Page 67 of Antiletum (The Nocturne #1)

It’s so primal, so filthy, so depraved, my skin flushes hotter, if that’s even possible.

I swallow hard, taking us into my body, but not the way I want to have him.

Val kisses me, wet and salty and so needy his lips cover my entire mouth, part of my chin.

I reach for his cock, but he yanks me up to sit, ripping the dress off of my body to expose me fully, matching his nakedness.

He doesn’t even notice the clatter of my dress hitting the floor, thanks to the jewelry box hidden inside.

Val pushes me down to my back, eyes filled with wonder as he roams all over me, open and admiring.

The boiling heat between us calms to a simmer.

Just as hot but more controlled. Intentional.

Becoming tangible in its intensity. A level of sweetness threading through the filth with the way my husband devours me with his stare.

Loving. Enthralled. Disbelieving. “You’re so beautiful. ”

It takes my breath away. A level of awareness I wasn’t quite prepared for creeping across my being.

“Val. I need… I need…” I don’t even know what I need right now.

“I know what you need,” he claims—no, vows —then dips his head back between my legs.

His tongue rolls out slowly, spearing straight into my cunt before pulling back in, his lips pressed against me and working just as expertly.

He kisses my pussy like he’d kiss my mouth.

Like he read my mind in the graveyard that night when I imagined him doing this exactly.

Again showing that he knows me in every single way.

My legs are bent in and pushed to the side, fully open for Val, and I meet his tongue stroke for stroke.

“You’re so good at this,” I whimper, liquid heat spreading all over.

“I know,” he says, muffled against my flesh. Arrogant and sure.

And then, he bites down on my clit, turning his head to give my piercing a hard tug while he flicks his tongue over it.

I instantly come, drenching between my thighs and all over Val’s chin and lips that have closed over my clit, sucking the whole thing into his mouth, using the flat of his tongue against me to carry me through the orgasm.

Humming his contentment and vibrating me from within.

My legs fall limp; my husband comes up to kneel between them. Serious. He fists his cock, giving it two slow, hard strokes. Gazing down at all of my hot, flushed skin.

I sit up, reaching for him.

Palm to my chest he pushes me back down. “Not yet.”

Val lays slowly on top of me, stroking himself right against my wet, ready pussy. My hands find his face, exploring it to feel every angle of him. We kiss. Hot and hard.

“I want all of you, Delaney,” Val whispers. “Let me in.”

His hands cover mine, fingers lacing together. He extends my arms far above my head, pinning me down. It’s so similar to how he tied me up to pierce me, only now I have his delicious weight pressing between my legs.

“Please,” I beg, asking for something different from him.

Val’s about to get just what he wants. If he doesn’t fuck me now, I really am going to cry.

He adjusts his hips, lining up with my entrance. It doesn’t take much, given how wet I am. Given how ready I am from how he separated me with his tongue. He pushes forward, so slow. Stretching me and making me nice and wide so he can fit.

“Let me in.” He lands a soft kiss to my brow.

I forgot just how big he is. Enough that there’s a pinching sting with every inch he makes room for himself inside of me.

“Val.”

“Delaney. ”

It takes time, more than at our wedding, for him to make it all the way.

We were both so lost to magic then, I didn’t even feel how unprepared I was for his size until the next day.

That same magic surges beneath my skin now, tamer than that night atop the Heartstone; than in the graveyard.

It floats lazily towards all the dried petals, roots, and leaves around us, soaking in slowly as we bring our magic and bodies together. Willingly. Thoughtfully.

“Yes?” Val asks quietly, his magic reaching towards mine feeling as tentative as he sounds. Fully displaying the meaning behind his requests to let him in, far beyond his body entering mine.

I pause briefly, trying to steady my ever increasing, uneven breaths. “Yes,” I say shakily, reminding myself this is why I sought him out. To finally let him in.

Val kisses me as our magic twines together, powerful and controlled. Pulsing like a heartbeat. I work my hips forward, trying to encourage my husband to move now that he’s in me as far as he can go. He responds by settling his weight further over me, holding me down.

When I tug at my hands, he squeezes his fingers tighter around me. Keeping me still. Continuing to tease me even as we’re already connected.

