Page 84 of Grim and Oro
“If you want me to continue, answer my question.” My own chest is heaving. I’m aching more than ever before. “Please.” I used to hate that word, I went centuries without speaking it at all.
But for her, I’ll say it. I’ll go on my knees and beg.
Even with the plea, I expect a cruel response. A stubborn retort. But just like she has melted me down, it seems my own touch has made her tire of being clever.
“Yes,” she says, and any string of sanity related to her that I have left snaps. She wraps her arms around my neck. Her nails dig into my skin. Her mouth is at my ear. “Always,” she whispers.
I’m unleashed.
My hands grip her waist, lifting her into the air. I hook her feet behind me and bring us both onto the bed. By the time I lay her across my sheets, my hand is already back between her legs. These dreams, now they’re happening. Right where I’ve had them. I start slow, then faster. Deeper.Deeper. She moans into my mouth as I fill her. Her chest is pressed against mine. I lean down so that she can hear every word I’m about to utter.
She cries out, as I quicken my pace. As I curl my fingers. “Next time, I’ll use my mouth. And then, after that—”
I’m cut off by the feeling of her own hand on me, on the part of me that’s been aching since the moment I saw her sitting on my bed.
My heart races. I curse beneath my breath. Something about her touch turns my veins to flame.
It takes every bit of restraint for me to remove her hand, using the one of mine that isn’t busy, lacing our fingers together, and pinning them over her head. “Let me focus on you.” I lean down so that I can watch her. “I don’t want to miss a moment of this.” Her lips are parted, her cheeks flushed with color, with pleasure that tastes like her, everywhere, like she’s running her nails down some invisible bridge between us. Her back arches toward me. Her hips writhe against my hand. I know I’m going to be picturing this exact moment for many nights tocome, and I wish, for once, that I can capture this moment in time and play it over and over. “That’s it, Hearteater,” I say. “Make it good for you.”
I watch her use me. I give her everything she demands until she’s panting with pleasure, until her toes are curling with it, until she cries out my name. Until she’s pulsing around my fingers, and my blinding pleasure makes me almost crest with her, even though she isn’t touching me at all.
“Remember this, Hearteater,” I say, barely keeping my own composure, “the next time you want to stab me through the chest.”
Then, I swallow her final moans with my mouth and pull her to me, one hand splayed across her lower back. I hold her like I always meant to—like I intend on never letting her go, like I’m afraid the world might try to take her from me.
Minutes later, I set her down and look at her face. I catalogue her each and every emotion.
Her green eyes are wide, their expression sharp and gleaming. Her gaze slips down to the aching part of me, then back to my eyes, as she says, very clearly, “I’ll remember.”
FLYING
I lie in bed and think about those moments again and again, replaying the memories over and over.
Watching her eyes flutter closed. Hearing her call out my name.
As I remember it all, pleasure blinds me, then fades all too quickly.
It’s been like this for hours. My hand falls onto the bed beside me, exhausted. This bed ... it’s so large. So empty. I never thought of it that way until I saw her in it. I breathe in her lingering scent, the shreds of aura left behind.
I wish she was here right now. I wish she wasalwayshere. But she’s not. I’m alone, making a mess of myself, just like she’s made a mess of my life.
Thinking of any way I can ensure she’s always part of it.
“Is something ... wrong? With ... you?” Astria asks when she sees me the next day, on my way to yet another council meeting.
“No. Why?” I demand, looking down at my clothes. They are immaculate, as always. Nothing is wrong with me.
“Nothing, I—” She frowns. “You—you weresmiling?”
Was I?
Perhaps it’s because I was thinking of how, after she said, “I’ll remember,” Isla kissed me so hard I nearly saw stars behind my eyelids.She kissed me until she fell asleep in my arms, and that was where she remained, until I portaled her back to her room.
I wonder if she can still taste me in her mouth the way I can taste her.
Astria clears her throat. She’s staring at me as if I’ve grown another head.
“Do you ... do you by chance read any of the books in the library?” She asks it casually, but I can feel her spike of panic.
