Page 127 of Brimstone

“The way that you love me. Some would saythatis your weakness.”

The lines of his face softened. “Some would say that,” he agreed. “But they would be wrong. It’s mystrength.”

We slept for a while. Fisher knew how badly I wanted him, but he could also tell how tired I was. We sank into nothingness, curved tight around one another, skin on skin. I woke hours later with his hard cock butting up against my ass and his fingers trailing over my hip bone.

He moved slowly, waiting to make sure I was awake, to make sure that I was aware of what he was doing. My breath hitched in my throat when his hand moved down, between my thighs, and he slowly began working tight circles with his fingertips against my clit.

The action was lazy at first. Languid and teasing. I shifted my top leg down a little, giving him better access as I arched back against him, letting out a stifled sigh.

“Fuck me, Osha.” His voice was rough from sleep. “That sound haunts my fucking dreams. I want to make you moan for hours.”

I trembled, my heart stuttering, as he worked his right arm underneath me and wrapped it around my waist so he could change hands. With his left, he began stroking my breast, toying gently with my nipple. “We have lifetimes of this ahead of us. Lifetimes to explore each other.”

Shit, that feltsogood. “Lifetimes? We’ll . . . lose our minds . . .”

I felt Fisher laugh rather than heard it. “There are worse ways to go mad, Osha. If I get to fuck my way to insanity with you, then I’d call that a win.” He rocked his hips forward, grinding against my ass, and my skin broke out in goose bumps. A fire burned in the grate. It hadn’t been lit when we’d fallen asleep, which meant that someone, probably Archer, had come in and lit it for us while we’d been lying here, naked on top of Fisher’s bed.

I couldn’t make myself care in the moment. My body had come alive, responding to his touch, his breath, his pulse. His fingers worked the small, slick bundle of nerves between my thighs, moving in circles, coaxing heat to build in the pit of my stomach.

“Relax,” he murmured. “I’ve got you. You can let go.” He kissed my neck, my cheek, my jaw, and the anxiety of the past few days slipped away.

Only he could do this for me. Only him. This thing between us, it was love, yes. But it was obsession, too. He was the making of me and my ruin. I thought about him relentlessly. And when he slid his fingers through my wet heat and thrust them up inside me, his name was a prayer on my lips.

“Fisher! Fuck!”

“Shhh, shhh, shhh.” He soothed me, murmuring softly to me in Old Fae. “Irrellieth ka tintar shey an mé correshan dow.”

I let out another wordless cry, unable to stop myself. Reaching back for him, I buried my fingers in his hair. “What are you saying?” I gasped.

“Only whispering secrets,” he rumbled in response.

“Tell me.”

He rubbed his thumb against my core, driving his fingers into me and then stroking from the inside in acome heremotion. I hissed when I registered the sharp nip of his teeth at my earlobe. “I said, ‘I’m going to drown myself between your thighs.’ Or something close to that. There’s no word for what I’m trying to say in High Fae.Correshanmeans lethal bliss. Death by pleasure, perhaps. Old Fae was a far more descriptive language.”

“Ahh! Oh my fucking gods,” I panted. “That . . . that feels . . .” I cried out when he roughly rolled my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, squeezing it.

“The good comes with the bad. The pleasure comes with the pain. I’m going to make this hurt so good for you, Osha. Are you ready?”

“I—” I didn’t know what to say, so I nodded. I didn’t want him to caress me, or hold me, or make love to me. I wanted raw emotion. I wanted electricity. I wanted to fuckingscream. When Fisher sank himself into me from behind, his fingers gouged into my hip bones, biting deep, and a feral snarl worked free from his throat. It was the sound the hellcats made as they prowled the dunes outside of the walls of the Third at night. It was a claiming.

His arm banded around my ribs like a vise, and he fucked me hard until I came apart.

Our bodies formed a bridge to heaven, and both of us ascended.

The whole of Cahlish heard my screams.

When Fisher came moments after me, I watched, amazed, as a swirl of ink rippled away from the God Bindings that wound around my wrist and arm, transferring from my hand to his. It didn’t stop there. I turned in the circle of his arms, watching as it rose over his biceps until it settled on his skin, just below his collarbone.

Fisher bent down and kissed me deeply, his heart racing from the workout he’d just undertaken. “Why are you smirking like that?” he asked, curving a dark brow.

He hadn’t seen what had happened.

I would let him discover his new ink the same way he had let me discovermine.

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