The next movement came faster and our rhythm built naturally to meet our needs. I gripped his back, encouraging him. Our breaths and moans intertwined between hungry kisses.
His touch, and the pleasure it ignited, drove out every inch of dark nothingness the phantom had planted from its gaze. The sensation blossomed in the depths of my core between each thrust and threatened to consume me whole.
Sharp fangs traced my skin but Rhazien refrained, and the blood within me pleaded for him to reconsider.
I curled underneath him, his girth stroking the most sensitive parts of me, expanding the embers of pleasure into an inferno I thought would swallow us both.
I confessed to him I was close. He declared how amazing it felt to be inside me. I pleaded with him not to stop. He commanded me to finish for him.
Pleasure ripped through both of us as we came together. Our passion so loud, I expected the whole of the Hive to have been witness to it.
My throbbing nerves pulsed around him as we lay breathless together. I smiled, stroked his hair, and felt utterly content in that moment.
Feeling the weight of his body on top of mine held my bliss and I welcomed it.
After a minute of rest and silent admiration, he withdrew himself, the seed he’d poured into me onto the sheets.
Rhazien rolled to his back and pulled me into his side. I draped a heavy leg between his and he kissed my forehead like we’d been lifelong lovers.
His hand pulled my loose and wild hair away from my neck and stroked the skin with his index finger. “That was difficult.”
I scoffed, “It didn’t feel difficult to me.”
His fingers stroked the column of my bare neck again. “That isn’t what I meant.”
“Oh,” I sighed, curious enough to want to know more but not energized enough to move from my comfortable nest.
“I meant that required a great deal of restraint. To not bite you.”
I expected to feel that creeping sense of fear that would slither down my spine every time talk of being fed on was brought up, but it didn’t come. Quite the opposite. The blood leapt, pressing beneath my skin, calling to him.
Maybe it was the looming haze of pleasure that made the conversation feel completely normal, or maybe it was that I was high on his blood. Whatever the source of my comfort and confidence, I asked, “Is that common? To feed during sex?”
Almost too eagerly, he responded, “Oh, yes. It heightens the connection.”
There it was. Delayed, but present. The icy grip of fear as I considered sharp fangs sinking into flesh. “I…I don’t think I’m ready.” I tried not to recoil, but I was sure he noticed how I tensed beneath his arm.
He pulled me into him again and kissed my temple as he explained, “No. No. Of course. I wasn’t suggesting anything.”
The mixture of subsiding pleasure and his comforting touch tamed the fear and put me entirely at ease.
“There are other things we need to talk about,” I grumbled lazily.
“You’re right. You’re right.” He kissed my forehead again. “But for now, just rest.”
I let my thoughts drift away in the enticing prospect of sleep. His caress encouraged me to relax into him and my body happily complied.
Safe. I felt safe here.
Chapter 18
The Courtship
Boundless darkness surrounded me, encroaching slowly as I frantically searched for any sign of light or life in the void. But the nothingness was so vast, it swallowed any hope of escape.
The heavy, obsidian blanket came to life, wrapping itself around me. Sliding across my skin, up my arms, down my throat. Each inhale became more strained from the thick invader. It pulled me below the surface, into its barren void. I was drowning in the inescapable darkness.
Down. Down, from the intangible surface and the endless night. Through the grass, gravel, and dirt. Earth surrounded me until I fell into a dark opening, a cavern deep beneath the hive. The floor moved and swirled like thick ink spilled into a shallow puddle.
