Page 53 of In the Light of the Moon
I felt the back of his other hand fumble against my inner thigh, and then it was the unmistakable steel rod of his cock. His hips were making small thrusts already, and the moisture already dripping from him swept across my leg. He was holdinghimself back, arms straining with tension, but I was already nodding, squirming. Anything to get him closer.
So when he finally seated himself in one, long, breathtaking thrust, I did nothing but flex my own hips to make sure he got as deep as possible.
He arched upward when our bodies met in a resounding, confirming, thud. The veins of his neck were bulging, the muscles above his shoulders straining with his ragged moan. And what I did next felt again like the most primal version of myself. Someone that had been resting in the depths of my soul, suddenly out of their slumber to confirm that this was what I needed.
My back strained with my hands still held against the cushions, and my teeth clamped around the soft skin around his collarbone. Coppery blood met my tongue. Maybe if I weren’t already overcome with lust, I would have worried that I was doing this wrong. That his mark hadn’t drawn blood, so maybe mine wasn’t supposed to.
But Orion let loose a deep, inhuman noise while I stayed latched onto him, and his body started up a pounding that would’ve sent me slipping across the couch if he weren’t holding me down.
The sweet, slow lovemaking we’d had earlier was nowhere to be found as I pushed back against Orion’s hips, making the savage connection between us even deeper.
He flipped me over in one swift movement and released my hands so that I could prop up on them and my knees. Some of his blood was trailing down my chin, but I wanted it there. To have the confirmation of my mark.
Sharp nails scraped against one of my hips, and when I felt the prickling of more against the nape of my neck, I didn’t have any time to question it before he was back inside me.
The smack of Orion’s skin against mine was almost as loud as the whistling of the tea kettle. I didn’t know when it’d started, but we both continued to ignore it. “Sylvie,” his voice wasn’t just low anymore. It was an impossible bass, like the distortion of a recording, but it just deepened the burning I felt for him. For not just this rutting that would leave me with beautiful bruises, but for everything he was. For everything I felt allowed to be with him.
My mouth tried to function enough to say his name, but it just came out in choked grunts while I continued to push back to make us fuck as hard as we could. To chase the height of the ecstasy that was ramping higher and higher.
Until it crashed into me on the tail of a shattering thrust. My arms gave, and I cried out, face pressed into the leather. It was like a crack of lightning with the following roll of thunder, and distantly, I heard Orion give his own, anguished groan. His rhythm descended into short, stuttering pulses just before I felt him brush my hair back and away from my neck. His shirt was rucked up toward my shoulders, and he pulled out just before I felt him come on my exposed skin.
“Mmm,” I mumbled once he finished spilling over me. My legs were trembling, but I also felt like there was no way I’d be able to steadily get up from the couch. Instead, I flattened completely onto my stomach with a contented sigh.
Orion rubbed his fingers over my sides, scraping sensation now gone, and if I could’ve started purring, I would have.
I felt him shift behind me just before he wiped me up and pulled the shirt back down.
“Would you get the kettle, please?” I grumbled into the couch. The screeching of it was cutting into the afterglow, an annoying pitch that I now couldn’t help but notice. My eyes were closed, but the glowing of the fire brightened the inside ofmy eyelids. Under the melodic singing from the record player, I heard Orion’s feet padding quietly across the space.
The whistling cut off, and I sighed in relief. It took the entire length of time of him retreating into his bedroom once again then clinking away in the kitchen for me to sit myself up. I smoothed my hair down as best I could, but I knew it was still a mess.
Giving up, I pulled it into a thick bun at the crown of my head that would surely fall out at the first quick movement.
Orion rounded the couch, and the aroma of hot chocolate preceded him by just a few seconds before he sat carefully beside me. With his pickiness and deft making of pasta from scratch, I was surprised that he’d elected to make the powdered stuff, but I wasn’t mad in the slightest to have the hot, sweet drink.
Orion’s hair was significantly messier too, and it made me smile. I briefly noticed that he had changed into different pajamas, but the deep bruising on his shoulder completely stole my attention.
I absently grasped the drink he offered me and brought a tentative finger to hover over where my teeth had sunk into his flesh. The white skin on his chest was marred by the purple and red mark—did I truly bite himthathard?It looked like it hurt tremendously, and my eyes started to burn at the thought that I’d inflicted pain onto him.
He was sitting perfectly still, but when I hesitantly touched the corner of the bite, he shuddered. My hand flew back, and I almost spilled the hot chocolate all over my lap. “I’m sorry,” I bit my lip and tried to blink away the tears that were rising.
Orion set his mug on the thick, wooden coffee table in front of us and placed a warm hand on my cheek. I avoided looking in his eyes, and he didn’t force me to. But he didn’t let me go. “Don’t be, Sylvie. You’ve given me a gift.”
A tear escaped the corner of my eye, and I shook my head as much as I could with him holding me. “But I did it too hard. I hurt you. And you didn’t make this one bleed,” I waved to gesture at my neck. “I’m sorry.” The first time he’d bitten and scratched me, when he was injured and visibly shaken, I hadn’t felt the sting until I got home. And by the next week, all evidence of it was gone. The one that remained on my skin would get tender, more than anything. But, still.
The bite I’d given him looked particularly violent against his pale skin.
Orion plucked the mug from my grip and set it down next to his. When he turned back around to face me again, he brought his lips to my brow, and another tear trailed down my cheek. “I know you don’t fully understand, but it doesn’t hurt. At all. I told you that if you marked me that it would make you mine. It makes me yours, too,” he took a deep inhale. “I’ve never belonged to anyone before.”
My mouth twisted in sympathy at his words, even with the confused turn of my eyes. I bumped his nose with mine, which he returned. “As long as it isn’t painful.”
He smiled almost self-consciously, “No… ah, it feels good.”
I huffed, “Now you know how I feel.” I wondered if Granna would be able to tell me why that was. It almost felt ritualistic. Surely it must have meant something? Or maybe we both just liked being bitten. Josie would have a field day with that one if I told her.
He flicked his pinky finger over the edge of the mark on my neck, and of course, my body vibrated with the shiver that raced down my spine. Orion kissed me deeply, but it wasn’t like before. It felt like a nonverbal confirmation of all his feelings toward me, and I tried my best to communicate the same. His tongue swiped at my lips and the skin around them, wiping up his blood that’d dripped down my face.
“You can mark me any time you want, Sylvie. Bite me as hard as you—” his eyes went a little distant, searching but unseeing until he blurted “—what did you mean I didn’t makethis onebleed?”
