Page 134 of Ballad of Nightmares

She watched another tear trickle over his beautiful skin, the moonlight glistening off the trail over his face, and she brushed it away too.

“I forgive you.”

Breath left him as if he’d been holding it for days,years. His shoulders limped as he rose to his feet, his forehead coming to rest against hers, and she felt him trembling as his lips brushed her own.

Just the brief friction of it made her heart skip. She staggered forward to kiss him, but he pulled back slightly, dodging like he thought he might fall into a spell if he allowed himself to give in. He paused her, their breaths becoming heavy as both his hands wrapped beneath her jaw, and when he pressed his lips to hers, her knees buckled.

Sam was sheer devastation, and she willingly let herself be destroyed.

Every sweep of his tongue held her soul in it. This was worth every blip of her past, every darkened day when she’d asked for it to end. Everything had brought her to him.

He was kissing her like it was the last time he would ever see her, and she limped into his aggression and surrendered to him completely.

Their shirts were discarded to the ground. Sam pulled her leggings off one at a time, making sure to kiss her thighs, down her calves, to her feet as he crouched to undress her. She couldn’t breathe as he leaned forward and hoisted one of her thighs over his shoulder, his tongue raking over her clit. But as perfect and as weak as her knees gave at the pleasure of his kiss, she needed him inside her more.

He was a tower over her when he stood, his hands wrapping beneath her jaw, lips pressing once more to hers. She worked the buckle on his jeans, freeing his hardened length and pushed herself up onto the edge of the table so he could claim her.

And he did. He pushed inside her, making her curse at the feel of him again. Different, somehow. Everything lay bared between them. They could finally be who they truly were, no holding back or secrets or lies.

But there was one thing she’d yet to hear from his lips.

“Will you say my name?” she whispered as she held his face in front of her, her jaw trembling with even mentioning it.

Sam’s dark eyes met hers. He stilled fully inside her, their bodies flush, and his hand met her cheek. “Is that what you want?” he asked breathlessly. “Deianira.”

He kissed her again, sending her heart fluttering, her thighs lifting and opening up more for him to drive deeper. Her ass was nearly off the table, but Sam held her steady, his pace deliberate and filling, hitting that spot inside her with every thrust. Her hips rocked into his as his mouth moved to her jaw. His hands splayed over her thick thighs, hiking them higher, and the whisper that brushed over her ear made her gasp.

“MyDeianira.”

Hearing it ruined her.

She shattered beneath the weight of it. How it seemed to exhale from his lips as a poison, one he never thought he’d be addicted to. Thunder shook the glass as he said it again, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

“I love you,” she breathed heavily into the crook of his neck.

Sam paused inside her and pulled back. That pain echoed in his furrowed gaze. Tears streaked the bottoms of his eyes. She could feel her own cheeks stained with the tears she couldn’t stop, and she pressed her hands to his face.

“I loveallof you,” she continued. “And who you are never needs to be forgiven.”

Sam didn’t reply verbally. He stared at her, a tear spilling over his cheek. His response came in the form of a deep kiss. So deep it sent her backward with the wrap of his arms, and he buried himself deeper inside her.

With every deliberate thrust, her skin tingled, and she spiraled into the shadows that seemed to linger around them. They became a single obscurity of love and pain, their pasts entwining and becoming a threat they would not run from, but rather one they would embrace together.

She swore once, she felt a feather on her cheek.

The mere power of him consumed her to the point of no return. His need and lust and desire for her, for the moment they had just shared, for how he had revealed himself to her in its entirety. Everything he was and is had been laid before her, and she loved him more than she knew how to put into words.

Her orgasm crested like a wave. Building and building, and she tried to hold it back, to keep herself from spilling over as she wanted to feel him buried inside her until the sun decided to show its face again.

“Fuck, Deianira,” he hissed as she tightened around him.

“Sam—“

They came apart with hitched gasps, her nails digging into his shoulder and neck, drawing blood as his hand on her ass left his mark. And for a few moments, they stilled. Everything that they were, everything that they would be, radiated between them in that quiet space, with only the noise of their breaths heaving between them. As he pulled out of her and turned away to fix himself, Ana swore she saw a smile dare to lift his lips, but it wasn’t there when he turned back to her to help her dress.

Once they were both clothed, Ana found herself trapped once again between arms as his hands pressed into the edge of the table, his body hovering tall over hers, bangs mingling with her own wild curls. This was her favorite way to be engulfed in him. She loved the dominating and safe way he held there, his chest rising and falling against hers, foreheads nearly touching…

“I love you,” came his breathless voice.