Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
All of this felt different.
It was that change from earlier. That intangible shift between us. What was occurring was fundamentally different than before. This wasn’t a desire fueled by the need for blood, feeding, or anger. This was pleasure for the sake of pleasure. And it was…
It was a first for us.
And it felt like a first for me altogether. Any experience I had, fled. Nothing I knew before this moment seemed to count. I couldn’t explain it.
Neither of us moved, even though I was trembling again. I didn’t think he even breathed as he stared down at me, his eyes a storm of whirling eather. Then I moved, clasping his cheeks and bringing his mouth to mine. I kissed him because this was different.
He kissed me back, and I tasted myself on his lips and on his tongue. I was greedy. We were greedy, kissing and kissing until he moved, reaching between us to grip himself. The feel of his cock dragging through my wetness was a tantalizing promise of what was to come, and I didn’t have to wait long. He eased into me, and the feel of him—the pressure and fullness—dragged a ragged cry from me. Nyktos stopped.
“It’s okay,” I said against his lips. “Don’t stop. Please.”
“You never have to beg,” he promised. “Never.”
Then he thrust into me to the hilt, and my cry was lost in his groan. He stilled again, chest to chest with me, his forehead resting against mine. I felt every breath he took and every beat of his heart in those moments. Then he began to move again, slow and steady retreats and even more decadent plunges. I curled my arms around his neck, my legs around his hips. He shuddered as he rocked gently, and I found his mouth again as the crescendo of sensations began to build once more.
We moved together. Our lips. Our tongues. Hands. Hips. Slow, teasing, shorter and shallow thrusts gave way to longer, deeper ones. My legs and arms tightened around him. He moved faster. Harder. The friction of his chest against mine enflamed the fire in my blood and my core, and those embers…they hummed inside me as Nyktos’s skin began to harden against mine. Shadows gathered under his flesh, and as he lifted his head, streaks of eather filled the veins beneath his eyes. His features turned stark as he pounded into me, moving us up the bed as that tension tightened and tightened.
“Oh, gods,” I whispered, clutching the back of his neck. I called his name as the tension broke again, this time far more intense and all-consuming.
Because I heard the word he whispered against my lips in that harsh, raw voice as he shuddered, his hips churning against mine. The one word that caused the pleasure to roll on endlessly.
“Liessa.”
Chapter 22
Nyktos was gone when I woke but returned before I rose, almost as if he’d sensed that I’d awakened. He’d had a bath drawn for me and had breakfast ready when I finished. He’d been mostly silent throughout the meal—not distant or cold, just quiet, and I didn’t let myself dwell on the reasons for why he had little to say. Instead, as I got ready, I allowed myself to enjoy last night, focusing on what he’d shared about the Primals’ morality and the pleasure that had come afterward. I had so many more clothing options this morning and settled on a pair of laced leggings, a white blouse, and a black vest that had been tailored just for me. And I let myself enjoy that, too. Other than the wedding gown I loathed, everything else had been hand-me-downs. But not these. The clothing lining the wardrobe now belonged only to me, and that was a strangely empowering feeling that stayed with me as Nyktos and I left the palace to enter the mortal realm.
Despite what Nyktos had claimed that morning as he summoned Odin from his silver cuff, the steed was not over me holding a dagger to Nyktos’s throat.
Odin eyed me as if he were debating biting me as I approached him. That disposition hadn’t changed as we traveled the road I’d arrived in the Shadowlands on, but it hadn’t diminished my excitement as the Primal mist enveloped us.
I was going to see Ezra.
And I was about to see my lake.
Two things I’d feared never seeing again.
The white haze blotted out the realm as I tensed. I knew it would only be temporary, but the inability to see still filled me with unease.
Nyktos’s arm tightened around me. “Just a few more seconds,” he said, his voice soft against my temple.
I nodded, grasping the pommel of Odin’s saddle. Seconds, I reminded myself, and seconds was all it took for the haze to scatter, and for a stream of faint light to pierce the brief void of darkness that came afterward.