Page 25 of All Hallows Masque

A cry tore from my throat when he withdrew and thrust back inside so harshly that my whole body felt the impact, the ache twisting into something sharper. Discomfort into pain. Another thrust, just as ruthless, and it hurt. My mouth hung open on panting breaths.

“I think my slut wants it to hurt,” he said with a sinister laugh.

“Need,” I blurted when he thrust again, and again, his hips driving into my ass, my boobs bouncing, nipples so sensitive that even the lash of the wind made them achy and hard. “I need it to hurt.”

“That’s my fucking girl,” Miz hissed and tightened his fingers around my throat.

Oh.Desperate, shivering tingles raced down my spine. I thought he’d already been fucking me hard, but he ripped away all pretences of civility and stopped holding back.

“Oh, god.”

“Scream it. Tell everyone your god is fucking you, owning this fucking pussy,myfucking pussy. Tell the whole world who you belong to.”

My voice joined the howling of the wind as he fucked me faster, without mercy, and heat coiled inside my skin, my pussy clasping his length and ripping a groan from him, too. The sound pushed me higher. I grasped frantically at the grass, holding on as he broke me apart, broke me down to the feral, needful creature I was at my core.

“Mine,” he said against my ear, biting the lobe and making my hips jerk back into his, sinking him so deep that I felt his cockeverywhere.“My hot, little cunt.” He quickened his pace, as feral as I was. “My tits.” He twisted my nipples, sending a razor-edge of heat and sensation to carve me apart. Every part of my soul was on show for him as I gasped and pleaded and offered him everything. “My throat.” He squeezed, surrounded my fragile neck with his hand until my blood pounded faster and my head floated. “My life I can rip away whenever I fucking want.”

His next thrust ruined me. My climax struck as hard as his thrusts, and my eyes rolled back. Bright flashes of light covered my vision. I couldn’t tell if the stars were in the sky or caused by how desperately he fucked me.

His breathing came faster, louder, his voice ragged. “Dark, twisted, fucked-up little whore,” he grunted. “Do you come harder knowing how easily I could end you right now?”

I whimpered, my eyes slamming shut. Oh, god. The pleasure never ended.

“Ido,” he growled. “I fucking do. Knowing I have you at my mercy, that I could doanythingto you and you’d not only enjoy it but beg me for more, harder, rougher…” He was falling apart, his thrusts erratic, his voice a hoarse groan. “I’m dark, twisted, and fucked up just like you. Your darkness is the same as mine. A perfect fucking match.”

His hand flexed on my throat, and then he was groaning, his cock wild and throbbing inside me, matching my hot, pulsing fire with his own spill of heat.

When the rush of pleasure finally ebbed away, my body exhausted and sore in the best way, I collapsed into the grass with a moan.

Miz’s hand lightened on my throat, his thumb stroking my pulse, and a deep sigh ruffled my hair. He kissed my nape andwound an arm around my waist, every part of him that had been cold and hard and razor-sharp softening to tenderness and love.

“Wherever you are,” he murmured, ruffling my hair, “you better be waiting for me. Because Iwillfind a way to you, and I will drag you home.”

“Not yet,” I breathed, covering his hand where it wrapped around my throat. “Not until I find Death.”

He jolted against me, skin sliding over skin and sending a spark of arousal through my sore pussy. “He’s there?”

“Cruelty has him. She’s keeping him locked up somewhere, but I have a chance to find him this weekend.”

“Fuck,” Miz breathed, sagging against me. I liked the press of his weight above me, liked the way his hand splayed across my waist. “I have no doubt you’re strong enough to do it alone, my universe, but I’ll try everything in my power to get the gates back so I can join you. Even if I have to rip open an exit with my bare hands. Just hold on for me, Cat.”

An ache tightened my chest, but instead of anxiety it was a sweet pain for once. My eyes stung. “I love you. I miss you.”

He scattered kisses across the crown of my head. “I love you, and I miss you. We all do. Madde’s going—”

His weight vanished in an instant, and my soul bumped into the bones of my skeleton as I lurched upright in bed, not outside in the moorland, not under the stars. Not under Misery at all. A dream. Just another fucking dream.

“Madde’s goingwhere?”

What had he been about to say? Restless panic quickened my heart, while my stomach formed a tight knot. Was Madde hurt? Was he waning and sick like Miz had been?

I covered my face as tears of frustration and deep, endless pain built in my eyes. It felt so real. I still felt Miz inside me, still felt him kissing a crown around my head, his possessive handsplayed across my stomach. I believed, deep in my bones, that it was real. That it happened.

But I was alone in my bed in Darkmore Manor.

16

Cat

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