Her thighs tighten around my head, and I force myself to stop. I’m panting, my body shaking as my desire battles against my control. Aurora digs her hands into my hair, trying to force me back up to her clit. She’s babbling now, her words tripping over themselves as she begs me to let her come. The longer I stay there, my forehead pressed to her lower stomach, resisting her increasingly frantic hands in my hair, the more the words compress down to two words.
“PleaseMalonepleasepleasepleaseMaloneplease.”
Finally, slowly, I lift my head and push to my feet. She’s staring at me as if she’s never seen me before, tear tracks down her face. It’s not true crying, not the kind of soul-wrenching sobbing she needs to let out, but it’s a start.
It’s time.
I press a hand to her stomach and use my other to guide my cock to her entrance. I go slowly, working into her in short strokes as her body fights to take the girth of it. By the time we’re sealed together, hips to ass, she’s panting and shaking. I guide her legs up over my shoulders, a position that means I’ll be pressing against her newly beaten ass and thighs with each stroke. Pain with her pleasure, pleasure with her pain. I search her face, her lips parted around each panting breath, her eyes too wide. “Good?”
“Please don’t stop,” she whispers.
“I won’t. Not until you shatter.” And then I begin to fuck her. Hard, fast strokes designed to unravel her completely. I press forward and down, bending her in half, spicing her pleasure with pain, and then it’s the most natural thing in the world to kiss her. I claim her mouth even as I claim her body, and then her hands are in my hair and she’s sobbing against my tongue as she orgasms.
And then she’s just sobbing.
I ease out of her and yank on the harness, loosening it enough to allow me to step out of the strap-on, and then I gather her into my arms and carry her out of the playroom and down the hall to my bedroom. I don’t think she sees me, for all that she’s clinging to me, her tears soaking the fabric of my shirt.
“I’ve got you, love. Let it out.” I carefully sit on the bed and pull the comforter up around us. And then I simply hold her, offering her a safe place to let go completely.
I have been warrior and queen and villain, but the only thing I want to be in this moment is exactly what Aurora needs. A strong partner who can withstand the force of her grief. She’s always so damn careful never to let her walls down fully. It’s no wonder she hasn’t allowed herself to cry since her loss. I gather her closer and press a kiss to her temple as she sobs. There’s no need for words right now. My strength is enough for both of us.
Time passes, but I don’t bother to check the clock to see how long. It matters less than the way Aurora’s sobs finally ease, devolving into little hiccupping breaths that break my fucking heart. I smooth a hand over her hair. “I’m here.”
She releases a long exhale. “Thank you.” Aurora lifts her face a little and winces. “I sobbed all over you.”
“It’s fine.” It’s more than fine. Fulfilling this need for her did something to my chest. Sometime in the last few hours, that possibility of love turned into reality. It’s not something I can say to her, not something I can add to her list of things to deal with when she’s obviously already got so much on her plate, and the knowledge sits ill with me.
I smooth my hands over her wet cheeks. “I’m happy I could be there for you.” It’s the truth, though not the truth I want to say. I have the sinking sensation that I won’t ever be able to tell Aurora my truth. That I love her despite it being too soon, despite us spending a decade being on the opposite side of a line I only managed to cross a few short days ago.
I love her, and I’m going to lose her.24AuroraI wake up encircled in Malone’s arms, her body curled around my back as if determined to protect me, even in sleep. As if she sought to fight off my nightmares through her presence alone.
The irony is not lost on me.
The reason I’m grieving right now is because of actions she took twenty years ago. The reason we met in the first place is because I had nowhere else to turn and ended up in the Underworld out of sheer desperation. She’s the very last person I should allow to comfort me.
And yet that’s exactly what she did last night.