Page 7 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

Chapter

Five

GRIM

M erri’s enraged cry drew me up short, and I froze just as she threw her hand out.

For a heartbeat, I couldn’t tell if she’d made me stop or if I’d consciously decided to do so.

Before I could land on an answer, my breath caught in my throat and a foreign weight sat in my chest. Not on top of, but inside the very marrow of my bones.

There was a tug, like that weight had somehow latched on to something tangible, and then the strangest sensation of being peeled away from myself washed over me. I didn’t have any other words to describe the feeling. I’d never experienced it before, nor had I ever heard someone else mention it.

I released an audible gasp as I struggled to process what I saw before me and marry it with the sensations I could feel in my physical body.

Warmth encircled my wrist. It was undeniably Merri’s soft skin against mine, but she wasn’t touching me.

In fact, Merri wasn’t within reach of me.

She was perched on her knees on the end of the large bed, eyes trained on me, fingers wrapped around the wrist of a fully manifested shadow figure.

I’d seen my shadow enough times to recognize it as my own. But never like this. Never when it was completely severed from me, as if it was now its own unique entity.

A sudden pang of fear had me instinctively sending a testing bolt of my will its way. Merri made it manifest. Did that mean it now answered to her? Or was I still in control?

My relief was potent when the shadow form moved as I’d intended, the fingers on its right hand flexing.

Her reaction was immediate, a tightening of her grip that sent a shiver of excitement chasing away any residual fear.

She could touch me this way and not suffer the consequences.

More than that, she could feel my touch every bit as much as I was experiencing hers.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” Malice murmured from the bed.

I shook my head, reaching up with my shadow hand and cupping Merri’s face.

Her skin was just as soft as it had been in my dreams. I’d never imagined this was possible.

After things failed so spectacularly with Hel, I’d completely given up on the possibility of knowing a lover’s touch again.

Of being able to touch her in return. And then Merri had stumbled her way into my dreams, teasing me with a loophole.

But this? This was real . This was her and I, awake. Together.

A disbelieving laugh escaped me. “Neither did I.”

“He didn’t do it,” Chaos added belatedly. “Merri did.”

Malice frowned, his eyebrows furrowing. “How?”

“Horsewoman power,” Sin answered, shocking all of us.

“And how do you know that?” Malice demanded.

“I’ve seen Sabine do something similar. She has the ability to interact directly with her prey’s life force. Usually she chooses to drain them instead of feed. She calls it her deadly kiss.”

“Are you trying to tell us she can suck someone’s soul from their mouth?” Chaos asked.

Sin nodded. “We can both do it. But she loves to feed on fear more than lust.”

“That’s not what Merri is doing now.” I knew it as surely as I knew my own name.

“No,” Sin agreed. “Our girl is a problem solver. She wants you, Grimsby. She just ensured she can have you.”

In a handful of long strides, I was beside the bed, aching to be as close as was safe so I could revel in the noises I was about to pull from her, the micro-expressions that would flit across her beautiful face, the scent of her desire.

I didn’t want to miss a second of what was sure to be the single best experience of my immortal life.

“Move back,” I snarled at Chaos, who’d disengaged from her body but remained close enough to touch what was mine.

Chaos, to his credit, didn’t argue. He simply backed away from the bed, and I sent my shadow to claim our rightful place.

My attention turned to Malice, who was still kneeling in front of Merri. “You as well.”

I half expected him to refuse, like he did with Chaos, but he also surprised me by complying.

“We’re going to stay in the room, all right?” Sin murmured soothingly, as if talking to a feral creature. “Just in case you need us. But this moment is all yours.”

“I won’t need you.”

Merri let out a soft moan before spreading her knees apart and bringing my hand between her legs.

I felt her touch mirrored on my corporeal flesh.

Something about it seemed... thinner, as though she was holding me through a veil of fine chiffon.

It wasn’t true contact, but I’d take what I could get.

And right now, that was her perfect pussy.

Needing no further direction, I slid my fingers inside her and groaned at the sensation.

She was slick and hot, and even though it was my shadow playing with her, I could tell how much she wanted me.

