“You really thought she could keep me away?” Jo aimed for lightheartedness, but she could feel the sting behind her eyes, Snow’s face blurring around the edges of her vision. The relief of seeing him, of feeling his cooling touch against her face, suddenly hit her in full force. Especially when Snow dropped his hands to pull her into a fierce hug, wrapping himself around her and pulling tight until every plane of their bodies touched.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said into her hair, though the awe in his voice betrayed him.
“I know,” Jo said, hugging him back just as fiercely. “But I am.”
“It was foolish of you to come here.”
“Probably,” she said, knowing he could hear the joy in her voice too. “But I’d do it again.”
“Why?” The word held more weight than any they’d shared so far, not just a question so much as a deep rooted need for confirmation, for four words Jo had no problem whispering into his ear.
“Because I love you.”
A sigh of relief got lost in her hair, Snow’s whole body relaxing against her as if the last shred of doubt had vanished, leaving him deflated. When he finally pulled away, his gaze was watery and his smile was formed of a new kind of disbelief, one Jo could tell her own mirrored.
“You’re here.” Snow huffed out a laugh, amazement overshadowing all other emotion. Jo breathed him in, feeling that rope between them go slack at last, its job finished.
“I’m—”
Jo didn’t get a chance to finish parroting the mantra, Snow stealing it away with another kiss, this one deep and insistent, filled with a determination Jo hadn’t felt in possibly literal ages. She gave in easily, slotting herself against him as close as she could and returning the kiss tenfold.
Snow moaned against her lips, one hand tangling in her hair as the other inched down to the small of her back, dragging her closer still, the hard length of his body molding against her like two puzzle pieces slotting into place—two lovers of godly design finally reunited.
At first, Jo was certain the all-consuming sensation of his touch, his taste, was because of distance at last collapsed, because of time apart finally brought to an end. But the more they kissed—the more their touches lingered and traveled—the more Jo started to sense something intoxicatingly different.
This is the first time, Jo realized with a rush of anticipation, arousal pulling low in her gut and mixing with the warm glow of intimacy and love until it was an indeterminate cocktail of sensation and emotion.
This was the first time they had seen each other, first time they hadtouched, since Jo had accepted her status as demigod and settled into her power and name. The first time being fully in the real world, as they were meant to be. This was not just Jo and Snow making love after tragedy had kept them apart. This was also their first time together as Destruction and Creation.
Jo’s magic pulsed and thrummed at the realization, and if she focused, she swore she could feel it like a sentient lick of energy searching out to Snow’s magic and tangling with it. As if Snow could feel it to, he looked down at Jo where he’d sprawled her out beneath him on his bed, and a cloud of lust filled his already half-lidded eyes. This time, when he dipped in to kiss her, it was as if his magic was tingling against her lips, waves of it washing over her naked body as her magic stroked along Snow’s skin.
By the time Snow’s hand reached between her thighs, she was already aching and desperate, back arching off the bed at the simplest touch. She wanted to beg for him to go faster, to give her more, but she also wanted this moment to last forever, for time outside this room to stop and allow them the taste and feel of each other for an uninterrupted eternity.
Still, she moaned in pleased approval as Snow crawled down her body, kissing and nipping at sensitive skin the whole way, until he could replace his hand with his mouth. Jo cried out, hands moving instinctively to tangle in his hair, not pulling but simply giving herself something to hold. Each swipe of his tongue was electric, her body bucking beneath his teasing ministrations until she felt herself teetering over the edge, her mind spinning at how soon he’d managed to bring her to this point.
“Snow,” Jo panted, thighs trembling around his head with the need for release, heat coiled so tightly it was a hair trigger needing barely a touch more and she would—
Snow pulled away with a hot, shaking breath against her inner thigh, and Jo barely held back her whine of protest, instead opening her mouth to ask why he’d stopped. Before she could, however, he mumbled one word into her flesh, a shiver running up her spine at the sensation.
“Creation,” he said, soft enough that Jo shouldn’t have been able to hear it, though he might as well have yelled it for how firmly it settled in her ears. “Please,” he kept going, kissing to the crook her knee, and back down. “After all this time, I just. . .” He looked up at her then, silver hair falling over one of his eyes, the other capturing her gaze with a ferocity that was almost tangible. Jo felt her breath catch, her heart stutter. “At least here, at least now. Would you call me by my name?”
Jo’s tongue felt heavy in her mouth, her heart pounding with more than just strain and anticipation. She ran a shaking hand through his hair, keeping her eyes on his. Even before the word left her, it felt right. It feltperfect. “Creation,” she sighed, smiling softly at the perfect image of him just inches away from where she wanted him most, where her whole body screamed for him almost as loudly as her heart did for him every minute of every day. “My Creation.”
Snow’s eyes fluttered closed as if the words alone had given him pleasure, an exhale leaving past parted lips that tickled Jo’s skin and sent a fresh wave of need through her. But Snow stayed still a moment longer, seemingly basking in the echo of Jo’s words. Then, he opened his eyes once again, looking up at her with more love than she’d ever seen written on his face. Jo was surprised her heart didn’t stop at the sight.
“My love,” he whispered with another kiss to her inner thigh. “My everything.” A kiss lower, breath ghosting over the ache at her core. “My Destruction.”
The feel of her name, her true name, on Snow’s lips sent a burst of pleasure through her almost as powerful as the feel of his lips and tongue returning to their purpose. It took barely a single bit of pressure, a finger slipping past tight wetness, before ecstasy claimed her. It was a pleasure unlike any other, her body singing with it, her magic dancing with it. She could feel the rush of it all the way from the crown of her head to the tips of her curling toes.
By the time the pulses of pleasure died down enough for Jo to return to her senses, Snow was placing kisses to the inside of her neck. She could feel his own need pressing lightly against her as if in request, and even with the aftershocks of such an intense sensation still wracking her body, Jo felt her desperation for him double. She wasn’t even sure if she formed words or simply reached for him with a begging whine, but all at once, he was sliding deep inside her, filling every inch of her that had longed for him since the moment she’d awoken in this new Age of Magic.
“Creation,” she gasped as he began to thrust, first slow and deep, then with a harder, more demanding pace. When she called out his name, she felt his hips stutter, a groan of his own catching in his throat. So she said it again and again, reveling in how perfectly it rolled off her tongue, how deliciously it seemed to effect the man, no thedemigodshe loved. “Creation, my Creation, please—!”
“Destruction. . .” Snow groaned, lips dragging against the juncture of her neck and shoulder, teeth scraping against the sensitive skin there. It seemed as if every inch of her was sensitive and aching and desperate for him, needing him closer, needing him within her and around her for now and for always. When he sucked a bruise into her pulse point, Jo keened, wrapping her legs around him to get him deeper, wishing vaguely that his mark might last, that a part of her status as demigod didn’t mean such easy healing. She wanted to feel him inside of her for days, wanted to look in the mirror and see where he’d marked her in the heat of the moment.
Jo wasn’t sure what other words she might have laced around his name as his thrusts became sloppy and quick, or what she might have called out as his hand finally wormed between them to work her blissfully over the edge a second time. All she knew was that with their magic intertwined, even in the daze of her own release, Jo could feel Snow’s pleasure, could feel the moment he’d fallen over his own precipice. She clung to him, held him through it, and whispered his name over and over again, “Creation, my love, my Creation, I’m here,” until they both stopped trembling and she was certain he believed it.
Chapter 27
