She’d know. When I brought her to the edge, she’d know. When I kept her begging, she’d know. When I placed pressure on her clit, I knew she knew. We both fucking knew that she was mine, and mine alone.

She was mine, she was mine, she was mine. Mine to touch and mine to hold. Mine to make love to.

And I was utterly hers.

Chapter 26

ISAY

I DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING IN THE WORLD COULD FEEL THIS GOOD. I’d heard it said before about sex, but there’s a lot between someone saying it’s incredible and actually experiencing it for yourself.

I couldn’t even be mad at Karmuth for visiting Sela so often—every time he fed! —because if she made him feel like this, there were no losses in that deal he’d made. Not on his side. He’d also walked away from… from this. For me?

“Kar…” I breathed heavily, and he growled. Full name, he likes hearing his full name. “Kar—mmmh—uth,” I tried again.

He’d gotten me fully unhinged with his fingers. I was thrumming all over and not only where he’d touched me. I was shamelessly rubbing against his hand when he stopped to look at me with fire in his eyes.

“What about you? What can I do for you?” I whispered.

He stopped again, and there was more than fire in his eyes this time. He wanted something, all right. Could I figure it out on my own?

Self-consciously I let go of his hair I’d been gripping after he’d pulled off his shirt. He looked as good as Sela had declared, although he hadn’t posed for me in his pantless, shirtless state to get a full look.

With my hand now free, I trailed it across his muscled back until my fingers touched the band of his underwear.

My hand shook as I slid it down his side and in between us, all the while his eyes scorched me and turned my stomach to jelly. Was it normal to feel this nervous? With the jitters, something shifted within me, and the shroud of darkness surrounding my skin felt thinner. Panicking, I stilled my hand with my fingers looped around the band and took a frantic breath.

“Relax. You can do nothing wrong, I assure you.” Karmuth’s voice was deep and raspy and did nothing to ease my nerves.

The shield around me fluttered and pulled back towards my chest where it resided. I pushed at it, and it settled back into place, but stayed shaky at best. Not before I managed to get a thin strand of ecos, and part of mine trickled into him.

Karmuth’s breath hitched. “Isay, are you all right?”

I forced a smile. “Oh yeah. Totally. Just lapsed there for a second.”

Karmuth pried my fingers from around the fabric of his underwear and brought them to his lips. My cheeks heated in embarrassment.

I was contending with a sex goddess, and I wasn’t even able to get my hand further than his hips without freaking out.

“About not being able to do anything wrong,” I started, avoiding his eyes at all costs. “You still stand by that?”

He nodded. “I do.”

I wanted to try again what I’d started before, but Karmuth pulling my hand away did not leave me with a lot of confidence.

Without warning, he pinned it to the mattress above my head, and I couldn’t pull it away even if I tried. I didn’t try very hard. I left it at that and squirmed under the weight of his gaze.

“Let’s try something else,” Karmuth said, not bothered in the slightest by my little mishap earlier. “If you’ll allow me.”

My mouth dry, I nodded. Whatever he wanted, whatever he liked, I’d let him have it. Taking deep breaths, I focussed on the shield, trying to strengthen it to what it had been before we got tangled up.

It did not work. The darkness wanted more of Karmuth’s ecos. He tasted like sweet wine and exotic spices. Divine.

When I gave up on the barrier of darkness to see what Karmuth had in mind, I gasped. He’d removed his underwear. Kneeling between my legs he looked absolutely magnificent, and big. Very, very big.

Gripping himself, he looked straight at me with a hunger in his eyes before he slid his palm down the shaft. Mesmerised, I couldn’t look away from the way he pumped with his hand. His muscles tightened with each stroke.

Magnificent. Did I already say he was magnificent?

I was burning again. I couldn’t imagine wanting anything this bad, but seeing Karmuth pleasure himself I wanted to feel him on me, in me, instead of only his fingers. I wanted him to feel me instead of only his own grip.

Buckling my hips up to meet him where he hovered above me, I must’ve surprised him. His moving hand got between us and scraped across my heated skin before he moved it away and gave me what I wanted, but not before searching my face. For what exactly, I had no idea.

When his erection slid against my lower lips, he groaned, and a satisfied smile broke through my worry over the shield. He brought all my nerve endings on the edge again.

“Heavens, Isay, you feel so good,” Karmuth groaned again, slipping between the folds with a pressure that made me gasp.

He met my mouth as if to devour the sound just like he was going to devour me while his length pulled back and the pressure lessened. Only until he pushed again, earning another gasp as he slid even deeper this time.

“Is that what you wanted, beautiful?” Karmuth croaked.

I whimpered my consent.

With slow, deliberate movements that ignited flares of fire, Karmuth completely consumed all of my rational thought.

I gripped his shoulders for dear life, panting until he hit a spot that flooded my senses anew and a different sound escaped my lips. He slid out and back in, reaching for the same spot and I moaned louder, gasping for air as he decided we should do a repeat of this several more times.

“Karmuth, you’re… this is... Oh my…” I wanted to tell him what he was doing to me, what he made me feel.

The overwhelming waves of pure ecstasy coursing through our contact and running across my entire body... Each time he moved, everything intensified. Each time he pushed himself in, faster now, I burned hotter. So hot. So hot. So incredibly hot. And he wasn’t stopping, nor did I want him to.

His head dropped to the crook of my neck as his hips kept up the maddening pace. In a tortured voice, he rasped into my ear words I thought I misheard. “I am so in love with you, Isay.”

That’s when I lost it. The sensations, overwhelming and powerful, completely on the edge of what was possible to feel and with his words running through my head, I lost all control. The shield retracted fully, pulled into my chest, formed into the now strangely familiar spikes and crushed into Karmuth who moaned in oblivion.

I tasted him through the barbs while everywhere he touched drew power from me. He pushed into me again, with a desperate force while he gripped my body tight to his. I contorted and exploded. He followed immediately.

I was still burning, but the sensation was different. My body went limp while shivers kept running across my skin and Karmuth’s life force rushed through the barbs filling a different ache. His body slackened on top of mine; I was killing him. I was drawing on his ecos the way I did in the club, and I was killing him.

Karmuth drew a deep breath and pushed himself up on his elbows, looking down on me with droopy eyes.

He did not appear concerned. One hand on my cheek, the other supporting his weight, he gave me a sly smile. That’s when I realised his contact was pulling from my life the same way I was pulling from him.

“Beautiful, it seems we’ve gotten ourselves into somewhat of a pickle.”

Chapter 27

KARMUTH