My magic flared beneath my skin, rushing like fire through my veins, answering something deep, magnetic, and wild in him. It was like my magic recognized him, like it had been waiting for this. Waiting for him.
When we finally broke apart, gasping for breath, Blake rested his forehead against mine, his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling in time with mine. I could still feel the heat of his lips on mine, the way his fingers had trembled slightly when he touched my face.
The moment was tense, and I waited for one of us to break it, before Blake’s mouth opened again, as if looking for something to say.
He didn’t find it, stumbling, cheeks heating as he stuttered out. “We—we should Pair.”
Everything warm in my stomach swirled out. “I—what?”
“Pairing. Our magic. Before the Culling.” He cleared his throat. “Perhaps it will aid us both through the gods’ test. Make us stronger.”
I couldn’t deny that it hurt. For him to change on me, for thisto be about power rather than whatever crackling intensity had been forming between us for weeks.
“Blake—” I cut myself off, massaging my temple as I pressed back from his chest. “I don’t…That wasn’t what this was.”
A roaring anger burst in me, sudden and furious. I sat up slightly, hands pushing on his chest.
“I’m not trying to syphon power from you or to use you in any way. I’ll do just fine in the Culling.”
I watched my words land.
Blake sat up on his elbows, brow furrowed. “That wasn’t—”
“If it’s about power and survival, then Pair with Malissa, whether she’s your type or not,” I said, bitter and not bothering to hide it. “I’m sure she would love nothing more.”
“Rubi,” he snapped, eyes flaring, hands gripping my shoulders as he rolled me beneath him. His body was heavy over me, energy suddenly intense and alive, singing to my blood in some way. “Stop.”
“No.”
“Rubi. Your integrity, your bravery, your—everything calls to me. You are a songbird and your song…it’s irresistible. Ties me up in gods-damned knots, as if you’ve wrapped me in your ribbons. And I don’t want to be untethered from you.”
Blake waited, watching me carefully, before gently lowering his swollen lips to my temple and whispering, his breath making me shiver, “Now let me worship your skin the way I’ve been dreaming about since we met.”
His mouth dipped then, to the hollow of my throat, teeth grazing my skin, and I wondered briefly if he might bite me where the demon did earlier. If he would replace the pain with something more intense.
“But you said about Pairing—”
“Forget what I said. I’m a forgefool, remember?”
I blushed then, unable to stop my attraction to this playful side of him I’d never seen before tonight.
“Let me kiss you. Let me have you, any way you’ll allow, just for tonight.” He tucked his hand on the outside of my bare thigh, fingers pressing to the skin there, before hiking my leg up his side and rolling between them. I felt the thick length of him then, against where I needed him most.
“Please, Rubi.” It was almost a whimper.
I unfurled for him then, impossible to resist the steady power in his hands. Like I was the metal, and he was reshaping me piece by piece. The fear and anger and terror from tonight melting away into nothing but this warmth.
He kissed me as we pressed into each other’s bodies, finding a seductive rhythm, dangerously walking the line I wasn’t yet ready to cross. Eventually he pulled me atop him again, his body settling into the mattress as I worked myself against him, tunic hiked around my waist. He unlaced the top portion and slipped it from my shoulders, his eyes almost worshipful as he took in my breasts. His hands lifted to tweak and roll my nipples between his fingers; then he lifted his head and placed his wet mouth on a peak, and I exhaled sharply at the pleasure. His tongue swirled and then his teeth nipped gently and I pressed myself harder against him, the thin fabric of his pants all that separated us.
“When I pictured it, it was always like this,” he breathed as he lay back, his hips pumping up, searching for the friction I was just as desperate for. The relief.
“Blake,” I breathed, working myself over him, twirling my hips as I sought the friction I needed. Even with that slip of cloth between us, the rigid length of him pressed at my center, pleasure swirling up and through me. He had one hand at my breast, rolling my nipple between his strong fingers, and the other spanned my rib cage, then my stomach, moving lower until his thumbflicked against my bud and my breath hitched, pleasure overcoming me. I slumped over him as my muscles gave out, my breasts flattened against his muscled chest. He planted his hands on my hips and moved me over and over.
“That’s it, songbird. Sing for me.”
He helped me ride it out, stars bursting behind my eyes as my body bent and tugged. I collapsed completely on his chest, his fingers trailing a soothing pattern on my back, up and down against my glistening skin, until my panting breaths turned slower.
His lips pressed to the skin of my neck and shoulder over and over again, quietly whispering words of gratitude as he lulled me to oblivion.
