Page 80 of The Warlock's Kiss

“You’re going to give meeverything, Adalynn.”

The tentacle thrummed inside her as it thrust in and out, and Adalynn rocked her hips with it. She clutched Merrick’s wrists as the pleasure at her center wound tighter and tighter. A shudder spasmed through her.

The tentacle slipped out fully.

“No! No, no, no!” she cried, squirming as her sex pulsed and clenched aroundnothing. She wasrightthere. “Merrick, please! Stop teasing.” She turned her face toward him, her chest rising and falling with her quickened breaths, and met his eyes.

As much as she wanted to come, she didn’t want it to be from his magic, no matter how corporeal it could be. She wantedhim. Just him. And she knew he wanted her, too. She could feel the tension in his body behind her, around her. Could feel the slickness on her back from his seeping pre-cum. Could see the need brimming in his glowing eyes.

“No more,” she begged. “Just make love to me.”

Merrick caughthis lower lip between his teeth and released a slow, shaky breath. His entire body thrummed with arousal and magic. Unfulfilled desire raged through him, threatening to consume him despite his struggle—and now she was begging him to give in. Begging him to stop fighting.

And he couldn’t deny either himself or Adalynn any longer. His cock ached with a deeper pain than he’d ever experienced, having been teased by her warm flesh and writhing body, and his abdomen was wet with his seed.

Magic flared along his arms, racing from his fingertips toward his shoulders in ever changing, lightning-fork paths, but he wasn’t going to use it on her now. No, he wanted to touch her with his own hands. He wanted to pleasure her with his own body. As much as he saw the power dwelling within as a part of himself, it was not the part he longed to use right now.

He dropped his hands to her hips and lifted her off his lap, spinning her to face him; she swung her legs to the sides, straddling him, and looped her arms around his neck. Merrick looked up into her face. Her cheeks were flushed with passion, her gleaming eyes half-lidded, her lips parted with her quick, shallow breaths. Her mana song flowed high and strong, weaving itself through his, emanating from every inch of her delectable body.

With her knees on the sofa cushion to either side of Merrick, she held herself over him. Her eyes repeated her plea from a moment before—just make love to me.

Merrick dropped one hand from her hip and grasped his cock around its base. He angled his shaft to press its head against the entrance of her sex. Slowly,soslowly, she lowered herself upon him. Merrick’s hand returned to her hip. It took everything within him not to pull her down, not to thrust up and bury himself inside her warm, wet sheath. Her inner walls gripped his cock, and he groaned as she rose and eased back down, working him steadily deeper and deeper until she was fully seated upon him.

He tightened his hands on her hips and held her down, throwing his head back as he fought the immense surge of pressure threatening to make him spill his seed. Adalynn dropped one of her hands to his shoulder and smoothed it down to his chest. She trailed it back up again, along his neck, and cupped his jaw. Her hair brushed over his skin as she leaned forward to slam her mouth against his.

Lifting his hand to bury his fingers in her hair, he pulled her deeper into the kiss. Her lips parted without hesitation, and he slipped his tongue between them to meet with hers in a dance that followed their twined mana songs perfectly.

Adalynn lifted herself again and dropped down, repeating the motions over and over. She moaned softly against his mouth, not breaking the kiss even as her tempo increased. Each slide of her sex blasted Merrick with pleasure and thrilling flares of magic, intensifying the energy crackling over his skin, but he was aware of its increased brightness only through his closed eyelids. His world was Adalynn now—nothing else made a difference but her taste, her feel, her scent.

Adalynn’s muscles tensed, her breath sharpened, and she was wracked by sudden shivers. Her sex clamped around him. Her mana song swelled to a crescendo as her nails dug into his skin, the little pricks of pain only heightening Merrick’s pleasure.

Taking hold of her hips with both hands again, Merrick seized control, continuing what she’d started in pushing their pace faster and faster. He pulled her down to meet his rising hips, a little harder with each thrust, and she cried out against his mouth as she shuddered in bliss.

“Merrick,” she breathed between moans, her arms slipping around his neck to cling to him.

He clenched his teeth and battled the inevitable explosion in himself, struggling to hold on, to keep moving, to prolong this as much as possible—he never wanted this moment, thisintimacy, to end. But between the movements of her body and the power of her mana song, he’d never stood a chance.

Even with his eyelids closed, his vision was filled with electric blue as he climaxed. The pressure that had been building in him for most of the day finally burst, and his body trembled with the force of it. Pleasure assailed his mind, annihilating conscious thought to leave only pure sensation. His fingertips pressed into the flesh of her hips, his back arched, and he released a ragged, desperate growl as he pumped his seed into her.

Finally, Merrick sagged against the sofa’s backrest. Adalynn went limp atop him, her cheek resting on one of her arms, her soft lips settling against his jaw. Their ragged breaths gradually eased, and a bit of the heat from their bodies faded. The lingering pleasure was slower to diminish; every tiny movement of her sex was nearly enough to rouse him back to action, but he didn’t allow himself to move. This was another part of the intimacy he craved—holding one another through the aftermath with bodies, hearts, and souls still connected.

She drew in a deep breath and released it with a soft, contented hum.

His own contentment was disrupted as his mind wandered to a jarring thought—this moment could be the last they shared together.Anymoment from this point forward could be the last. Fate had brought Adalynn to him, and fate would take her away whenever it pleased, with or without forewarning.

Unless Merrickchangedher fate.

He trailed his fingers absently down her spine. She’d opposed him the last time he’d raised the subject, and they’d avoided it in the days since. Things had been happier that way, but he knew it loomed, dark and ominous, in her mind, just as it did in his own. Merrick had no idea much time she had left—but he was acutely aware of it dwindling with each passing moment.

“What if there was a way to heal you, Adalynn?”

Her body went rigid. “Merrick, don’t. Don’t ruin this.”

“If not now, then when?” he demanded. “Am I supposed to wait until it’s too late?”

She pulled away from him and slipped off the couch. The cool air blasted his skin—his now exposed cock—with arctic force. As much as he regretted bringing up the subject in that moment, as empty and alone as he suddenly felt, he would not back down. Theyhadto address this. It couldn’t be left as an unspoken thing lurking between them.

Adalynn snatched up her shirt and pulled it over her head. “This was supposed to be purely physical,” she said quietly.

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