Page 114 of Ablaze

This woman in my arms. The little blaze that burns so bright, it wields the power to annihilate the darkness that threatens to loom at my periphery.

She’s my reason for living–for more than just having a pulse, more than just existing. My best friend and the love of my life.

“You were talking in your sleep.” I lay a kiss on her skin as my hand travels upward, my thumb grazing over the underside of her breast.

She wiggles her ass against my groin, making my already hardened bulge swell and press into her. I don’t need to see her face to know she’s smiling with the sigh she just released. Her voice is a rumpled whisper, sleepy and sexy. “Yeah? What was I saying?”

My hand climbs upward, and Mala’s ass makes another circle over my erection.

We’ve always had this palpable need for each other, a chemistry we’ve never felt with anyone else, but it’s been supercharged ever since we came back from the hospital a week ago. And though the burn on my chest is still tender, I can barely even feel it when I’m near her.

In an ironic twist of events, now I have a scar very much like the one she does on her chest, and for reasons that seem simple enough to figure out at this point, I feel closer to her because of it.

Lately, we’ve been insatiable–ravenous and frenzied in our need for each other. Like we’re fighting for our lives with each touch and every kiss. Like nothing else matters but the need to deepen this connection, to find each other’s souls and stay there for eternity.

“Something about how hot I am. How you can’t stop thinking about me and want to have eight of my babies.”

A laugh tied around a moan slips from her lips when I pinch her nipple and she pulls her bottom lip in between her teeth. “All of that definitely sounds like something I’d say . . . if I was having a nightmare.”

My smile is immediate, like it always is with this sassy, witty beauty I’ve loved for so long.

I turn her around, nipping her lips and making her yelp, before I move down the length of her body. I pull up her shirt, laying kisses against her stomach and making her squirm. She’s ticklish, and the more she giggles and squirms, the harder my dick strains to delve inside her.

I grasp the side of her panties–the ones she refuses to sleep without even though they get taken off in the middle of the night at least twice, if not more–and pull them off her legs. Leaning down, I lay open-mouthed kisses over the sides of her thighs, watching as her stomach contracts in anticipation and her breaths come out as pants.

And then I bury my face between her legs, licking and sucking her swollen little nub. Mala tangles her hand into my hair as she mewls and whispers, murmurs and chants, undulating under me.

“Dean . . . Oh, God, Dean.”

She arches up, shoving her needy center into my mouth, and I devour her with the ferocity of an untamed animal, slurping at her folds and lapping her entrance.

My hand travels up her body, grasping her nipple and pinching her once again the way she likes, while my other hand finds her wet entrance below my mouth. I press two fingers inside her, curling them to make her go crazy.

I pump my fingers as my mouth stays latched on her clit, and Mala’s thighs clamp around my face. Her short breaths and the way she tugs my hair even harder tells me she’s close.

I increase the pressure inside her, licking and relishing her, before I feel her let go against my tongue. I lap at her juices, lingering between her thighs until her heaving chest slows and her fists loosen from my hair.

I crawl back up her body and Mala quickly pulls my lips to hers, tasting herself with a moan. “I want you inside me.”

I don’t waste a single second, pressing her knee down on the mattress so her legs open wider for me and sliding inside her in one go. My strokes are hard and deliberate, punishing and unrelenting, as I pump and drive inside her, like I can get deeper with each thrust. Like I can embed myself in every cell in her body.

My forehead rests against hers, our breaths intermingling while our hips collide. The necklace she gave me hangs between us–my good luck charm–the pendant resting on her skin. Like me, she’s seconds from breaking and when we do, we shatter with the force of a thousand suns–groaning and panting, a sweaty entanglement of limbs and lips.

I roll off her to the side and pull her to me, not wanting to be away from her for even that one moment. Our hearts continue to thump against each other, trying to settle into their normal rhythm.

I kiss her languidly, like she’s the only thing worth cherishing. “I love you, sweetheart. I’ll love you until . . .”

She clasps her hands around my head as our eyes cling to one another. “Until we’re nothing but ash.”

* * *

“Where are you taking me?” Mala touches the blindfold over her eyes for the fifty-seventh time in the past five minutes, wiggling in her seat. “You know I hate surprises.”

I snort, turning the steering wheel to take a left onto the main road. “That’s a lie if I’ve ever heard one.” I turn my head to look at her even though she can’t see me and slide my hand over her thigh, squeezing it gently. “You certainly didn’t mind the surprise I woke you up with this morning when my tongue was inside your–”

“Yeah, okay.” She grabs my palm and entangles our fingers. It’s hilarious to me that even after all the ways I’ve had her, she still manages to blush. “So maybe I like some surprises. But this . . . this is making my stomach go all loopty-loop.”

I bring the back of her hand to my lips. “Patience, young kung-fu panda. I know you’re waiting on tender hooks, but we’ll be there soon.”

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