Page 220 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

He rested his forehead on mine and let out a sigh. “I always liked the sun. My favourite colour was yellow. I liked the warmth of the day, the blue of the skies, meadows with daisies. The night sky was a wonder, but one that I didn’t adore with fascination only with respect. Being born as an Obscur I’d offended Henah plenty, I am sure of it. But I’d made my father disappointed. The same disappointment he took out on Driada and Mal. So I forced myself to be good at it.”

Always the sacrifice. The way he put others first made me admire and loathe him at the same time. “How?”

“I stayed in it. I stayed in the dark. All sorts of dark. Rooms. My own head. Dungeons. Alone. Alone with death, the dying, the dead.”

“When you say death, the dying, the dead—”

“Exactly what you’re thinking.”

“Why?”

“You cannot learn from books what you can experience yourself, the range of dying can teach you just how many shades of death there are. There is no spectrum big enough to fit that.”

“How long did you do that for?”

“For days. Weeks. At some point for months. And when I came out of the dark, the dark was all I knew. I’d mastered it. Pulled it by strings. I found peace in it too, it became comforting. It grew like a symbiote, no longer something I could pull out of the spiritual—it was already in me. I learned to become it, create it, use it, force it into submission. Mould it to the shape that I wanted it to be used. I studied all those before me and I fixed all their mistakes. Eventually there was no mistake to correct. And I became the man who summons night in the middle of day.”

When my eyes dropped from his, he hooked a finger under my chin and demanded my attention back at him. “Did I bore you?”

“You can never bore me, Adriatian.”

He bit his smile back. “Because I play with you?”

“Because you’re the game I can never seem to stop playing.”

He nudged my nose with his. “It looks like I fuck all the compliments out of you.”

I wanted to kiss that smirk away. I wanted to kiss his scars and pain away, too. I wanted to kiss him.

From the way he returned my gaze, it looked like he wanted to do the same.

Shifting around, I spun to cradle his lap, rocking my hips against his length till he hardened under me. I kissed a path up his neck, tasting every inch of his flower-scented skin, and he hummed, trailing gentle touches up my spine that turned to a burning lick of pleasure.

I lifted my hips and reached between us to palm his length before slowly lowering myself down on him, taking as much of him as I could. Sweet hells.

He leaned back on the bath, his head cocked back and arms sprawled wide as he watched me ride him with a stupid smirk on his face. I slowly rose up and down his length, my body shuddering when my hips grinded against his to reach that spot inside of me that sent every sensation in my body pounding with warmth.

“You’re killing me, woman,” he groaned, his head dropping back, eyes shut as took him ever so slowly—gently. Only so I could see that tortured look on his face. Lips, tongue, teeth and fingers, I teased and marked each inch of his body while I took him.

And just when the man started groaning, whimpering and struggling to breathe like I was holding him prisoner, I rested my palms on his chest and rode him harder, the pleasure making my sighs turn to loud moans that grew and echoed louder in the massive bathroom.

His hands slipped down my hips and his own pushed forward. I gasped when his cock sunk deeper into me. “Tie your legs on my waist.”

I did as told.

He faded us out of the bath, lowering me to the sink as he started pounding in me like a starved man. “You make me crave torture,” he rasped in my ear, his hand weaving through my hair, tugging back so he could lower his mouth to my neck. “Sweet, flowery torture.” His teeth dug into my flesh, pleasure melded with a bite of pain and pleasure rolled through me, my thighs quivering. “Look at you coming all over my cock. So fucking pretty.”

He didn’t stop, nor slow. He thrust harder. And harder. The sounds of our bodies meeting one another grew erratic. Prolonging my release till it joined his.

We both heaved, holding one another till long after. This was madness. Absolute madness. I liked madness. And I think we were both a little mad ourselves.

He pushed a few wet trends away from my face and grabbed my jaw, smiling down at me and breathing hard. “Are we okay?”

Light-headed and breathless, I nodded and looked between us where we were still joined.

He pulled out, and his come dripped out, too. “If you could only look at my face with that much fascination.”

There was not enough energy for me to bite out a snarky reply. “Funny, aren’t you?” I tried to slide down from the sink, underestimating the shake on my legs as I almost ended up collapsing had he not hoisted me in his arms and back in the bath.