Page 141 of House of Crimson Hearts
We stare at each other, unspoken words flitting between us. The air potent with emotion.
And then I pull my eyes away, staring at the fire.
“No,” she shrieks at me suddenly, wrenching her hand out of mine. “Don’t you dare give up. We. Are. Not. Giving up. What do I need to do to convince you to stay with me? To run at dawn?”
She shuffles around to sit beneath me on the floor. Her fingers find the hem of my skirts and the skin of my ankles.
I close my eyes as her palms brush against my calves, the sensation sending a shiver of tingles up my legs and straight to my core. She wraps her hands around my legs and tugs gently until I plop onto the floor. She reaches up and gathers the pillow and slides it under my head.
“Eleanor,” I plead, knowing what she’s going to do, knowing how she’s about to make me feel. Knowing that none of that will change the fact we have to end this before it takes one of our lives. I’d rather she live without me, than die because she loves me.
Her hands brush my ankles again, sliding the skirts higher, higher until they rest on my tummy. Her fingers skim my belly, my hips, everywhere she touches an explosion of delight as if she’s pouring waves of pleasure through her hands.
She’s careful to avoid the bruises on my legs, the boot prints, the fist marks. “Look at what they did to you.”
“They tried to break me, to make me stop loving you.”
“Hush now, let me make you feel better,” she says and places a tender kiss on my knee. She scatters them down my legs, her lips soft and warm against the bruised flesh of my thighs.
Eleanor’s lips find my core, kissing my apex until I breathe a deep moan of pleasure. Her mouth parts, her tongue tenderly gliding down my core. Long, slow swipes drawing out waves of bliss and soft whimpers from me. One of her hands finds mine, her fingers lacing through, knotting us together.
The way we were always meant to be.
She draws her tongue between my folds and lavishes me with the sweetest pleasure. I moan and arch my back off the floor. She moans into me, praising me, worshipping me like I’m her witch-god and not the very real being she loves.
“Eleanor,” I pant as she swipes her tongue down my core, sucking and licking every inch of my skin. She releases my hand and instead pushes her way into me, one thick finger. She slides in and out and in and out until I’m panting and crying out her name and any thought of my aching face and bruised body vanishes in the swelling tide of orgasm.
She slips another finger inside me; I gasp at the pressure. The way her strong fingers fill me fuller than I’ve ever experienced.
“Eleanor,” I gasp.
“Tell me, Cordelia,” she says. “Tell me everything. I will give you the world.”
“Harder, I need you harder. I need more of you.”
She switches into a different position leaning on her knees and I cry out as it shifts her fingers inside me. Making them curl into the most exquisite position. I moan and my nipples harden. Her mouth worships my apex, sending rivers of tingles and electric bolts from my core around my body until my eyes are squeezed shut so tightly that I swear I’ll never see again.
“More,” I pant. “More.”
I want to cuss, to swear and cry and tear us from this world so that we’re never parted. But I can’t. And as she focuses her tongue on my swollen nub, I tip over into the explosive bliss that only she can deliver.
When the pulses spread through my entire body, I find myself weeping.
Tears pour down my cheeks and then I’m in her arms and Eleanor is cradling me, kissing my bruised cheeks and promising me things she has no right to.
“I swear we’ll be together, I swear it, Cordelia. Nothing can come between us.”
“You d—don’t kn—know that,” I sob into her shoulder. “You can’t make that promise.”
“I can and I will. Nothing will tear us apart, let me spell it so.”
I lean back. “You can do that?”
She nods. “There are darker magics, blood magic used differently not just for healing. There are many things we can do, many that we shouldn’t. But our love is fated, I feel it in my bones.”
“What would we need to do?”
“I can consult my grimoires. I suspect share blood, swear oaths and a small spell. But I’ll need to read up to be certain. It’s not something I can do hurriedly. A mistake when working with that magic would cost us dearly.”
