Something wild overcame me. Spurred by the frantic way he plundered me, and his deep, aching words. By his cock spearing me with each confession, like he was trying to bury the truth inside me.
I bent over his arm, licking the blood off him. No sooner had my tongue hit his flesh than Grim knotted his hand in my hair, pulling me into a rough kiss. Our lips collided, bloody.
He kissed me as I rode him, thrust his tongue into my mouth. Breaking only to drag his tongue along my flesh. Licking from the hollow between my collarbones, up my neck, swirling around my ear before biting the lobe. He whispered hot words I barely caught, consumed by the fire burning between us.
My abdomen contracted with unreleased rapture. My thighs shook, my fingers dug into his chest. I was going to come. It was building inside me, as inevitable as this night. Grim anchored me against him, gripping my hips.
Grim’s grip flexed, fingers bruising my hip bone. “Not yet.”
“Please,” I begged. The soft, dulcet edges of pleasure were transforming into something sharp and broken. Theheat of the flames no longer licked my skin, they threatened to consume.
“No,” he said, simple but firm. I let out a choked sound, somewhere between a groan and scream. I sawed my nails into his chest, mindless with need. His hand came to my back, dragging up and down my spine. The soothing motion only added to the ache.
“I love you,” I said, but my voice came out a broken, strangled plea.
“Fuck.” His voice deepened into something jagged. “Say it again and you can come.”
“I love you,” I said, coming apart. “I love you.I love you.”
My words came out rushed and breathless, sounding more likethank youandplease. I repeated them like a prayer, like they would anchor me while jagged pleasure cut and tore me apart, limb by limb.
I felt Grim come before I heard his strangled groan. The fullness and throbbing of his cock stretched my pleasure into something rough and barbed. I went blind with it. The stars above blended with the sand below, until there was nothing but Grim and this perfect, beautiful feeling.
“In case it wasn’t obvious,” Grim said, knotting his hand in my hair, yanking me up against his lips. “I love you.” He kissed me, vicious and hurried, biting lips and knocking teeth. “I will only ever love you.”
He released me and I fell to his chest, breathing hot into his skin, legs jelly—spent.
Time passed in the crashing of the waves, the moon changing positions in the sky. The blood on his arm still messy, but somewhat dried. Eventually I climbed off him, and lay next to the Reaper in the sand, my flesh hotagainst his, one leg wrapped across his thigh. Hot and sweaty but for the chilly, salty beach whispering on my bare flesh.
Waves continued to count time, crashing at our feet like they had five years ago, the same ocean, now totally different water. That felt right. Because that was me and Grim. Immutable and ephemeral.
“What now?” I whispered.
“Hmm?” He stroked my hair like we had all the time in the world.
I lifted my head on his chest, catching his eyes. “What do we do now? Our plan failed.”
I felt his shrug. “I’ll figure it out. If I have to work for him, I will. Until I can find a way to get out.”
His past had already foreseen that future. Vander had blackmailed him into this, and whatever he made Grim do under this new tenure would mean Grim would be stuck. Forever.
“I can’t be the one who ruins your life,” I said. “I can’t do it.”
“I will gladly stand in the ashes of my world for you. I’m not losing you, Gemma,” he growled. “It took me ten years to get you.”
He’d never let me go. He neverwouldlet me go. But it was destroying him. I sat up next to him, looking out at the ocean. A finality slid calm and cool into my veins. I started this one way, I could end it the same.
“Maybe you don’t have to,” I said. “Maybe there’s another way.”
Five years ago, Grim saved me in exchange for his freedom. That contract bound our lives, but it could also mean freedom. He arched a brow, waiting for me to explain.
The prince wasn’t supposed to kill the princess, and theprincess wasn’t supposed to wait for his knife. Maybe that was why our story got so twisted.
We were never meant to be a happily ever after. We were always a tragedy.
Resolved, I turned back to him. “Kill me.”
FIFTY-THREE
