I didn’t decide to move, but the next thing I knew, my hands were braced against the wall on either side of her head, our faces inches apart.
She grinned up at me, her breasts brushing my chest with every breath she took.
“We can’t do this,” I said as my fingers found their way to the slit in her skirt.
“Hmm,” she murmured in what might have been agreement or just a reaction to my touch on her skin.
I slid my fingers up her leg, stilling when I reached the dagger strapped to her thigh. My eyes flew to hers and she smirked.
“You didn’t think I’d come here without it, did you?”
“God, I love you.” I was torn between loving the woman she’d become and hating the hell she’d had to go through to get there. She shouldn’t need the weapon strapped to her leg, but damn, it was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. And knowing if she really wanted to, she could have that dagger at my throat in a matter of seconds was even more alluring. “The dagger stays on,” I growled in her ear as I spun her around and reached for the zipper at her back.
“I feel like I should be concerned by that statement,” she said, but I could hear the smile in her voice. She liked that I was attracted to her murderous side.
Her dress gaped open, held on her body by nothing but the thin straps at her shoulders. And fuck me, she wasn’t wearing a bra. A second later, the red fabric pooled at her feet and I slipped an arm around her, palming her breast.
“This isn’t going to be as slow as last time,” I said against the shell of her ear.
She shuddered, and I watched in fascination as goose bumps erupted over her flesh, knowing my words were responsible for them.
“I don’t want slow and sweet,” she said. “I want hard and fast. I want to feel you so deep inside me I forget what it feels like to be empty.”
“Fuck,” I groaned, her words somehow making me even harder than I already was.
I reached down with the hand not on her breast and freed myself from my pants before moving her panties aside and sinking into her wet heat.
My name was a gasp on her lips, and it sent fire shooting through my body. She felt amazing, her walls squeezing my dick greedily.
“Put your hands flat on the wall,” I told her. She’d need to brace herself for this.
I held myself still until she obeyed my command, and then I moved, pulling partway out and slamming back into her while my hand found her clit.
“Oh shit, Joriel. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.” Her words cut deep into the soul I actually felt like I had at the moment. The way her body responded to me floored me. Laila was special, the kind of special you could spend your whole life searching for and still never find. And it wasmyname falling from her lips,mydick making her body come alive. The scent of her arousal filled my senses, driving me closer and closer to the edge. I swear I could fucking taste her in the air.
I thrust into her pussy, harder and deeper, losing myself in the feel of her. My balls tightened. I was already so fucking close. I pulled out of her and turned her around to face me. My hand closed around her leg, just under the dagger sheathed at her thigh, and hooked it around my waist. The angle allowed me to sink even deeper inside her. Her head tipped back, and her eyes squeezed shut.
“Let go, sweetness. I’ve got you. I promise. Open your eyes and let go.”
Her lashes fluttered and she met my gaze, her jade-green orbs filled with all the love and emotion I felt for her. She cried out as her orgasm took her, her nails digging into my shoulders and hopefully leaving behind marks. Her pussy clamped around me in a viselike grip, milking my own orgasm from me.
I came so hard that my vision when black for a second. The feeling of my dick pulsing inside her was overwhelming. Everything about this moment was.
Maybe it was the knowledge that we could lose our lives in mere hours, that this could be the last time we were together like this, that heightened the intensity and made everything feel sharper, more desperate. The release hollowed me out, leaving me feeling spent and satisfied and stillwanting. I didn’t want this to be our last time. I wanted years, centuries with Laila. I could never get enough of her.
I slowed my thrusts, chest heaving with jagged breaths. Laila winced when I pulled out of her, and that tiny movement sliced through my heart.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked, still fighting to catch my breath.
“No.” She swiped at her suddenly glassy eyes. “That was… extraordinary. I just wish…” She shook her head as if trying to erase whatever thought she’d been about to voice.
It didn’t matter. I knew what she meant. I wished too. For so many things to be different. I wished that we had more time to just be, that I had a soul to give her in addition to the heart she owned so completely. But wishing did nothing to change the facts.
“I know, sweetness,” I whispered into her hair as we clung to each other, holding on like we could keep time from moving forward.
* * *
I couldn’t shakethe feeling of déjà vu as Laila and I walked through the black marble-and-onyx hallway that led to the entrance to Hell. I could still picture the octagonal room with its doors to the various realms of Hell and the elevators that would take us out of here.
