55. Chapter Fifty-Five
“Thank the gods,” Kieran swore, closing the distance between us by wrapping one arm around my waist. His other hand found its way under my jaw again, tugging my face towards his.
He pulled my body closer while still walking backwards, as if he couldn’t bear to keep his hands off me any longer. I couldn’t bear it, either.
As we tumbled into bed together, the lingering scent of orange zest and cloves clung to the sheets, confirming my suspicions. These were his sheets. This was his bed. We weren’t in some spare guest suite—this was his own private space. The realization sent a thrilling wave of pleasure through me.
Again, that man interrupted my entire train of thought—this time by rolling me over to my back in one fell swoop and straddling me so that my lap was in between his legs.
“Is this okay? Am I hurting you at all?” Kieran asked, his fingertips gently brushing over my torso where the Leshy had struck, where scar tissue had already started forming thanks to the dedicated efforts of the clerics.
I shook my head. “I’m good. The tincture is still working wonders,” I breathed. “I can’t feel a damn thing.”
“Not a damn thing?” he teased, rolling his hips against mine. A self-satisfied smirk curled across his mouth as I moaned softly, feeling exactly what he wanted me to feel.
Godsdamn.
My eyes roved over the sight of him on top of me with both awe and greed as he shrugged off his jacket, his hips still pressing into mine. Deft fingers made their way from his collar to his navel, swiftly unbuttoning his shirt. I marveled at the hard expanse of muscle revealed, the gleaming golden-brown skin made all that more beautiful by a collection of scars, and those strange, dark tattoos. Hungry and aching, my eyes followed that thin trail of black hair from his belly to below the waist of his well-tailored trousers. Now in a state of partial undress, Kieran threw both articles of clothing off the bed so aggressively that he overshot—the buttons of his coat making a sharp little thwack as they hit the wall.
“So violent,” I giggled.
He grinned, his fingers already beginning to toy with the hem of my sweater. “You have no idea. May I?”
“By all means,” I offered, lifting my arms above my head.
Slowly, Kieran began to push the fabric up. Too slowly. Desperate, I started to writhe beneath him before reaching down, attempting to speed up the process. He caught both of my wrists in one hand without even trying.
“Oh no you don’t,” he growled, shoving them both up against his headboard. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this? I’m gonna be taking my sweet ass time with you, Little Conduit. Let me savor this.”
I shivered, absolutely fixated on the commanding look in his eyes as he released my wrists and shifted himself, leaning down to press a kiss just below my navel. One of his arms snaked underneath me as he did so, gently lifting up my torso. With the other, he tugged my sweater up and over my head, the static cling taking the chemise I’d been wearing below right along with it.
That left us both naked from the waist up, and there was an unholy degree of reverence in his gaze as he looked down at me, eyes coasting over every inch of exposed skin.
“Fucking Hel. You’re so beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely.
“Get back down here and say that to my face, Vistarii,” I demanded, drunk off his praise.
He smirked. “Oh, with pleasure, Asher.”
In one fluid motion, Kieran shifted himself again, this time so that we were nearly chest to chest. As he shoved one of his knees in between my thighs, I couldn’t help but wonder if he could feel how wet I already was for him. These tights were far too thin to conceal my arousal for long. He kept his torso hovering just above mine, his body forming a cage of muscle and skin and heat around me as he leaned most of his body weight against his forearms. His eyes gleamed with adoration and something a bit darker as he spoke.
“You are,” he whispered. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Arken. It devastates me. You know that, don’t you?”
Abyss take me. I couldn’t handle what his affection did to me, it was driving me insane. I slid my hands around his waist, digging my nails into his lower back and begging him to come closer. I wanted to feel the weight of his body against mine, I needed to know what it felt like, I had imagined it so many times…
As my nails bit into flesh, Kieran gasped, his eyes going wild as whatever grip he’d had on his self-control seemed to be severed. He didn’t want to hurt me, I knew—but I hadn’t been lying when I said I couldn’t feel the ache of my wounds. Even if I could, I’d never tell. Everything about this moment would be worth the pain, should it return. So I dug my nails in harder, and my reward was instant: His body crashing into mine, his mouth claiming me again with unapologetic fervor as we picked up where we’d left off in his living room.
I groaned as I felt the warmth of his bare skin against my own, and the hard length of him pressing up against my inner thigh. As I slid my tongue back in his mouth, fingers tangling themselves in his soft hair, I could feel him twitch and throb.
