Page 27 of Shadows and Flames (Twin Blades #2)

But in that moment, instead of fighting with me, spitting wrath, Elián curled further over me and dropped the most delicate kiss of my long, long life. One with the calming sweep of his thumb against my jaw, the possessive pressure of his arm around my lower back.

He was going to fucking kill me.

No stranger to death, I sighed into his lips against mine. The warmth of his body around me. And when he separated the contact for a breath, just long enough to return and pull gently at my bottom lip between his, I followed his lead. Parted my lips and kissed him back.

Hollers carried off into the sunset as the ship pulled away from the docks, setting us off to Vharas, but I was fully lost in Elián, now. His tongue flicked against mine, and I whimpered— again— as something like life sparked beneath my skin.

When we’d been together before, the kisses, caresses, and thrusts were harried, or, at the very least, urgent.

Now, with multiple days’ sail ahead of us, Elián’s tongue licked at mine like he had all the time in the world to pull me apart. Could he truly sort through the pieces and put me back together?

Just as I started to succumb to the flutter below my navel, the first real stirring of desire since the last time he’d touched me, Elián broke the kiss. My lashes fluttered fiercely, glaring at his spit-glistened lips and peek of the white tips of his fangs.

“That. Being , with me.”

Before I could respond, Elián bent again, this time latching onto the tender skin of my throat. Where he sank his fangs yesterday— goddess , was it only yesterday? This time, instead of vicious bites, he nibbled and sucked, continuing to treat me softly.

Not like I was too fragile but as though I was precious. To be cared for.

And like this morning, I felt the way I affected him, the way we affected each other. His cock was hard against my front, answering the growing urgency of my arousal with the confirmation of his.

But as over breakfast and yesterday evening while he held me, Elián made no move to push us there.

I palmed him through his trousers, forcing a groan out of him as well as a sharper nip of his teeth against my neck. He canted his hips, pressing into the friction of my touch.

He’d said he’d lain with many—his Shadow siblings and anyone else he saw fit to share pleasure with during his long life.

The flash of possessiveness within me at the moment was twisted, dark and gnarled at the edges.

I had no right to ask it, but remnants of the Meline I’d once been, bold and outspoken, bobbed to the surface. Gasping for air.

“And have you been with anyone since me?”

He stilled, which was all the confirmation I needed. A growl bubbled in my throat as I resumed touching him. It was irrational, but if I were to be with Elián in this moment, this was how I needed to do it.

Instead of waiting for him to speak, I busied myself with the front of his trousers, unfastening them with determined ministrations. He breathed shallowly against me while I used the snap of my teeth to free my right hand from the leather glove. I needed to feel him.

And the steel silk of his shaft against my fingertips further stoked the brazenness of my words.

“You say that I am yours, and you are mine.” The feel of him was familiar, but the gold piercing on the underside of the shaft was new.

A different sort of greediness took over as I forced away the thought of others seeing this before me.

“Which means this belongs to me.” I spat directly on his cock, wrapped my fist around him, and gave a long stroke, twisting at the top and slicking my fingers more with his moisture running from the slit.

Elián fucked into my fist and watched us do it. He still held me, but he gave me the space to take this, too.

“I-If we are going to be together. This cock is mine. Your pleasure is mine.” The pumps of my fist cast loud, slick sounds. “I don’t want to hear ever again about anyone fucking touching what’s mine,” I whispered, and Elián’s cock bucked.

I wouldn’t be able to take it. Barely had been able to earlier today. But, I remembered as Elián neared his release, he always brought out this side of me.

A menacing growl rippled through the air when I stopped stroking and tightly held the base of Elián’s cock. Foreskin pulled back and head nearly purple, he made a beautiful sight, and I laughed, mean and low, at discombobulating him the way he had been doing to me.

Leave it to Elián to not go along with my game, though. My grip fell away from his cock when my feet left the floor. Now, Elián was not gentle as he tossed me onto the neatly made bed. Nor was he when he ripped through his own clothing on my body.

I shook for him. Craved him more with each tick of time it took for him to disrobe. And when he prowled over my body, naked skin brushing on naked skin, I reached for him.

