Page 109 of Illusory

And then there was Trace. Beautiful, resplendent Trace. He was leaning with his shoulder against the entrance of the makeshift prison cell with his brows pulled down together anda heartbreaking look of despair on his face like I had single-handedly obliterated every layer of his being from the inside out.

Crushing guilt plowed down onto me, cementing my feet to the ground. I felt trapped within my own divided heart. On one hand, I was afraid to even approach him, terrified that I might somehow find a way to make his life even worse with just my proximity. But the other part of me only wanted to run to him—to fix what I had made broken and make everything new and better again. To take away the hurt from his heart and bury it so deep underground that it could never find him again.

But how? How could I do that without leading him on?

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” offered Trace, misreading my hesitation. The divot between his brows deepened as his eyes took me apart mercilessly. His concern for my well-being was ever present, even as his pupils swelled with hunger.

“No. It’s fine,” I said and then cleared my throat. “I mean, I want to help.”

He dipped his head in a nod but didn’t make a move after that. He just stood there watching me, as though he were trying to recognize the person he was looking at. Like he didn’t know me at all anymore. I couldn’t even blame him for it. Sometimes when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t recognize myself anymore either.

Raising my chin, I crossed the room to where he was standing and peered up at him, trying not to pay attention to our soulmate bond contently purring through my bloodstream. Dominic stepped up behind me, readying himself to be my safety net as he had done every time before, except that this time, I shook my head and asked him not to.

Even though I felt calmer andsaferwith Dominic close by,the last thing I needed was for things to get…intense again. My dreams were already torturous enough without adding more fuel to the raging wildfire.

Dominic nodded curtly and then returned to Gabriel’s side a few feet away from us.

Trace straightened to his full height, suddenly seeming impossibly taller than he already was. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, wetting his lips as the shadows in his eyes continued to gain ground. Despite the apprehension in his voice, I could practically feel his hunger slowly taking over the parts of him that were still somewhat in control.

“I’m sure,” I said, even though I really wasn’t.

He was on me before I’d even finished the thought, one hand pressing into the small of my back, wrenching me to his body, and the other gripping my jaw to tip my head up to his. For a split second, I thought he was going to kiss me, my heart already railing in my chest at the prospect of a fight I was sure I would lose, and then his breath was against my throat, rough and labored, canvasing every grove and hollow, as he held himself back just long enough to listen to the steady beat of my pulse thumping under my skin. His lips brushed against the spot for a beat before dropping down to the base of my neck.

My body shivered as his fangs clicked out and then his mouth was moving again, up and around my neck, peppering every point he passed with half kisses and slips of a tongue that felt like wet silk against my skin.

I might have told him how impressed I was with his ability to restrain himself as well as he was, had I thought I could actually utter coherent English words at the moment. I might have also maybe mentioned something about stopping whatever the hell he was doing, but I couldn’t seem to think past the skin-tingling warmth pooling low in my belly.

He hadn’t even started and already my knees felt like giving up.

An answering growl rumbled out of his chest as he tightened his hold on me and then bit down into the side of my neck, taking and giving so wickedly that I wasn’t even sure I’d felt the pain before the pleasure or if we’d skipped that part entirely. All I could feel was my hands in his hair and his fingers digging into my skin and his mouth pressed against my neck like he never wanted to let go, and the heat. Oh, god, the heat.

The bubbling liquid burned through my body like a river of lava incinerating everything it touched. It burned through the pain and the heartache and the shackles keeping me anchored to the floor and my guilt and this wretched world that sought to destroy me until all of it was gone and I was finally free again. Until I was flawless and weightless like soap bubbles floating ten feet off the ground. The more he took, the higher I went and the higher I went the freer I felt. Until I wasn’t even sure my feet were still on the ground anymore.

And I loved it. I loved every fucking minute of it.

“I think that’s enough for now,” said Gabriel, his voice coming in low from somewhere in the peripheral of my shrinking awareness.

‘Please don’t stop. I…I need more. Just a little bit more.’

Another growl sounded from deep in Trace’s chest as his hand moved from my jaw to the nape of my neck, his fingers clutching at the roots of my hair and tugging as if to answer my plea. As if to show me he had no intention of ever detangling himself from me.

Desire and euphoria mixed in my blood, fizzing and crackling like a power surge of magic shooting through my veins. He moved his other hand from the small of my back to my waist, slipping it under my sweater as his fingers trailedfire against my flesh. I’d meant to say something else to him then—maybe to tell him to stop, or maybe to thank him for making me feel so good—but some kind of sexed up moan came sailing out of me instead.

I probably would have been embarrassed if I’d had my wits about me then, but it only made Trace suck down harder as he spun us around and pushed my back against the bars. I moaned again as he shoved forward into me, every hard inch of his body pressing deliciously into the softness of mine.

The basement lights flickered violently around us, though I wasn’t sure if it was from the impending storm rolling in or just my vision giving out, and I didn’t much care to know either way. I didn’t care about anything at all—just the ethereal thrum in my bloodstream and his hands on my body and the roiling need I had to betakenby him.

To be claimed and owned in every sense of the word.

Trace pulled back suddenly, his bottomless eyes searching mine as his chest rose and fell in rapid succession. His hand left my body and moved to my face, his thumb gently caressing my cheek as his pupils slowly constricted, once again revealing the brilliant blue of eyes that stole my breath time and time again.

He kissed me then, soft and tentative at first as if to see whether I’d allow it—whether I needed him as much as he needed me—and then he deepened it, his demanding tongue sweeping against mine as my body melted into his like a popsicle on a hot summer day.

“Alright, Romeo, you’ve had your fill,” said Dominic, his sharp voice sounding like it was coming from the same faraway place that Gabriel’s had. A place too far away to matter in the moment.

The heat that had been there moments ago had morphed into something else. Something aching and desperate.Something that was driving out all reason and conscionable thought and replacing it with burning carnal need. I fuckingneededthis. I neededhim. I needed relief from the feral thing that kept rising inside me, rebelling against the prison I’d locked it in and refusing to be kept in silence for a second longer.

His hands slid down over my hips as he gripped my thighs and picked me up, wrapping my legs around his waist. I moaned again as he grinded his hips into me, giving me the friction that my body was begging for. My hold on him turned bruising, my fingernails clawing at him as I tried to get more, to get close enough that our bodies could meld into one and never be pulled apart again.

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