For one gasping moment, our mouths broke apart. He ran his crooked nose against my jawline as I tried to catch my breath, tilting my head back against the pillows in pleasure. It was then that I noticed his windows. The curtains were still open, leaving us in clear view of any occasional passers by in the alley. Whoops.
“Kieran—” I started, struggling for coherency as he was nipping at my earlobe.
“Hmm?”
“I’m going to hate myself for asking this because I’m fairly certain I’ll actually die if you leave this bed, but… could you close those curtains? I’m afraid I’m not much of an exhibitionist.”
Kieran chuckled, the low vibrations of his rumble running straight between my legs.
“Anything for you, Little Conduit,” he purred. “But I do think I’ve had enough of your little near death experiences.” Lazily, he flicked his fingers in the direction of the curtains in question. “Good thing I don’t have to leave this bed to keep you all to myself.”
I felt a ripple of his power pulse through the air as pitch-black Shadow began to creep across each pane of glass like hoarfrost. The umbral effect coated his windows until they were fully opaque, darkening the room.
“Better?”
I nodded, biting my lip.
“It’s okay, Ark, you can admit you find my arcana sexy,” he teased.
I did, and he knew it. He didn’t use it particularly often around me, though I suppose I wouldn’t even know if he had. Such was the nature of Shadow, but I had always been equal parts attracted to and fascinated by Kieran’s darkness.
His mouth returned to my neck, the clever bastard having already caught on to the fact that I was… excessively sensitive there. I ran my hands over his thighs and felt them flex beneath my touch as I replied.
“Would you laugh at me if I confessed that I actually do find it sexy?”
I felt his mouth curl into a smile against my skin. He didn’t laugh, but he was most definitely going to remember I said that. No chance in Hel would he let me live that down, but I didn’t even care. His touch felt like heaven as he ran his fingers through my hair, continuing to press kisses up the column of my neck, straying towards my jaw.
More.
I needed more, and wrapped one leg around his waist just so that I could grind myself against the warmth of him, aching for his entry. Kieran groaned in response, throaty and low and I swear my eyelids fluttered involuntarily. Gods, that sound was fucking hot. I wanted to hear it again, and so I stretched my arms out above my head before allowing them to wander—but it was like he could read my mind. Again, he caught both of my wrists in one hand and pinned them against the headboard.
“I told you, Arken…” he growled.
“Hmm?”
“I am taking my sweet. ass. time. with you.”
“Gods,” I groaned as he pressed the pad of his thumb against my lower lip. I licked it, in protest. “Are you trying to torture me?”
He snorted. “If I was trying to torture you, sweetheart… You would know. And you’d thank me for it.”
Oh, fuck.
“So I was right,” he chuckled, gaze darkening as he read my expression. Perceptive son of a bitch.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement,” I breathed.
“Uh huh.”
As his mouth returned to my neck, biting down as if to prove a point, I gasped. Not just because of the way he ran his tongue over the bitten flesh, but rather… something else entirely. As Kieran continued to kiss me, running his hands anywhere and everywhere they could find purchase, I could detect what felt like… curling wisps of smoke. A cool, weightless darkness licking its way across my skin, too, creating delicious contrast with the pressure of his touch and the warmth of his breath. Heated, heavy breath that was growing more and more ragged by the minute.
But Fates, what even was that? His Resonance? I opened my eyes, but there were no tendrils of Shadow to be found. Whatever he was doing, it didn’t seem to be intentional, and it didn’t exactly feel like the buzzing arcana that I’d drawn from before. This felt different, somehow. More like an extension of his touch. Did he even know he was doing it?
But by the time Kieran’s mouth had made its way from my collarbone down to one of my breasts, I lost any ability to theorize… or even think for that matter. I didn’t care what it was, I just didn’t want him to stop.
“Gods, Kier,” I moaned, tossing my head back against his pillows as his tongue drew slow, intentional circles around my nipple, leaving it swollen and sensitive.
He hummed appreciatively as he read me like an open book, taking the other nipple between two fingers and kneading softly. He tugged at the former with his teeth.
This man was going to be my undoing.
We both knew this was a bad idea. Despite our explosive chemistry, despite how perfect every inch of him felt beneath my hands… I knew there was a reason we’d both kept one another at arm’s length, I just couldn’t exactly recall what it— Oh, sweet Hel. How the fuck was I supposed to think straight when his fingers were stroking up against the center of me now, with only my tights serving as a barrier between us?
