Page 13 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Before the thought could fully register, I willed away my clothes until I was sat naked before her. Then I grasped her by the backs of her thighs and tugged her down until she straddled my lap.

She collapsed with a breathless laugh, her hands coming to rest on my shoulders. “What happened to slow?”

“Fuck slow. What if we wake before we’re finished?”

Her grin was a wicked thing as she leaned in and pressed her forehead to mine. “I think I’m in charge of that. We won’t wake until I say so.”

“That could be dangerous.”

“Well, if it’s serious enough, I’m sure it will disrupt my focus and pull us out. But that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, so just go with it.”

My lips twitched at her playfulness, but I schooled my face back into its usual somber expression and gave her a nod. “Of course.”

I was so focused on her delicious mouth I didn’t notice her hand working its way down until she wrapped it around my length. Something between a groan and a shout left me at the contact, and I let my head fall back onto the couch as she stroked from base to tip.

“Fuck, wildflower. You're killing me.”

“Me killing Death?”

“Put me inside you. I want to watch you ride me.”

She leaned forward so her forehead rested against mine, her breath warm as it teased my lips. “Always so bossy,” she whispered, her grip on my shaft tightening as she lined us up.

It was an exquisite sort of agony as she lowered herself down, taking me into her so slowly I held my breath for fear of letting the feel of her send me over the edge before I was ready. The riot of sensations was almost too much for me to process. Her heat. The velvety friction. The tight fit.

Fuck, it was everything. I may not have been a virgin in the literal sense, but anything I’d known before Merri was forgotten. There was no comparison. Joining with her was like experiencing sex for the first time. The way it was truly intended to be.

“Grim.”

Her moan of my name had my fingers digging into the soft swell of her hips and urging her to move. She looked away, her eyes downcast, but I was having none of that. I let out a low growl of warning and pulled her forward just a little.

“Take what you want, but look at me while you do it. I’ve waited this long to have you, and I intend to have all of you.”

Her lips parted in a wordless gasp as she obeyed. I found a twin to the wonder I was experiencing in her eyes. This was different for her as well. I’d bet everything I was on it.

I reveled in the sight of her face as she rocked her hips back and forth, the way her brows furrowed with every drag of my cock along that one perfect spot inside her, the effort it took her not to close her eyes.

Her pleasure was mine in more ways than one.

Not only was I the one responsible for it, but knowing that I was giving it to her amped up my own pleasure tenfold.

What she was doing to my body was a carnal symphony in and of itself.

But the true eroticism of the moment, the beating heart of my arousal, was giving it back to her.

It was then that I realized my pleasure was secondary to hers. If she wasn’t enjoying herself, it wouldn’t matter what she was doing to me. I wouldn’t be able to find any sort of satisfaction in the act. It would be empty, much like what I’d known before with Hel.

Staring into her eyes now, if I’d had any doubt Merri would be different from my previous experience, it would’ve been washed away.

This wasn’t simple fucking. Perhaps it was the dreamwalk intensifying the moment, but right now, with her gaze on mine, our bodies joined, and an explosive climax on the horizon, what we were doing was transcendent.

So much more than physical. If pressed to find a name for it, I’d have sworn then and there that Merri and I were quite literally making love.

It was an act of creation, so much bigger than the two of us.

And then, of course, I would have punched myself for being such a prat.

But it was still the truth.

“Merri,” I whispered, throat tight with everything I was feeling.

“I know, I feel it too.”

A frisson of fear touched my heart at the way her voice trembled. She’d done dreamwalks with the others, she’d fucked them. Why would she be reacting this way as well? This wasn’t new for her.

Was it because it was me? Was there something about who and what I was that fundamentally impacted this moment for us? Had I gotten it all wrong, and this wasn’t some miraculous transcendental act, but the perversion of one?

That seed of doubt clawed at me, trying to take me captive, but Merri wouldn’t allow it.

“No,” she said, voice firm and cracking like a whip around me. Touching my chin, she pinched just tight enough that my mind emptied of everything but her. “None of that. Stay here with me.”

Distantly, I realized she must have picked up on my fear, especially in the seconds it outweighed my arousal.

Even as I thought it, the emotion was little more than a distant memory.

Something I could recall but no longer give shape or weight to.

It was like trying to remember someone’s name or face, but all you were left with was a blank spot in your recollection.

“Feel it all with me, Grim. There’s only us right now. Nothing else. You and me and our connection.”

As though her words flipped a switch in my brain, I did just that. I let it all happen, the sensations between us heightening beyond what I thought possible because I wasn’t simply feeling my own euphoria; hers was there too, melding with mine. This was connection, total and complete.

“Come with me, Grim.” It wasn’t a request so much as a command, even given in that velvety voice of hers. And as with everything when it came to Merri, I realized I was helpless to deny her.

We came, me with an agonized groan as I filled her and secretly hoped I was the one to meet our goal. Not because I wanted to save the world but because I wanted Merri to be mine in some way, even if I knew I wouldn’t get to stay.

What better way to eternally preserve this moment between us than with a child?

One that could be the physical representation of the connection between us.

The connection that felt so real it was almost as if I could see the golden threads of it woven around the two of us, anchoring us to each other.

But no. That was just the firelight playing over our skin.

I chuckled, resting my head against her shoulder as she held me tight.

“Are you seriously laughing right now?” she complained, pulling away and staring at me.

I sighed happily. “You’ve rendered me stupid.”

“Oh?” she asked with a lift of one russet brow.

“I have no words to describe what we just did. Or the effect it’s had on me.”

She smirked. “Does that mean you enjoyed it?”

“What do you think?” I replied, rocking my hips upward so she could feel my already hard cock as it moved inside her again.

“I wonder if it’s always going to be this way between us,” she mused.

Her squeals of laughter cut off on a moan as I twisted our bodies until she was pinned beneath me on the sofa.

“Only one way to find out.”