Page 30 of Grim and Oro (Lightlark)

“You are perfect,” she says, and I’m irritated she would use that word on me, when she exists. I don’t compare to her. The world doesn’t compare to her. “I didn’t know—I didn’t know someone could look like this. It’s unfair, really.”

I laugh. “You’re doing very little to discourage my magnificent ego .”

Her hands stroke my chest, awakening my every nerve. I’ve always felt cold, as if my emotions and heart had been frozen solid, but around her, I feel alive. I feel everything .

Her fingers trace the scar she made, and my eyes fall closed, remembering the first time I saw her. Remembering the moment my life changed forever.

My eyes open, and I see those green eyes again, glimmering, as she watches me. As she sees me.

My shadows puddle across the room, and for the first time in my long life I know bliss. True, endless bliss.

She takes a shaking breath, and my eyes lock on her chest. Her skin is prickled with need, and her silk dress is doing nothing to hide it.

She is perfect, without any ornaments, without any fabrics. I want to feel her skin against mine, I don’t want anything between us. My hands raise to rip her dress down the center the way I did before, and she makes an adorable sound of protest.

“Demon. I’m not going to have any dresses left if you keep destroying them.”

I’m impatient, desperate to see every inch of her. Desperate to tear her clothes to shreds. “I’ll buy you new ones. I’ll buy you a market. I’ll get you your own tailor.” I mean it. Because I plan on destroying far more of her dresses.

“Fine,” she finally says, and it’s all the encouragement I need. I rip her dress to shreds, and then her chest is in my mouth, and her groan goes straight to the throbbing core of me.

I bite her lightly, and she gasps, her desire like flames licking against my skin.

My fingers stroke down her stomach, slipping beneath her lace, and the moment they reach her center, she says my name.

I never liked my name until right now, hearing it leave her lips in a gasp.

I curse at the same time. I curse her name. “ Isla .” She is the biggest threat to my life. The biggest threat to the world, simply because I know I wouldn’t hesitate to burn it down for her. Simply because I have decided to doom my realm for her. “You are truly going to kill me.”

“I will,” she says, her voice a husky rasp. “If you don’t keep touching me.”

I’ll never stop , I want to tell her. If she lets me, I’ll keep touching her forever.

“Please,” she says. “I want everything.”

Everything . I wonder if she knows that I want far more than this single night could offer.

I take the rest of my clothes off, then what’s left of hers, gaze locked on hers the entire time, watching her breathing become more labored. Watching her lips part. Feeling her desire fanning around us in red-hot flames.

I climb over her again slowly, settling my hips over hers. I move my mouth across her shoulder, and her skin prickles beneath me, responsive to my every touch.

Her want never falters, but I sense a spike of worry. Her eyes are on me, and I understand.

She thinks ... the difference in size ...

That thought alone nearly does me in, but all I say is, “I think you’ll find we fit perfectly.”

She nods. She starts to breathe more heavily, as if preparing herself.

“Are you sure?” I ask one final time.

“Yes,” she says, and I reach between us.

At the first press of me against her, my fingers nearly turn her sheets to ash. A bolt of pleasure races up my spine.

I’ve done this for centuries, but one simple touch is enough to ruin me.

I grind my teeth together, steadying myself, and begin to push in, slowly. Every inch makes me question my sanity. Makes me question whether I’ve done it correctly all these years, because this—

This feels different.

I feel her flashes of pain as she gets used to me, and I stop, waiting until she urges me to keep going. My arms are trembling with restraint, with my effort not to finish, as I push in and in. And in.

Her nails dig into my shoulders, and I groan into the crown of her head. I trail my nose down her temple, and I curse against the place between her neck and shoulder. She’s so tight around me, her desire is so saturated, this feels too fucking good .

Too right.

I finally bottom out, and she clenches around me. I see stars and barely manage to fight my own release.

Then, just when I thought it couldn’t possibly feel better, she starts writhing against me, and I begin to move.

My veins are full of fire, my nerves are bolts of lightning, her head falls back, and I make a sound that is nothing short of a growl as I have her exactly the way I’ve imagined every single night since the first time I met her.

Closer . I need to get closer, somehow. I curl my arm beneath her, pressing her to my front, feeling her chest rubbing against mine.

