A tear of pleasure. A signal that now is the time.
My claiming is a brutal one. Far more brutal than I’d planned when this began. But she wants it—I see the request in her heated eyes, the longing for more and more andmore. And I need it, as though my body must bury its presence in her core, a mark that says this woman belongs to Alexus Thibault. Now and forever. If ever anyone was meant to be mine, I know it’s her. Even if I can’t explain how or why.
I know.
Her name is written on my soul.
When we come, the pleasure is three-fold. There’s the divine sensation in my cock as my orgasm pulses through me, each euphoric surge wrenched from me by Raina’s pussy fluttering and clenching with her own release. I spill inside her, coming so hard and long I curse and moan into the night.
Then there’s the pleasure of the mind, that feeling of floating in endless bliss that comes with climax, that space where nothing else exists but me and her and this moment.
But the last one.The last one is the kind of pleasure I can’t remember ever having felt before. It’s strange feeling it now with a woman I hardly know, even though she’s a woman I feel like I’ve somehow known for an age.The pleasure of the heart.A deep serenity and peace I have no doubt will linger long after the pleasure of the flesh has faded.
Spent and tired and utterly drained, I finally pull out. I have to look at her. Have to open her and memorize the image of my cum spilling slowly from her body. She shivers as I flick my finger over her clit, her teeth dragging over her bottom lip as I meet her gaze.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” I tell her, admiring the curves of her body. “And I mean that in every imaginable way.”
After cleaning us, I grab the blanket and lie with Raina on the gambeson. She lets me hold her, something I’m not certain I expected. The intimacy of this night was intense for me. But was it as intense for her? Or was this only relief?
When she looks up at me with those heavy eyes and touches my face, running her fingertips through my beard, I think it might’ve been more than only relief. But this is new for her, I know.I’mnew. Still a curiosity and an intrigue, though I long to be so much more.
I kiss her, needing her taste on my lips one more time. “Sleep,” I eventually whisper. “We’ve a long road ahead.”
She nestles her head against my chest, and for the first time in what feels like forever, I rest soundly.
Because Raina Bloodgood is at my side.
In the Garden (Uninterrupted)
From City of Ruin
A Reimagining of Chapter 31
Alexus & Raina
1
RAINA
“Why did no one tell me this was a formal thing?” Rhonin says as I enter the dining hall.
Everyone’s here except for Finn, which stings my heart.
Mari sets a dish on the table, leaning beside Rhonin, quite close. “I think you look handsome, sir,” she says with an admiring expression. “I like the shorter hair and the smooth face.”
“He does look handsome,” Hel counters from my side, her voice stiff and slightly territorial. “Always.”
Every head turns toward me and my sisters.
“Perhaps we overdid it a little,” Nephele mutters under her breath, because every eye in the room is wide.
Alexus heads straight for me. His eyes grow dark as he skims a gaze over my loose hair and down to my neck where his gift resides. He bought me a simple gold necklace with a single pearl in the center, like my own little moon. It’s perfect.
When he reaches me, his eyes fall to my exposed cleavage, then further down to the witch’s marks trailing up my leg, visible through the slit in my dress.
He leans close to my ear, sending a rogue chill across my skin. “You look good enough to eat.”
My face warms as he leads me to my chair and pulls it out for me before taking his place at my side.
