Each of his thrusts was deliberate and powerful, driving into me, over and over. The cool metal of his ring slid across my breasts as I arched off the bed, following his lead, seeking more of the exquisite friction that built with every motion. He hooked an arm under my thigh and lifted it. My head kicked back as the angle took him even deeper, sending bliss darting through me.
“Look at me,” he commanded, his hand folded around my throat, just below my chin. He tilted my head back until my gaze met his. “Keep your eyes on me.”
Tension curled low. The command? The…dominant hold? It sent a wicked pulse straight to my core.
“I need to see your eyes open. I need to know you’re with me,” he gritted out as he held me there, his eyes locked onto mine. There was no escape as his hips moved faster and faster, his pupils dilating.
Our breaths mingled, ragged and hot, punctuating the rhythm of our hips as thin streaks of silver eather speared the heated honey of his irises. The contrast of silver and gold was startling and beautiful as he held my stare, each thrust igniting fiery desire and sending it throughout my entire body. My breath came in short pants as the chamber echoed with the sounds of skin meeting skin. Pleasure built and spun, coiling tighter and tighter. The gentle sweep of his thumb down my throat was so at odds with his almost punishing thrusts.
“Casteel,” I gasped.
“Say it again,” he urged. “Please.”
“Casteel,” I cried out, the heat within me too intense, the pleasure too exquisite. I clung to him, my nails digging into the skin of his shoulders, urging him on. “I love you.”
As he lifted himself, the rumble that came from his chest sounded different and deeper. It was almost beastly, and my body shamelessly reacted to it with tiny shockwaves of pleasure.I could feel his climax building, his breath hitching in his chest, his body hardening, cooling…
My eyes flew open, and I fixated on where my hand rested against his shoulder. Shadows writhed and twisted just beneath the surface of his flesh.
I tried to speak as dark tendrils coiled under my splayed fingers, but his thrusts became more insistent, his strokes filling and touching me in places that sent shockwaves of pleasure radiating through my body.
I watched in helpless fascination as the smoky shadows crept higher, climbing the strong column of his throat and sliding along the carved line of his jaw and the sides of his face. The pattern of those shadows was vaguely familiar in how they pulsed and undulated with each relentless thrust of his hips, but there was also somethingdifferent.
Casteel lowered his head, his lips brushing mine as he spoke one word with a low growl. “Mine.”
“Oh, gods,” I gasped.
“That’s it.” Casteel hooked his arm behind my head, keeping my body from moving with the force of his thrusts. “Come for me.”
My body clenched around him as he lifted his head. That deep coil of tension began to unravel. The first wave of intense pleasure rippled through me, and I screamed his name for a third time as the eather in his fleshchanged. My gaze snapped to his, the breath catching in my throat.
My gods.
“Fuck,” he rasped, his hips rolling against mine.
Waves of ecstasy crashed through both of us as I felt him spasming deep inside me, each pulse of his cock igniting aftershocks as he held my stare. There wassomethingin his eyes.
Something that shouldn’t exist within him.
With a shudder, Casteel dropped his head to the crook of my neck, bracing most of his weight on his arms as his hips slowed, and my heart pounded.
I watched the essence swirling across his shoulders. It was shadowy but not the shade of onyx I’d seen in my skin. His reminded me of hematite’s dark-gray hue, though Casteel’s was charcoal-gray streaked withcrimson.
The essence of pure, raw death.
My hand trembled as I slid it up his arm, halted, then spread my fingers with a soft inhale.
The muscles beneath my hand bunched as the eather pulsed and then slipped under my fingers. Ifeltthe eather as a charge of energy shot up my arm. It was cool and tingling, and it stirred the essence within me. Some of it felt and looked familiar.
But it wasn’t.
I’d never felt anything like what I felt radiating from him. It was something infinite, powerful, and…new.
“Casteel,” I whispered.
He dropped his forehead to mine, his hips slowing. “Hmm?”
“Are you…?” I sucked in a breath as I felt his length twitch deep within me. “Are you okay?”
