only way Cypress could fuck. Harsh and demanding. Rough. Bloody. Dirty sex with naughty words growled in my ear. I wondered if the world had sharpened him like a knife, and the only way he knew how to love was with the points of his teeth sinking into my creamy skin.
I was battered and bruised. He was everywhere. It was an intensity I craved and felt ashamed of. Vines and flowers bloomed around us as I wrapped my legs around his back, allowing him deeper.
He thrust. Again and again. It was brutal, but then it stopped. He wasn’t finished, neither was I, and I wasn’t sure what had made him cease. I stroked my hand down the side of his face. “Are you okay?”
“You’re so beautiful, and I don’t...I don’t know how to do this with you. I don’t know how…”
I kissed him, as gently as I could. “You can’t do this wrong. However you want me, is how I want you.”
“I don’t want to hurt you. I want to own you. And I know that’s wrong.”
I kissed him again. “In a perfect world, we could own each other. Let’s just take this moment. For now, on this roof, with you inside of me, we own each other.”
He nodded like that made sense to him. Maybe we were both mad in that moment. I gave him permission to own me. The thing was, it turned out that when Cypress owned something—or someone—he took beautiful care of them. Gone was the rush and the pain. In its place was gentleness I hadn’t expected. He moved more slowly, and the pleasure built up again, this time bringing tears to my eyes. Over and over but not in a rush, not in a way that he wanted to hurt me.
He shifted his hips to change how he drew out and pressed inside my body.
I didn’t understand how I’d come to care so deeply for someone so quickly. Maybe I’d been starved of affection for so long that I easily clung to someone. I craved connections because I’d been denied them most of my life. But I didn’t want to chalk this up to my brain’s way of seeking affection. This felt different. This felt meaningful and destined. I couldn’t explain it any other way.
Over and over we moved. He owned me in that moment, fucking me with relentless need deep within me. And when we came, it was a beautiful explosion of passion. I arched my back, my breath hitched, vines and flowers and moonlight glow burst to life around us as our hearts matched beat for beat.
And I was his.
Chapter Fifteen
“I’m so sorry you couldn’t stay last night. I hadn’t realized the toll this would take on you. Looking back, I realize that it was insensitive of us to expect you to be ready for socializing so soon.”
My mother spoke with practiced elegance before taking a bite of toast. The breakfast table was awkward and lonely without Cypress. We spent most of the night together, but he ended up disappearing before sunrise. I wanted him here, but I knew that I needed to make sense of this rocky relationship with my parents soon, and I couldn’t do that with my overprotective assassin hovering over me and glaring at them. He had a tendency to terrify everyone.
“Druids are social beings. We’d throw parties every day and night if our kingdom wouldn’t get exhausted,” my father interjected. “Community gathering is how we show affection. It’s how we celebrate and mourn. We crammed four thousand people in the ballroom for mutual mourning when you d-died,” he further explained.
I steeled my shoulders. “I am sorry that happened. Obviously, I’d have preferred that not to happen.” Although if I’d been raised in this house, who knew who I’d be right now. That was a thought for another time. “But I haven’t been raised a Druid. I don’t like social gatherings. Too many people in one place meant danger to me. And let’s not deny what was really going on here. You wanted to find me a husband, marry me off fast, and start over with a grandchild. That’s it, right?”
They looked at each other sharply. “Well...that’s what parents do.” My mother rubbed the back of her neck. “They arrange marriages for their adult children. That’s our job. You are well past the age of wanting to sit at home with a tutor. We missed all the years that you’d want to spend with us. Adult Druids go