Page 224 of The Edge of Darkness

I claimed her lips with mine. She opened for me, meeting me with every greedy stroke of her tongue. Both our mugs fell to the floor, shattering, and then I was hauling her onto my lap and ripping the threadbare gown she was wearing. She found my erection and moaned against my mouth as she spread her knees and positioned me at her entrance.

I pushed into her, driving my hips up until I was fully seated inside. I gave her only a moment to adjust before I slid my forearms under her thighs, gripped the flesh of her backside, and moved her up and down on me at a pace that had her tipping her head back in ecstasy.

The porcelain-smooth skin of her exposed neck beckoned for me to kiss, suck, taste. So I indulged. I caught the skin of her neck between my teeth and left my mark.

“Gods, I love the way you take me,” I breathed.

Her only response was a whimper as I filled her up, thrust by thrust. She dug her fingers into my back and rolled her hips, chasing release, but I slowed her movements, keeping a pace that drove her mad.

“You’ll come when I say you can,” I growled, tugging at her long hair until she met my stare.

Her brows gathered as she relaxed into my grip, savoring the slight sting that bit into her scalp. She nodded as best she could, drawing her lower lip between her teeth.

If I could, I wouldn’t give her body a break. I would keep us here all day and claim her over and over again until she begged me to stop, which would be quite the reward, considering I didn’t think she was the type to beg for anything.

Her core began tightening. Release was building. But I wasn’t going to let her have it just yet. I stood, lifting her off of me as I turned, then I placed her on the bed and threw her legs apart. I sank to my knees on the floor before her, hauling her to the edge of the mattress and dipping between her thighs. The moment my tongue met her soft, wet flesh, she arched off the bed.

Heaven. She tasted like heaven, and I didn’t want to stop.

Her breaths became quick and shallow as I worked my tongue between her folds and sucked at the sensitive bundle of nerves at her apex. She was so swollen with need; I knew she wouldn’t last much longer.

With one last drag of my tongue, I lifted my head, denying her that wave of rapturous pleasure once more. She let out an exasperated groan and her eyes met mine. Glazed with lust and wild need, and something much more tender, she looked at me, silently begging.

Say it, Nivelle. Tell me what you want. Beg for it.

I licked her sweet essence off my lips, taunting her with the movement. Her mouth quivered, her own tongue dancing behind her lips as she sought the words she wanted to say.

Tell me.

Then . . . I heard her whisper, and my heart forgot how to beat.

“I need you.”

Three words—a shot straight to my heart. From the way she said it, I knew she meant more than in just the physical sense. If anyone was going to disguise an admission of their true feelings within a statement made in the midst of desire, it would be her. The tactic was easy for me to spot, because I would have done the same thing.

Fuck, she even operated the same as me.

“I need you,” she urged again, and that heartfelt plea latched onto a place so deep in my soul that I became ravenous.

I rose above her and grabbed her hips again. “I’m yours,” I said. When I drove back inside her in one smooth push, it was like a jolt of lightning splintered through my body. Every nerve ending prickled.

Nivelle seized me, wrapping her legs around me and pulling me closer.

I didn’t restrain myself this time. A sound erupted from my throat, followed by another, and another as I rode into her. Skin slapped against skin, and I reached a spot so deep in her that she cried out, clenched, and came undone. Her eyes met mine, and the tension that had built so strongly in my core suddenly unraveled. My release shot forth in powerful bursts. Her pupils flared, and she gripped my thighs, moaning as I spent every last drop inside her.

When the pulsing abated, I captured her mouth again, breathing heavily in between each kiss, desperate to claim every inch of her. She didn’t let go. Her legs tightened, so I let my hips sink onto hers, remaining joined as I savored every push and pull of her lips.

At last, I tore away and looked at her again. Her eyes were closed, and when she opened them, they flared with blue light. Then she smiled, fully, and as I committed it to memory, my own expression sobered.

“What?” she asked, tilting her head at my reaction.

“You don’t do that enough.”

“Smile?”

I nodded.

“I know.” She smiled again.