Page 25 of The Last Aether

I swallowed hard as I took in black boxer briefs. My fingers hooked in the waistband, and I tugged those free too. I did my best not to gape at the man in front of me. He was so damn beautiful, even battle-weary and covered in blood.

Quickly, I shed my own clothes and added them to the pile to be thrown in the trash. Then I pulled Phoenix into the shower with me. Adjusting the temperature to a soothing warmth, I stepped under the spray, bringing him with me.

Phoenix didn’t move or say a word. Everything in me twisted. I didn’t have the words to say to bring him out of this. All I could do was let him know that he wasn’t alone. That he was cared for. Loved.

I poured shampoo into my hands and began working it over his head. Phoenix let out a groan. I took it as a good sign as I rinsed it from his scalp. I moved on to bodywash, caring for Phoenix in the same way Atlas had tended to me. I scrubbed every speck of blood from his skin and cleaned every wound.

As I rinsed the soap from his body, Phoenix’s head dropped to my shoulder, and he pulled me to himself. His fingers bit into my waist, just shy of pain. “Need you, Aura.”

His words were a guttural plea.

I could only say one thing. “You have me.”

14

Phoenix’s fingers flexed at my words, his hands dropping from my waist to my hips and pulling me tighter against him. My throat constricted as I felt him harden.

“Phoenix.”

“Need you.”

It was all he was capable of getting out. I might not be able to give him the perfect, comforting words, but I could give him myself.

“Take me.”

Phoenix didn’t need any more than that. In a flash, he spun me around, facing me towards the shower wall.

I expected him to enter me on one swift thrust. To bleed all of that aggression swirling around him into me. But Phoenix did the opposite. He slid into me on the slowest glide. The move so gradual, by the time he was fully seated in me, I was about to beg him for more.

Phoenix let out a low groan as his lips found my neck, but he didn’t move. He stayed just like that. He inhaled deeply as the water pounded against his back.

“Phoenix, please.” I needed him just as much as he needed me. To know that he was still breathing. Whole. That together we were still full of life.

He took pity on me, beginning to move in and out of me. The thrusts were slow and easy. A lazy, languid movement that was designed to have me crawling the walls.

I arched my back, pressing into Phoenix, seeking more. But he never once let me change the tempo. He kept up that sleepy pace until my walls were quivering around him.

“Don’t come.”

It was a growled order that had me fighting against my impending climax.

Phoenix’s hand lifted to my breast, cupping and kneading. His fingers circled my nipple and then he twisted.

I let out a whimper as I struggled to keep from falling over the edge of release.

“Fight it. Need you longer.”

I fought it. But I wasn’t about to suffer that delicious agony alone. I ground myself back against Phoenix, tightening around him.

He let out another growl, this one louder, a tinge of that feralness bleeding through. “Don’t, Aura. I’m not in control. Not yet.”

“Then lose control. I trust you.”

His fingers on my hip tightened again, and this time there was the slightest flicker of pain. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

I pushed harder against him. “I’m asking you to take what you need. To leave behind the ugliness of this day and come back to me. Let go, Phoenix.”

A rumbling roar that was more animal than human burst out of him, and his control snapped. Gone were the lazy strokes, replaced by frantic thrusts. Sparks danced around us, even in the fall of the shower.