No. I want to hear everything. I want totasteeverything.
I tug her bottom lip from beneath her teeth and kiss her. The moment my tongue meets hers, I feel it. Her desire rushing up to meet mine, two forces called together.
With a white-hot crash, our pleasures merge, fire meeting ice. Light meeting darkness. We become one in more ways than I ever thought possible, our feelings converging, bridging, melting wholly together.She gasps, then pulses around me, and I can feel her every emotion as if it’s coming from my own soul. I ride every wave of pleasure with her.
I thrust harder, dragging out her release, making her whimper, making her say my name again—and then, I join her.
Infinite. That is how I feel afterward, as we stare at each other, sharing breath, our chests flush, our heartbeats mingling. I can’t tell where my soul ends and hers begins. I think they’re one, now.
And I wouldn’t have it be any different.
We don’t stop after the first time. No, we are both ravenous, and it’s as if it’s the first time I’ve ever done it; that’s what it feels like.
It feels different.
She finally falls asleep atop me, and I’ve never felt more content in my life. I watch her sleep, but this time, she doesn’t frown. No, she smiles. She snores softly.
She must feel safe in my arms. I never thought that was possible.
Finally she wakes up, and her eyes go right to mine.
I smile.
What an unfamiliar expression. Though, with her, it feels natural, like I’ve been doing it my entire life.
Shock rolls through her, then a wave of disbelief.
“You have a dimple,” she says.
“Do I?”
I suppose she might be the only person who’s ever seen it.
She shifts, crawling up my chest to rest her face right in front of mine, her chin on my collarbone. She’s smiling too, until a blade of panic makes her happiness vanish.
I sit up instantly. “What’s wrong?” I ask, ready to destroy anything that’s making her afraid.
She blinks at me. Her worry spreads. “You—you aren’t going to disappear, right? Now that we ... now that we—”
Oh. I understand immediately. It’s because of what I told her. For a moment, I feel heartbreaking sadness.
Then, I laugh. I can’t help it.
Isla’s worry just grows deeper. Is my laugh that disconcerting? I keep laughing, folding over, knowing for certain I’ve never been this amused in my long life, and she pinches my ribs. I barely feel it.
“Hearteater,” I finally say, when I’m able to get the word out. “I said Nightshade rulers are typically forbidden from bedding the same person more than once. Last night alone ...”
I had her several times. Several ways. All over this room.
It almost makes me laugh again to think that I would be able to only have her once. I’ve killed thousands, I’ve endured endless pain, but even I would not be able to keep myself away from her. Around her, my self-restraint is nonexistent.
She really is a drug.
One taste of her and I am well and truly addicted.
Relief is like a cool tide washing over both of us. She straddles me, grinding against me, and we both moan.
“Good,” she says, ducking to whisper the words right into my ear. “Because I want to do it all again. Immediately.”
