Page 126 of Dance of Thorns

He smacks my ass and tits, pinching my nipples and then spanking me again as he fucks theshitout of me.

Even after what we just shared on the ledge, he knowsthisis what I need. It’s not that I want thisover“making love". It’s that to me—to him, tous—thisismaking love.

A violent, chaotic, brutal love that hurts so good that it tattoos itself across your soul.

A love to shatter the darkness that can’t be stopped by whatever came before.

A love that doesn’t run from the past, but knows the past is how we got here.

“I fucking love you, baby,” he groans into my ear as he bites down on my lobe. His fist yanks on my hair, making me scream in delicious, twisted pleasure. “I love you, and if you ever do jump, you better fucking know that I’ll be right behind you, raising hell and burning down heaven to drag you back to me.”

Thisis the love I’ve always wanted. A love that’ll follow you over the edge to drag you back to safety.

A perfectly beautiful, mad, bloody, messy fucking love.

Bane’s fist twists my head around. He crushes his mouth to mine, devouring my lips and thrusting his tongue past them as I scream into them. My hips roll, ecstasy snaking through my core as I thrust my ass up to meet his punishing thrusts, until sweet black oblivion drowns me.

When I come, it’s a shattering, consuming, otherworldly release. I cry out into his lips, twisting and writhing and shaking so hard my vision goes dark. Bane groans, pounding deep and rough and hard until all at once he’s there with me.

He explodes into my pussy as my second orgasm thunders through me, his hot cum pumping deep as he feasts on my lips. He keeps thrusting in and out, coating my thighs with both of us until we collapse into a panting, exhausted pile.

I’m vaguely aware of him picking me up and carrying me inside. Then I’m kissing him softly as the warm shower rains down over us. Lifting my knee to his hips. Whimpering as he picks me up, slides me onto his thick cock, and fucks me again slowly against the glass of the shower, his lips never leaving mine.

Later, he carries me naked into the bedroom I’ve been sleeping in every night and tucks me into bed. My sluggish mind is already forming the word “goodnight” when he slides in next to me and pulls the covers over both of us.

Wait.

What?

We've fucked almost every way two humans can. But we’ve never donethis.

…We’ve never actuallyslepttogether.

“Bane—”

“I’m tired,” he growls quietly, rolling me onto my side and pulling me so I’m snuggled against his muscled body, his still mostly hard cock pressed to my ass and his arms circling me. “I’m tired of telling myself that I can’t go there with you. That I don’t deserve to,” he murmurs against my hair. “But mostly, little bird,” he exhales, “I’m just tired ofnot doing it.”

I twist my head, looking at him over my shoulder.

“I’m tired of that, too.”

“Damn,” he grunts with a lazy grin. “I was almost hoping you’d fight me on that so I could just keep you pinned in my arms all night.”

I giggle. “You can do that anyway.”

His arms tighten around me, pulling my back against his strong chest.

“Way ahead of you, little bird,” he murmurs. “Wayahead of you.”

33

DOVE

“Merci!”

I smile at the post office worker after signing for the package.

“Je vous en prie,” she replies, pushing the big brown box across the counter.