Page 54 of The Endless One

It was so easy to play him like an instrument, and the sound of his moans was her music. After all this time, she knew what he liked. How he wanted her to draw the sound out of him, teasing and tasting and licking until he was practically begging her for a firmer touch. And she would give that to him. Only when he earned it, though.

She might be on her knees before him, but he was the one begging.

Just when she was certain he was going to lose control, his hands pushed her away. Jessamine almost grumbled at him. She didn’t want to let go, not when she was having so much fun tormenting him.

But then she couldn’t see where he was. The magic that surrounded them was like wearing a blindfold, and he slipped out of her grip before she could figure out what direction he was going.

She was almost frightened until she felt his warm hands against her thighs, parting them and forcing her backward. She lay on the cold stones behind her back, unable to see anything other than sparkling starlight. He traced his nose up her leg, right to the center of her, where she knew he could spend hours.

The man was insatiable, but she didn’t have hours. No, she wanted to feel him now. To know that he was alive, and she was alive, and that nothing was going to take them from each other.

Her thoughts splintered at the first touch of his tongue. She couldn’t focus on anything other than his heat and the way his fingers clenched hard on her thighs to keep her still. He made her entire body shatter, only to pull it back together with every stroke. But she wanted far more than that. She wanted to be unmade. She wanted him to drive her so crazy that she couldn’t even exist anymore.

Reaching for his hair, she tugged it hard enough that she was certain it hurt. He knew what she wanted, though. He ground his face against her core, every lick suddenly harder, his teeth grazing her folds. The slightest twinge of pain was nothing when desperation made them both animals.

Her thighs squeezed around his head, already shaking as he devoured her. Her eyes flew open wide, but all she could see were stars as he worked her into a frenzy that ripped through her. Her orgasm was fast, and nearly painful, as her entire body tightened around his tongue, which refused to stop even for a second.

He wrung every ounce of pleasure that he could out of her before surging up between her legs. He was breathing so hard, his lips already at her neck as he pressed kisses up to her throat to her lips.

“You drive me wild,” he snarled against her skin.

Then he plunged inside of her. She arched, trying to take him as deep as she possibly could. She needed to feel him stretching her, sinking into her body, proving to them both that they were still here. Still together, after everything that had happened.

Jessamine wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding tightly to him as they found a rhythm they both enjoyed. His groans echoed in her ear as she clenched around him, rocking her hips.

She needed more than this, though. Faster, harder, everything he could give her until she was so full of him that it felt like nothing else could exist in her mind.

He knew her well. Because he pulled out and rolled her onto all fours before thrusting inside of her again. This time, she could feel him everywhere, almost too much. The angle made it hard to even think, especially when he gathered her hair up in one hand and used it like reins to hold her still while he pounded into her.

“You are everything to me,” he grunted in between every harsh thrust. “So fucking tight, so fucking perfect. I worship every inch of you.”

And then she saw stars. Not only from his magic, but from the need that burned white hot inside of her. She gasped, and his magic flooded down her throat as well. She could feel him pulsing deep within her, from his physical body to the magic that dug into her mouth and pressed deep into her lungs. She was full of him. Every inch of her.

She sucked it in again, and this time, she could see. The magic had lessened around them, as though they had consumed enough of it with their passion that it had disappeared. The well was running dry.

Looking over her shoulder, Jessamine watched him. A dark drip of magic rolled down his chest as he inhaled all that darkness and exhaled it again. He looked like a dragon expelling black smoke, his dark eyes covetously tracing from the base of her spine, all the way up her back, until he met her eyes.

Holding her gaze, he trailed his hand up her ass, slowly. The movement was one of claiming, which she wanted to tell him he had already thoroughly done, but it didn’t matter. With his magic now teasing her belly, all she could think was that this was what she had been born to do.

Her entire life had been dedicated to becoming the perfect princess and then the best queen this kingdom would ever have. But right now? She knew she had been born to be the consort of this god who freed every ounce of who she was.

His hand curled in her hair once more, tugging until she rose onto her knees with her back pressed to his chest. He claimed her mouth once more, his lips lingering on hers in a gentle kiss. As though he wanted her to know how much he cared for her, and that nothing could ever change such a thing.

“I love you,” he said, his voice a low, meaningful murmur. “I don’t say it nearly enough. But I do, nightmare. I love you with every broken, bleeding part of me. I’d warn you that you shouldn’t want me back, but I know you’ve already fallen under my spell. So instead, I will say this: In a thousand years, when the world has been built anew, when you can see all the good you have done and how your influence has spread throughout centuries, I want you to know that my love never wavered. Not once.”

Her heart squeezed in her chest. Jessamine reached back and held on to him as best she could. Their lips clung together, even as she whispered, “My soul has always been yours, Elric. I love you dearly, painfully, claws and all.”

She didn’t know how long they stayed in that place together. Just lingering with soft touches and kisses that felt a little like farewell, even though she had to believe their plan would work. Still, something in her soul feared there would soon come a time when she would not see him again. Like a whisper in her heart telling her to savor every second with this man.

So she did. She laughed with him as they both shared stories from their childhood.

“Oh, no, I was the secret spider hunter,” she said, a laugh already building in her chest. “No one in the castle knew who kept gathering spiders and putting them in the same closet, but it grew out of hand fast. There were over a hundred spiders. Every time someone went to clean it, they were so terrified of what was inside that they ended up just shutting it.”

“Are there still spiders in that closet?”

“Oh, probably! I don’t think anyone got around to removing them. Which, now that I think of it, someone really might want to do. A spider army must have formed, and we should probably make sure they don’t grow even stronger.”

Elric rolled his eyes but was still grinning where they lay in her meadow. “I don’t think anyone before you has ever uttered the words ‘spider army.’ ”