Chapter 8

Ava

I was crazy. There was no other way to explain my behavior right now. I was acting like a lunatic. Maybe it was the whole being on the run thing for days on end that made me act out now. Maybe it was all the fear of that kidnapping that was catching up to me. It hardly mattered what the reason was, what mattered was the result.

Clinging to Lucius’ wide shoulders like he was my anchor in the storm, my mouth was on his as he plundered me with his tongue and his hands. He was a total stranger, and a supernatural creature to boot. A phoenix. Not even a minute ago, he had tried to tell me to leave again. The man was grumpier than my old boss and that was saying something.

But he made me feel safe. Safety was something I hadn’t experienced from the moment I realized I’d witnessed things Calder didn’t want me to know. Lucius was just as big as my ex (werewolf) boyfriend, but he appeared ten times more lethal, certainly more lethal to my senses and my libido. It felt like nothing could get to me inside his domain, and that I could finally rest.

Only, rest was not what my body wanted right now. When Lucius picked me up, I clung to him and greedily kept on kissing him. Yes! When he started walking, my excitement rose, and my hands roamed. Stroking his silky skin over taut, heated flesh, and petting the soft gold, orange, and red feathers that grew from his shoulders and his head.

He bumped open a door and candlelight and flames lit the room beyond in their soft, golden glow. This was his inner sanctum, I knew that at once. It was his bed he threw me down on, my body sinking into the softest, most luxurious mattress I’d ever lain on. His scent wrapped around me, drifting up from the silky sheets and the downy pillows.

“No escape now,” he warned me darkly, flames dancing in his otherworldly eyes. Standing at the edge of the bed, between my legs, which dangled over the side around his hips, I finally had the time to take in his wings. They were magnificent, huge, and filled with a dazzling array of colors, all reminiscent of flames. No, it wasn’t just that they looked like fire, actual flames were dancing at the feathered tips.

Something clenched hard in my belly and I wasn’t sure if that was apprehension or arousal. I’d spoken bravely, dared to taunt him until this was the result, but I couldn’t forget that I was dancing with a beast, a monster. A creature beyond my wildest dreams, a myth come to life.

“I don’t want to be anywhere but here,” I heard myself say, my voice bedroom husky in invitation. It was true, and that hard ache in my stomach had transformed into a keen desire unlike any I’d ever known. Lucius might be a stranger, and a monster of lore, but I felt like I’d be crazy to let the chance to be with him slip through my grasp.

The firelight of the big stone hearth provided all the light I needed to see him. It danced lovingly over his muscled chest, his slender hips, and all the glorious feathers that adorned him in strategic places. The pair of gray sweatpants he wore were struggling to contain an impressive bulge, and my mouth watered thinking of pulling down that waistband so I could see all of him. I was acting wantonly, not quite like my normally more reserved self, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

Lucius beat me to it, his hands dropping to his hips to slide his pants down. His cock sprang free, thick, blatantly erect, and already welling with pre-cum at the tip of the wide, mushroom-shaped head. My eyes locked onto that impressive erection and it felt all the more illicit to stare when he was completely naked and I still wore everything.

He hissed, the sound feral as it morphed into a satisfied rumble when he fisted that cock and gave himself a tug. The sight made my toes curl into the side of the mattress. “Undress for me, little human. Turnabout is fair play, after all.” I shivered as I moved to obey, my fingers trembling as I yanked my t-shirt over my head.

Compared to him, I didn’t feel pretty. I had always been the average girl in school, with average height, average weight, and an average face; I was nothing to write home about. Certainly not the girl that men went to war for, but that wasn’t what I saw on Lucius’ face when I slid my bra from my shoulders. The heat in that stare, the admiration, it was so obvious, and so genuine, that it scorched me.

He lost his patience when I moved to shuck my jeans; he pounced on me, it was the only word for it. His body caged me against the mattress, one hand yanking on my pants, the other pinning me by the shoulder into the soft surface. His mouth collided with mine, claiming, marauding, conquering. That kiss wasn’t just pleasure, it was a claim. I was out of my mind if I thought that this one-night stand was going to be any more than that.

Soon, we were both naked, our bodies tangling in the sheets the same way our tongues were dueling. I felt his cock pressed against my belly like a brand, hot, slick with his desire. That same desire was mirrored in me, wetting my passage, dripping onto my thighs. When he yanked my leg around his hip, I was so ready for him to drive into me that I ached.

Our gazes locked as his cock pressed against my core, a heat blazing from him that warmed every part of me. We froze in place, hovering on that edge for a long, drawn-out second. That pause could mean a million things, a chance for me to tell him to stop, a chance to tell him to keep going. What I saw in that gaze made me feel owned, owned by a beast. My spine tingled with a hint of warning, instincts that told me I might not be as safe, or in control, as I thought I was.

A feral growl rumbled from his chest when his hips punched forward. His cock sank into me, stretching, burning. It was an ache that quickly transformed into a languid heat that made my body melt around him. He wasn’t gentle, but an answering wildness rose in me to greet his claim. My legs spread, heels digging into his ass, and silky feathers brushed against my ankles.

He thrust forward, sinking deeper, and he accompanied the shift of his hips with a dip of his head. When his mouth found mine, my heart melted, just like my body had. That kiss was soft and gentle while he plundered my core, a dichotomy that made me feel loved as well as pleasured. That was more crazy thinking; I was utterly insane.

Our bodies danced together, the pleasure ratcheting tighter and tighter until it shattered and spiraled. The orgasm was swift and sudden, winging through my flesh like fire. My core clenched and spasmed around his thick invasion, and he growled, the sound vibrating in the air between us. His eyes flamed, his jaw clenched, and I knew he was staving off his pleasure, frozen in place above me.

“You can come,” I said, my voice a rough whisper. I wasn’t sure where that gentle offer came from, just that it felt like he was fighting to hold back, to keep himself in check. “I’m on the pill,” I added, even though I didn’t know if that mattered in this case. We weren’t the same species after all.

I wasn’t sure if I’d said the right thing when his body went tighter than a bowstring. Flames danced in the corners of my eyes; they dripped from his wings and rose along his back. It seemed the entire bed around me was ablaze, but only a gentle warmth bathed my body from all sides. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his jaw jutted as he gritted his teeth. He was fighting it, I didn’t want him to.

My fingers stroked along his cheek, a soft, gentle brush. It felt like I was touching a hot stone, but he suddenly snapped into motion. “Not yet,” he growled, answering my earlier offer. “Not yet,” he repeated, and then he trailed a finger along my collarbone and left a blaze of sparks in its wake. When he stroked my nipple, it was like a life wire straight to my clit. I moaned shamelessly, twisting and thrashing beneath him. “You first,” he demanded.

This second climb to an orgasm was different, more intense. He wasn’t taking this time, as amazing as that had felt before. No, all his focus was on my pleasure now, on wringing every last drop of it from my body. His finger trailed down my belly to locate my clit, his hips pumping in tandem with the motions of his hand. I felt like I was the center of his entire world as if we were sharing more than just pleasure with each other.

When the second orgasm crested, it broke like a wave. My body went soft and limp around him, stars blinded my vision, and for a drawn-out moment, I thought I’d melted into him. Bound to him, forever. Tears stung my eyes when he groaned my name and followed me over the edge with a rough stutter of his hips.

We didn’t say a word when he curled himself above me, gathering me tenderly in his arms. I’d never been held like that after sex, and that broke something inside me as much as that profound feeling of coming with him had. I wasn’t going to be the same when I left in the morning.