Page 84 of Eternal

It doesn’t really matter because, with a final squeeze of my hand, I can’t deny him.

He reaches for my jaw, and I swear I feel the seams in my chest tear open.

“Okay,” I whisper.

The moment the word is out, he leans down and claims my mouth.

He overwhelms all thoughts. Steals all defiance. He becomes everything I’ve ever needed when I didn’t think I needed him at all. Because he’s right; I want this to be real. I want to be his.

Declan’s hands would inevitably be the ones that destroyed me. At least now I’ve accepted it.

I wrap my arms around his shoulders as he deepens the kiss, picking me up to carry me to his workbench at the far end of the room. And even if I told him I submitted to this when he tested me with Cora, in this moment, I actually believe it.

I surrender.

Declan sets me on the workbench, widening my legs with his stance. His fingers grip my ass, and he tilts my hips, grinding my pussy against his hard cock.

“What are we doing?” I tip my head back, and he sinks his teeth into my neck as he bites a path down, breaking contact only to rip his shirt overhead.

“This might bemystudio.” He kisses the center of my throat. “But you’re going to paint these walls with your screams. Aren’t you, pet?”

“Yes.” My fingers trace the letters carved in his chest, and it’s how I feel in this moment.

Eternal.

Like whatever sparks inside me has always been there, but I’m just now feeling it.

He unbuttons my pants, dropping to his knees as he strips them off. And when his mouth finds my clit, the back of my head hits the wall, and my eyes slam shut.

His tongue makes art.

Soft but strong.

Pleasure in a metal forest built for pain.

Light in the darkness.

A tear slips down my cheek, but it’s not sadness. It’s my resistance melting. It’s paint spilling. It’s the art we’re creating when I thought we were already finished.

24

Holy Land

Declan

I’m born from sin,but between Teal’s legs, I find heaven. Holy land that should burn me up on the spot.

It does.

I’m self-destructing at the taste of her. Buried between her thighs clamping around my head.

She makes me lose control, even as she hands it to me.

I’ve resisted her, convinced myself I hated her, made her suffer for every second she’s spent around me for years. But now that I’ve had her, I can’t let her go. I’m going to stoke these flames until we burn to ashes.

I will make her see that I’m the only one who understands the pieces when everyone in her life has spent it tearing her apart. I’ll crack the shell she hides in and watch her beautiful chaos spill out.

“Declan.” Her fingers grip my hair.