Page 93 of Ballad of Nightmares

Sam inhaled a ragged breath, his hand curling into her hair. “I would keep you until the sun burned out, and we were driven into the chaos of a new existence,” he answered. “And then I would find you in the next one.”

“And after?”

“In every life,” he swore.

There was a promise in his gaze that had her stomach twisting once more—a promise unlike she’d noticed in words from him before.

And Ana couldn’t stop herself from falling for them.

He let go of her face and hand, reaching up to the straps of her top, and slowly beginning to pull them down, exposing her bare breasts. “Do you still want me to stop?”

She knew he would have if she’d said yes. He would have ended it right there, perhaps helped her put her clothes back on and taken her to a quiet dinner. Sat across the table and laughed with her or touched her hand while they drank wine and talked about the horrid decor or the couple staring at their phones at the next table.

But…

Ana adjusted herself on his lap, shifting up onto her knees, her cleavage pushing into his face. Sam groaned into her flesh and sucked on her nipple as she unbuckled his pants, revealing his already hardening cock. She grabbed the back of the chair behind him, hiked her skirt high, and as he captured her other puckered nipple in his mouth, she sank onto his length.

Even this time, she had to adjust herself to take him in. He filled her, his teeth dragging over her breast, fingers clutching her ass, and as she settled into a slow rock, he leaned up to press his lips to hers.

“Never stop,” she whispered against his mouth.

His kiss consumed her. His fingers dug into her hips, the other hand wrapping around her throat, and he pushed into her, causing her back to arch and her eyes to stare at the ceiling as she moved her hips up and down his hard cock. Her eyes fluttered every time her ears began to feel numb and she saw stars dancing on the black above her. Her body was rolling against his. He smacked her ass hard, making her moan and whimper before cursing his name.

She was starting to writhe atop him erratically when his thumb moved between them and circled her clit, grasp on her throat intensifying simultaneously. His nails dug into her sensitive skin, breaking the flesh and causing blood to trickle into the sink of her collar.

“Let go for me, baby,” he whispered. “I can feel you on that edge. Give me the rest of you. Wake the dead with my name.”

The moment his fingers loosened around her, she came apart. She surrendered her body and soul to him. She surrendered her truth and everything she was. She shouted his name, and lightning cracked outside when she felt him come inside her just after. She trembled with the ecstasy, with the power of that moment as they became one. Until she couldn’t hold herself upright any longer, and she limped against him.

She held around his neck, her head lying against his, his forehead on her chest. And for a moment, they simply came down from the high that was the other.

“Ana?” he whispered her name like he was questioning her existence, of whether she was still there in his arms or if it was a dream.

“Sam?”

She felt his breath tickling her flesh as he said, “Forgive me for what I will be,” in a mutter against her skin.

The words confused her, to the point she pulled back to find his gaze.

“What will you be?” she asked.

“Yours,” he breathed. “Forever yours.”

For the remainder of the afternoon, she never even glanced at her phone or a clock. He drove her home on his bike, taking the long way, and for half of the ride, she held her hands in the air and let the wind take her. He had gripped her thigh, and she heard his laugh from beneath the helmet when he realized what she was doing.

They hardly made it into her apartment before ripping one another of clothes. Today was new. It was passion and needing and desire for more than the other’s physical touch. It was a connection of their souls as she hadn’t felt before. More than once, she almost slipped and said those three words that sat on the tip of her tongue, knowing it was true and that he felt it too. He kissed every part of her, took his time fucking her over and over, until they were both shaking and spent and barely able to move.

And in the afternoon, she watched him sleep. She watched the peace on his features without the furrow of his brow. So unearthly beautiful. So filled with a darkness she was sure she only knew a minuscule part of. She ran her hand through his hair as he laid in her lap, a true-crime documentary on the television and rain coming down on the wide windows.

And she wondered if she truly deserved to feel this happy after everything she’d done.

The thought knotted her stomach, but as he shifted on her lap and hugged her tighter, she cherished the full weight of his body calming her heart, and she relaxed back into the couch’s grasp.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

SAM COULDN’T STAY that night.

He’d skipped work the night before to be with her and explained he had told them he would pull a double to make up for missing it. He’d kissed her long and hard against his bike. Longer than usual, almost solidifying everything she’d felt with him in those last two days.