Page 68 of Reaper’s Ruin (Reaper’s Ruin Trilogy #1)

He leaned down and gave me a kiss. It was a simple kiss. One reserved for couple’s who were comfortable with each other. Like a peck before you popped off to the grocery store. Yet even in its briefness, I still burned with the power of our passion. It consumed me.

He consumed me.

I kept my eyes closed for a moment even after his lips had left mine. When they fluttered open, he was already striding away, both horses following behind him.

I walked inside the modest cabin. The interior was spare but not uncomfortable. A stone fireplace dominated one wall, with rough-hewn furniture arranged around it. A small table with two chairs, shelves holding dusty provisions, and a few rusted tools completed the available supplies.

And then I saw it and smiled. A narrow bed stood in the corner, covered with furs that looked warm enough to fight away the chill on even the coldest winter night.

“It’s about time. Finally. One bed. ”

I chuckled, then I flopped back on the bed, exhaustion washing over me in waves as I sank into the straw filled mattress.

Not too long after, Rhyker came through the door carrying a load of firewood in one arm and a bucket of water in the other.

He busied himself lighting a fire while I watched him with the endless awe I felt at everything he did.

My dark, beautiful love.

As flames began to dance in the fireplace, casting warm light and long shadows across the room, I approached Rhyker. He stood staring into the fire, the flickering fire highlighting every perfect feature of his profile.

I placed my hand on his arm, and he turned to me, his eyes reflecting the dancing flames. Without a word, he drew me against him, encircling me in an embrace that felt like coming home.

“I almost lost you,” he murmured against my hair. “So many times.”

“But you didn’t,” I reminded him, tilting my face up to his. “You saved me. You defied the Veil Lords themselves for me.”

His hand came up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing across my skin with a reverence that made my heart ache. “I would defy death itself for you,” he said, his voice deep and rough with emotion. “I would tear apart the veil between worlds, challenge the gods themselves—anything to keep you safe.”

The intensity in his eyes, the raw honesty in his voice, sent a shiver through me that had nothing to do with fear. This was Rhyker unbound, his power and his love no longer held in check by duty or doubt.

I rose on my toes, pressing my lips to his in a kiss that began gently but quickly deepened into something more urgent, more primal. His arms tightened around me, lifting me off my feet as he returned the kiss with a hunger that matched my own .

There was no hesitation now, no holding back. We had faced death—true death, obliteration—and survived. We had defied the most powerful beings in the afterlife for the chance to be together. And now, in this moment, in this place, there was only us. Only this.

He stripped off my clothes, pausing to stand back and stare at my naked body illuminated in the firelight. My skin burned everywhere his gaze traveled, begging for his fingers to follow.

As if sensing my desires, he stepped forward, his hands slowly moving everywhere, memorizing the curves of my body as if he feared I might disappear at any moment. I stood quietly while he traced his fingers along my neck, my breasts, my stomach, my thighs.

Slowly. Deliberately.

Heat and ache pooled between my legs as my need for him grew with each gentle brush against my skin.

I stepped forward, my hands pressing beneath his leather cloak, pushing it off his shoulders. Then I moved to his shirt, gathering it at the base and lifting it. I was too short to pull it over his head, so he finished for me.

Then I held his gaze as I reached forward, undoing the fastenings of his pants, pressing them down and watching as his rock-hard cock emerged.

I bit my lip, already envisioning what it would feel like inside of me again.

Memories of the fullness and the pleasure it would bring collided inside my mind.

He stepped out of his pants and stood in front of me, our naked bodies bare and inches apart.

I reached out and traced my fingers across the scars etched into his muscles wanting to know the story behind each one.

Then my fingers drifted lower, brushing against his cock, and he moaned, throwing his head back as I gripped him.

Seeing Death, this powerful, deadly man who could slice through enemies with such power crumbling at my touch only empowered me. I slid my hand up and down his cock before lowering to my knees and licking the tip.

He growled a sound so primal that I swear I felt it shake my very bones. I opened my mouth and took him with it, smiling against his cock as I listened to his raw desire rippling out of him.

He was mine.

Death.

Rhyker.

This man.

I was his and he was mine and I had the power to make him come undone.

As I sucked his cock, he threaded his hands through my hair, gripping it tight.

“Fuck, Soraya,” he ground out as I increased my speed.

His cock moved inside my mouth, tightening as I felt him reaching his climax.

But instead of coming in my mouth, he leaned down and grabbed me. I gasped as he picked me up and carried me to the bed, tossing me onto it.

“I don’t come until you do,” he said, those eyes, those beautiful eyes burning with desire.

“Spread your legs,” he commanded, his voice deep and demanding, rough with need.

Heat like I’d never known coursed through me, colliding between them as I obeyed and opened myself to him. Hunger burned like wildfire in his gaze as he looked between my legs, and it only made me wetter.

He lowered himself between them, and I cried out when his tongue slid up the length of my pussy.

“Oh my God, Rhyker!” I cried out, ready to come in an instant.

But he didn’t let me. Instead, he took his time, his lips, his tongue, his fingers working every inch of my heated skin until my legs were shaking and I was clinging to the blankets, his name rolling off my tongue on repeat like a prayer.