“Fuck,” I grunted, the word practically dragged out of me as my brain struggled to process all these new stimuli.

Not only was I essentially in two places at once, I was feeling all of it.

Merri’s arousal, my own, the wonder that such a thing was even possible, the anticipation of sinking into her and making her cry out in ecstasy.

You’d think already it was too much to handle, but no.

I wanted more. I wanted every-fucking-thing.

No one ever said that Death was altruistic.

I was greedy. Insatiable. And I’d just been given free rein.

“What are you waiting for, Grim? Give her what she needs.” This from Chaos as he watched on, his gaze locked on Merri’s glistening cunt, still visible through the shimmering darkness of my shadow.

My teeth ground together, the urge to shut him up with a punch to the face almost uncontrollable. Instead, I simply moved my shadow limbs to spread her thighs wider before sending my form climbing atop her.

She clawed my shadow’s torso, the slight prick muted but still sharp as I felt its echo down my abs. My cock gave a happy jerk, likely offering itself up as tribute.

A gasp escaped me when Merri reached between my shadow and herself to grip the length desperate to get inside her. If there’d been no danger of me killing her and she’d touched my true form like that, I may have spent myself then and there. Did she know the effect she had on me?

The wicked curl of her lips told me that she did.

Of course she did.

She was hardwired for exactly that. Merri was a creature born to read every subtle shift in our moods. That it was sexual only meant she was more interested than ever.

“Relax for me, wildflower. I’ll make sure you have everything you want.”

Her little whine of protest as I batted her hand away with my shadow’s had me grinning, but soon all pretense of play was gone. I moved my shadow into position, placing the tip of my cock at her entrance with my gaze trained on her face.

“Look over here, Merri. Look into my eyes as my shadow fucks you for the first time.”

Those dark orbs snapped to mine, and I had a brief moment of protest at the wrongness of them in her angelic face.

Thankfully, I’d had enough run-ins with demonkind over the centuries, so I knew how to spot the spark of emotion and intelligence behind the black pools.

Her demon might be front and center, but our girl was in there too.

With our gazes locked, I sent my shadow sliding forward, sinking down into her sweet heat. The ripple of sensation along my actual shaft was a torturous tease.

“God in heaven,” I groaned, the words tight and guttural.

Even though my logical brain knew it wasn’t my body inside hers, there was no denying what I was feeling—or its effect on me.

I’d never fucked wearing a condom, but perhaps this was similar.

My shadow was akin to one—the thinnest barrier keeping us apart.

I knew from my limited experience with Helene that had I actually been buried balls deep inside my sweet little wildflower, everything would feel exponentially more than it currently did . It’d be hotter. Wetter. Tighter.

That said, I had zero fucking complaints.

For one such as I, who’d spent the greater part of his existence not touching at all, this was practically the equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off inside of me.

I wanted to commit every second to memory so I could relive it ad nauseam.

I wanted to collect every possible interaction available to me so that if I woke and found this all to be another fantastical dream, I wouldn’t walk away empty-handed.

With that thought center of my mind, my shadow form bent over so it was pressed torso to torso with Merri. Her warmth tingled along my chest, a tantalizing glimpse of what it would be like to hold her against me.

Kiss her , I thought.

The brush of lips was like a drop of rain in a drought. All it did was leave me wanting more.

As my shadow savored her in slow, controlled thrusts, I opened my trousers and freed my cock, needing to add that last bit of missing friction.

Unlike me, Merri wanted nothing to do with a long, drawn-out affair. She squirmed beneath my shadow, letting out a snarl of frustration as she bit down on its lower lip hard enough that I’d have sworn she drew blood from me .

“Naughty girl, wildflower,” I grumbled, but there was no heat in it.

She wrapped her legs around my shadow’s hips and rolled her pelvis upward, searching for faster, deeper, harder thrusts.

“She needs more from you, Grim,” Sin whispered, his voice breaking through the haze of desire that had enveloped me.

“And she’ll get it. But not just yet.” I wasn’t done taking her all in.

