Page 55 of Evil Hearts

2

T he scab on my lip splits open as I open my mouth and cough, immediately sending dust up my nose. I roll onto my back and wince at the sore muscles, screaming in protest at the sudden movement.

How long have I been out?

Where even am I?

I open my eyes and blink against the purple-ish lights coming from clusters of crystals along the stone walls. The way the color dances along the stalagmites brushes against the wall in my mind, and I know I’ve been here before. A sharp gasp rushes out of my lungs as the memory breaks free from its prison and pulls me down.

“Astéri mou,” he breathes against my inner thigh, his tongue tracing a scorching path from just above my knee to the sensitive area where my leg connects to my body. The words curl around my heart and squeeze it like a vice.

“What does…it mean?” I ask between heavy pants and clenched teeth. His teasing touches are making it almost impossible to maintain a coherent thought.

He chuckles darkly as I writhe beneath him. “It means…” His deep voice rumbles through my chest as he slides his wicked tongue along my pulsing clit. “My star.”

My back arches off the stone, and a low groan escapes my lips, despite my best effort to stay silent. His torment is quickly pushing me toward the precipice where pleasure meets pain, and I am powerless under his caress.

Unable to resist his spell.

Unable to fight the soaring pleasure.

Like Icarus following the burning light of the sun.

His bony fingers gently slide down my thighs and hook just behind my knees, pulling them further apart. “Because you, dear one, are my north star.” His tongue pierces me, stroking along my inner walls until he finds a spot that causes my hips to jerk harshly.

I squeeze my eyes shut as pleasure burns through me, scorching all my nerve endings until I’m little more than a mindless, trembling pile of embers.

“You have quickly become my obsession,” he whispers against my heated skin. “My thoughts somehow always trail back to you, and I can’t keep myself from seeking you out.” His cool cheek presses against my inner thigh, causing a shudder to snake up my spine. “When I close my eyes, your light is always there, guiding me to where I need to be.”

His words wash over me, sending another scorching wave settling into my lower abdomen. My body is so wound up, I feel like the string to one of Artemis’ hunting bows. Every cell in my body seems to be realigning itself into the perfect storm of tension and anticipation, just waiting for his next touch.

The wait is short-lived but worth every agonizing second.

His tongue blazes a path through my folds and has my back arching off the stone once more, writhing on a silent scream as ecstasy takes hold once more. My mind fractures, and another piece of memory breaks off, floating into a marble vault of my own creation. It’s as if my mind is saving them for a special occasion or to guide me when my wits are stolen, like a trail of breadcrumbs through the abyss of the Underworld.

My body convulses, and my inner walls clamp down on his sinful tongue, but it’s not enough to keep him inside. His tongue slips from my core and licks slow, deliberate lines up and down my clit, torturing me further. I want to close my thighs around his skull to keep him locked in place, but his strength can overpower me ten times over.

He lets out a dark chuckle. “Astériskos.” He breathes it like a sacred prayer. “There will come a time when you must choose. I cannot guide you to the answer, but the answer will guide you to me.”

His words drift through my mind, but I’m lost in a lust-induced haze. I can’t make sense of what he’s trying to tell me, and he always speaks in riddles that I can’t understand. “You’re already here,” I argue weakly and lift my hips, trying to find relief from the throbbing between my thighs. “I’ve already found you.”

“No, Astériskos, not like this. You will forget. You will falter. You will fail.”

His words pierce through my heart. “I can’t forget you.” Desperation coils in my chest as I try to sit up and look at him, but his mouth latches onto my clit again, and electricity shoots straight through my nerve endings.

“You must promise not to give up. No matter what happens.” His breath tickles my skin. “Say you swear it,” he demands roughly, his voice impossibly deep.

“I… I…” My back arches as he bites down on a tender spot inside my thigh. My pussy throbs with each pull of suction against my skin. “I swear it,” I sob out on an exhale, feeling like every cell in my body is about to implode with need. “Please,” I beg. “Please.”

I don’t know if I’m begging for him to stop his torture or if I’m begging for him not to let me forget him.

The marble vault in my mind takes another piece of this memory and seals it behind a keyless door. One that I hope I will remember how to open once my memories of him fade.

“Shh, dear one, you are doing so well,” he praises and sucks against the skin of my other leg, sending me ricocheting toward an orgasm. “This is where I will part from you.” His tongue curls around my clit as his mouth envelopes me.

My protests die on my tongue as I’m swept away by a tsunami of sensation. My body arches up so tightly that my muscles quiver, and my pussy clamps down on his tongue as he forces it inside the tight muscle, stroking along my walls and drawing out my climax. I feel warmth against my skin as liquid gushes out of me and onto his tongue.

Darkness dances along the edges of my vision as I collapse into a quivering mess of raw nerve endings and sore muscles. Panic leeches into the pleasure-induced haze swirling around in my brain as he sits back on his heels, and his tongue flicks out like he’s licking his lips. Only he doesn’t have any lips, so it just brushes along his exposed teeth.

“Please,” I whisper weakly as my head swims and my vision darkens. “Don’t leave me.”

He sighs and stands to his full height, his cloak of shadows and mist swirling around his formidable frame. “I am not leaving you.” He drops a kiss on my forehead as the darkness envelopes me. “You are leaving me.”

I try to pry my eyelids open to explain that there is no way in the seven layers of the Underworld that I would ever leave him, but it feels like I’ve been injected with lead, and everything is too heavy. As I drift away, I hear his voice caress my senses one final time.

“Fight it. Don’t forget,” he implores, his tone desperate. “Thymísou me. Parakaló.”