Chapter 24

24

L ilith woke a few hours later, still snuggled up to his chest. And what a strange feeling it was to wake wrapped up in a man's arms. It made her feel... different.

Less like the woman that no one wanted. Less like the strange oddity that everyone gave a wide berth for fear of what she would see. But Envy didn't have to be scared of her. She couldn't see his future, and even if she could, Lilith was quite certain that he wouldn't be bothered by it.

Perhaps she would, though. Lilith had seen only hints of what he was capable of and how powerful he was. If he wanted something, he just took it. Like her. And then what kind of man could single-handedly fight a chimera? And win?

She didn't know a single person who could do that. Not alive, at least. There were rumors and myths of people who had come before the demon kings. The one who could walk through the very sands of time. Even the oracles knew of these stories, because their power had come from one of those gods who had fractured herself into pieces so that it would be harder to find her. Or at least, harder to manipulate her.

Her consciousness returned to every limb of her body and she was shocked at what she found.

Lilith was draped over his chest, like she had clambered on top of him in her sleep. One of his broad hands spanned her waist, holding her tightly against him. But his other hand gripped her ass and held her pressed against something that was rapidly hardening on his body. Something that she was equally intrigued by and also terrified of.

Breath quickening, she lifted her head to find him staring down at her already. Those vivid green eyes saw right through her. He knew what she wanted. What she needed. He'd felt how her entire body froze and yet yearned for him as those eyes met hers.

"Good morning, Lilith," he said, his voice raspy with sleep and oh so tempting. She wanted to taste those words on his tongue. She wanted him to roll her over onto her back and do what it was that men did with women they wanted.

She just wanted to be wanted. For the first time in her life. Lilith was so tired of everyone treating her like she was made of glass. He was the only person who had looked at her and known she wouldn't break under his attention, no matter how rough he was with her.

And even though she wasn't confident about what she wanted, she still knew she trusted him to do it. After all that they had been through together, after all she had almost lost with that chimera, she wanted to prove to herself and him that they were both alive.

Even if that meant doing something that she knew little about.

His eyes darkened as he looked down at her with that smirk on his lips that made her blush. It was like he was in her head. Like he knew what she wanted before she had a chance to ask. Or to make her move that would be romantic and soft, like she'd always thought this would be.

But she should have known that Envy wasn't romantic and sweet. He was a man who took what he wanted and pitied anything that stood in his way.

His hand on her back shifted, sliding through her hair and giving her head a little tug so she was forced to arch her neck. Giving him more access to see the expression on her face and look his fill.

Then that thick thumb was sliding over her bottom lip, tugging at it until she had to open her mouth. "Oh, little one. You are so innocent."

She couldn't argue with that. He was the only one who had ever dared to touch her for a long amount of time, let alone in any heated way. Which meant she was very innocent to all of this.

Even some people might have had conversations with friends or family who had experience in these matters. Perhaps if she had a mother who was still in the picture, she might know something about what men and women did with each other, but she didn't. Lilith only knew that her body was getting warmer and hotter, and she was having a hard time looking at anything other than his lips.

"I know that I liked kissing you," she said quietly. "But I do not know what goes on beyond that."

He groaned, the sound echoing deep in his chest where her hands were pressed. "Oh, you try a man's patience, little love."

The words almost froze her. Little love? He had never even suggested that he might like her, let alone find her anything other than barely tolerable and pretty. But now that he'd said that, she wanted to hear it again. And again. And again.

She wanted him to press those words into her skin and maybe find out what it would feel like if he kissed her throat. Or her shoulder. Or any of the other places that burned for him.

"I have to go slow with you," he said, but his hand leveraged her bottom to jerk her higher until her lips were even with his. "But you do not make it easy."

Lilith wanted to argue that she was, in fact, making it very easy for him, because she wanted whatever he would give her. Before she could say anything, he was kissing her.

And oh, this was different. This was so much more different from any of their kisses before. This was hot and hungry, an anger that boiled in him pressing against her lips until she realized it wasn't anger at all. It was desire.

Her fingers curled against his chest, and she wanted more of it. Heat pooled between her legs. The feelings were strange and uncomfortable, but certainly not unwelcome. Lilith wanted to know why it made her feel like this.

But she couldn't focus on her thoughts when he'd scooped his hand along her jaw and held her in place for his kisses. Not when his other hand massaged her bottom and his fingers slipped a little closer between her legs, like he had before.

Oh, she wanted that. She wanted to feel him sliding through the wet mess between her legs that was certainly there. She wanted to feel what it was like to be consumed by him.

And what a strange thought it was.

The very tips of his fingers skated between her legs, barely a touch at all, but it was there and it made every part of her body turn into a shower of sparks that skittered along her skin.

"Do you want me to touch you here?" he breathed against her lips.

She nodded wildly, needing more.

"Tell me, Lilith. I want to hear you say it."

"Please touch me like you touched me before. In the pool house. I want to feel like that again."

She desperately wanted to come apart on him. To fly into a thousand pieces and then come back together again.

"That is a solo experience." His fingers eased along her slit, slowly tracing the outside edges with a touch that was so feather light it made her stop breathing so she could focus on the sensation. "Do you want to experience it with me?"

Did she? Yes. The immediate reaction in her body was yes. She wanted to make him feel like that as well.

"I don't know how," she said. "But I would like to learn."

Another of his groans echoed through his barrel chest. His head tilted back for a second, revealing those taut lines of muscles on either side of his thick neck. "Fuck, little love. You will be my undoing."

