Page 153 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“Then saddle up, sweetheart,” he murmured over my mouth, and then flipped us over so I was straddling him. Holding onto my waist, he guided his cock inside of me again and pushed me down on it until my hips were flush against his and he was fully buried in me. He hissed. “Fuck.”

“In a second,” I whimpered against all my effort to keep my voice steady, bracing myself on his stomach to catch my breath. My whole body shook from the fullness.

Malik chuckled, pushing my hair out of my face to gather them at the back with one hand. “All good up there?”

“Yeah, the view is spectacular. But, man, it was a climb,” I breathed, leaning back and rocking myself on his cock.

“Mhm, I bet,” he crooned, his hands trailing down my shoulders, grazing my breast and then my stomach until they rested on my hips as I started to ride him just a little faster. “Fuck, look at that.” He grinned as he watched where we joined, all so pleased with himself. “So eagerly bouncing on my cock.”

I did so myself, watching his chest rise and fall faster, watching him struggle to keep himself silent. Then watching him lose that battle.

He groaned, grabbing my hips hard to keep me from moving. “Oh, fuck. Fuck, I’m going to come just watching your tight little cunt filled with my cock.”

Leaning in to give him a little kiss, I said, “I can blindfold you.”

“Too late, I already have the image of me balls deep inside you ingrained in my eyelids.” His fingers dug through my hair, and he fisted the back, one hand holding me there and the arm banded around my waist as he thrusted from under me. “I could draw it with my eyes closed but I fear I’d do it a terrible injustice.”

“You’re a real pig.”

“Really rich of you to say with all nine inches of me inside you.”

I flushed. “Idiot.”

He chuckled, sucking on my neck and palming my breasts until they moulded to his touch. “Mhm. Fuck my cock like you mean it, sweetheart,” he groaned, and then reached to fist my hair again so he could pull me down for another kiss that took away what little breath there was left in my lungs. “That’s it,” he coaxed, meeting my pace with his own thrusts, the sounds of our fucking growing wetter. “Look how good you take it. Hells, you take it so well. Your cunt was made for me.”

“I–I can’t,” I moaned, my body shaking and no longer feeling my own. He was going to break me one of these days.

“Time’s up then,” he said, rolling me under him again. He pushed up to his haunches and then braced his hands on top of my thighs so he could thrust in me hard enough to make the bed release some ugly whining noises. Then he looked down at me like some dark, tattooed god who owned every single one of my prayers. “I’m going to tattoo my name just above here,” he said, spitting on his fingers and rubbing them on my sensitive core as he kept relentlessly fucking me.

My sight grew hazy, rapture pooling in my belly and making my body quiver. “Ah—Malik, I’m coming.”

He didn’t stop. Only pound inside me faster, more hurriedly, as a blinding wave a pleasure crashed and cascaded through my worn-out body.

Just as the spell of pleasure was about to faint, he pulled out from me and fisted his cock until his come spilled over my sex, covering my skin. “That,” he breathed, pushing the thick head of his cock back inside my sore sex. “I could fucking paint that.” Leaning in, he kissed me breathless again, slowly rocking his hips in shallow thrusts, prolonging my torture. “On a canvas. A massive one we could hang up on our bed.”

“Pig.”

“Mhm.” He hugged me to his chest like it was the most normal thing for us to do. Not like we were two people who touched only at the end of the world. Or two people who had such a complicated relationship with touch. With him, it was the most mundane yet exhilarating thing I’d experienced.

He just hugged me. My heart on his. No words said. None were needed to say. We stood there for a while, him on top of me, braced on his arms so he wouldn’t squish me, and I held onto his waist like I’d never held anything else before it.

I could have said it right then.

Right at that moment.

But I didn’t. I’d fallen asleep.

I’d told him in my dreams instead.

That I loved him.

I threw my head back and laughed at the thousandth silly things Malik had spouted this morning alone. It was barely past dawn, barely even sunrise, yet none of us had the slightest desire to even get back to sleep so we’d asked for some food to snack on since we were both drained. Then we’d gossiped like two ladies at Rose Court. We’d badmouthed everyone from Adriata to Isjord. He knew everyone’s secrets. But I was the only one who knew his.

He leaned back on his armchair, somewhat dressed if you considered the corner of a sheet he had thrown over his hips after I’d asked him to—begged almost. Did nothing to hide his huge appendage, but it certainly sort of kept my eyes off it.

Picking another grape, I threw it at his mouth, and he caught it like the professional he was, flashing me a proud grin as he chewed on it. “Come here,” he said, patting his naked thigh. “This distance thing was a stupid idea.”

“It was not,” I said, wrapping the sheet tightly around my body and waddling to him. “I can’t take it anymore.”