Pure Requiem - Aja James Page 0,39
flock of startled birds at her knowing, needy touch.
She squeezes my buttocks hard enough to make me grunt, and keeps her hands there while she stretches up a little to bite a tendon in my neck.
“I need a distraction from the darkness of my tale,” she admits huskily. “You don’t mind being my distraction, do you?”
In response, I lift one of her thighs so that I can notch my erection against her core, aligning our bodies where she needs me the most. Even through our clothes, her wetness and heat drench me, begging me to plow inside her and stake my claim.
I move to pull down our clothes to do just that, to give her what she needs, to give her my strength, but for once she stops me. She wraps one leg around my hip to keep my sex pressed tight against hers, as she also keeps her hands filled with my ass.
“Not yet,” she whispers. “Not here. I have plans for you. But I’m not done with my story.”
“Go on, then,” I encourage her softly.
“One day, I don’t know how, I managed to save enough strength to transform into my kitten form just as a little girl walked by my cage. She had blonde hair just like I imagined our daughter would. I wasn’t planning any heroic escape; even if I had the strength, I didn’t have the spirit. I just wanted to make her smile when she came closer and said ‘pretty kitty.’”
Ishtar tucks her face into the crook of my neck and sighs.
It’s a sigh of relief, for I gather that this is the point in her story where things start to get better. It’s a sigh, too, for the comfort of being able to share her story with someone.
With me.
“She pets me through the bars of the cage, her small hand and arm able to fit between the metal. It was just a few moments of reprieve. But it was enough to remind me that there is still innocence and kindness in the world. She went away after that, and I never thought I’d see her again. Many days later, or perhaps it was weeks, she came back one night with keys. She opened my cage and set me free.”
I breathe in deeply my own breath of relief and kiss the top of her head, then her temples.
Her body relaxes against me, no longer tense as a board. It was difficult for her to share her tale, but she did it bravely.
Does she expect me to do the same?
“After that, I spent countless years in my animal form, living truly like a wild beast in the mountains. But I was free. I was alone, as well. And I was lonely. I’ve never been on my own before. I’ve never spent so long in my animal form before. Things weren’t easy, but at the same time, they were easier than life spent as a Dark One. I had less emotions in my animal form. Less troubling thoughts. Slowly, I regained my strength. And, well…the rest you kind of already know.”
I kiss her mouth gently, chastely.
“Thank you for telling me,” I rumble low.
“Thank you for hearing me,” she responds readily. “It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it’d be. You still love me as you always have, right?”
“I love you more.”
She smiles against my mouth and kisses me less chastely this time, licking the seam of my lips with her tongue.
“Will you let me love you back?” she whispers, her voice laden with desire and need. “Will you let me have all of you, Tal? Even the darkness and the pain?”
I take a deep breath and brace myself.
We’ve come so far. I do not want to let her down. I will not let my demons win.
“Yes,” I decide with finality. Irrevocably.
“Then come with me,” she entreats, pulling away from my body and taking my hand in hers.
“Where are we going?” I ask, my heart thumping with a strange anticipation.
“To our garden,” she answers, leading me up the winding spiral staircase that exits to our private rooftop.
“Where we can be free.”
Chapter Nine: If This Love Is Pain, Let’s Hurt Tonight
*TAL*
It is already autumn in New York City, but this evening, the air is unseasonably warm. I can smell the clean scent of humidity; the clouds are burgeoning with rain.
As Ishtar and I exit through the private door to our secluded rooftop garden, I inhale deeply the exotic mix of fragrances therein.
A small patch of paradise in this