Page 51 of Realm of Crows (Wings of Ink #5)
Thirty-Seven
Ayna
I don’t get to worry what will happen to Tavras if her true queen abandons her in the unlikely case we defeat both Erina and Ephegos, for Myron’s mouth brushes the sensitive tip of my ear as he trails a kiss along the side of my head and a whirlwind of sensations shoots through my body.
“Let’s savor what time we have left,” he murmurs so close to my skin, every word like a touch.
I melt against him, tilting my head back and exposing my neck, and my breath catches as Myron’s mouth traces my jawline.
His hands roam my back, gliding down to my hips where they linger, pulling me forward on his lap so I can feel his cock awaken against me.
“This might be the last time we stay in a civilized home. Come tomorrow, our bed will be in a tent at the edge of a battlefield, and no one can tell what will happen once we clash with Tavras.”
His words shouldn’t make my blood heat, because all they promise is a future full of dread, but my body comes to life like a flame in the night, and I burn with all I have.
My mouth finds his in a devastated kiss, like this is indeed the last time I’ll feel him this close.
The last time my fingers can delve into his hair, the last time our breath mingles and his taste spills on my tongue.
Through the mating bond, his emotions crest against me like waves against a shore, and I don’t care that we’re on a bathroom floor or about the darkness creeping from Myron’s hands, cresting along my body, and surrounding us in a cocoon of onyx night.
Like the flowers need water, I need to feel his skin against mine, and I don’t hesitate to shove his jacket down his shoulders.
Myron sits up from where he was leaning against the bathtub, shucking the leather sleeves and lifting his arms when I reach for the hem of his shirt and tug it over his head.
The dark mist that is part of his power has enveloped us completely, the only reason I still see him now the silver glow emanating from my palm and from his chest where our matching marks shine true like distant stars.
His skin is smooth and soft, his muscles hard ripples beneath my fingers as I trace his chest and his abdomen all the way to the waistband of his pants.
“If this is our last night in safety, I want all of you. I want to feel you everywhere.” I’m not even sure I’m speaking.
It’s all become a blur of desire and desperation.
Touching him isn’t enough. Pressing my mouth against his isn’t enough.
His tongue sliding against mine isn’t enough.
Nothing will be enough until our bodies are fused, and our hearts are racing toward the finish line together.
So I don’t wait until he opens my jacket; I unbuckle it in a few efficient movements and slip out of it, dropping it beside us on the floor. My shirt goes next, then the elastic band around my chest.
Myron’s mouth doesn’t leave mine longer than for me to slip out of my shirt, but his hands are there, fingers circling my breasts, pinching my nipples just hard enough to elicit a sound between pain and pleasure.
It’s exactly what I need to forget there might not be another night like this.
That this might be the last time he touches me like this, and I need proof that it happened.
Like in a frenzy, I drag my fingernails across his shoulder, leaving another mark on him—one he can choose not to heal so he can keep this little memory forever.
“Ayna—” His breath catches as I lick over the shallow wound, taking in the droplets of blood beading the scratches.
He tastes of copper and iron and salt, and of power—so much power.
Dark smoke and silver stars composed into a symphony of everything he is.
When my mouth finds his again, I sense onyx haze drifting into my nose, filling my lungs like he’s embracing me from the inside.
Gods, I want him. I’ve never wanted him this badly.
My hands are on his pants, unlacing the front until the hard length of him springs free, and my mouth goes dry at how ready he is.
A single drop of liquid has collected at the tip of his cock, begging me to lick it off.
I’m about to do just that when Myron grabs my hips, lifting me to my feet and ripping down my pants and underthings.
His gaze is all black hunger, thin dark veins snaking around his eyes as he takes in the sight of my bared flesh.
“Come closer.” His voice is a growl of midnight velvet, and had he not caught me by the waist, my knees would have buckled.
He pulls me forward until my feet are firmly planted on either side of his hips.
I don’t even get to ask what he’s doing or protest that I’ll fall into the bathtub if he lets go of me.
His hands slide to my knees, spreading them wider as he tips his head back and puts his mouth between my legs.
