Page 73 of Insolence (Eisha’s Hidden Codices #1)

“As long as I’m breathing, I promise I’ll never be able to leave you alone,” I say, my body pressed flush to hers. My lips brush her skin as I whisper, “There’s no force in this dark world capable of keeping me away. You are now and will forever be mine, Itissa. And I never break my promises.”

From the first moment I touch her, I’m hooked. Doomed to be forever at her mercy. Ruled by my devastating devotion.

Dawn breaks beyond the drawn curtains. We finally collapse together, panting and spent—or so I believe. I’m lying boneless on top of her when she starts squirming. Restless. Whimpering yet again.

“You can’t possibly want more.” My groan is muffled in the crook of her shoulder.

“I— I want…” Her hands move over my back and shoulders.

Fingers tease up my neck to pluck at my short hair.

I heave myself to my elbows in time to see something wild twist her expression.

“I don’t know what I want, but something inside of me is craving more.

It’s hard to describe. I’m ravenous for you.

” Her eyes implore me. “I can’t get enough of you, El. ”

Lying in her nest of fallen rose petals, she looks like a hungry little monster. Like every ounce of satisfaction I’ve given her has only whetted her appetite. My beautiful beast.

Gods know I’m famished for her too. Still. Always .

I’ll never understand how it doesn’t click at this precise moment. But then, I’m still so naive. Young and dumb and intoxicated with pleasuring her for the first time. Meddling with forces I don’t understand.

“Want to get on top?” I ask with a peck to the side of her neck.

Her face lights up. “Yes, please!”

“You’re going to be the death of me, aren’t you?”

She only gives a devious giggle. Helps me to my feet. Unpins what remains of the roses from her hair.

The harness has been digging in and is starting to chafe. With her taking top, I don’t need it. Take it off to use my cock without it.

Once I’m seated in my chair, she positions herself over me. Thighs astride my hips, eyes fluttering closed, her rosebud mouth forms a small “oh” as she eases me inside her again.

Her head tips back. We both groan, desire scorching me anew while she sinks slowly down.

She works us up all over again. Rapture takes over, another climax barreling toward us both within minutes. Her body shudders, hips pumping.

I hear myself swear when her hand snakes around my neck to grasp my nape. With her other hand, she reaches between us to rub her clit. Her back arches and she cries out. Taking me with her, both of us tumble into mind-numbing euphoria yet again.

This is when something between us shudders and breaks apart. The world lurches.

What the hell?

Time slows. Then drags.

I realize my body is frozen with my hands propped on her hips while she grinds and I come inside her. I’m held helpless in her sway, my eyes the only part of me capable of movement.

Shock piercing my brain, I catch the glow of a sigil on the back of her hand as her fingertips work her clit to a frenzy.

The intangible barrier between us wavers and grows thin. Threatens to vanish entirely. Gobsmacked and half in ecstasy, I can do nothing while the arcane fabric separating her inner realm and mine breaks apart.

Waves of sweet delight morph into gut-twisting torment. Invisible claws rake through me, shredding my very essence, mangling the precious balance there. She wrenches something vital from behind my navel. Yanking it down and out.

Eyes squeezed shut, she bends down. Clamps her teeth around the tender flesh between my neck and shoulder. Biting. Bruising.

I already know her claiming bite will leave a mark. Shocked as I am, part of me welcomes it.

This is the first time her voice resounds inside my head, gentling me. Claiming me for her own.

Meanwhile, my life-force is still bleeding out of me like a wound that won’t clot. It’s agony and delight together at once while she slowly cleaves me to pieces. Pries me apart, not realizing she’s doing it.

I cling to her, blindsided but reasonably assured given my sex at birth. Comforted in the knowledge it will soon end.

But it doesn’t end.

It goes on for far, far too long.

Bit by bit she consumes me—past the point of the room spinning and my breathing turning dangerously shallow. I strain to twitch a muscle to no avail. It should have stopped by now… Why won’t it stop?

It’s much too intimate an intrusion. A profound violation.

Finally my blood turns to ice. Panic breaks through as my pulse turns thready, my skin going cold. Oh, fuck. I’ve made a mistake. I didn’t think—

Until this moment I haven’t fully comprehended my mutable soul. Never in a million years did I anticipate this .

In another few seconds nothing will be left of me. After all, men don’t survive an encounter with a Succubus. Not when she’s dominant, in control, and climaxing from skin-to-skin contact. My cock is apparently close enough. A far-off part of me is pleasantly baffled.

Nobody, changeling or natural human, can survive without life-force rooted to our souls.

Under the same circumstances, a natural human woman would become very ill but survive.

A mage would feel extremely fatigued afterward and recover quickly—the end result I anticipated once I saw that damn sigil.

Another demun wouldn’t be negatively affected at all.

But evidently I am fucked, in every literal and figurative sense, to my complete astonishment.

At long last the agony ebbs. Dissipates along with my panic. Love for her swells in my chest. A sublime sort of peace washing over me, I reconcile myself to my fate.

After all, there are far worse ways to die. And I’m happy to do it with Tiss in my lap, teeth at my neck, cunt wrapped round my cock. Swept up in her pinnacle and exquisitely beautiful.

All of this hurtles by in seconds. It feels like hours, although my recollection will be spotty later on.

I’ll never forget the jarring, familiar softness that overcomes me. With a miraculous mental tug and no prior warning, I realize I am sinking sweetly into my own femininity.

My lifeline pulls taut. Refuses to break. My essence stops funneling away. I gasp, body going slack, movement prickling into my arms and legs like circulation returning to limbs starved of blood flow.

Eisha, I realize, has taken pity on her child.

Releasing my neck, Tiss’s movements slow then stop. Time resumes its normal flow. But our blended realities don’t separate, don’t seal completely.

I’m jarringly aware of our soul-tie the second it snaps into place. All of her affection and adoration rush in, filling the aching void. Thrilling me to the end of every extremity.

My hands—dangling now on either side of the chair—tingle with pulsing blue-white light. Reflect the sigils slowly winking out on hers. Bewildered, I suck in a breath.

But in seeing her for what she truly is while she fed on me, and loving her just the same, a tether was forged. Linking us. Binding us together.

She, a Succubus. And I, her Thrall.

Is our bond the goddess’s price for my life? Does she perhaps have plans for me yet?

Tiss slumps against me, none the wiser to the ordeal her passion just put me through. “I love you so much, El.”

Finally, finally content, her fingers twirl in my hair. I’m damn near completely drained. Bone-weary. And somehow still alive by a fraying thread.

“Elodie,” I correct softly. Lift a hand that feels like a brick to cup her hip. “I love you too, sweetheart. More than I ever thought possible.”