Page 113 of Walking in Darkness

Pax climbed onto his knees, too, and he angled back for a second to peel the shirt over my head.

The air was warm but still, and a shiver rolled through me. Chills that lifted in the wake of his ravenous gaze.

“Are you sure you’re not hurting?” The question was stone. Purified by his care.

“I’m not. I’m not,” I promised, and he had me around the waist and was laying me out in the middle of the bed. He remained on his knees, that gaze severe as he looked over me, attention tracking over every scar and blemish.

As if every marred inch was his perfection.

I knew it. Felt it in the weight of his gaze. In the weight of his love that sagged in the room.

“Everything, Aria,” he said again, and he reached out and hooked his fingers in the sides of my underwear.

I lifted my hips from the bed as he peeled them down.

“Look at you,” he groaned.

“It’s you,” I returned, reaching out, not quite close enough to drag my trembling fingers down the rugged terrain of his chest.

Because he hovered there, at my knees. Every inch of his beautifully brutal body raged with need.

Desire flooded us. A deluge that filled the room.

He slowly wound out of his underwear, pulling them down and freeing himself.

A gasp got free. A whimpered “Yes,” as he climbed down and wedged himself between my thighs.

And we were bare.

Whole.

One.

My entire being arched into him when he pushed inside me.

He wound a hand in my hair as he grunted in the opposite ear. “Did you know you fuckin’ glow when I fill you, Aria? Did you know you become pure fucking radiant light?”

“I feel it. Just like I feel you speeding through me. Through my veins and my spirit and reaching all the way down into my soul.”

That connection alive. Growing brighter and brighter.

Pax eased back, gazing down at me as he withdrew, then nudged himself even deeper. My fingers sank into his shoulders, holding on as he began to move.

Fervency rippled around us, a furor that sparked and danced, though he filled me in slow, measured strokes. One arm was banded around my back and the other had our fingers knitted together, our hands pressed between us.

Never once did he take those eyes from mine.

He held me as he loved me.

As he silently promised me so many things.

Everything.

Everything.

Bliss gathered. A rising, building storm.

He worked me into a writhing, panting puddle, my mouth parted and tiny gasps raking from my lungs.