She wanted that. She liked the idea of it quite a bit. He'd made her fall apart in his arms and she wanted to know what he looked like while he did the same thing. She wanted to hear the sounds he would make and just how much it would make her ache.

"I want to do that," she replied. "I want to be your undoing."

His eyes heated at her words before he used his free hand to grab hers. "How much do you know about the male form?"

"Not much."

"How much of it have you seen?"

"Only a few glimpses here and there from the others when they were bathing." Her cheeks heated bright red with embarrassment. "I did not like to look for very long. It felt wrong."

His hand tightened in her hair, twisting her to look up at him as his face curled into a snarl. "Good. I don't want you to look at anyone but me. I want to be the only one taking up an ounce of thought in your head."

"I'm afraid you're the only one I've ever even considered," she whispered in response.

Clearly, she needed to be more confident. So she skated her hand down his stomach, feeling all those muscles bunch and tense in reaction to her touch. "What do I do?"

"Keep going." His voice got deeper the closer she got to the intriguing hard bar that had pressed against her belly.

So that's where she focused her attentions. Slowly, ever so slowly, just as he had toyed with her, she took her time getting there. And once she was so close to touching him, she took a deep, steadying breath.

"May I?" she asked.

"Please." Oh, he was almost begging. That tone in his voice was music to her ears.

She touched him. Drawing just the tips of her fingers up and down the shape of him over his pants. How strange it was to feel something so hard attached to his body. And though she would have liked to think of it with some clinical interest, all she could think was that she wanted to touch more of him. She wanted to hear those little gasps that came from his lips. She wanted to know what else made him squirm like she had.

"Little love," he rasped. "Do you want to touch it without the barrier of cloth?"

She didn't have to be asked twice. She'd felt better with his fingers on her, in her, moving and stroking against her skin rather than over her skirts. Without hesitation, she reared up to pull his pants down his hips. He helped her, arching his body and giving her quite the view of all those clenching muscles as she dragged his pants down to his thighs.

Well, that was rather intimidating. His cock was revealed inch by thick inch. Strangely, her mouth watered at the sight of him, but that couldn't be normal. So instead, she stroked a timid hand up and down him again. Trying her best to do what he liked, but she really didn't know what he might like.

He must have seen the indecision in her eyes, because he grabbed onto her thighs. "Turn around."

"What?"

"Come here, sit on my face, and turn around. You're going to suck my cock, Lilith. However you want, touch as long as you want, but I can see what you need. You want to put it in your mouth, and I desperately want to taste you."

Oh .

She should be scandalized. Horrified. Disgusted by what he suggested. But the thought of his mouth where his fingers had been? She knew how clever his tongue was when he kissed her, so she could only imagine...

It was all the convincing she needed.

Perhaps it was a little awkward clambering into the right position. She asked a few times if what she was doing was all right, but then her thighs were on either side of his head and he planted a hand on her back to shove her down. Her breasts pressed against his belly, and then his cock was right there. In front of her.

She tentatively wrapped her hand around it, curious for a moment until she felt Envy part her folds and then he devoured her .

She hadn't even been aware that people did this and now she couldn't imagine anything else. He felt so good licking through her folds as he traced little patterns against her skin.

And she wanted to make him cross-eyed just like he was making her.

So she swallowed his cock. Deep. Drawing it onto her tongue and then down, down, until she felt like she might choke. Even then, he'd said to suck on it and she'd only sucked on candy, so that's exactly what she did. With force.

He tensed beneath her, and she felt his thighs flex in her hands. His hips shifted, drawing him slowly along the flat of her tongue. He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her away for a second, giving her time to breathe.

"Fucking hells, woman," he hissed against her skin before biting the inside of her thigh. "Give a man warning."

She didn't intend to give him any warning at all. "You could have warned me as well."

"I'll bet you an afternoon in the sun that I can hold out longer than you."

She knew that wasn't true. An afternoon in the sun? A woman would do quite literally anything to for that.

With a small nod, she waited for him to release her hair before she went right back to his cock. But he wasn't going to make it easy. He started licking her a little harder, circling the small bundle of nerves that he'd shown her. It made all the sparks start up on her skin again, every hair on her body raising as he teased her.

She licked around the tip of his cock, following the lines of thick veins down to the base and back up again. Trying her best to listen and pay attention to what he liked, but he certainly made it hard to focus.

He did a distracting thing with his tongue. One long lick up her entire slit before circling her clit and then pressing hard against it. And then he plunged his fingers inside her. She almost saw stars. He was too good at this. Too good at making her lose herself, and she had to keep up.

So she choked on him again. She swallowed him down so deep that she couldn't breathe, but who needed breath when he was pressing those fingers deep inside her and curling them harder, faster, pressing against something so deep in her body that she hadn't known it existed.

"Fuck, Lilith," he hissed as he drew back and added another finger. Then a third. "I'm going to have to stretch you out to take me, little love. I'll have to do this to you for hours before I can plunge my cock inside you."

That's what they were working up to? This cock? Inside of her? The thought made her clench around his fingers.

Sucking harder, swallowing around his cock in her mouth, she stretched her jaws to the limit to take more of him, more until her chin pressed against his belly and then... then...

She splintered apart. Muscles spasming, she moaned around the thickening cock in her mouth until suddenly she felt him pulse. He came down her throat in a surprising amount of liquid that she continued to swallow over and over until he softened in her mouth.

They were both breathing hard as he finally pulled her away by the hair. Envy drew her back into his arms, moving her as easily as a doll until she was draped across his chest again.

"Good girl," he said, holding her tightly against him. "My god, you are perfect."