I don’t think I’ve felt anything this intense, anything this heat-inducing, soul-baring, and all-consumingly exciting as his tongue gliding over me, thoroughly and with a dedication that would put the prayers of a monk to shame.
That’s how he worships me, like I’m a goddess and he can’t live without my taste, like I’m his shrine and he’ll kneel here as long as it takes to see me satisfied, even if it takes forever.
His groan reverberates through my flesh, tingling in just the right spot, nearly pushing me over the edge—and that’s before he skates his hand up the inside of my thigh until he’s poised at my entrance and slowly—so painfully slowly—slides a finger inside me.
The world ruptures into swirling stars as I moan his name, undulating my hips to meet each slow thrust. More. I want more.
I’m about to tell him when he lightly scrapes his teeth over the bundle of nerves at the apex of my thighs, and I shatter.
I cease to exist for a blissful moment where I become part of him, and he becomes part of me, and neither of us is one single person any longer.
Myron’s onyx haze drips down my skin like honey, like he’s touching me everywhere while his hands rest on my hips, guiding me down to my knees until I’m perched an inch above his erect cock.
“All of you,” he murmurs into my ear as he lowers me onto him, and gods—he’s even bigger than I remember, stretching me so deliciously I don’t know whether to cry out my pleasure or gasp at the tight fit, at the sweet friction as he drives up, sheathing himself inside of me to the hilt.
In the end, I do neither because his mouth captures mine, and words fail me; sounds fail me; thoughts fail me.
With every thrust, he seems to fit deeper, until we’re fused and I can’t tell if we’ve ever been two separate people.
His hands remain firmly on my hips, making sure I meet each thrust with equal force—not that I need his support.
Like a mad female, I drop onto him, riding him in a wild gallop until my breath becomes ragged and I gasp for his onyx power like for air to breathe.
A droplet of it on my tongue is all I get, because the rest of it has focused on my breasts, stroking and licking like it is made of hands and tongues when in reality it’s swirls of black smoke dancing along my skin, caressing my peaked nipples.
Like rays of a black sun it streams over my body, wrapping me in a layer of darkness while the star-bright light of his mate mark illuminates our night.
I cling to him with both my hands, savoring the powerful cords of muscle rippling along his back with every movement .
His entire body is highly wound, a bow pulled taut for release, but he’s keeping his pace, not submitting to his pleasure just yet—not when I’m not ready for this to be over.
Every thrust is an exercise of self-control; I can tell by the way his fingers dig hard into my flesh, how his breathing has become uneven, and his power seems to have developed a mind of its own as it roams my entire body, winding from my ankles along my legs, around my torso, across my shoulders, down my arms. A thin thread is lying around my throat, a deadly string that could kill me should he lose control.
But Myron won’t. He will never hurt me. Like in answer to my thought, the thread of onyx power skims the side of my neck in a facsimile of a kiss, and I moan Myron’s name.
Perhaps I’m even screaming—I don’t know, I don’t care.
All I care about is Myron moving inside of me until my muscles spasm and the leash on his control slips.
His pace increases, prolonging my climax as he devours my screams with a kiss like he wants to drink it up and save it for later.
And then he shudders, arms wrapping me tightly to his body as he finds his release in a supernova of darkness and stars.
Only when I slump breathless to his chest, face buried in the crook of his neck, does Myron loosen his hold, gently stroking my hair, but the night sky of his power doesn’t disappear for a long, long while.
We’re still wrapped in his cocoon of night when he scoops me up in his arms and lays me down in bed before climbing in behind me.
The entire room is full of it—our own little universe where neither our friends nor our enemies can find us .
I could stay like this until this world comes to an end, and I have all intentions of doing just that.
Just before my eyes droop and I drift into a different sort of darkness, Myron murmurs into my hair, “Now every part of me will remember every part of you—no matter what tomorrow brings.”
I don’t acknowledge the moisture in my eyes as Myron tucks me into his arms and kisses the top of my head.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow can never come.
I’m not ready, no matter how I’ll remember him.