Page 39 of At The End There Was You

One which she obeyed.

“Answer me, Winter.”

“It was a long time ago.”

He kissed her eyes, her cheek, her nose, her lips. “Why have you seeked me, my sun?”

She sniffled and wiped her eyes with the hand he was not holding in his. “You once told me that what I want matters. But I’ve never known what I want. I still do not know what I want. I’ve never been wanted either. By anyone. My mother did not want me, but my father forced her to have a child. She then pretended I didn’t exist, while my father pretended I was someone else entirely.” Her voice shivered, “But that one time, many nights ago, I knew what I wanted. I wanted the pain to stop. I really don’t like pain, Az. It was so strange to finally know that I could want something and that I could get it so simply. It was a long time ago,” she repeated, more to herself than him. “I managed to get up and went to a healer, and then found ways to not get hurt—to avoid getting hurt entirely. I hid. I ran away. I hid again.”

“I forbid you to want me,” he said coldly, his whole body vibrating with another sort of anger. “I forbid you to come to me.”

Her eyes finally met his and some of that odd ache he felt lessened. She did not say anything, but she reached for him, pulling onto his hand so he could lay with her. Azriel did not know what to do when she rounded her arms around his waist and buried her face on the crook of his neck. To desire, to need someone the way he desired and needed her, filled him with fear because he couldn’t have her. Not after the decision he’d made.

“Clara told me that she spoke to you,” Winter said. “She also told me that she’d heard you and Miriam talk. That is a very bad habit of hers, I’ve told her that, but I’m glad she heard you. She also told me that you didn’t hurt her.”

“You already believed me back then. You didn’t need to hear it from Clara.”

“I did.” She held onto him tightly, her hands fisting his shirt and pulling him closer. “Are all the tales you told me true?”

“They are.”

“I knew you were angry.”

He pulled back a little to cup her face. “Aren’t you afraid of me? Of what and who I am? Of what I am about to do?”

“I should be.”

But she was not, so he did not think twice to pull her closer to his body or press his lips to hers. She was soft, nothing Azriel knew anything to be, especially a human being. And he was hungry for a taste of her softness, not to devour it, but to relish it.

He knew what desire was though he’d never experienced it before her. He just didn’t know how costly it was.

Her small fingers began undoing his shirt. “I want you, Az. Anything you can offer.”

“You can have it all,” he told her, pulling his shirt off his body, and reaching for her nightgown. His hands lingered over the lacy front, and they slid down the curve of her breast pushing against the cotton fabric. They slipped lower and lower until they grazed the hem of her underwear. With his other hand wrapped around her, he tilted his head to claim her mouth while his fingers slipped over her slick core. “And you?” he asked, bringing his fingers to his mouth, and sucking her taste clean off his skin. “Will you offer me a taste of you?”

“Anything.”

“What if I want everything?” he asked, hovering over her and kissing a path down to between her legs.

She gasped, her body arching to meet his touches. “I think you already have it.”

He’d never had anything more divine in his hands. He'd never gazed at nothing more divine either. Nor from afar or up close. When he licked and sucked her sex in his mouth, and she moaned his name like the sweetest curse, he realised he’d also never heard anything more divine either. Or tasted anything more divine. He pushed a finger inside her and then a second one, pumping in and out of her, preparing her to take him next.

Her hands shot to his hair, grabbing, and tugging as she rode his face at the pace of the thrusts. She shattered on his fingers, soaking them and his mouth. Azriel licked her taste off his lips and climbed over her spent naked body, settling between her spread thighs and rubbing his length along her slick sex until she started mewling and clawing at his back. “Are you at my mercy?” he asked, trailing hand down the soft silhouette of her body and grabbing her thigh. “Or am I at yours?”

When he entered her slowly and buried his aching cock to the hilt, he realised nothing would ever come close to convincing him there had ever been anything divine before her. His hips rocked slowly, savouring every little moan that left her, every touch and mark she left on his body.

He pried her lower lip from between her teeth and sucked on it until a bruise bloomed there. “Let me hear you. I want to remember each and every little sound you make.” He cupped her breast and pinched her nipple hard. “That one first.” He sucked on it next and she moaned softly. “And that.” Pinning both her hands over her head, he began pumping his hips harder and faster, and she threw her head back with a breathless scream. “And most definitely that.” Reaching a hand between them, he pinched her core, making her hiss and moan even harder. He felt her grow wetter as he circled his finger over that tight bundle of nerves while he steadily picked up his thrusts.

“Az.” She breathed hard and fast. “Please.”

“I should be the one to beg,” she said, taking her body harder until it began shaking, her mouth parting open as she came.

The sounds of their bodies meeting grew louder, the scent of sex heavy in the small room, but he did not stop, not until she’d ridden off all of her pleasure and he’d filled her up with his.

Azriel remained there on top of her for a while, his face buried in her hair, his body covering hers. He didn’t want to move, didn’t want to let her go. It seemed she didn’t want that either as she hugged his shoulders tightly, her cheek pressed to his shoulder as she trailed her fingers down the nape of his neck and his spine.

“Aren’t I heavy?”