“Val. Let me touch you. Let me move.”

“You like it?”

I nod, my lips brushing against his. Neck craning, I nibble at his throat. Lick the long vein thrumming under his skin. Suck his ear with the trio of diamonds into my mouth.

He sighs, biting my own lobe. Naked. Devoid of the diamonds he gave me. For now.

“You could have had this every single day.” A slow, soft kiss has our lips making a loud, wet noise when he pulls away. “You could have spent your nights in my arms. Loved . Started your days with my tongue between your legs. I would have cared for you. Made you happy.”

Words lodge in my throat, trapped with the rapid beat of my heart.

My husband bends forward, giving me another kiss.

“What happens when this is over, when I give you what you want? What happens after you’ve satisfied your craving?

Are you going to leave? Sleep alone? Pretend what we have isn’t real again?

Tell me. Tell me, and we can end this, here and now, before you really do destroy me. ”

I stare up at him, heart hammering, absorbing the anguish in his face, the pain I caused by refusing to see him. To accept him.

“Make your choice, Delaney. Or I’ll make it for you.” He pulls his hips away from mine, his cock threatening to leave.

Tongue darting between my lips, I lick them, trying to deliver moisture that doesn’t exist. I shake my head. “I’m not going to leave. Even if this ends up ruining us both . ”

Val releases a shuddering breath. Leans forward to kiss me again.

“Good. Now fuck me like you mean that.”

And he releases my hands. Instinctively, they wrap around his back, pulling him close. My fingers find those little dimples above his ass, resting against them like they’ve been itching to do, hauling him deeper.

He’s so big. I’m so full. It feels as if he’s about to tear me open. But I want more. I want it all.

“Do you have any idea how tight you are?” Val asks, fucking into me slow and steady. Doing just as he asked, I fuck him back, exploring his entire large body, not knowing where I want to touch most.

“Do you like it?”

“I love it,” he lands a kiss on my jaw. Bites it hard.

“I love you . I’ve loved you from the first. Looking up at me like you needed me.

So fucking pretty I thought I’d died.” Val licks the length of my throat, groaning at the taste of my sweat.

I’m already shuddering as he plunges into me over and over and over.

Unhurried but hard . Every time we connect it’s loud, my tits bounce, we both make involuntary moans and groans of pleasure.

I love how noisy he is, fucking me. I want to swallow those sounds, lock them away in my chest.

My hands have found his ass, pulling him into me. Harder. Harder. Faster.

“I like that,” he says, pleased. Val cups one of my breasts, kneading harshly. “So mine.”

He pinches my nipple, and I cry out.

“Say it.”

“I’m yours.”

With a thumb, he swipes away the hurt. Rolls the end of my nipple piercing between his thumb and forefinger. Then pinches again.

“What else?”

I grit my teeth, about to slip off of a ledge I didn’t even know existed. “You’re mine.”

“That’s right.” Another tender caress to wash away the pain. “Very good.”

Deos, if he keeps doing this I’m going to come again already.

Val’s hand slowly travels to my neck, cuffing it loosely. “What else?” he asks, voice ragged while he fucks me in long, deep, hard thrusts.

My breath catches, and he squeezes my throat, just barely, with that murderous hand that could end my life without trying.

“ What. Else.”

“I trust you,” I breathe, barely audible, nearly impossible for me to say. The backs of my eyes sting, all of my perfectly constructed defenses falling away, crumbling right into my husband’s waiting hands .

Val rewards me by squeezing my throat tight enough my air becomes shallow. My pussy responds in turn, throbbing around him. Sweat rolls between my breasts, and I whimper and cry choked little noises, thanks to my husband’s hand cutting them off, taking them for himself.

We move perfectly together. Rhythmic. In sync.

“You fuck so good,” Val tells me, kissing me hard. I bring a hand to his wrist, wrapping my fingers around it, pushing him deeper into my neck. He takes my urging, holding my throat tighter.

I’m clenching around him. It feels better than before.

When I was empty. Bereft of my husband where he belongs.

My face is hot, my lungs desperately trying to pull in more air and I can’t.

It makes every part of me feel as heavy as my airless head.

Blood pounding hotter and harder between my legs, tightening around Val’s big, owning cock.

