Page 107 of Ashen Souls

My body didn't just peak, it detonated. I arched, my nails digging into Daeren's thigh as my cunt clamped down around my fingers. My scream was muffled by his cock as another orgasm wrecked me, wave after brutal wave. I was shaking, tears spilling down my cheeks while my mouth kept swallowing him through the spasms.

I felt his hips lock. The muscles in his thighs bunched under my hand as he approached the edge. I was desperate to taste him again, waiting for his release.

But he yanked my head back by my hair, pulling his cock out of my mouth.

He stared down at me, a cruel smirk on his lips. “Oh, I know you want to swallow my cum again, greedy little creature. My Patches. But you don't fucking deserve it yet.”

I stayed on my knees, panting, my lips bruised and slick, completely desperate.

“Show me how much you want to taste me again,” he growled. “Lick your fingers.”

I brought my hand up to my face and slid my soaked fingers into my mouth, licking them, tasting my own wetness mixed with his seed. His eyes darkened to pitch-black.

The shadows whipped around us again. In a blink, Daeren slammed me against the wall. My back flush against the stone, my legs hooked tightly over his corded forearms. He drove his cock deep into my cunt with a savage thrust that knocked the breath from my lungs.

“Take every inch.” His voice was a low rumble against my jaw. “Breathe it in, Aveline. I want to be the only thing left in your head.”

The sigil on my wrist burned, pulsing in perfect synchronization with his thrusts. The bond amplified every agonizing point of friction, driving me blindly toward the edge.

“Look at me,” he demanded.

I forced my tear-blurred eyelids open.

“There is no mystery here. No history,” he murmured. “There is only this. Only us.”

Daeren claimed my mouth, his tongue mirroring the rhythm of his hips, until the blazing world dissolved into nothing but him.

“Stop fighting the descent,” he rasped, his teeth scraping the damp skin of my neck. “Let the waking world burn. I am the only reality you need.”

I couldn't form a sentence.

“Say it. Say you are only mine.”

Stripped of my defenses, my limbs still trembling from the orgasms, I surrendered.

“I’m yours.”

The confession didn't slow him down. He kept fucking me, dismantling me against the wall with relentless, punishing strokes. The muscles in his forearms flexed as he held my legs pinned, leaning his weight into me. His gaze held mine.

“Say you love me.”

The demand plunged me into ice.

The haze of pleasure shattered. Love. The word choked me before it could even form on my tongue. I hungered for him. I craved the ruin he brought and the dark thrill of giving in. But love? We were fear and lust. We were a thousand-year-old obsession. Not love.

“Daeren, I…” My voice failed. My hesitation hung in the air, poisoning the space between us.

His expression turned to stone. The hunger in his gaze snuffed out, leaving his eyes dead.

“What a shame, Patches,” he murmured. The infernal realm began to splinter around us. His mouth brushed my ear.

“You cannot outrun this. You will never escape me.”

29

Daeren didn't just let me wake up. He spat me back into reality.

My hands trembled against the sheets. My body felt hollow, as if a piece of my consciousness had stayed behind.