“Yes,” he whispers back.
He drives his hips against me hard, unrepentant thrusts that make my back arch, my mouth fall open in a rough cry as I come, my orgasm a sharp, venomous monster that claws through my body after being teased for so long last night.My cock jerks alongside my convulsing limbs, thick streams of semen spurting out between our stomachs.
“Oh, Jesus,” Crane murmurs through a strained gasp and I know him, I know his body, how he’s unable to hold himself back whenever I come.He ruts against my body faster and harder now, his cock lubricated by my own hot seed, and then his neck is bending back, showing me his perfect long throat and he’s releasing between us, warmth and stickiness spreading.
Then he stills and his head is buried in the crook of my neck and as he collapses his full weight on me, I wrap my arms around his back and hold him.I want to ask him what’s wrong, what happened today, but I don’t want to rush him.He needed to get that out of him first.
We just remain as we are, breathing hard, our hearts nearly colliding as they beat wildly against our rib cages.Somewhere in my darkened depths I know that the Hessian is still there, waiting for nightfall.But at this moment, it’s just me.
And for once I let myself just enjoy this.
No shame.
No hate.
Finally Crane pulls back and reaches up, smoothing my hair off my forehead with his long, delicate fingers, and I’d forgotten how much I missed this part, the after, the peace and softness that follow.Our fucking wasn’t rough this time but even so, this quiet, it’s needed.
“I want you for myself, Brom,” Crane says softly, his gray eyes flitting over my lips, my nose, my brows.“I want you for myself and I want Kat for myself and I’m not sure I want you to have each other.”
My chest tightens with a stab of possessiveness.“I don’t think you get to decide that.”
“Perhaps not,” he muses after a moment, giving me a fleeting smile.“But it’s what I want.”
“To have us both but not to share.”
“Something like that.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Yes, well, I have an uphill battle,” he says with a weary sigh.He puts his long thigh over mine, the hair of his legs tickling my balls, and rests his head beside mine on the pillow, his body too tall and large to fit fully beside me on the single bed.“After all, you’re the golden boy, Brom.”
I snort.“They wouldn’t think that if they knew the Hessian was still inside me.None of my supposed betrothal to Kat isbecause of me, of who I am.It’s not that I came from a better family or that my parents wanted something good for me, or that they all think I’m a good, worthy person at all.”The pain digs a deep hole when I admit this.“I see the way they look at me, like I’m not even fucking there, like I’m just seed to be used.It’s a transaction, isn’t it?I’m the golden boy to those witches because it’s what someone called Goruun dictates.”
He stiffens at that.
I swallow uneasily.“Did you find out what Goruun is?”
He nods, licking his lips.“I did.I found out a lot of things today and none of them are good.”
I turn my head on the pillow to look at him, the pained expression held in the groove between his black brows.“No matter what it involves, or if you don’t want to tell Kat, you can tell me.I can handle it.I need to be able to protect her too.”
He stares at me for a moment, his lips moving as he runs his tongue over his teeth.
Damn it, Crane, what the hell do you know?
“I was called into Sister Leona’s office today,” he begins, and I wasn’t expecting to hear that.
“What for?”
“For fucking Kat,” he says bluntly.“She wants me to put a stop to it.”
Raw pride and ownership flare inside me, like I’ve won her hand in jousting.
“Yes, I know,” he says, reading me, “not a bad deal for you.But it is for me.I’ll be fired otherwise.”
“Something tells me you’d rather lose your job than lose Kat,” I say begrudgingly.
“You know I’m nothing if not loyal, Brom,” he concedes.“And nothing if not possessive.”He pauses.“But while I don’t intend to stop with Kat, I do think it’s worth keeping it a secret and continuing to work here.There’s something terrible happening at this school, something I can’t even wrap my head around.But I feel like the students are at risk.”
