Putting distance between me and the Orders had been difficult since it had been my whole life for so long. Now I would be going back into the fold to ask for help while having to watch our backs. Emma knew how hard it had been for me to create healthy boundaries.
“For you?” I said. “Anything.”
A smile spread on Emma’s face and I fell even more in love with her. I didn’t think that was possible, but she proved it almost daily.
She stared at me with sudden intensity. An almost desperate need shone from her eyes. “I need you to promise you won’t go near Othanos again.”
Her demand took me off guard. “What? Why?”
Emma clutched one hand in the other, never blinking. “Promise me. No matter what. If we cross paths with him, I need you to hold back.”
“Emma I...” I didn’t know what to say. Othanos needed to be dealt with, and I was the most able to handle him. If I don’t fight Othanos, people could get hurt.Emmacould get hurt. Yet her eyes searched mine so earnestly as if she would break into pieces if I denied her.
I dropped my head, but I couldn’t say it. My instincts bucked, telling me not to do this. Not to make this promise. Once I made a promise, I kept it no matter what.
“Please promise me,” she said, the words coming out in a shaky whisper.
“I promise.” The words barely got past my lips as my stomach clenched, and a feeling of dread filled me.
Crossing the distance between us, Emma kissed me with passionate fervor. “Thank you,” she whispered against my lips.
My hands found her hips. I stood and picked her up before whirling around to set her on the countertop. She raised an eyebrow.
I claimed her mouth in a hard kiss, trying to drown out the regret washing over me. The desire that had started out as a quiet hum was now a pounding drum. Demanding I take Emma until neither of us could remember anything about Reckonings or Orders.
Releasing her sweet, already swollen lips, I said, “Might as well go with Krystan’s theory, what was it? Loud and on every surface?”
She laughed. “You’re tall but this is probably the wrong angle.”
Admittedly, her hips were far higher on the bar-height counter. One corner of my lips curled up. “Am I?” I asked, then spread her legs, leaned down and pressed my mouth over her sex through her yoga pants. She gasped as I began to roll my tongue against her center, dampening the fabric until the scent of her arousal permeated the air.
It didn’t take much to convince her to help let me peel off her pants, taking her panties with them. Lowering my mouth again, I kissed her sensitive center. Her breath came in soft pants at first, then turned into ragged gasps as I worked her sensitive bud with short little licks and sucks. When I added my fingers into her tight channel she yanked at my hair and cried out my name as she broke into an orgasm. Her blonde hair had escaped the ponytail holder and now was a tousled mess. I wasn’t sure which was sexier, that or the glazed yet hungry look in her eye.
“She did say every surface?” Emma asked, licking her lips. She slipped off the counter, careful not to stumble on her unsteady legs, she pushed me down onto the floor right there between the living room and the kitchen. We made quick work of our clothes and she positioned herself over me. As she lowered onto my hard length, pleasure washed over my senses. Her inner muscles squeezed me within an inch of my breaking point.
“How is it so good every time?” I asked through clenched teeth as I struggled to maintain control.
“We practice a lot?” Emma said breathlessly as she rocked on me. Her sweat covered stomach slid against mine. I stifled a groan.
Our rhythm was steady at first. Emma held me with her eyes. Her pupils were fathomless, filled with desire. Desperation gripped me. Too many times, I’d become convinced I was in a dream that was on the edge of shattering into pieces.
I’d come to understand why the Luxis never gave me a solitary thing to cling to, no home, no friendship, and certainly no love. I was fearless because I had nothing to lose. But now, I had everything to lose. My whole world was above me, biting her lip and moaning a symphony that inspired my entire being.
We sped up into a desperate frenzy as we strained for more. Time and space seemed to bend around me until there was only Emma. I would die for this woman, one million deaths. I would do anything she asked of me. Without her, I would still be convinced I was a damned, soulless creature. I would still be controlled by people who considered me a tool rather than a man. Yet I still questioned every day, was I deserving of this much happiness? But Emma saw me, saw to the truth of things in a way I never could. Without her, I was lost.
I flipped us so she was under me. I drove into her, until she was clawing at my back and crying out incoherent curses along with my name. My need for her was so intense I feared I would never be satiated, even as we moved as one.
When Emma threw her head back, screaming my name, I lost control. Gripping her hips, I shut my eyes against the shuddering intensity of my own orgasm.
When I returned to my senses, I brushed back the hair that now stuck to her damp forehead. A bubble of emotion grew in my chest. I dropped my face into her neck, wanting to say something to express how much she meant to me. How she was everything to me, but the feelings were caught in my chest and could move no closer to my mouth.
Since we’d returned from the Stygian, we no longer shared a psychic bond that allowed us to sense extreme emotions in the other. I missed it like one would miss a limb, but Emma squeezed my shoulders and I knew she understood anyway.
Finally, I lifted myself up and was able to speak. “I know why you keep expecting the darkness to find us. Sometimes I fear I've fallen into a dream with you.”
The corners of Emma’s mouth lifted as she ran her hand along the back of my neck. The sweat on our bodies was starting to cool.
“Let’s not wake up then,” she said, then leaned up and kissed me, her soft mouth as intoxicating as when we started.