I pushed back just far enough with my shadow form to begin kissing my way down her neck and collarbone. Merri bucked against me, wordlessly demanding more.

“Not so fast,“ I murmured, using one of my shadow’s hands to pin her down by the throat while the other glided down her belly and dipped between her legs. “You wanted me, demanded me, and you’ve got me. But it’s going to be on my terms.”

My shadow was stronger than her, even with her demonic power holding the reins. But she struggled nonetheless. She wanted me to feed her, to give her my orgasm, but I wasn’t ready yet. And even though I’d give her exactly what she asked for, I was in charge here.

“I didn’t realize we were allowed to have terms,” Malice grumbled.

“You sure weren’t complaining.” Chaos’s deep voice filled the room even when he spoke under his breath.

I forced their voices into the background, keeping my attention locked on Merri.

She might be protesting against my methods, but she was responding to my shadow’s touch all the same.

My shadow form took her nipple into his mouth, sucking on the tight bud before paying her back for her earlier assault on my lip with a sharp bite.

Merri yelped, her back arching off the bed as her inner walls flexed around my shadowy shaft, followed immediately by a flood of wetness.

“You’re gushing, beautiful,” I whispered, my fist tightening over my length as I lost the battle to keep my strokes slow and measured.

I let go of control, let my shadow rock into her in time with the pace of my hand as it shuttled along my cock, moving ever faster as her body squeezed mine. Precum dripped from my crown, my balls drawing up, signaling the inevitable.

“Grim, she needs your cum inside her.”

Sin’s unwanted interruption buzzed around my mind like an annoying gnat before it fully registered.

How the bloody hell was I supposed to manage that?

“Can his shadow actually do that?” Chaos asked softly.

“Doubtful,” Malice replied under his breath.

“No, it has to be him. If the goal is to fully sate her, she needs her partner’s cum.”

In my periphery, I could see Chaos nodding. “It’s true. Her demon clearly took hold because she wanted more than Merri was willing to provide and got tired of waiting. This won’t end until she’s satisfied.”

“Just get as close as you can and let your shadow take care of the rest,” Sin offered.

He didn’t need to elaborate. I knew exactly what he meant. But if I was going to do this, I needed to take every precaution.

Spread her legs wide, I thought, ensuring she was safe as my shadow did my bidding.

Her legs were splayed in a wide V, the sight of her cunt taking my shadow cock reinvigorating the orgasm that had been waylaid by my brothers’ unwelcome voices.

She let out a keening cry when a shadowy finger began rolling her clit, making her thighs tremble.

There was no sound of slapping skin to accompany the act, but Merri’s moans were the only soundtrack I needed.

“We do this together,” I grunted as I positioned myself as close as safety would allow.

My cock wept for her, and I could feel the heat of her pussy from proximity alone.

She detonated with a harsh gasp and an arch of her back, a pleasure-filled wail coming from deep within. I followed. There was no way to stop it, and there wasn’t a single part of me that wanted to.

“Fuuuck, Merri,” I groaned, spilling my seed onto her plump pussy lips.

Tingles raced across every nerve ending, chasing along my skin as my orgasm seemed to go on and on. When it finally began to dim, my chest was heaving and sweat dotted my brow. My vision blurred for several heartbeats before things returned to focus.

The sight that greeted me was straight out of my filthiest fantasies. Merri was still splayed, her chest rapidly rising and falling as she struggled to catch her breath, her belly and swollen sex coated with my release.

“Put it where it belongs,” I whispered harshly, my order for my shadow, but I wanted her to hear it too.

Merri’s eyes snapped open as my shadow obeyed, two thick digits swiping through the mess I’d left and pushing it deep inside her. Her mouth formed the sweetest O of surprise, and I caught the exact moment the obsidian orbs shifted back to blue.

For good measure, I curled those shadow fingers up and rubbed against her internal walls, making her gasp as her eyes fluttered closed.

She returned her gaze to me with a satisfied smile on her lips.

“Are you back with us, kitten?” Sin asked.

A slight nod was her only response before she sighed dreamily and fell into a deep sleep.