Page 80 of Claimed By the Mothman
His claspers unfurled and flexed, twitching at the air like they could reach her and hold her there while he fucked her through every last tremor. He was high on her, frantic and vibrating with need.
"More," he gasped, the words spilling from his lips without thought as he pumped himself. "Do not stop, please—Nell—do not stop.”
Her third orgasm slammed into him and the bond dragged him down, wrapping tight, pulsing hot, sparking along every nerve like lightning shot straight into his soul. His body arched and he spilled again in thick, molten ribbons. His hips bucked wildly, rhythm broken. His wings snapped open andstayedopen, trembling. Shaking.Surrendered.
One final echo, the last wave of her pleasure, rang through him and he seized, collapsing to the floor as if he had been struck.
Silence settled.Sig’s breath scraped in his throat as sweat pooled beneath him, as he felt the wetness of his pleasure start to cool on his body. His length, now raw and drained. twitched one last time before it slowly began to retract. He curled on the floor, gasping, trousers twisted about his ankles.
She was soft now, floating and dazed in her afterglow. But Sig—Sig was a live wire stretched too tight, humming with everything unsaid and unmet. His skin ached with her echo. The bond still thrummed between them, charged and unresolved, and now every part of him trembled with the need for conclusion, for clarity, for contact.
“I cannot…” he clicked softly. To the room. To the floorboards. To the building itself. “I cannot bear this.”
He stood, stepping from his trousers and kicking them from him like the last pretense of patience. Naked, unguarded, he staggered to the balcony doors. His hand closed around the handle and the wind met him as if summoned, cool and electric. It kissed the sweat on his brow, whispered across the glowing ridge at his abdomen, dull now, but aching to flare again.
His wings trembled at his back, unfurling not with urgency, and he leapt. The night opened around him and Greymarket fell away, a blur of brick and breath and light, and he circled once. The motion soothed nothing, but he needed it.
There. Her balcony. The one with the curtains she never quite remembered to close all the way. The one that had begun to smell like her.
He dropped low, too fast, and hit the stone hard, talons gouging into the concrete and knees bending to take the force. He was shaking, all over now, wings still straining open as if trying to hold something at bay.
His hand reached for the door. There was no ritual left in him, no language that could wrap around this thing curling inside his chest.
Before his claws could close around the handle, the door opened… as if it had been waiting for just this moment.
Chapter 17
Nell heard the thud on her balcony. The sound stopped her heart for a beat…then set itsinging.
Her legs trembled as she stood. She clutched her nightshirt to her chest, body still slick with want, the bond threading through in her core like a root system, sending heat through every part of her. She stepped forward, unsteady but certain, and moved into the living room with breath snagged in her throat.
There he was, framed in the balcony doorway like a vision made flesh. Naked and star-kissed. His wings unfurled behind him in slow, shuddering arcs, and his trembling hands clasped into fists at his side.
Their eyes met, and the bond surged between them like a river about to flood. Their breaths synced. Their pulses matched.
Sig stepped forward, unsteady, as if afraid the moment would vanish if he moved too quickly. His mouth opened once, then closed, the muscles in his jaw tightening.
“I—” His voice cracked, rough and wrecked. “I felt you.”
Nell’s throat tightened. She reached out, slowly,like she was afraid he might shatter if she moved too fast.
“I felt you too,” she whispered.
Sig pressed his hand to the door frame, steadying himself, although his claws left shallow gouges in the wood. His other hand curled against his chest like he could cage the bond inside his ribs.
“Nell,” he said, her name catching in his throat like a shard of glass. “I…I wish for you to break the bond. I cannot—” He swallowed. “I do not know if I can bear a moment like this again, for the ache is eating me alive with every breath.”
His shoulders twitched, wings flaring like they were caught between fleeing and folding her to him.
“I do not know if I can survive the breaking of the bond, but I would rather collapse than continue to live in this liminal space.” His eyes flashed. “Or risk doing something to you that was not freely given.”
Nell stepped forward. “No,” she said, simply.
The word was small but devastating. His entire body recoiled, a shudder tearing through him like he’d been struck.
She took another step. Then another. She halted just shy of him, close enough to feel the heat radiating off his skin. Close enough to feel how hard he was tryingnotto move. Her fingers let go of the shirt, and it drifted to the floor like the last of her hesitation, leaving her naked before him.
“I refuse to let you make this decision for me,” she said, her voice low and sure.
