I gasp as he gently hooks his thumb inside me, just the tip, his fingers splayed across my lower back. Then he pushes all that cock inside me, dragging it out to the tip before slamming back in.
I grip the covers in my fists. He’s so impossibly hard. I feel every inch of it like this, every thrust forcing my mind to memorize the length, the girth, how long it takes for his head to slide over that sweet spot inside me. His thrusts turn to pounding, his balls slapping against my clit, awakening new need in me all over again.
Suddenly, Colden wraps his free hand in my long hair and uses it to tug me up from the bed, angling my head back, trapping me in his hold. I rest my weight on my hands and let him have me.
“Touch yourself,” he orders, pushing his thumb in a little deeper. “Let’s see if you can come one more time for your king.”
Gods’ death. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but as I touch myself while he rides me hard, pleasure builds. I feel it building in him, too, swelling inside his cock, making every thrust tickle me from the inside out.
His tempo increases until he’s slamming into me so hard and fast the heavy bed knocks against the wall, over and over. I can do no more than utter unintelligible sounds as my body spasms and clenches, squeezing him through an orgasm, wrenching his own release from his body.
“Fuck yes, Nephele,” he cries out as he pumps into me. “Fuck, you’re making me come so hard, love. Gods. Fuck, fuck,fuck.”
I can feel the warmth of his spill, the way I grow wetter between my legs, slick on my inner thighs. I writhe and whimper in his hold, tears breaching the corners of my eyes as everything slows and his hold on me gradually relents.
Afterward, Colden cleans us both in lavender water from the wash basin, then tucks me into his comfortable bed, lying behind me, holding me in his arms.
“Are you all right?” he asks.
I smile, though if he could see my face, I’m sure he would see the disbelief there. “I’m blissed out of my mind. So yes, I’mall right.Are you?”
He laughs against my ear, that same quiet chuckle from deep in his chest that I’m beginning to familiarize with his intimacy. “Of course, I am. My body wasn’t the one being defiled. Though you are always welcome to try, if you’d like. I’m a good sport. I take as good as I give. Always up for the task of pleasure.”
“Why is that?” I inquire, suddenly curious about this man that I know but feel like I’m only truly beginning to understand. “I mean, outside of the obvious.”
I feel him shrug. “Three centuries of living can get… boring. Time becomes trivial. You begin to feel a great distance from your fellow man. And the normalcies of life that can feel new and comforting to most people simply lose their novelty. A sunrise is nice, but when you’ve watched thousands, it just isn’t the same. You are always looking for something special on the horizon.”
“But sex?” I ask. “Why doesn’t it lose its novelty?”
“Because an orgasm is an orgasm. It transports me to a place that nothing in this world can touch. For those far too brief yet somehow eternal minutes, my mind carries me to a paradise where euphoria reigns. I think of nothing else but that—euphoria. Immortality is even momentarily forgotten, chased away by a rapture so true it’s as though I’ve entered another realm.”
Damn. I understand that now. I felt it tonight. Truly.
“So it feels like an escape,” I reply.
“Most of the time. It allows me to forget, for a short while, my circumstances. It’s a balm to a never-ending life. So yes. I reach for it often.” He kisses my neck sweetly. “But tonight didn’t feel so much like an escape as it did an arrival. Like I’ve found a safe place that makes me feel things I’ve forgotten how to feel. It’s been decades since a kiss made me imagine a different life. But tonight, your kiss did that.”
I perk up at that and turn over to face him. “Whose kiss did that to you?”
He lifts a brow, and one side of his mouth quirks up. “I’ll never tell. Just someone I shared a long night with many years ago in a faraway land. His smile made my stomach twist with far too many feelings. And his laugh… it hummed in my bones. He felt like home, which was strange, because I hardly knew him. And when we parted, I felt nostalgic for a thing I never even had. I think because I allowed myself to dream of what it would be like to take him and run away from everything. But it wasn’t meant to be.”
I can hear the sadness in his voice, and it breaks my heart. “I’m so sorry you lost him.”
Colden pushes a lock of hair off my forehead. “It’s all right. I’ve survived this long.”
“I want to ease that pain for you. I can be your home if you’ll let me.”
He smiles softly. “I’d like that very much. But I want you to understand something.”
I run my hand over his shoulder. “I already know, and I feel the same way. This isn’t romantic love. This is friends with very nice benefits.”
He chuckles. “Yes, as I said, it’s a wonderful arrangement. But that’s not what I meant.”
I frown. “Go on, then.”
He grazes the backs of his fingers across my cheekbone. “One day, you’ll meet someone who turns your world upside down. He’s going to walk into the room and alter everything about your world with his mere presence. You might want to hate him, but his smile will eventually thaw your icy heart. And you might want to kill him, but his kiss will set you on fire in a way that leaves you ready to burn down anyone who threatens him. He will change you, and you will fall in love with him. And when that happens, I don’t want you to fear anything when it comes to me.” He takes my chin in his hand. “Don’t ever give up on someone you feel that kind of spark with because of me.”
“That’s how the man you spoke about made you feel?”