“You like that, sweetheart?” he murmured.
“Yesss,” I hissed. I very much liked that, and I needed more. I rocked my hips desperately against his hand, forcing his knuckles to graze against my clit beneath the clothing—the existence of which was growing more and more maddening with every passing second.
“Good,” he growled, pressing those fingers against me harder, tongue returning to my nipple as he grabbed the surrounding flesh, hard.
That strange, dark sensation returned, this time with tendrils weaving their way around my throat as Kieran trailed a series of love bites across my chest. The feeling only intensified, tightening when he slipped several fingers beneath the waistband of my tights, teasing at the skin just above my panties.
Gods above and below.
He hadn’t been lying when he said he’d be taking his sweet ass time. My eyelids fluttered closed again as I focused on the feeling of his every ministration. Finally, when I felt like I couldn’t take it anymore, I tugged at his hair. Releasing my poor, swollen nipples, Kieran kissed me hard on the mouth before pushing himself off me, abruptly climbing out of bed.
“Excuse me, sir,” I objected, and something in his eyes seemed to flash. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere,” he replied, grabbing me by the hips and pulling me towards the edge of the mattress so that he was standing in between my legs. “But uhh, quick question.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you always glow for people in bed, or…?”
Did I always what now? I glanced down at my fingertips. Oh. They were, indeed, glowing. Godsdamn it. I really needed to work on controlling that. I was well-established as a Light Conduit by now, but gods forbid any of the other elements come out and play the next time I felt a strong wave of emotion… or pleasure.
Kieran cleared his throat a little, still looking down at me with bemused curiosity.
“I can’t say that’s ever happened before,” I confessed.
He looked a smidge too pleased with that answer, the cocky bastard. And I expected him to tease me, but instead, Kieran laced our fingers together and allowed his aether to manifest, Shadows creeping up slowly until they coated his hand like some sort of arcane paint.
The tenebrous tendrils crawled from his fingertips, up his wrist and forearm. Again, I felt connected to his arcana in a way that felt far more intimate and personal than it should. I didn’t dare ask him if that was intentional. Instead, I turned my focus to mirroring his little trick, centering my mind. I allowed the Light aether to extend beyond the tips of my fingers, the sensation tickling a bit as it grew and stretched, until I wore my arcana like a matching pair of gloves.
I wasn’t sure what would happen at first, half expecting that one of our elements would cancel out the presence of the other. We were elemental parallels, after all, with our specializations lying at the very opposite ends of the aetheric spectrum. But no… there was nothing negated—the dark, smoky tendrils wrapping around his fingers just served to amplify the glow emanating from my own. In turn, the wisps of darkness encircling his hands were illuminated in a haunting, ethereal sort of way.
For a moment, we just lingered like that in silence, mutually entranced by the view. It reminded me of summer nights in the forest, like flickering fireflies in the dark.
“Well, that’s rather pretty,” Kieran murmured.
“You’re rather pretty,” I teased.
“Mmm, and here I was thinking you’d never notice,” he quipped back, paired with a smile so genuine that it almost hurt.
I laid back in bed, leaving myself just about eye level with his waist, and stole a hungry glance at the way his pants were beginning to slide from his hips. Kieran caught my gaze and held it, leaning his tall frame over me as he released his hold on one of our interlaced hands, drawing the other one up to his lips to kiss my palm. Without breaking eye contact, he guided one of my fingers into his mouth, sucking at the tip of it softly. The look in his eyes was so godsdamned indecent while he did so that I was already on the cusp of release. Over a godsdamned glance.
Growing impatient again, I took it upon myself to scoot forward and wrap my legs around his waist where he stood, pulling him in towards me. Kieran hissed, but leaned into it, pushing his trapped erection up against me for just a moment before pulling himself back.
“Easy, Arken,” he warned, tugging at my tights. “I still have to get these off.”
“The tights? Or me?” I smirked.
“Both,” he replied simply, canines gleaming as he returned my wicked grin. “In quick succession.”
“Aw, what ever happened to taking your sweet time, Kier?” I teased.
“The road to Hel is paved with good intentions.”
I laughed. He was so godsdamed clever. Even in my depraved state of mind, about to be entirely naked in his bed, I had to appreciate the quickness of his wit. But it wasn’t Kieran’s wit that I was appreciating when he knelt down after peeling the fabric from my legs, spreading my thighs apart with a firm grip.
It was his fucking mouth.