My vision is spotting, little black dots popping over my eyes. Blinking past them, I work my hips harder, meeting Val on each thrust. They begin to slow, the black spreading from dots to an endless pool.

Suddenly, the pressure on my neck is gone. A light slap pops against my cheek, bringing me back to, and I’m rasping a deep, cold breath into my starved lungs.

I come.

I come so hard.

“Perfect,” Val breathes, not slowing his thrusts up into me, my back arching high off the bed, bringing us closer. “Fucking perfect.”

He licks my lower lip, sucks on it, fucking me through the most intense orgasm I think I’ll probably ever have in my life. He’s stiffening inside me further. “You feel so good, Delaney.”

My body is somehow both loose and contrastingly tight when the climax ends, instantly building into another. He’s stretching me so wide. There’s barely even room for him. I hope that it hurts tomorrow. A delicious soreness that only we know about.

Val finds a way to push himself in deeper, fucking his way to his own pleasure.

And suddenly it dawns on me. The intensity of our fucking, much more than the simple taking of one another’s bodies.

Making love. Having these eyes that I’ve obsessed over so close to mine.

Boring into my soul while I’m about to fall apart for him all over again.

A wash of fear eats through me.

Val’s all around me. Everywhere. I can’t escape his warmth, his scent, and the way he looks at me like I’m the only thing that’s ever mattered in the world. Peeling back all of my layers.

We’re so close, our air shared, our bodies wrapped around each other, magic and souls twined and never to be picked apart again.

A joining like I never could have imagined, not even in my wildest dreams. The explosion of life in the conservatory is perfect.

Bursting with color. No clacking bones or speaking corpses to distract us from each other.

Only raw vitality and beauty that we create.

Us. Just us.

Head twisting to the side, my eyes fall closed. Completely overwhelmed, plunging into freefall.

Val grabs my face, pointing it back towards his, my eyes snapping back open. His nose touches mine. Intimate. “Don’t look away,” he commands, bordering on anger. “Don’t you fucking dare look away from me.”

I nod. Forcing myself to stare into his face.

See all the things I wouldn’t let myself before.

The future I wanted. The one we now have.

I told him that I choose him. That I want the ruination he could deliver.

And terrified as I might be, I want to keep that promise. Deliver myself to him on a platter .

He recognizes the full yielding within me, watches all of my walls fall down. He releases a relieved sigh, rubbing our noses together before kissing me soft. Eyes wide open. Never looking away. “I love you.”

“Val,” I cry.

“I’m here. I’m here.”

He gives only a few more long, intense strokes before he stills, us shattering at the same time. His forehead is right against mine when he throbs endless warm jets inside of me, making me even more hot and liquid from within, pushing his cum deep into my body.

“ Fffuck . Delaney. Delaney,” he breathes heavily against my lips, voice strained, his face lined with complete euphoria.

I was wrong before, I can come harder. Val wraps an arm around my shoulders, pushing my chest into his while my pussy pulls around him in long, slow, hard pulses, reshaping me into something entirely new.

He kisses me, grinding into me softly and moaning into my mouth while we ride the waves all the way out, slowing just as the last of our magic settles into the deadened conservatory, transforming it into a picture of vitality.

It lasts forever and yet not long enough, us merging in the most intense possible way. This is our union. The binding of our souls. More meaningful than our wedding as we fully accept each other and all we have to give.

Our breaths slow, heart rates settle. I wait for Val to put distance between us. To remove himself from between my legs. Instead, he stays right where he is. In no hurry whatsoever to leave from where we’ve settled, calmness washing over us both.

Gentle fingers stroke over my cheeks, my nose, my brows. Every inch of my face, Val clocking each one of his motions, memorizing the feel of my skin and the sight of his against it. He punctuates the end of each exploration and beginning of another with a gentle press of lips against mine.

It’s just as intimate as what we just did, never mind the fact that Val is still inside of me.

I may have been afraid, in that moment of relinquishment.

But in the quiet of the afterglow, for the first time in my life, I feel safe.

Cherished. Accepted and desired for all that I am, wrapped in the embrace of my husband, nestling my head into the warmth of his chest.

A closeness that I will now forever crave.