me,” she said. Diel’s body stilled at the request. He searched her eyes for any sign of hesitation, but her autumnal gaze was solid and strong, and he once again saw that Noa had returned. The pink-haired witch who tamed monsters. The fucked-up heart who had been made to match his.
Noa reached up to the straps of her bra and pulled them down, pushing the cups aside until her breasts were freed. Diel’s heart boomed like thunder. She was perfection. Scarred and branded perfection. She clutched the back of his head and, following her silent instruction, he brought his mouth to her nipple and ran his tongue around the tip. Her sweet taste burst on his tongue, and he never wanted to taste anything else.
Diel groaned loudly as he lapped at her skin. Noa’s strong legs tightened around his waist and her head fell back, a high-pitched moan soaring into the domed ceiling above them. A motherfucking ecstatic war cry against the evil men who had tried to keep them pushed down. This was an act of rebellion, and the thought only drove him on further. Noa’s hands clutched at his hair, and Diel treasured the burn, the pain and the pleasure and the throbbing of his cock.
He sucked her nipple into his mouth, then released the flesh and moved to her other breast. Noa’s head lowered as he looked up, his hips bucking forward in need. Her eyes were half closed, filled with need too. Making sure he heard every word, she repeated, “Take me.”
This time there was no doubt, no fucked-up past causing them to pause or shake or tremble. It was just them. Noa loosened her legs from around his waist and placed her feet on the ground. He looked down as she unbuttoned her leather pants. His breathing was labored, but he was transfixed. Her long fingers pulled down the zipper, slowly, driving him fucking insane.
Diel lifted his hands and placed them on the wall on either side of Noa’s head. The world didn’t exist right then. The folly faded away to nothing. This was their small piece of paradise, and Diel never wanted to leave it.
She pushed down the leather, taking her panties with it. Her boots came off next, and she stood back up and faced him. The minute her pussy was bared to his eyes, a long growl tore out of his throat. He had wanted this so badly. Ever since the monster had seen Noa in the tunnels, he had wanted to own her, possess her, fuck her. The monster had recognized the determination and grit that existed inside her when the man had been blinded by fear and self-preservation.
Noa pushed her pants to the floor, kicking them away. She held her head high, naked in more than flesh before him, her ruined skin a roadmap of survivor beauty.
It was the most beautiful sight Diel had ever been privileged to see.
Noa’s chest rose and fell as she waited for him to act, to respond to her revealing all of herself. He lowered his arms from the wall and wrapped them around her waist. Noa’s breath caught in her throat at the skin-on-skin contact, and Diel had to pause. He splayed his hands on her back, his fingers roving over her body.
His head ticked to the side, the habit too ingrained to shake. Noa lifted her hands, and with the softest of movements, she pressed them onto his chest. His muscles jerked under her warm palms. His eyes rolled closed and he took in several deep breaths. She was touching him. Noa was touching him. He never thought he could have this. He never believed he could want this.
But … Noa.
Noa had come along, and his wrecked and split soul had allowed her to tear him apart and rebuild him into something stronger. Someone stronger. Who he must have been before Purgatory. No memories before that hellhole had resurfaced, of his childhood before Holy Innocents. But this … this whole and entire being was who he must have been before that. Before they tore him in two in the name of a God Diel was sure would despise them.
Noa’s hands journeyed down his torso, taking him out of his head, until they landed on the waist of his jeans. Diel opened his eyes. Noa was watching him. She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his. He breathed in her lavender-and-sweet-musk scent, letting it seep into his bones. An elixir. A tonic for