Page 45 of Something Worth Keeping
“And you won’t hurt me.” Julian tugged him closer, close enough that Cillian could feel the heat radiating from his skin and taste the confidence in his scent. “Show me what you actually want. All of it. That’s what I want.”
Cillian couldn’t deny Julian anything. His shadows surged forward, stripping Julian’s clothes. Fabric tore. Julian gasped, not in fear but in anticipation, his pupils dilating as Cillian’s true nature manifested around them. The darkness pooled across the bed, wrapping around Julian’s wrists and ankles, spreading him open.
“Tell me if it’s too much.” Cillian’s voice had dropped into octaves that would make lesser beings flee. His human form rippled, unable tomaintain full cohesion when his mate had aroused him to the point of pain.
“It won’t be.” Julian tugged against the shadows holding his wrists. They wouldn’t yield, and for some reason, that made Julian smile. “You’re stalling.”
After seeing everything in life and more beyond, his infuriating, brilliant human still managed to surprise him. Cillian shed his own clothes, letting his form blur further. He wasn’t his fully void-shape, but no one looking at him could call him human. His skin absorbed light. His eyes multiplied. The shadows extending from his body became indistinguishable from the ones pinning Julian to the bed.
Julian’s breath caught, but his gaze remained steady. Cataloging. Always cataloging. “Fascinating,” he murmured.
Something in Cillian’s chest cracked open. He descended on Julian like a storm, claiming his mouth with enough force to bruise. Julian opened for him immediately, tongue meeting Cillian’s with equal aggression. No hesitation. Just raw want that burned through their bond until Cillian couldn’t tell where his hunger ended and Julian’s began.
The shadows caressed every inch of exposed skin, mapping territory they’d been desperate to claim. Wrapping around Julian’s throat - not squeezing, just present - a constant pressure that made Julian arch into it. They slid across his chest, circling his nipples until he groaned into Cillian’s mouth, while still more tendrils spread along Julian’s inner thighs, holding him open.
“You have too many of them,” Julian panted when Cillian released hismouth to bite down on his neck. “I can’t…can’t track…”
“Don’t track. Feel.”
Cillian punctuated the command with a tendril curling around Julian’s cock, stroking with the same rhythm as the shadow teasing his entrance. It was clear Julian’s analytical mind tried to catalog the sensations for approximately three seconds before surrendering. His head fell back, throat bared in unconscious submission that made every possessive instinct in Cillian howl with satisfaction.
“Mine.” The word came out layered, echoing from the void. Cillian sealed it against Julian’s collarbone with teeth, tasting salt and something sweeter - the essence of a beacon, bright enough to burn. “Say it.”
“Yours.” Julian rolled his hips, seeking more friction. “But that makes you mine too.”
“Yes.” Cillian moved lower, shadows maintaining their relentless exploration while his mouth traced Julian’s ribs, his hipbones, the junction of thigh and groin. “Always. From the moment you looked at me and didn’t run.”
He closed his mouth around Julian’s cock without warning, swallowing him down while shadows pressed inside simultaneously. Julian’s shout echoed off the walls. His body went rigid, every muscle locked in shock at the dual sensation.
“Too much?” Cillian pulled back just enough to speak, his shadows still moving.
“Don’t you dare stop.”
Cillian resumed his assault with renewed intensity. His shadows had memorized Julian’s responses during their first encounter and knew exactly where to press, how much pressure made him gasp versus moan. But thistime it was different. Cillian was claiming his beacon. Every touch carried intent, marking Julian from the inside out until nothing existed except their bond.
The shadows stretched Julian’s ass open while Cillian worked his cock, adding teeth just carefully enough to make Julian curse. More tendrils wrapped around Julian’s thighs, his waist, his throat, anchoring him in every way. A reminder that Julian - their beacon - now belonged to an ancient being who was both hungry and utterly devoted.
“Cillian.” His name in Julian’s mouth sounded like a prayer and demand simultaneously. “Please.”
“Please, what?” Cillian released him, moving up his body like a predator. The shadows inside Julian withdrew, replaced by Cillian’s heavy cock. He positioned himself at Julian’sentrance, with a blunt pressure that made them both groan. “Tell me.”
“Claim me.” Julian’s hands flexed in the shadows’ grip, eyes fever-bright. “Properly. The way you’ve wanted to since the alley.”
Cillian pushed forward in one devastating thrust, confident the shadows would’ve slicked his way. Julian’s back bowed, a broken sound escaping his throat that lived somewhere between pain and pleasure. It could’ve been too much, and maybe it was too fast, but Julian had demanded honesty, and this was Cillian’s first time. He had an eternity’s worth of hunger pouring into this moment - the most intimate of connections. The shadows tightened everywhere they touched, creating a web of sensation that made it impossible to separate one feeling from another.
“Breathe,” Cillian ordered, holding still despite every instinct screaming to move. “Julian. Breathe.”
Julian dragged in air, eyes finding Cillian’s multiple ones without flinching. “Move.”
“You need…”
“I need you to stop treating me like I’ll break and fuck me the way you want to.”
The crude language from his proper archivist destroyed the last of Cillian’s restraint. He withdrew almost completely and slammed back in, setting a brutal pace that would have shattered a normal human. But Julian was a beacon, and the mate bond was already weaving between them, strengthening Julian’s body to withstand a guardian claiming.
More. Deeper. Harder. The shadows joined the rhythm, stroking and pressing and wrapping until Julianexisted in a constant state of overwhelm. Every nerve ending fired simultaneously. Every sense consumed by darkness and heat and the unyielding presence of his mate.
Cillian felt it through their bond - the moment when Julian’s mind finally went blissfully silent. No analysis. No processing. Just pure sensation, reducing him to gasps, moans, and increasing profanity.
