Page 40 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Andreas strokes me more forcefully, the wetness seeping from me turning his fingers slick, his breath coming ragged. As he squirms out of his jeans and boxers with my fumbling assistance, my hand grazes the rigid shaft between his legs.

So hard and so hot, because of me.

At that point, I’m not sure there’s anything that could have interrupted our passionate collision. Andreas braces himself over me with just a second’s tensing of his arms, his chest heaving, his lips parting as if he means to say something but can’t quite find the words.

I wrap my hand around his cock and lift my hips to meet him, and all that escapes him is another groan as he plunges into me.

Being filled is a different kind of burn, giddying and searing and sending a fresh ache of need radiating through my body. I cry out, and Andreas bows his head over me, touching my face even as he drives into me again.

“Don’t want to hurt you,” he says with the same edge of desperation that’s gripping me.

I sway to meet him, clutching at his back, his shoulder. “It’s not—it’s good. Don’t stop.”

If we even could.

A strange ringing fills my ears, as if I’m in my head but also not. Like I’m inside Drey as much as he’s inside me, breathing with him, moving with him, coasting on the bliss that’s swelling wider and faster.

We’re disintegrating and recombining as if we’re two beings made entirely of the dark haze in our veins, merging into one. One motion, one rhythm, one ripple of pleasure echoing on and on through both of us.

My claws spring from my fingers. The flavor of desire courses into my nose and mouth until my lungs are drenched in it.

Andreas’s eyes shimmer red. He lowers his head right next to mine, shaking and thrusting and mumbling words by my ear like a frantic prayer.

“Mine. Love you. Always. Need you. Riva. Stay.”

As if there’s anywhere I could go. As if there’s any part of me that isn’t fused with him, caught up in the power resonating through us in tandem.

I dig my hand into his hair, managing to curl my fingers away from his scalp. He inhales with a hiss and bucks into me faster.

And I shatter apart.

I’m a whirlwind, careening in every direction, the final surge of bliss reverberating through me like the blaze of a firework. Andreas lets out a choked sound, and I feel him explode with me, both of us spiraling up and out?—

And then back down, together, entangled on the bed, still half-dressed and damp with sweat.

Andreas kisses me long and lingering, looping his arm around my back to hug me to him. Then he nestles his head next to mine while he holds me against him as if he never plans to let me go.

A shaky laugh spills out of him. “That was—that was really something.”

“Yes.” And somehow something in me wants even more. My nerves quiver like there’s still a fire smoldering on deep inside.

Andreas eases back and frowns, touching my collarbone with a tentative finger. “Did you have a bruise here before? I didn’t mean to get rough like that.”

I glance down, unable to see what he’s pointing to, but my gaze catches on his chest. I reach up and brush my finger over the top of his sternum. “You got one too.”

There’s an imprint on his coppery skin, fingerprint-sized and round, but it doesn’t exactly look like a bruise. Or maybe it does, but one formed by the smoky part of our blood rather than the red stuff. Like a dab of shadow risen to the surface of his flesh.

The sense of our beings twining and merging comes back to me with a heady shiver. I glance up at him.

“We got so close we left a mark on each other.”

He studies the spot for a few beats longer before lifting his gaze to meet my eyes. A fond smile crosses his lips, the corners of his eyes crinkling with so much affection I automatically smile back.

“I hope that’s what it is,” he says. “I prefer that to the symbol they marked us with.”

I skim my fingers down his side to the tattoo on his thigh that matches mine. His gaze follows their trail and halts on my torso.

He touches a raised ridge of scar that slices across my ribs. Another, shallower but wider, near my belly button. Another, just a thin white line cutting down toward my hip.

His voice comes out taut. “These look pretty new. You got them… from the cage fights?”

I nod, feeling abruptly, weirdly shy. “It was hard to get through them totally unscathed. I did a pretty good job.”

“I’m not criticizing you.” His jaw tightens, his lean muscles flexing against mine. “When we’re finished with this mission, we’re going to track those assholes down and obliterate them from existence in every possible way.”

My stomach gives a little lurch. He has no idea how thoroughly they’ve already been obliterated. But that’s the last thing I want to talk about—even think about—right now.

Instead, I pull him into another kiss. Our lips move together more tenderly than before, but a fresh waft of desire flares between my legs.

Andreas eases back just an inch with a shaky laugh. “It’s amazing, being with you. I feel like… like every part of me is more alive .”

My smile stretches wider, my momentary uneasiness fading away. “Yeah.”

We sit up together, Andreas’s arms wrapped around me, and he kisses my forehead, but a trace of tension returns to his stance.

“I want to just stay here with you,” he says, “but I’ve got to— Jacob and the others have to pull their heads out of their asses and see what idiots they’re being. You haven’t deserved any of this. The bullshit has to end now. ”