“My cock is deep inside your warm, wet heat,” he said, the stubble on his jaw teasing my cheek as he dragged his nose over mine. “I’ve never been better.” He pressed a kiss to my temple. “Are you?”
“Yeah.” I slid my hands over his shoulders, and his entire back arched, reminding me of a feline seeking more pets. “Um, I’m not sure if you realize this or not, but I can see the essence in you.”
Casteel stilled against me, then turned his head to the side to look at the fading shadows in his flesh.
He shifted, and being that he was still buried inside me, he hitthatspot. I gasped, drawing his attention back to me.
“That’s why,” he breathed.
“Why what?”
“You touched where you saw the shadows, didn’t you?”
“I did,” I confirmed. “The shadows sort of thickened and spread from your cheeks down your throat.”
Tension formed brackets at the corners of his mouth. “Did it hurt you?”
“What? No. Not at all,” I quickly assured him. “All it did was make my fingers feel like they were vibrating a little.”
His exhale was full of relief. “I felt the eather pushing to the surface when I was in you,” he said, and that flush returned. “I tried to rein it in.”
“The essence is an extension of your will, right? You would never hurt me,” I said. “So, the essence inside you won’t either. You don’t have to worry about reining it in with me.”
“You’re right about never hurting you,” he said. “But I’m not sure about that last part.”
“What do you mean?”
“Until I fully understand what having this essence inside me means, I don’t want to lose control.”
I understood that. I did. But I didn’t like the idea of him worrying that he’d hurt me. “You said the essence looked like shadows.”
He trailed his fingers over my cheek. “It doesn’t?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “It’s more of a deep-gray color with streaks of crimson.”
His head tilted, causing the ring and chain to pool between my breasts. “It looked like shadows to me, but now that you mention it, it is different. But I didn’t get—” He leaned to the side. This time, a ragged breath left both of us. “I didn’t get to the part about the crimson.”
“That bit is pretty big.”
“Like my cock?”
My lips pursed.
He chuckled and ran his nose across my jaw. “I’m not sure why it looks different.”
“Me neither,” I murmured with a slight frown. “It’s obviously the essence of death. True death—” I gasped again, my eyes widening. “Are you getting…?”
His lips brushed over mine. “Getting what?”
“You know.”
“But I don’t,” he murmured, slowly rolling his hips. “I think you should use a gratuitous number of descriptive words, just to make sure I understand what you’re referencing.”
“You know exactly what I’m referencing.”
His lips made another slow pass over mine. “Poppy?”
My breathing quickened again. There wasn’t an inch of space between our hips as his lazily churned against mine. “What?”