Her legs lock behind me, and I don’t think I’m breathing.

She turns her head, cheek pressed against her sheets, as she makes a scraping sound in the back of her throat that I want to memorize, that I want to provoke every night.

Her eyes. I need to see her eyes.

I curl my hand around the back of her neck and tilt her head back to me, so her gaze meets mine.

Green . Fiery green. She’s looking at me with the same intensity she did when we were dueling. Her lips are parted, and she’s panting.

I want to make her pant more. I want to make her want this all the time, if only to give her a reason to seek me out again.

I lift her hips higher, and she bites her bottom lip, as if she is trying to keep from crying out again, as if she’s embarrassed by how much sound she’s making.

No. I want to hear everything. I want to taste everything.

I tug her bottom lip from beneath her teeth and kiss her. The moment my tongue meets hers, I feel it. Her desire rushing up to meet mine, two forces called together.

With a white-hot crash, our pleasures merge, fire meeting ice.

Light meeting darkness. We become one in more ways than I ever thought possible, our feelings converging, bridging, melting wholly together.

She gasps, then pulses around me, and I can feel her every emotion as if it’s coming from my own soul. I ride every wave of pleasure with her.

I thrust harder, dragging out her release, making her whimper, making her say my name again—and then, I join her.

Infinite. That is how I feel afterward, as we stare at each other, sharing breath, our chests flush, our heartbeats mingling. I can’t tell where my soul ends and hers begins. I think they’re one, now.

And I wouldn’t have it be any different.

We don’t stop after the first time. No, we are both ravenous, and it’s as if it’s the first time I’ve ever done it; that’s what it feels like.

It feels different.

She finally falls asleep atop me, and I’ve never felt more content in my life. I watch her sleep, but this time, she doesn’t frown. No, she smiles. She snores softly.

She must feel safe in my arms. I never thought that was possible.

Finally she wakes up, and her eyes go right to mine.

I smile.

What an unfamiliar expression. Though, with her, it feels natural, like I’ve been doing it my entire life.

Shock rolls through her, then a wave of disbelief.

“You have a dimple,” she says.

“Do I?”

I suppose she might be the only person who’s ever seen it.

She shifts, crawling up my chest to rest her face right in front of mine, her chin on my collarbone. She’s smiling too, until a blade of panic makes her happiness vanish.

I sit up instantly. “What’s wrong?” I ask, ready to destroy anything that’s making her afraid.

She blinks at me. Her worry spreads. “You—you aren’t going to disappear, right? Now that we ... now that we—”

Oh . I understand immediately. It’s because of what I told her. For a moment, I feel heartbreaking sadness.

Then, I laugh. I can’t help it.

Isla’s worry just grows deeper. Is my laugh that disconcerting? I keep laughing, folding over, knowing for certain I’ve never been this amused in my long life, and she pinches my ribs. I barely feel it.

“Hearteater,” I finally say, when I’m able to get the word out. “I said Nightshade rulers are typically forbidden from bedding the same person more than once. Last night alone ...”

I had her several times. Several ways. All over this room.

It almost makes me laugh again to think that I would be able to only have her once. I’ve killed thousands, I’ve endured endless pain, but even I would not be able to keep myself away from her. Around her, my self-restraint is nonexistent.

She really is a drug.

One taste of her and I am well and truly addicted.

Relief is like a cool tide washing over both of us. She straddles me, grinding against me, and we both moan.

“Good,” she says, ducking to whisper the words right into my ear. “Because I want to do it all again. Immediately.”

She really is going to be the death of me. And I’ll die with a smile on my lips.

“Hearteater,” I say, my voice pained, because I’m not currently inside her. “You are a bane.” I feel the need to tell her how much she’s tortured me. How much I enjoyed last night. “It’s never ...” I pause. “For me, it’s never felt like that.”

“So, you won’t be entertaining other women lining up for the privilege of sleeping with you anymore?”

Her tone is casual, but her worry is real.

“No. You have ruined me.” In more ways than she could possibly know. “I have a thousand things to do, but all I want is to lock us in this room ... All I want is to claim you so thoroughly, that there won’t be a part of you that doesn’t have a memory with me.”

Both of our desires converge again, enough to drown in. “Do it,” she orders.

I close my eyes. “A curse,” I say.

Then I obey.