Page 18 of Forbidden Empire (Sinful Gods #1)

The sheets twisted beneath us, damp with sweat and arousal. His hands gripped my thighs, spreading me wider, angling deeper, hitting places inside me that had tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.

"Fuck, Esme." I clenched around him. "You feel like—" He couldn't finish, his words dissolving into a groan that vibrated through my sternum.

The world beyond our tangled limbs ceased to exist. There was nothing but this—the slick slide of him inside me, the bruising grip of his fingers on my hips, the salt of his skin against my tongue.

The danger of what we were doing, of what we were to each other, hovered at the edges of my consciousness, but I couldn't reach it through the haze of pleasure.

Something cracked open in my chest when he slowed, his forehead pressed to mine, our breath mingling in the scant space between us.

For a heartbeat, we weren't enemies or rivals or whatever twisted thing we'd become. We were just two people drowning in each other.

His eyes locked on mine as he moved inside me, pupils blown so wide the midnight blue was just a thin ring around bottomless black.

I couldn't look away even as something primal in me screamed to hide, to protect the raw, bleeding parts of myself his gaze was excavating with each brutal thrust. My chest constricted, lungs fighting for air that wouldn't come.

"What are you looking for?" I whispered, as he hit that spot deep inside that made my vision blur.

His answer was to grip my jaw, forcing my face up, denying me even the small mercy of turning away.

Let him look. Let him search. The truth was written in the tremble of my thighs, the desperate arch of my spine, the wetness coating his cock each time he withdrew, just to drive back in deeper.

For now, I would let him think he'd won.

I dug my heels into the mattress and arched up, taking him beyond deeper, my inner walls clenching around him like a vise.

His rhythm faltered, a choking sound escaping his throat. The headboard slammed against the wall, each crack punctuating the wet, obscene sound of our bodies colliding.

"Fuck," he hissed, his fingers digging bruises into my hipbones as he yanked me down onto his cock.

The new angle sent lightning bolts of pleasure-pain up my spine, my body seizing around him.

Sweat dripped from his forehead onto my collarbone, sliding between my breasts. The salt of it stung the scratches on my skin.

Each thrust now knocked the air from my lungs in short, desperate pants. My nails carved crescents into his shoulders, drawing pinpricks of blood that smeared between us.

"Is this—" Each word punctuated by the snap of his hips "—what you—wanted?"

I couldn't answer as the pressure built low in my core and made me tremble.

The world beyond our tangled limbs ceased to exist, narrowing to the slick slide of him inside me, the bruising grip of his hands, the salt of his skin against my tongue.

My head thrashed against the pillow, hair wild and damp with sweat, as the first shockwaves of release threatened to tear me apart.

My spine arched with such violent force I thought it might snap, every nerve ending raw and exposed.

"Don't stop," I gasped. "Harder, Aidon. Please—" My plea dissolved into a broken moan.

He drove deeper, the thick ridge of him hitting that spot that made stars burst behind my eyelids.

His teeth scraped the shell of my ear, his breath coming in harsh pants that matched the brutal rhythm of his hips.

"Like this? Is this what you need, Esme?"

The headboard slammed against the wall, each crack echoing the wet, obscene sound of our bodies colliding. My fingernails drew pinpricks of blood into his shoulders, which smeared between us like war paint.

"Yes," I sobbed, beyond shame, beyond pride. "God, yes—" The rest of my words dissolved into incoherence.

He hitched my thigh higher, the new angle sending lightning bolts of pleasure-pain up my spine.

"Say you're mine now, little one." His rhythm faltered just enough to let me know this wasn't just dirty talk; this was the price of my pleasure.

The real surrender he demanded.

I knew it then. In the space between heartbeats, between the drag of his cock and the bruising grip of his hands on my hips, I knew.

He'd orchestrated this entire night— every touch, every kiss, every thrust to bring me to this precipice where pride and need collided.

He fucking knew what he was doing.

"I'm yours, Aidon," I gasped, the admission ripped from somewhere deep and primal as I opened my thighs wider, surrendering not just my body but something far more dangerous.

"I'll be yours as long as you keep—" My voice shattered as he drove into me with renewed force, the confession he'd extracted rewarded with what I'd begged for.

He fucked me harder then, each thrust more punishing than the last, the wet sound of our bodies meeting filling the room.

My vision blurred, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes, not from pain but from the overwhelming intensity.

