Page 133 of Curse the Fae

“Don’t you dare,” I warn, but I know he’s only partly serious.

“For you, I would drown the world,” he swears, his arms banding around me. “I would flood these lands, so I’m the only one left to hear you moan while I fuck you. I would give you the space to climax as loudly as you need, as deeply as you can go, for as long as you are capable. I would make any corner of this world your home—our home. Or if it does not yet exist, I would tear a hole in these walls and claim that territory for you.”

“Monster,” I scold while chuckling. “Savage.”

“Temptress,” he grits out. “Salvation.”

“You would never do those things, even for me.”

A ruthless divot burrows into his cheek, tempting me to sketch it with my thumb, my lips, my tongue. “Do not challenge what I would forsake for you, for my restraint knows no bounds where you are concerned. You have only to say the word, my light. I’m at your behest. I’m yours to command. I’m yours to defy.” He pulls back, those eyes blazing. “Make your choice.”

I curl myself against Elixir, every soft part of me compressing with every hard part of him. “I already have.”

Elixir’s face darkens with ambition, his solid body and possessive gaze and hot timbre scorching me beneath the flimsy clothing. “Cove?”

“Elixir?” I gasp, heady and hungry.

“For what I intend to do to you, we need to get much closer.”

Muchcloser, I agree. And far more private.

36

The instant I tell him yes, Elixir has never moved faster. With a fiendish growl, he jerks me into him, snatches the backs of my thighs, and hoists me off the ground. I chortle and hook my legs around his waist, the caftan riding high to my pelvis. With the speed of a viper, he secures me to his frame, charges across the walkway, and hurtles us off the edge.

I half-scream, half-laugh just before we crash under. The tepid water swallows us, scattering a troop of catfish and a few straggling stingrays. The river bathes us in glittering aquamarine, vermillion moss clings to the rocks, and stalks of foliage sway. We’re down for mere seconds before Elixir’s momentum shoves us back to the surface.

We break through, droplets splintering like broken crystals. I feel the lower portion of Elixir’s body shift, his limbs fusing into a black and gold viper’s tail that tears through the leggings he’d received from Coral. Bracing me to his chest, my dark Fae surges forth and slices like an arrow across the river. Scrolls of water pitch out of the way as he shears through, producing small billows over the expanse. His gaze clings to mine, our noses tapping, our lips rubbing.

I can’t tell where we’re going or how long it will take to get there, but our bodies have other ideas. My groin abrades the stiff ridge protruding from his waist, the friction so torturous it should be outlawed. My teeth sink into my lower lip to blot out a whimper, the sound curling up my throat. My blood changes temperature, and the space between my legs pools with fluid.

Elixir sees, hears, and feels my arousal. He narrows his eyes. “Oh, fuck waiting.”

He clamps onto the back of my neck, hauls me forward, and snatches my mouth with his. A startled moan lurches from my lips, which yield and soften. The moment they do, Elixir groans and dives in for the kill. Slanting his head, he flexes his tongue along the seam of my lips, teasing them open. I split my mouth and melt as his tongue flexes into me, swatting me into a frenzy.

The wet, hot cave of his mouth dissolves me from the inside. The taste of freshwater and wine drugs my senses. The strength of his jaw pushes the kiss deeper, harsher.

I splay my lips wide and roll them with his, every lick sending embers up my limbs. We heave ourselves into it, our nostrils flaring, the kiss on the brink of going wild as he accelerates through the river. We’ve scarcely begun when Elixir pries himself away, both of us fighting to preserve oxygen. Fables forgive me, I don’t think I’ll last at this rate.

In that instant, I catch Elixir struggling to tamp down a heady grin. He glowers to conceal it, but his swollen lips keep twitching, creating a divot in his cheek that I want to sketch with my tongue.

I tap his lips. “What’s that?”

“Nothing,” he grunts, the sound gravely with lust.

“It looks like something to me. Can I guess? Is it a smile?”

“No and no.”

“Um, yes and yes. I know what I see.”

Sinful inspiration alights his face, making it clear he’s aware of something I’m not. We vault into a tunnel, into a shawl of blackness. I jolt in surprise, when truly I should have expected this. Shadows ripple through the area; otherwise, the faint gleam of Elixir’s eyes is the only source of light.

In the mouth of the passage, he slows and breathes thickly against my mouth, the sensation heightened in the darkness. “What you see is one thing. What you feel is another.”

Some type of vicious intent oozes from his voice. He lets the reply hang in the air, a second before my back hits a wall draped in hanging foliage. The plants cushion the impact. Even so, I gasp. Excitement and desire knot in my core as Elixir traps me against the foundation, his solid muscles fencing me in and spreading me around him.

Those irises crackle. With that, he slithers down my body. His pectorals run down my breasts, which quiver and toughen through the caftan.

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