Bronze skin singes my lips as they brush her neck and collarbone, then skim a dark nipple. Her hands tangle in my hair as I kiss and tease, pulling one and then the other into my mouth. She folds when I roll my tongue against the hard peak, her knees coming up, torso jerking.
With a self-satisfied grin, I scoot back on her thighs and bunch her skirt over her hips.
My breath hitches when I register her bare flesh. Other than her garters and thick knit stockings, she isn’t wearing underwear.
Her large clit is so swollen, it peeks from between her folds. She’s sopping wet with the aftermath of our intimacy so far, and I lick my lips, greedily eyeing her glistening arousal.
My monster howls. Voracious and impatient, it slinks behind the warded confines of its cage. For once, its power doesn’t leave me terrified.
I can do this without losing myself, I think, and lift my own skirts.
She can’t keep her hands off of me, her thumb sliding over my pulsing clit. I squirm beneath her expert touch while she traces circles, smearing my slickness. The pad of her thumb catches my sensitive spot, pulling a wail from my throat.
“Please, Tiss.” She spreads her legs beneath me, staring as I pull my hips back. “I need to feel you.” She watches as I nestle myself between her plush thighs, parting my outer folds and pulling up on my mound.
I do the same to her, both of our clits standing at attention. We both groan when I push forward, nudging her thick nub with mine.
“Shit,” I breathe. Eyes fluttering closed, I press into her, savoring the sensation. Gods help me, she’s firm and soft together at once. Slick and silken and hot against me. “I can tell how swollen you are. I can feel you throbbing.”
Our eyes widen when I jerk my hips. “Fuck!” she cries, and I give another little pump that sends her hands groping over my hips and waist.
I set the tempo and control the pressure, reveling in the long moans that tear from her throat with every pass. Grabbing her hands, I force them in front of me and brace myself, lacing our fingers together. My hips rock. Slow and deliberate, I draw out our bliss until she’s writhing beneath me.
“Goddess, Tiss,” she chokes, captive and helpless to the measured torture. Her head rolls back, her throat flashing.
Heat churns low in my abdomen. Her torso jerking again, I can tell she’s getting close, so very close, and I’m not far behind. A few more thrusts, her stiff clit gliding against mine, and she’s there.
She gives a hoarse shriek when her climax hits. That’s all it takes to send me plummeting.
Lightning crackles up my spine. Something inside of me lurches. Somewhere seemingly far off, the crazed beast is howling, ramming against my wards.
Cracks are forming along the boundaries of its cage. My pinnacle builds and swells, threatening to subsume me entirely.I am a container, an empty basin, an ampoule waiting to be filled.
“Elodie,” I cry, and the bond between us ignites.
She gives an abbreviated groan before going limp. I realize I’ve lost sight of our soul-link, but I no longer care to keep a muzzle on my monster. I’m not making the decisions anymore, no longer the one in control.
When I glance down, the backs of my hands are embossed with glowing sigils—
And so are hers!
I blink in shock.Is her magic the same as mine? Or is this because of our bond?
There’s no time to consider it before my teeth are at her throat, my hands tangled in her hair.
Mine, I think. Clamping down on the tender flesh between her neck and shoulder, I roll my spasming pussy into hers.All mine.
The world pitches sideways. The next instant the Observatory is consumed in the same fathomless chasm I saw within my predator's mouth when she was spanking me. It’s an abyss. A swirling maelstrom that will devour everything until nothing remains.
And time is no longer a straight line.
Instead, it eddies and spirals, and I am slipping… plunging… careening down and backward.
The other Itissa rises from the hollows of my bones, latching onto Elodie’s aura. She takes her with us as we collapse together, sucked into a past I thought had been sundered and locked away forever.
Forcing us back into the lives we forgot.
Chapter 43
