It was as if all the darkness in those places he pulled at consolidated at once, falling into a single star that embedded its sharp corners into her lungs, refusing to let her breathe.
“Arcas,” she called as she stood so quickly she knocked her chair back into the stone. She left it there as she chased his shadow through the courtyard, breaking into a run as the star rammed its razor-like edge into her.
“Arcas!” she called again, his shoulders hardly visible in the low light of the halls. He stopped outside of the Plutonian quarters, turning with a pained grimace, unsure if he could take another round.
But she did not slow, she slammed against him, sending his back against the amethyst and stone of the palace wall, wrestling every stubborn piece of him into her hold as she gasped for a breath that would not come. The sharp edge in her lungs dug deeper, stung against her as she fought to find his mouth, his shock freezing him against the wall.
He began to say something, but she could not hear him. She could not hear a godsdamned thing but the air whooshing from her lungs as his arms closed behind her back, fingers ripping at her loose waves to find some sort of control over her.
“Princess,” he whispered, hands curling into her, his breath just as short.
Lunelle ignored him, nipping at the edge of his jaw, running her hands through his onyx silk strands. She moaned against his throat, desperate, frantic. Somewhere, on some level, she was aware that he backed her into a bedroom, the sound of a door thudding against its frame nearly breaking her focus.
Nearly.
He twisted her, slamming her against the frame of something, gods knew, as he tore at her dress, shoving it against her hips and ruffling his fingers through layers of lace to get to her.
“Fuck,” Lunelle whined, his fingers unforgiving as he sank his teeth into her neck and stroked her, the fury with which they both moved spinning the room into a haze. She yanked at his shirt, needed to get to more of him, to feel the flex of his muscles as he ground against her hips.
“You will kill me,” he rasped. “You willkill me, Lunelle.”
His fingers curled within her, drawing a yelp as her head leaned back against the wall. She could not breathe, could not think, could not see anything but him.
“I need more,” she whispered, grabbing at his waistband and the length of him beneath.
The prince’s breath shuddered at her touch, his mouth hanging open against her ear as he withdrew his hand, pushing her toward the bed. She hadn’t looked at which room he was in, hadn’t cared. Nothing mattered but numbing the sting in her chest with the salve of him.
Arcas stripped as they crossed the room, landing on his back against the headboard, more than ready for her as she flung her dress away. Lunelle climbed over him, his wide hands gripping her hips and guiding her over his lap. Her lips parted at the sensation of him within her, pausing only for a moment to find her bearings before his hands squeezed and pushed her further down.
Her chest ached, the sting spreading through tissue and muscle as he pushed her faster, his head tucked against her neck. Lunelle rocked in brazen circles, pulling at his hair, his shoulder, anything available to her.
Arcas pulled one hand from her hips and clutched his chest as she sped up, desperate to fall apart.
“Look at me,” he said, sliding his free hand up her back and pulling her hair into his fist. “Lunelle.”
She could not. She could not look at him, for fear that she’d see so much of herself within those sapphire eyes that she’d never be able to look away. He pulled tighter.
“Look at me,” he pleaded. “You do not have to say it out loud, Lunelle, but godsdammit I want to see it.”
“See what?” she gasped.
“That youdolove me, in spite of all the hell we’ve put each other through, and all the hell we’re still yet to rain on one another,” he growled, pulling her hair tightly as he forced her to face him. She cried out at the sting in her scalp, momentarily able to forget about the pain in her chest as she fought his gaze. Fought his accusation.
Fought the truth as it whispered across her tongue.
Lunelle whimpered, her hands bracing herself against him, eyes closed as his hips drove into hers with such force she thought he was wrong. She would not kill him. He would beherdeath in the end.
“Arcas—”
“Look at me!” he demanded, a crack in his voice breaking her into pieces.
She turned her eyes to him as she shattered in his lap, something so dark, so craven cutting through her chest as their eyes met and she bared it all to him—that shedidlove him, no matter how wrong it was.
No matter how much Fate had already given her in another.
She still wanted more—whether she deserved it or not.
Lunelle shook around him, her entire body drowning in shadows and starlight, a darkness wrapping around them and tying her into knots in his arms. His sparkling eyes, so drenched in pain, widened as something shifted between them, something deep within their spines. His breath came in low groans as he kept moving inside her, the air thickening with something neither of them understood.
