There was just the way his screams turned into my name when I shifted his hips and found the spot inside him that lit him up from the inside out. I fucked him until I felt his body clench around me again and he came untouched, and I kept going when he started to beg and tremble, twitching from overstimulation and pain.
“P-Phoenix. I can’t… I can’t… fuck… fuck.”
I wanted more. I needed more. I needed…
“You’re mine, Aubrey.” I snarled the words, unable to make it a question.
“I—”
My mouth lowered, and I bit into his shoulder again, drinking down the taste of blood and the sound of his screams.
“Mine to break.” I slammed into him and felt the breath rock out of his chest. “Mine to put back together.” I thrust again, and he started to shiver. “Mine to keepwhole.”
“Fuck… fuck,” he gasped, screaming one more time. When the echo of the sound faded into the storm above, he said the only thing he could. “Yours.”
It drove me over the edge. I came on a roar and completely lost control, fucking into him until the breath punched out of his chest and the collar choked him, wanting to bury myself as deep as I could inside him. I wanted to be a part of him the same way the rain was, the infection, the darkness in his blood. I wanted to live in that place where corruption made a man into a monster, where he’d broken along the seams.
I wanted to touch everything he was and live in the warmth of his soul.
I wanted…
“Aubrey,fuck,” I groaned as I collapsed on top of him, yanking the knife from the ground and twisting our bodies so I was behind him. My cock was still buried in his ass, and I gave little aborted thrusts and rocked myself through my orgasm.
We were covered in blood, in cum, in mud. In the rain that was slowing to a drizzle.
I knew there was every chance he’d blame this on the storm come tomorrow. Every chance he’d deny that he’d split wide open for me and let me in.
And I knew if I had to fuck him like this a thousand times to hear that little confession, the wordyourson his tongue, I’d figure out how to make sure it was always raining.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
AUBREY
Somewhere between Phoenixfucking me so hard I could barely breathe and bringing me inside to gently shower me off, he’d managed to pick up our clothes and get us into bed. I knew it, because I could feel the heat of his arm around my aching body.
I knew it, because the cadence of his breath and the soft beat of his heart was something that resonated in my bones. The rain had stopped at some point, and he’d picked me up as though he hadn’t just fucked me into the ground.
He’d brought me inside.
He’d taken care of me.
And now he was holding me as I slowly rose up to survey the damage we’d caused during the storm. I didn’t expect the softness of his face.
His paint was gone, washed away by the rain last nightand the shower he’d dragged me into after. There were little traces of black still lingering at the edges of his eyes, trailing along the sharp catch of his jaw, but for the most part, his face was clean.
This was the first time I’d really seen him like this.
Its absence highlighted the scars that bit deep into his skin, bisecting his brow and running across his full lips. One ran across the bridge of his nose, deep enough that ithadto have been from a blade glancing across his face.
Even with all the marks, even with proof that the world wasn’t kind and it had been trying to kill him for years, Phoenix lookedyoung.
I hadn’t realized how young he was until just now. When he slept, without his paint, he looked like a different person from the vicious cannibal he was during the day, putting on a tough face and playing king to his pack. His presence was so big when he was in command, when he was giving orders, that he seemed closer to my age. The stark outline of black paint and the fire in his eyes were nothing more than a mask, though.
When he was sleeping, his face was soft. Sweet.
Almost boyish.
