Page 44 of The Hollowed

“Alex…” she sighed, her voice trembling somewhere between desperation and curiosity.

His hands framed her sides as he kissed down her stomach until he landed on the edge of the pants she’d pulled on but hadn’t zipped earlier. His eyes sought hers again and when she called out his name, pleading for him, he didn’t think twice before pulling them off her. Her silk panties followed, tossed aside before he pushed her legs open gently so he could trail soft kisses up her inner thighs and take in her essence.

Alex paused just before he reached her core and titled his head to rest on the plush of her thigh. Her center glistened underneath the moonlight that spilled in from the window, and it took every bit of the discipline beat into him over the years not to ravish her from the start.

“Do you always get this wet at the thought of me?” he teased.

Luci whined as he pressed a kiss closer to where she wanted him. His callused hands pinned her hips to the bed as she tried to shift lower.

“Y-Yes…Always. I-I swear it,” she responded as her hand threaded through his hair.

Alex smirked as he adjusted her legs to rest over his shoulders. His breath ghosted over her aching core just enough to make her shiver. She was already squirming, and he’d barely touched her. “Good. I’ve always wondered how you tasted,” he confessed, not giving her a chance to respond before he licked along the length of her folds.

The taste of her was like a feast for all his senses. A mix of the scent of midnight breeze, a coppery hint of desire, and the faint sweetness of her nectar exploded across his tongue. She was the first taste of a drug that hijacked every part of his system until he was sure he’d already become an addict.

Alex moaned against her core, causing her to shake beneath his grip, but he held her steady and moved his eyes to watch as he devoured her entirely. Feasting on every drop she gave him as he flicked his tongue between her folds and swirled it around her opening. He nearly growled at the way she squirmed under his touch. His fingers dug harder into her thighs to keep her just where he wanted her. Not enough to hurt but enough to draw more of those sweet sounds from her lips. Even if she hadn’t said a word since he’d pressed his tongue to her center, those sounds fueled the fire she’d lit inside him until he felt like he was burning up from the inside out.

He felt her hand move from his hair to the bed as she twisted the sheets in her fist. The loss of her touch drove him to lean upward enough so his lips could wrap around her sensitive bundle of nerves. His dark, hooded eyes still held hers as he sucked just hard enough. She cried out for him. Soothing herwhimpers with swirling flicks of his tongue that only seemed to drive her higher as she gasped around attempts at words again. Then, he pressed his long fingers between her folds, exploring for only a breath before he dipped a single digit into her heat. Luci threw her back, her hands jumping up to tangle in his hair and tug at it fiercely as she finally cried out his name again. The sound felt like madness and salvation all at once.

His lips worked in sync with his fingers now, pumping them in and out as he carefully took note of what motions could elicit the most pleasure for her. That carefully constructed control and discipline that had kept him bound in invisible chains began to falter, then crumble completely under the sound of her panting moans and the feeling of her nails scratching across his scalp.

“F-Fuck…Please, A-Alex!” she sighed between ragged breaths. His head spun until all he could think of was the desperate need to make her finish on his tongue.

It wasn’t much longer until her legs began to tremble uncontrollably against his ears, muffling her finaling moans before they suddenly went taut. She screamed his name as he continued ravishing her through her climax. Suffocating between her thighs while his tongue lapped up every bit of her essence that she would give him. He let his fingers slip from her heat when her clenching walls released their grip on them, and then he sucked them clean too. Savoring the taste of her with a low growl that rumbled behind his lips still slick with her.

Alex pressed a last kiss to her core before he pulled away.

He was truly and irrevocablyfucked.

Lucilla was the spell he could not break and a fever he never wished to cure.

Chapter 19

Myra

“What are you going to tell the kid?” Cipher asked as he dropped his bag onto Myra’s bed with a heavy thud.

The day had passed faster than either of them wanted. Every hour slipped through their fingers until the sun had dipped below the horizon and the moon rose to greet them. It felt like they’d barely had time to breathe, let alone prepare, and still after all their frantic planning this question was the one thing Myra had no answer for.

“I’ll figure something out,” she mumbled as she crouched to tuck the bottom of her pants over her boots. Her voice was steady, but her hands weren’t. “He trusts me, and he’s spent his whole life stuck in this place. If I tell him there’s a way out, a chance for something better, I think he’ll want to come.”

She hoped.

The plan still felt like a miracle barley stitched together with frayed thread. Just one misstep could cause it all to unravel but Myra forced herself not to dwell on that. She had Doc’s list of Jace’s medications and step-by-step instructions on how to keep him stable for at least a week.

That would have to be enough.

“And if you can’t convince him to come willingly?” Cipher asked carefully.

Myra exhaled slowly, letting the weight on her chest settle. “Doc gave me instructions on where to find a mild sedative in the pharmacy. If it comes down to it, I’ll carry him out.” She hated the words even as they left her mouth, hated the thought of betraying Jace’s trust like that, but it was better to face his anger than his death.

Cipher nodded but his gaze lingered on her longer than she liked, soft and worried but loyal all at once. “Okay. Just be careful. Whatever happens, get to the sewer gate on time.” He reached into his bag, pulled out a pistol and pressed it into her palm. “Take this, just in case.”

Myra gave a single nod as she double checked that the safety was on before sliding the gun into the waistband of her pants. “You have to be careful too. Get in and out of the energy bay fast. Take the stairs and keep your head down. The second you’re back down here, be ready to move.”

“I will. I promise.” His voice carried the kind of reassurance that made her chest ache with both fear and relief.

Cipher pulled her closer by the loop of her pants, and his hands rose to cup her face gently. “You ready?” he asked quietly.