wild, and I feel restless, aching, begging to be put out of my misery.
Fuck, I need to hold back, and that’s Solon’s voice in my head, thoughts he maybe doesn’t mean for me to hear.
“You’re not holding anything back,” I rasp, pulling him into the hilt, until I can’t breathe at all. “Fuck me, come inside me.”
His mouth drops open an inch as he stares at me.
Then his eyes go wide, go wild, go…lost.
He lets out a low growl I feel in the base of my spine and then he’s pounding into me like he’s trying to impale me right into the bed. The back of my head hits the headboard, and he’s bracing himself on the wall, fingers splayed above me, the muscles in his arms popping, straining.
“Fuck!” he bellows, the sound torn from his throat, his hair falling on his forehead. His neck is corded and I can see every vein and I’m aware of so much at once. His hips keep slamming into me at a punishing rate, bruising my skin.
Then deft fingers slip over my clit again, stealing my thoughts, my orgasm licking my skin, threatening to burn me alive.
I let go.
“Oh god, god!” I cry out, my body seizing so hard that I’m almost levitating off the bed, my chest rising, body shaking like an earthquake, and then it’s like I’m barely in the world at all. I’m in some other place, that’s black and gold, hot and cold, and stars are falling all around us.
Us.
Because Solon is here with me.
And he’s still fucking me with every ounce he has. Savagely shoving deeper inside me, until I start to feel him unravel, sense that he’s about to come.
Suddenly he lets out a desperate cry, so raw and primal that I swear it came from an animal, and then he’s biting my neck.
Hard.
Fangs sinking in.
I gasp in pain and he doesn’t let go, his bite deep in my skin, lockjaw, drinking my blood as he comes. His body shudders against mine, his hips driving himself in deep, deeper, and then they slow and he’s pouring himself inside me at the same time that he’s draining me of blood.
It’s an exchange.
That’s what he does best.
Then he’s trembling, muscles shaking, half-collapsing against my body, and only then does he pry his fangs off my neck. I feel the blood flow down into the bed, feel my heartbeat racing, and somehow his heartbeat too, like it’s living in mine. Maybe it always was.
He pulls his head back enough to look at me, rubbing his thumb over my lips, gazing at me with the kind of tenderness that pulls the rug out from under me.
“I’m sorry,” he says, voice raw. “I…shouldn’t have bitten you.”
I almost laugh. I reach up and place my hand against the cool skin of his face. “You’re a vampire, Solon. I expected nothing less.”
He puts his hand over mine, holding it against his cheek. “I don’t know what I expected but…that…” He clears his throat.
He doesn’t finish his sentence.
He doesn’t have to.
I know how he feels. At the very least, I know how I feel.
Like my ever-changing world changed once more.
I know now why Solon was so reluctant to sleep with me.
It wasn’t the beast, though I don’t doubt its existence.
It’s because it changes things.
Because right now he’s still inside me, still hard as steel, and I know everything between us has twisted. I’m not sure if it’s for good, but I think it might be forever.
If I wasn’t bound to Absolon before by blood, I am now, with every inch of my body and soul.
I swallow thickly, staring up at him.
“What have we done?”
Chapter Eighteen
I’m dreaming about men with no faces.
They circle me, curtains hanging from their hoods, but I feel like even if the curtains weren’t there, there would be no face at all.
Just teeth.
And there’s a man standing behind them.
At least, I think it’s a man, he’s in shadow so it’s hard to see.
He’s very tall, bone-thin, limbs unnaturally long, with claws for hands and what’s either shields at his back or giant folded wings.