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He lost his patience when I moved to shuck my jeans; he pounced on me, it was the only word for it. His body caged me against the mattress, one hand yanking on my pants, the other pinning me by the shoulder into the soft surface. His mouth collided with mine, claiming, marauding, conquering. That kiss wasn’t just pleasure, it was a claim. I was out of my mind if I thought that this one-night stand was going to be any more than that.
Soon, we were both naked, our bodies tangling in the sheets the same way our tongues were dueling. I felt his cock pressed against my belly like a brand, hot, slick with his desire. That same desire was mirrored in me, wetting my passage, dripping onto my thighs. When he yanked my leg around his hip, I was so ready for him to drive into me that I ached.
Our gazes locked as his cock pressed against my core, a heat blazing from him that warmed every part of me. We froze in place, hovering on that edge for a long, drawn-out second. That pause could mean a million things, a chance for me to tell him to stop, a chance to tell him to keep going. What I saw in that gaze made me feel owned, owned by a beast. My spine tingled with a hint of warning, instincts that told me I might not be as safe, or in control, as I thought I was.
A feral growl rumbled from his chest when his hips punched forward. His cock sank into me, stretching, burning. It was an ache that quickly transformed into a languid heat that made my body melt around him. He wasn’t gentle, but an answering wildness rose in me to greet his claim. My legs spread, heels digging into his ass, and silky feathers brushed against my ankles.
He thrust forward, sinking deeper, and he accompanied the shift of his hips with a dip of his head. When his mouth found mine, my heart melted, just like my body had. That kiss was soft and gentle while he plundered my core, a dichotomy that made me feel loved as well as pleasured. That was more crazy thinking; I was utterly insane.
Our bodies danced together, the pleasure ratcheting tighter and tighter until it shattered and spiraled. The orgasm was swift andsudden, winging through my flesh like fire. My core clenched and spasmed around his thick invasion, and he growled, the sound vibrating in the air between us. His eyes flamed, his jaw clenched, and I knew he was staving off his pleasure, frozen in place above me.
“You can come,” I said, my voice a rough whisper. I wasn’t sure where that gentle offer came from, just that it felt like he was fighting to hold back, to keep himself in check. “I’m on the pill,” I added, even though I didn’t know if that mattered in this case. We weren’t the same species after all.
I wasn’t sure if I’d said the right thing when his body went tighter than a bowstring. Flames danced in the corners of my eyes; they dripped from his wings and rose along his back. It seemed the entire bed around me was ablaze, but only a gentle warmth bathed my body from all sides. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his jaw jutted as he gritted his teeth. He was fighting it, I didn’t want him to.
My fingers stroked along his cheek, a soft, gentle brush. It felt like I was touching a hot stone, but he suddenly snapped into motion. “Not yet,” he growled, answering my earlier offer. “Not yet,” he repeated, and then he trailed a finger along my collarbone and left a blaze of sparks in its wake. When he stroked my nipple, it was like a life wire straight to my clit. I moaned shamelessly, twisting and thrashing beneath him. “You first,” he demanded.
This second climb to an orgasm was different, more intense. He wasn’t taking this time, as amazing as that had felt before. No, all his focus was on my pleasure now, on wringing every last drop of it from my body. His finger trailed down my belly to locate myclit, his hips pumping in tandem with the motions of his hand. I felt like I was the center of his entire world as if we were sharing more than just pleasure with each other.
When the second orgasm crested, it broke like a wave. My body went soft and limp around him, stars blinded my vision, and for a drawn-out moment, I thought I’d meltedintohim. Bound to him, forever. Tears stung my eyes when he groaned my name and followed me over the edge with a rough stutter of his hips.
We didn’t say a word when he curled himself above me, gathering me tenderly in his arms. I’d never been held like that after sex, and that broke something inside me as much as that profound feeling of coming with him had. I wasn’t going to be the same when I left in the morning.
Chapter 9
Lucius
I held Ava against my chest, our sweat-slicked bodies sticking together. Wetness coated her thighs, and our scents combined with those of sex in a heady mixture. I should get up to clean us, but I couldn’t seem to make my arms unlock from around her. That was a problem that should have gone away after our love-making, but it didn’t. Love-making—why was I even calling it that? It was sex, fucking, and tomorrow she’d be gone. Gone forever.
My chest grew tight thinking about the coming dawn, usually my favorite time of the day. I didn’t want her to leave, but what did I have to offer? I was cursed, doomed. The witch that had done it had long since died, and her bones had crumbled to dust by the passage of time. I didn’t know how to break the curse, and I’d been too angry to find out before she’d died. My life was marked by stupid mistakes; I couldn’t pull a fragile, beautiful woman like Ava into my mess.
