Page 57 of Heartflame

I worked him slowly, my hand wrapping around the base of his shaft while my mouth worked the head. His breathing began to change, becoming less regular, more shallow. I could feel the moment consciousness started to return to him, his hips shifted slightly, pressing up into my mouth in an unconscious gesture of need.

“Red?” His voice was rough, confused, still heavy with sleep. “What are you⁠—”

I didn’t give him a chance to finish. I just doubled down, taking more of him, pushing past my gag reflex to accommodate the growing length of him. A groan escaped his throat, low and primal, and I felt his hand come down to rest gently on my head. He didn’t push, didn’t force me deeper. Just held me there, his fingers tangling in my hair as understanding seemed to dawn on him.

“Fuck,” he breathed, his hips beginning to move in slow, deliberate thrusts. “You don’t have to do⁠—”

But he didn’t stop me. And I didn’t stop either.

I let myself get lost in the sensation of him, in the way his breathing grew more ragged with each pass of my mouth over his shaft. My own arousal was building, my cock hardening in my pajama pants as I worked him. The taste of him, the weight of him on my tongue, the small sounds he was making… It was all-consuming. And exactly what I needed to quiet the chaos in my head.

“Red, we should—” he started, but his words dissolved into another groan as I hollowed my cheeks and sucked harder.

His hand tightened in my hair, not painfully but with enough pressure to let me know he was struggling to maintain control. I could feel his muscles tensing, could sense the moment he was about to cum, and I pushed myself deeper, eager to take everything he had to give.

“Fuck, I’m—” Aeron gasped, his hips thrusting upward as his orgasm hit him. His cum flooded my mouth, hot and thick, and I swallowed around him, savoring the taste as his body went rigid beneath me.

For a moment, we were both frozen, suspended in that space between sleep and wakefulness. Then Aeron’s hands were on me, pulling me up and flipping me onto my back with a strength that made my head spin. His eyes were fully open now, blazing gold in the dim light, and there was something feral in his expression that made my pulse race.

“Your turn,” he growled, his voice still rough from sleep and pleasure.

He moved down my body with single-minded purpose, pulling my underwear down and off in one fluid motion. The cool air hit my hard cock, but I barely registered it because Aeron was already spreading my legs, his broad shoulders fitting between them like he was made to be there.

“Wait—” I started, but he was already leaning down, his tongue flicking out to taste my hole.

The sensation was overwhelming. I’d never had anyone do this to me before, had never even imagined what it would feel like to have his mouth on me like this. His tongue was warm and skilled, and he seemed to know exactly where to press to make my entire body sing.

“Oh fuck,” I breathed, my hands immediately going to his horns, my fingers gripping them to ground myself. “Aeron, that’s⁠—”

He pulled back just enough to speak, his breath hot against my skin. “Shut up, Red. I want to eat your ass until you’re begging for my cock.”

The crudeness of it, the raw desire in his voice, made something clench low in my belly. Before I could respond, he was shifting his position, spreading my legs wider as he got into position again. I felt the broad strokes of his tongue against my entrance, teasing, probing, and I had to bite down on my lower lip to keep from crying out.

This was what I’d needed. Not just distraction, but this. His intensity, the way he was consuming me like I was the only thing that mattered in the world. It always felt like that with him, like I was the only thing that mattered in the entire world.

He continued his assault with single-minded determination, his tongue working me open in ways that made my thoughts scatter like leaves in the wind. Every nerve ending in my body seemed to be on fire, every sensation magnified and intensified by the fact that this was Aeron, my mate, though I still wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, and he was worshipping me.

“Please,” I heard myself beg, my hips rocking against his face despite my best efforts to stay still. “Aeron, I need⁠—”

“I know what you need,” he murmured against my skin, and the vibration of his voice sent another jolt of pleasure through me. “You need my cock.”

He pulled back slightly, and I felt him shifting his position, his body moving to cover mine as he lined himself up at my entrance. There he opened his mouth, letting a long trail of glistening saliva drip down across his cock and my hole. I braced myself, remembering the burn from before, but this time I was ready for it. This time I wanted it.

“Tell me if it’s too much,” he murmured against my neck, pressing kisses along my skin as he pushed inside me slowly.

The stretch was intense, but not painful. My body had already adjusted to him, and I found myself relaxing into it, letting him deeper with each passing second. When he was fully seated inside me, he went still, giving me time to acclimate.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice tender despite the primal need I could feel thrumming through him.

“Yeah,” I breathed. “More than okay.”

He started to move then, his thrusts slow and deliberate at first, like he was savoring every second of being inside me. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, my fingers digging into the warm scales of his back as I met him thrust for thrust. The pleasure built steadily, a constant climb toward something inevitable.

“I love you,” he whispered against my ear, and the words hit me harder than any physical sensation could have. “I need you to know that. I love you so much, Red.”

I wanted to respond, wanted to tell him that I loved him too. But the words caught in my throat as another wave of pleasure rolled through me. Instead, I just held him tighter, pouring everything I was feeling into the kiss I pressed to his shoulder.

He increased his pace, his hips driving into mine with more force now. The bed creaked beneath us, but I didn’t care if the entire sanctuary heard us. All that mattered was this moment, this connection between us that felt like the only real thing in a world that had gone completely insane.