“You taste so good,” he whispered against my pussy, his warm breath tickling my clit and heightening my pleasure.

I moaned and he rolled his tongue around it again, my body clenching as I felt the waves of ecstasy rolling up from within.

“I want to watch you come. Come for me, baby,” he commanded, and my body answered instantly.

With his fingers embedded deep within me and his tongue working its magic on my clit, I shattered.

I broke into a million tiny pieces as my body succumbed to the waves of pleasure washing over me one, after another, after another.

And finally, when I felt the last of them fade away, I collapsed into a boneless heap.

My eyes fluttered open to see him kneeling above me, that new smile I couldn’t get enough of lifting his lips.

“You look proud,” I managed to breath out.

“You look happy,” he countered.

“Happy doesn’t cover it,” I said, exhaling a breath. Then I bit my lip and looked at that cock still hard and ready. “And now it’s your turn to be happy and me to be proud.”

I grinned, and he matched it. Death smiling at me like a kid at a candy store because he knew I was about to fuck his brains out.

I reached up and slid my hand around his neck, pulling him into my kiss. He ravished my mouth responding to his demands as I rolled over, pulling him with me. I straddled him, my wet pussy brushing against his cock and making him moan against my lips.

“Do you want me to fuck you?” I pulled his lip gently between my teeth, teasing him.

Tormenting him.

Slowly sliding my wetness up the length of his cock but not allowing him in.

“Yes,” he growled out. “Fuck me, Soraya. Fuck me, my love. ”

Hearing those words, knowing the control I had over this man gave me such a surge of power I could barely contain myself. I lifted my hips, pressing his cock to my opening before sliding down it with a moan.

“Fuck!” he ground out, gripping my hips so tight it would have hurt if I wasn’t overwhelmed with pleasure.

I moved against him, our bodies connecting as this man—this deadly, powerful warrior—laid on his back and submitted to me completely.

I made him mine, watching his face twist with pleasure as he came undone beneath me, on the edge of release.

I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips, my own pleasure rising to match his as I ground my hips against him.

“I love you,” he breathed against my mouth, the words a prayer, a promise, a vow. “I love you, Soraya.”

“I love you,” I gasped in return, clinging to him as pleasure built between us. “I always will.”

When release came, it was like dying and being reborn in the same exquisite moment—a shattering so complete that I cried out, tears spilling down my cheeks as emotion overwhelmed me.

Rhyker held me through it, his own release following mine, his body shuddering as he whispered my name like a prayer against my throat.

Afterward, we lay tangled together beneath the furs, the firelight casting a golden glow over our intertwined bodies. Rhyker’s fingers traced idle patterns along my spine as I rested my head on his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart.

“You know, the one benefit of being dead is not having to worry about getting pregnant.” I peeked up at him and grinned.

“This is true. No need for me to pull out. And I certainly enjoy coming inside of you.”

“Well, my mom always told me to find the upside. So, the actual lords of death are hunting us, I can’t find my door, we can be obliterated at any moment, but hey... bareback, condomless mind-blowing sex.”

He furrowed his brow. “I have no idea what that meant.”

I laughed. “It means it’s good. Sex without anything between us is very good.”

He pressed a gentle kiss to my head. “Yes. Yes it is.”

“So... what happens now?” I asked softly, the question that had been haunting me finally finding voice. “How long can we hide?”

His arms tightened around me. “As long as we need to,” he said. “Selyse’s spell will protect us from the Shadow Watchers. As long as we remain in these forms, no Reaper can harm us directly.”

“But they won’t stop looking,” I said, voicing the fear we both shared. “The Veil Lords won’t just let us go.”

Rhyker was quiet for a moment, his fingers still tracing patterns along my skin. “No,” he acknowledged finally. “They won’t.”

“And my door?” I asked, my voice small. “Will I ever find it now? Will I ever see my mother again?”

He shifted, propping himself up on one elbow to look down at me, his expression serious. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “The rules of death... they’re complicated. But if there’s a way, we’ll find it. Together.”

The honesty in his voice was more comforting than false promises would have been. He wasn’t offering me certainty—just his unwavering support, his determination to face whatever came next while standing at my side.

“I’m not sorry,” I said suddenly, needing him to understand. “Even if this ends badly, even if I never find my door... I’m not sorry I met you. I’m not sorry I loved you.”

Something broke open in his expression—a vulnerability so raw it made my breath catch. He lowered his forehead to mine, his eyes closing as if the weight of emotion was too much to bear .

“Eight hundred years,” he whispered. “Eight centuries of darkness and emptiness. And then you came, and suddenly there was light again. Hope again.” His voice caught. “You saved me long before I ever tried to save you.”

I wrapped my arms around him, holding him close as his body trembled with the force of emotions long suppressed.

This warrior, this ancient being who had faced down gods and monsters, who had walked through death and shadow for centuries—he allowed himself to be vulnerable with me.

To be seen, truly seen, perhaps for the first time in any life.

In this quiet moment, wrapped in his arms, I found a peace I hadn’t expected. Yes, we were hunted. Yes, our future was uncertain. But here, now, we had each other. We had this stolen time, these precious moments that no one—not the Veil Lords, not the Reapers, not death itself—could take from us.