Her long, sable-colored hair lay in waves over my pillows; it drew my eyes. It taunted me to reach out so I could brush it, feel how soft it was. She wasn’t asleep, but she was resting against my chest with complete trust. It was humbling to realize how brave she was, and how willing she was to reach out and grab hold of what she wanted with both hands. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that a human would trust me, given my appearance. It wasn’tjustthe curse that kept me holed up inside my fortified home.
Eventually, I forced my arms to slide away. She had to be getting uncomfortable, and that was the incentive I needed to create distance. I slipped from the bed to the sound of her sleepy groan and mumbled protests. My wings snapped against my spine in a tight knot of tangled muscles, muscles that fought my control to complete this task. Everything in me craved to stay at her side.
The bathroom was a welcome escape, and I rushed to splash my face with cold water, water that evaporated into steam as soon as it touched my heated flesh. I glanced at the shower, wondering if I shouldn’t duck beneath a cold stream of water to cool myself down. No, I couldn’t keep her waiting, it was selfish if I didn’t care for her first.
My hands trembled when I grabbed a washing cloth and wet it under the tap. Ziv appeared on the counter, perching royally on a stack of clean towels with his fluffy black tail wrapped around his paws. His golden eyes glowed accusingly my way, and the crescent-shaped mark on his chest was glowing too, a mark of his power. “I know,” I said to him under my breath. “I know. But I can’t keep her. You know I can’t. It wouldn’t be right…”
I spun on my heel before my cat’s stare could swallow me whole. Ducking into the bedroom in a hurry, my feet carrying me to Ava’s side. She’d rolled over and taken the tip of a sheet to cover her side and chest, but she’d carefully avoided staining my sheets with the sticky mess on her thighs. The sight of her, and of the mess we’d created together, made my blood grow hot again, and my cock responded. Then she gave me a soft, inviting smile and I was lost. How could I possibly resist my mate?
What was meant to be a quick, thorough, but ultimately objective cleaning, turned sensual in a heartbeat. Her soft moanunleashed the beast inside of me, and damn it, why would she surrender to that so willingly? When I swapped the washing cloth for my tongue, lapping at her folds like a dying man, she clung to my feather-covered shoulders.
She shattered for me when I curled my fingers into her passage, her muscles clenching around my fingers like they had earlier around my cock. I wanted that again. I wanted that so badly that my control of my flames started to slip. They curled from my wings, dancing in the air around us, and that woman… My Ava was entranced rather than scared.
“If we only have tonight,” she murmured. “We’d better make the most of it. Don’t we?” That invitation was all I needed to sink myself into her welcoming heat and stoke the passion spiraling between us all over again. Yes, I needed to pack as many memories as I could into this one night, because it was going to have to sustain me for a long time to come.
We came together, the pleasure rushing through me so fast and hard that it caught me by surprise. I tumbled forward, landing on my fists, and only barely preventing crushing her beneath me. She reached up a small hand, stroked along my cheek, and pressed a kiss to my mouth so tenderly that I felt owned. This woman, I belonged to her now. What had I done?
I should be filled with regrets, worry, and fear for her future and mine. But when a little while later we lay curled together, clean, warm, and sleepy, all I felt was happy. That happiness tricked me into talking when I should have kept my secrets close to my chest; I shouldn’t burden her with them. At the same time, I wanted to know all of hers, and I hadn’t forgotten that she’d avoided an explanation of why she was hunted by shifters.
“You’re my first visitor in a very long time,” I whispered in the dark. I’d dimmed the fire and nipped out the candles a short while ago, and now a pleasant twilight ruled inside my chambers. At the foot of the bed, Ziv’s golden eyes were slits as he fought against sinking into a deep sleep. I could feel the warm weight of him against my ankle. “Without Ziv,” I heard myself say, “I would have gone crazy from loneliness. Maybe I did anyway. We shouldn’t have done this, it was selfish of me.”
Selfishness was exactly why I’d been cursed by that witch in the first place. She’d accused me of it when I’d refused to vanquish her foes, foes that had put her in mortal danger. Her curse had been cast on the heels of my refusal, and the next day she’d been dead, killed by those who hunted her. It was agonizingly similar to Ava’s situation, except Ava wasn’t even a witch with magic to defend herself.
“Why don’t you have visitors?” Ava asked quietly, a sad note in her voice that came awfully close to pity. I didn’t want her pity, but itwasa pitiful existence. Only the advent of technology had broken me out of some of my solitude, bringing with it business opportunities and contact with someone like Aries. I’d never met my assistant in person, but I knew he was a good man—one who broke the silence when it became too much, even for me.
“Because I’m cursed,” I admitted. “A phoenix is supposed to be the truest of immortals that roam this Earth. If mortally wounded, we burst into flame and are reborn. Nothing can truly end us. Except that curse… It took away my ability to be reborn in flame. I can die because of that curse.”
