When he was fitted fully inside her, he tried to go slowly. Failed. His hips began to thrust, his mind and body taking over in a primitive rhythm that made pleasure surge from the base of his spine out over his body.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and he loved the bite of pain, the sound of her harsh breaths in his ear and the smell of her arousal.
“You’re so perfect, I’m no’ going to last,” he muttered. Even like this, the pleasure, the wildness, crept in on him, taking over mind and body.
Her hand slipped from his shoulder and between them, her fingertips finding her clitoris. The idea of her touching herself short-circuited his mind and made impending orgasm start to tighten in his balls.
When her sex clutched around him, wet and hot and drawing him into her pleasure, he lost all control of his thrusts. His hips pumped as the orgasm ripped through him, tearing him apart and putting him back together, this time twined with Esha. It swept him up and along, blinding him to everything but her.
When the orgasm finally faded away after racking his body with shudders of pleasure, he turned and walked to the bed, Esha still wrapped around him.
He had enough energy to lay her upon the mattress before collapsing
in a graceless pile next to her. With a weary arm, he dragged her against his side.
“That was amazing. Thank you.” He pressed a kiss to her head. She’d given him that gift, even knowing who he was and seeing the shadows of all the evil that he’d done.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
She was the biggest idiot in the world.
There was no question about it, Esha thought, as she crept out of the bedroom in the morning. Warren still slept in the warm bed she’d just left, but she needed some time to clear her head. She waved a hand at the torches in the hall, grateful that it took so little power to do so. She passed Warren’s room and the Chairman perked up from where he sprawled in the middle of the bed.
Last night had been amazing. Stupid, but amazing. She was falling for Warren regardless of the fact that it was a terrible idea. It would end badly, as these things always did for her. It might not even last long enough for him to leave her, considering that he was determined to kill Aurora. For good reason too, with how sick she made him.
Her mind feel like it was squeezed in a vise, so she shook them away—or tried to—and went into the kitchen. If she was lucky, she’d face Aurora today.
After a cup of instant coffee and a granola bar for herself and a can of cat food for the Chairman—which she’d had to drag across the glacier because gods knew you couldn’t forget the Chairman’s wet food—she met Warren in the foyer. The sun was just now peeking over the horizon and the dim light shining through the windows highlighted Warren’s face.
Esha didn’t realize she was holding her breath, wondering if she would see regret there, until his smile broke out at the sight of her. For some terrible, crazy reason, that scared her even more.
If he had regretted it, sleeping with him would be a terrible one-off. A mistake she would no doubt cry over, but it would be done. Instead, he didn’t regret it. But with everything ahead of them, now what?
“I think we’re going to find Aurora today,” she said. “I’ve got to ask you not to kill her. Not right away.”
Disbelief flashed across his face. “No’ an option, lassie. She’s dangerous, and the longer she’s left alive, the closer I get to being incapacitated and the more people she can hurt.”
Fear sent her heart pounding. He was right, but she didn’t want to hear it. “Maybe she doesn’t know she’s making you sick by using your soul. I know she’s bad, and that she’s done terrible things. But she did them during terrible times. Nearly every soulceress was killed during the Burnings—she was scared. I just need a chance to talk to her. One chance to see if I can convince her to give it back.”
“She’s too damn dangerous. I’m telling you it’s no’ an option.” His face was harder than she’d ever seen it.
“I’ve never met another of my kind. You know about my life. Why this is so important to me. Just one chance.”
“No’ a chance in hell.”
Everything she wanted—Warren and a chance to know another of her kind—was slipping out of her hands. She could feel it going, and it made some terrible, tragic monster surge inside of her.
“Ah, Esha. Doona cry, lassie.” Warren stepped up to her and cupped her face in his hands.
She pulled back and sniffled, horrified to feel a hot tear spill onto her cheek. She scrubbed a hand over her eyes. “I’m not crying.”
“I care about you, damn it,” he said. “I doona want to hurt you. But I have to get my soul back. I’m a monster without it. And she is truly dangerous.”
“I get that, I really do. I want you to get your soul back. Everyone should have their soul. But I just want to meet her and talk to her. Once. You don’t have to be there, so you won’t be at risk. I’ll go to see her alone.”
“The hell you will. I’m no’ worried for me, I’m worried for you. I’d no’ risk you like that. You doona know her. What if she really wants to take your power, as the witches said?”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take to meet her. I’m confident in my ability to protect myself. Why can’t you be?”