Every nerve ending screamed for release, my body a live wire under his hands.

Deeper. The world beyond our tangled limbs ceased to exist.

Faster. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, drowning out everything but the slick slide of him inside me.

Until—

My orgasm hit like a tsunami, hot waves of pleasure rolling through my hips and radiating outward until even my fingertips tingled. My inner walls clenched and spasmed around him, milking his cock as I shattered.

I might have screamed his name, might have cursed, might have begged.

I couldn't tell through the roaring in my ears.

He continued fucking me through the aftershocks, not slowing, not stopping until I was trembling without any semblance of control, over-sensitized and delirious.

Right when I thought I might pass out, I felt him swell inside me, his rhythm turning erratic. His fingers dug bruises into my hipbones as he slammed into me one final time, his whole body going rigid as he came with a guttural groan that vibrated through my sternum.

The hot pulse of his release inside me triggered another wave of pleasure, smaller but no less intense.

"God, yes," I cried, my body still quaking with aftershocks, clenching around him as if trying to draw out every drop.

He collapsed half on top of me, his weight both crushing and comforting.

For long moments, all I heard was the sound of our ragged breathing slowing.

His lips found my neck, pressing lazy, open-mouthed kisses along the column of my throat. The gentleness was almost more devastating than the violence that had preceded it.

His mouth trailed up my cheek, finding my lips with surprising tenderness. The kiss was deep but unhurried, his tongue sliding against mine in a languid echo of our earlier frenzy.

Something in my chest cracked open at the contrast, the brutality of before against this almost reverent aftermath.

The tension that had defined us, predator and prey, hunter and hunted, seemed to dissipate like morning mist, leaving us suspended in a strange, unfamiliar territory.

His hands mapped my curves with possessive strokes, as if memorizing the landscape of my body now that he'd claimed it.

"You'll never run from me again, Esme," he whispered against my lips, each syllable burning into me like a brand.

His fingers traced the outline of a bruise blooming purple on my hip, his touch both reverent and possessive.

Goddamn him.

My heart slammed against my ribs as something primal and desperate clawed its way up my throat. I seized his face between my palms, my fingernails digging into the sharp edges of his jaw.

His pupils dilated, black swallowing gold until a thin ring remained.

"Then stop chasing me, Aidon. Please."

The corner of his mouth curved upward.

That fucking smirk that made my blood simmer and my thighs clench.

He rumbled in his chest as I tried to wrench away. His arm snaked around my waist like iron, crushing me against the hard planes of his body until I felt the thunderous beat of his heart against my spine.

"Goodnight, Esme," he murmured, his breath hot against the nape of my neck.

His teeth grazed my shoulder, not quite a bite, not quite a kiss, but a reminder that even in sleep, I was claimed.

Marked. His.

I let out a breath, all the fight sparking and guttering out in my muscles.

Holy fuck, I was done.

I’d been running forever, fighting by myself for even longer.

Way, way too long.

He curled in behind me, spooning close. His body heat pressed in and, for a second, I felt something almost like comfort. Like, real comfort.

With Aidon, it had always been a rough impact: fucking, snarling, and the second we were done? Back to being enemies.

But this…this soft tether of warmth felt dangerous and intoxicating.

And fuck, it felt good. Too good.

So damned good that I could get used to it, and I realized that would have been even more dangerous than sleeping with him.

I stared up at the ceiling, listening to him snore, caught in his tight, possessive grip, even in the depths of slumber.

My plan had been simple: ravish him once, then vanish and put miles between me and Aidon, this God-forsaken soulless city, chase any scrap of safety that wasn’t here.

But the second he wrapped his arms around me, I caved.

Pathetic, right? Was I this weak? Did one night of freaky-hot sex wipe out every single conviction I’d ever fought for? If so, what did that say about me? What happened to the badass I’d spent years sculpting from pain and grit?

I lay there, wide awake, mind spinning like a blender set to “shred.” Panic crawled up my throat and wrapped tight around my chest. My heart pounded like it wanted to punch a hole through my ribs and bolt.

Sleep tiptoed in, but it felt like sliding into quicksand, no clue if I’d come up for air on the other side.

Tomorrow? No idea what that would look like.

But none of it mattered with his arms around me.

In that silent tangle with Aidon, the entire world went dim, and for once, I felt safe.

Just safe.

Like maybe that was all anyone wanted all along.