Elián tossed my other glove off, removing the last of the barriers between us, and gazed down at me like he was determined to ignite every inch of my soul.

With shaking hands, I pulled at the tie holding the top half of his hair away from his face, and as the black fell in giving ripples, I scraped my fingernails against his scalp.

I’d not… I’d not done this with anyone since him. Though I’d long ago asked Tana to research the spell and process necessary to prevent myself falling with child, I’d not made use of the procedure, in these years.

I wasn’t truly upset about that difference between us, my El seeking comfort in others while I had spent years turned in to myself.

Underneath the selfish need to hold him tight and close and make sure no one tried to snatch what was mine, I could be…

hopeful that he’d found some reprieve in the past years, however he could.

“You are a fucking menace,” he drawled over me, pulling the admonishment long, letting it stretch until it was filled with a rich fondness.

I moaned beneath him, ran my hands over the taut muscles of his neck, his shoulders.

And when he smashed us into another kiss, pressing into me while taking care to not smother me under his weight, I convinced myself that I could have this. Welcome it and be.

Elián’s hands were restless on my body, sweeping over my waist and hips, thumbs flicking over my nipples. Tiny gasps flipped out of me and into him with each tease. Each undulation of his hips that dragged his cock across my front.

And I let my power be. With the change, it was more settled, but with Elián in my arms and caged between my thighs, it was sated in a way inflicting Death never reached. Not the fullness after supper, knowing hunger would come tomorrow, but a deeper, soul rest.

Elián pulled back a moment, gazing down at me with swimming irises a thin ring around his expanded pupils. A line appeared between his brows as he watched me, and I continued touching him. Running my fingertips around the rose on his heart. Trailing my fingernails along the snake on his arm.

Until I was in the air again, flipped and facing the headboard. Elián lay sprawled beneath me, and he wasted no time grasping my hips and pulling me onto his awaiting tongue.

“ Oh, ” I whimpered, most certainly this time, and clung to the wood of the bed. Elián spread me open, left me vulnerable and trembling over him.

And I accepted this gift. More than that, I relished in this, winding my body against the greedy laps of his tongue. The vibration of his groans added another level to his unraveling of me.

But his fevered curses when I turned around and sat on his face once more had me knocking on the door of euphoria.

I grasped his flushed and leaking cock in my fist once more, Rhaea’s mark wrapping around his skin, and descended.

His was the only favor I truly tasted in all of these years, aside from tears and blood.

His kiss, his skin, the food he made me.

The salty weight of his crown where I placed open-mouthed kisses.

To compensate for his height, Elián propped up himself and my lower half, allowing for my throat to take more. And more. Tears streamed down my cheeks while I worked over him, and he worked under me. Giving and taking in equal measure. Elián fucked my throat, and I smothered him.

The waves rocking the ship only added to it, the wind whipping against the window an echoing roar as I crossed the threshold first. Bliss, this particular taste of it, was overwhelming.

Almost cruel. I cried out while Elián was buried in my throat, tears and spit pooling on his thighs and the bedspread underneath.

He was not far behind, tongue still darting into me, drawing out the pleasure. His grip tightened on my ass as he shot his seed into my gasping and clenching throat. I swallowed it all and pulled off only enough to place tender kisses as he softened.

The swells of his chest matched the rhythm of the water outside, and my breaths were no better.

I blinked, eyes focusing now on the closed door, the neat pile of Elián’s packs in the corner.

A wooden desk and illuminated lamp stared back at me as I considered how he’d prepared for this, for me.

The windows in here were larger than the cabin Tana and I purchased, the covers beneath my palms softer.

As far as passenger cabins went, this must’ve cost a pretty coin, but I also had a feeling he traveled more simply for other contract voyages.

Strong, sure hands twisted me around again, and my front molded to the hard planes of Elián’s body. My thighs rested on either sides of his hips.

“You’ve got something right…everywhere.” I mumbled, winding a finger in a circular motion to gesture at his face. He hadn’t even bothered to wipe himself on the pillow beneath his head or grab the tattered remains of his tunic he’d let me borrow.

I rested my arms across his chest, then set my chin on the back of my hands. Those molten eyes tracked every movement, heavy lidded as they now were.