I cry out now, needy and mindless. By the Creator, the angels surely dipped the man’s fingers in an extra pool of magic. The things he does to me with them. The dark, perfect desires they elicit…
“I love your little cries, woman,” he utters into my hair. “But none of them have contained a proper yes.”
My throat twists on a frustrated sound. He cannot expect more. Not right now. Not with all the quivering, amazing sensations he keeps spreading through my body…the stars in my skin, the fire in my breaths, the lighting in my womb…the thunder in my thoughts. I can barely think, let alone speak.
“Ella.”
“Yes.” I finally force it out. “Yes, dammit. I need you like this too.”
His mouth finds mine again. The rolling movement makes me open, expecting a tender expression of his thanks, but that is when he reminds me of one key fact.
Warriors do not care about etiquette.
The thought crashes in as his lips do. He plunges brutally, takes thoroughly—claims every doubt from my mind about what his soul needs, as well as his body. A return to control. A renewal of power. A reaffirmation of life. A rededication to the magic we have together. The power we make together.
“Oh.” The revelation strikes in a rush, rushing the word up from my heart despite the fuzz in my head. “Oh…Cassian.” I re-anchor my hands to the sculpted mounds of his shoulders. The motion is more than just physical. I need him to see—to know—that now more than ever, he is my strength. My inspiration. My beacon, illuminating the path out of the cynicism and distrust with which I have lived so long. In helping him heal, I am finding a new way to live. To love.
“Yes.”
The new whisper is not just for him. It is an affirmation to the truth in my heart. “Yes…please…”
“Ella.” His rasp vibrates through him. He has heard the change in my voice. Understands it.
“Take me.” I stab his biceps with my nails. “And let me take you too.”
He re-latches his hold to my buttocks. Secures me higher against the wall, pinning me in place…preparing me to receive the full force of his pleasure. I shiver and let him feel it. Gasp and let him hear it. Level my head so he can see fully into my eyes—and know how he can claim every inch of my body—but in return, I want every ounce of his pain.
Because together, we shall turn it into something beautiful.
*
Cassian
This. Hurts.
Two words that wouldn’t even be a flash in my mind, if my dick has the sole vote in the matter. Everything between my legs, from the tightness in my balls to the weight of my shaft, powers straight into the hell yes zone, flexing and ready and aching in all the best ways possible.
This, right here, is the best part of any fuck. Staring down at a woman spread and wet for me…open and compliant for me…under my complete command…
But this isn’t any other fuck.
Ella Santelle isn’t any other woman.
And I know, once my body slides fully inside hers, it is only the beginning of my unraveling. The first layer of many she’ll rip free from the cells of my being, until I’m only a collection of naked nuclei, again showing her everything I am…everything the world doesn’t get to see. Everything I haven’t even seen, in so damn long, that I have no idea what it’ll look like. But I sure as shit remember what it feels like.
It’s going to hurt.
Even more than it does now.
“Cassian. Please.”
Goddamn, it’s going to hurt.
But denying her is like refusing to breathe. The fabric of my flesh has been created for hers. Every drop of my sweat has been chemically calibrated to her scent. Every tremble of her body becomes an earthquake in mine. She is my custom-created gift from the universe. The other side of me.
The perfect parts of me.
I choose that perfection now. Follow it as the light to reach at the end of this terror, letting it beam through my mind and guide my body.
A couple of shoves at my pants, and my cock is free. A pump of my fist, lubricating my length with the hot liquid at my tip, and I am ready. Holy fuck, beyond ready.
Yeah, for all of it.
Even the pain.
Though at the moment, only pleasure is my ruler.
“Fuck.” It erupts from my locked teeth, as her sheath closes over me. Draws me into her tight core, kneading my dick until