My voice is rough when I manage it. “I almost?—”
“I know,” she says. “But you didn’t.”
And that’s when it hits me—not like a revelation, but like something I’ve known all along and refused to admit. Love isn’t the curse I’ve been carrying. It’s the only thing that’s ever kept the curse from owning me completely.
I don’t say it out loud. But I hold her tighter, because for the first time, I’m not afraid of what it means.
23
TESSA
His heartbeat still pounds against my palm where I press it to his chest, both of us trembling in the shadowed quiet of his bedroom. The air tastes of rain-cooled night and somethingmore—a shift in the space between us like tectonic plates grinding into place.
Survival adrenaline bleeds into something deeper, hotter. He hasn’t let go of my wrist since we left the courtyard, his thumb tracing circles on my skin, and I feel it: the wild, raw thing inside him finally not fighting.
His kiss isn’t a question. It’s a claiming—slow, deep, deliberate—lips parting mine with a reverence that unravels me. My back meets the wall as he cages me, all breath gone. He tastes like salt and storm, and his hands slide down my sides, finding the zipper of my hoodie. The drag is excruciatingly slow.
"All my control…" The words rasp against my throat as he bares my shoulder. "It’s nothing without your fire."
I tug roughly at his shirt, fingers scraping over muscle, desperate to feel him warm and alive. Fabric tears. He doesn’t flinch. Our clothes fall away between lingering looks and bitten-back moans; his pants pooling on the floor, my jeans tangledaround one ankle. His skin is fever-hot as I press closer, my bare chest flush against the hard lines of his body. The low growl vibrates through both of us.
He lowers us to the bed, palm cradling my head. Kneeling between my legs, he grips my thighs, opening me wider. My hips arch. He watches me with that predatory stillness for a shaky breath before dipping his head. His tongue licks of wet heat, circling my clit.
My gasp punctures the silence. "Darius?—"
"Want to see it," he murmurs against my pussy, the vibration singing along my nerve endings. "This dare… surrender." Another deliberate lick. "It’s mine."
He begins to worship me like that's true, slow and aching and deep. The pressure builds blistering until my legs shake. I fist the sheets, tangled in them, a muffled cry lost in the room. His thumb slips inside me, curved to stroke that spot as his tongue flicks mercilessly. Climax cracks through me—bright, effervescent, leaving me breathless and aching.
He lifts his head, pupils blown wide, his cock rigid against my hip. The blunt tip presses low.
He pushes in. Slowly. Blissfully slow. I feel every hard, thick inch stretching me. He pauses, fully seated, trembling. His forehead touches mine.
"Not breaking me. Anchoring." His hips retreat, then sink back in, filling me so completely my vision swims. The lazy rhythm builds, each thrust deeper, harder.
His mouth finds the tight bud of my nipple, sucking hard. I rake my nails down his back, pulling him closer. Pleasure blends with something else—a shimmering warmth blooming beneath my ribs and spreading like liquid gold, chasing the sharp edges of sensation. My heart pounds not just in my chest, but echoing in his veins I feel it,feel him—every buried anguish, every guarded thought dissolving into yes. This joining.
My climax crests again, tighter, richer. "Oh god." I claw his shoulders. He drives into me, faster now, wilder, too close. "Tessa." My name is a broken oath. "Yours."
His hips pull back, leaving me hollow, then he’s lifting me clean off the mattress. Air rushes under my thighs as he pins me against the cold wall, my spine scraping stone. His hands grip my hips hard enough to bruise, my legs locking around his waist.
“Darius, wait?—”
“Keep me tethered, Tessa.” He presses my arms flat above my head, fingers threaded through mine. “If I break, break with me.”
He slams into me with the force of a wrecking ball. The rhythm is relentless—deep, jarring thrusts that scrape pleasure along raw nerves. His gaze holds mine, pupils devouring irises until only unlit black remains. The bed disappears below us. There’s only this: breathless impact and the drum of his heartbeat against my sternum. My nails score his forearms.
“Louder.”
The command isn’t spoken. It vibrates in the air, slick against my ear. I scream into his shoulder as my spine arches, spine singing toward oblivion. He follows a second later, head snapping back, throat corded. A harsh cry tears from him, echoing wild notes of pain and release. I feel it in my own ribcage—a mirrored shockwave cracking through bone.
Then his teeth sink into the join of neck and shoulder.
Blood blooms hot and sweet over my skin.
It detonates.
Gold-fire starbursts explode behind my eyelids. All oxygen vanishes. The roomtiltswith a ferocious glow radiating outward from Darius’s skin, etching intricate silver lines that spiral across the walls. Crimson dust motes shimmer midair. A furious wind lashes my face, vanishing as fast as it came.
