Chapter 48

48

MINA

There was a chance I was as insane as I was brave—or that all the blood that'd been in my head outside the cave had dropped to my pussy and was empowering me to make ridiculous choices but?—

I wanted to believe in something again.

Before I met Sylas I'd been at the end of a fraying rope, down to my last strand, but now with him, here, like this? I could see all our points of connection, and more of them flaring up the closer he came. He was winding me back together again, and if he wanted my heart, he could have it.

I watched his claws slide inside me with a dropped jaw, expecting it to hurt, and not having a goddamned clue what the fuck was happening with my body in the real world. "Mina," he groaned, as the tips of his fingers sank in, and the way he said it—I ran a hand between my legs at once. He saw me, and then went incredibly still.

"Keep going," I said, while rubbing my slippery clit. I had row upon row of teeth marks upon my belly and thighs, and the memory of him fucking me was fresh—I brought my fingers up to lick them, to taste myself. "I mean it."

"Mina," he whispered again, coming closer, pressing in the edges of his palm. The darkness of his hand was obscuring all of the light in that part of my chest, and I moaned, going back to rubbing myself quickly.

"If you think I'm going to die without coming again," I said, shaking my head, and that made him laugh.

"I love you," he said, and I nodded.

"I know."

The look of surprise he gave me then?—

"How?" he demanded.

"If you didn't, Sylas, you wouldn't be scared." I pulled out my fingers, and this time I fed them to him, and he eagerly sucked my juices away. "You have to let yourself be scared to love someone. Otherwise there's not really any room in your heart for other people, is there?"

His eyes searched mine. "And . . . you?"

"I'm letting you touch my heart, Sylas—you tell me." His fingers had all but disappeared, as all of my light splashed back into place, taking him in—it made it look like he was pressing his hand into molten lava, as brightness overwhelmed me. I could feel his ingress, him taking up space inside, and there was no rational way to explain how it felt—not the slight swelling and pressure I felt trapped behind my ribs—but the fact that someone, who would never leave me, ever, as testified by all the strands of our future between us—wanted me terribly.

And that . . .

"Can you please fuck me too?" I breathed. "I really need to come. Please. "

"You are madness incarnate," he said, shifting us both, so that he was over me, and I let my knees fall open. "Of course."