Something flickers in her eyes. Like flecks of shimmering light. Then, she blinks, and her expression suddenly morphs.
Sheer and complete relief pummels into me like a fist to my chest. “There you are.”
Her breath catches. Her lips part, and I watch her eyes focus on me before she whispers, “Slade.”
“I’m here. You’re here.”
She gives herself time for one breath, and then she fuses her mouth against mine. Her hold on the magic seems to disintegrate in a blink, and it goes splashing to the ground, splattering us both.
But she doesn’t even seem aware of it. She’s too busy trying to climb up my body, like she can’t bear to have any distance between us. I let the spikes on my arms sink beneath my skin, but everything else in me comes flaring up. All the worry and dread is shed into the pooling gold at our feet as carnal heat takes their place.
Because she’s awake. She’s alive. She’s warm and writhing and pressed against me.
Thank fuck.
Her lips yank away, just long enough for her to gulp in a breath. “I need…”
“What do you need, Auren?” I ask, letting my fang scratch against the pulse of her throat. Her hands cling to my neck, legs wrapped around me while I hold her ass, hands splayed and squeezing.
“You, please. I need it. I need it now.”
Her hands drop to the strings of my pants, already loosening the ties. So different from our first time together when she was shy and unsure. But all thought leaves my head when her hand darts inside and she grips my length.
“Fuck.”
She strokes me up and down, frantic and fast, like she’s desperate for me, desperate for escape. “I need you to make me feel.”
Her touch makes my balls tighten, and all I can think of is sinking into her and giving her exactly what she needs.
I put her down on her feet, making gold splash up around us.
“What are you doing?” she growls out in protest.
I grip her jaw, tilting her head up to look at me. Without saying a word of warning, I reach with my other hand and shove her leggings past her feet, her borrowed shirt barely covering her from my gaze.
She gasps, but when I cup her pussy, the sound turns into a moan. “Please…”
“You’re begging, baby.”
“I know!” she shouts out, head lolling back when I swipe my thumb over her clit.
I lean forward and lick a line up the curve of her neck, making her shudder. “I like it.”
Hands at her ass, I pull her up again, and the feel of her bare heat against my length makes me grit my teeth in pleasure.
“Rub yourself over me,” I command. “Get that slick pussy all over my cock.”
Wetness drips from her as she does exactly as I say, her hips rocking over me and coating me in her juices. “That’s it,” I purr. “Just like that…”
“Slade…”
The pitch of her voice seems to shoot directly to my cock, and I can’t wait a second more to sink into her waiting heat. I shift my hips and she reaches down between us, lining me up with her entrance.
I hold still, staring into her eyes while she trembles over me.
“Hurry,” she pleads.
I punch my hips forward and thrust into her, sinking all the way to the hilt.
Auren’s body latches onto me inside and out, hands digging into my neck, her inner walls clamped down tight.
Squeezing her ass, I lift her up and then bring her back down with a forceful grind, tearing a cry of bliss from her throat.
“Is this what you needed, Auren?” I say as I lift her before bringing her back down once again. My arms flex with every move, my spikes wanting to punch right back through my skin.
“Harder.”
Her breathless appeal tips over my restraint, and there’s nothing I want more than to oblige. I start slamming her down onto my cock so hard that her entire body tightens up, letting me have her completely at my mercy.
“Harder,” she cries, just as her head falls to my shoulder. Her blunt teeth bite into my skin and make my cock swell impossibly larger.
I go harder, faster, driving into her with carnal fervency.
“Harder,” she says again. And again. And again.
And again.
I jerk my head back, seeing sweat slick her face, her lips parted in quickened pants.
But I also see an edge of something else in the depths of her wild eyes. Something that makes me pause.
“No! Keep going,” she says, fingernails clawing at my neck and yanking my hair. “Go harder. So hard it hurts. I need to hurt.”