A Cruel Kindness

Chapter 22

Bellamy

I came up short, watching as Soren froze in his tracks. The dim light in the tunnels highlighted the strength and size of his body, while the light from my room softly lit his face.

I was heaving, staring at him with a slack jaw and wild eyes. I’d been apart from him for too long, resisted too much.

I couldn’t do it anymore. I dropped all pretenses, stopped hiding the way I wanted to look at him and resisting admitting to any feeling.

Soren saw it happen, his expression darkening to a threatening degree.

I shook my head, feeling emotion swell in my chest. This was too much, impossible even.

Soren snapped, launching towards with me a near-feral look on his face, managing to cover the distance in just a few strides of his long legs.

His hand wrapped around the back of my head and he pulled me to him, seizing my lips in a possessive kiss.

There was no slow build up, no soft, exploring kisses that got you used to someone.

He knew me better than that, able to go straight into the burning passion, knowing exactly what my mouth felt like on his.

Soren’s other hand gripped my jaw, holding me to him tightly as he swept his tongue against the seam of my lips, begging for entrance. When our tongues met in a slow, hot glide, I almost started crying from the weight of relief pressing into my chest.

This was right. This was how it was supposed to be.

I don’t know why I’d resisted it for so long.

I threw my arms around Soren’s neck, no longer shocked and careful.

He sensed my surrender, reaching down under my ass to lift me off the ground. My legs wrapped around his hips immediately, drawing us together.

When our hips connected, my core positioned over him, Soren pushed us into the weathered, wooden wall of the tunnels, holding me there as he kissed me so thoroughly he took my breath away with every move.

A whimper broke off in the back of my throat from sheer exhaustion of resisting this for so long. I melted into the kiss even further, all my senses channeling into the feeling of Soren’s lips sliding against mine, on the soft dusting of hair under my fingers.

Of the strong weight of his pelvis tipped up to support me.

Soren broke from my lips, drawing a protesting sound from my throat. He smiled against my neck before placing an open- mouthed kiss on the skin, pressing his tongue into my pulse point.

My back arched up as a lightning flash of heat whipped down my body, landing in my core.

The Bond had reduced itself to a buzzing, euphoric hum that made my entire body feel blissfully warm. The heat spurned on a feeling of urgency low in my stomach, needing this to last longer, for us to be closer , for Soren to press me into the wall harder .

I grappled for him, adjusting my grip to pull him impossibly closer.

Soren smiled again, his face rolling an inch to either side. The only break from the heat was the small pulses of coolness from the ring in his nose. “Greedy, are you?” he asked against my throat. “Did I leave you wanting for too long?”

Oh, he had me and he knew it. Might as well lean into it. “Mhm,” I hummed in agreement, nodding furiously. I was mad at myself for it, too.

Soren pressed kisses in a line from my neck, up and over my jaw, to the corner of my mouth before he spoke again. “How would you like me to make it up to you, baby?”

He knew what I wanted, what we both wanted, but he was going to make me say it. When I paused for a heavy breath, even just for a second, he pulled back his hips from my core in punishment.

“I want to feel you,” I said, not even caring how pleading my tone sounded. “I need to feel you. Everywhere. Inside me. Please.”

I felt as needy as I sounded. This was such a mistake, waiting this long. I felt like I was going to die if even another second passed without getting what we both wanted.

Soren’s eyelids dropped in desire before he leaned over and nudged my nose with his own. His forehead touched mine, leaving our mouths a hairsbreadth apart as he said, “I am going,” he paused, swallowing thickly as if he needed to leash his control. “To fuck you.” Another slow, heaving breath as he paused to draw on strength. “Until we both forget our own names.” His words were a dark, hoarse promise.

One that he fulfilled a second later when his mouth surged forward to capture mine in a deep pull that I felt in my entire body. Everything started to happen very fast, then.

Soren lifted me off the wall, walking me blindly back into my room and shutting the door with a kick of his foot. I didn’t even care that the sound might be loud enough to alert the guards.

They could wait until we were done. I was through with interruptions.

Soren’s hand banded around my waist as he kneeled onto my bed, holding me to him as he rose over the sheets and set me down in the middle.

He pulled back just enough to roll me over onto my stomach, his mouth immediately attacking the sensitive spot right under my ear. His hand slid up my back, and I felt my Mark heat in every place his hand passed over.

That hand slid slowly up the trunk I knew was inked into my skin, then back down again to the strongest, thickest part where the hemline of my dress sat.

Soren’s fingers hooked under the seam, and then slashed down, tearing the thin laces apart.

The fabric of the dress loosened around me, enough I was sure it had fallen down below my ass. That thought was confirmed when a second later, Soren’s hand dropped to one side, raking his hand up and into me in a slow massage.

My breathing started to turn to heaves then, unable to feel him so close to where I truly needed him without feeling like I was going half insane.

“Soren, please,” I begged, bringing one hand back to tighten over his wrist and pause his movements.

“Oh, baby,” he sighed, his voice velvet smooth. He moved his hand to my hip, beckoning me to turn over. Kneeling above me, fully clothed, Soren scrunched the fabric of my dress, exposing my chest to him.

His gaze heated as he looked down at me, his eyes never leaving my breasts as he pulled my dress down and off my legs, throwing it over his shoulder in a forgotten heap of fabric.

I brought my hands to his belt, taking it apart fast and flicking it over the side of the bed. Soren watched me with a small grin, slowly unbuttoning his shirt, as I tackled his pants next.

By the time my hand dove under the band of his briefs to cup his hard length, he was only about halfway down his shirt. When my hand connected with his feverish skin, he stepped off the bed with a low growl, ripping his shirt over his head and discarding his pants and shoes quickly, his briefs following.

My mouth went dry when his cock bobbed up over his stomach.

I had no longer than a second to look at him before he lunged over me, pressing me firmly into the mattress.

“God, I have thought about doing this so many ways,” Soren said against my lips as his hand slid down my midriff and further down, dragging the waistband of my underwear with it. “But I think I’m going to start with you on your stomach.” My heart rate picked up in anticipation, painfully slamming against my chest.

I was so warm, I knew the evidence of my desire was clear.

“I want to see my Mark on you when I fill you,” Soren said, pushing me over to my stomach.

“What if I want to see mine on you?” I asked breathlessly, turning my head back to look at him.

He smiled wide. “In due time, baby.” His hands latched onto my hips, lifting them off the mattress. Soren leaned over my back as his hand drifted between my legs, slipping over my core.

The sound of pure pleasure Soren poured into my ear almost sent me over the edge. “You don’t want to wait anymore, do you?”

I shook my head furiously, needing to feel him right this second. Soren chuckled low, rising up behind me.

At the first brush of his length behind me, I bucked forward, feeling the Bond snap tight in my chest, pouring blissful warmth through me.

My mind went fuzzy at the first push of Soren inside me, my world turning upside down as he pushed into me in one, perfect stroke.

“ Fuck ,” Soren groaned. He sounded like he was hanging on by a thread. I wanted him as out of control as I was.

I pushed back against him, feeling heat shoot up my center as he tapped against the spot inside me that made my vision go blurry. Soren snapped then, his hands latching onto my hips as he pushed inside in a rolling, punishing stroke.

There was no stopping the moan that was ripped from my throat. This was impossibly good. Terrifyingly good.

I was lost to Soren as he pumped in and in and in, making me cry out at every touch. His own sounds of pleasure made me spurn even higher, feeling at little loony at the idea that I made him feel like this.

“Bell, baby, you feel so fucking good,” Soren said, and a tear welled in my eye.

“Soren,” I whimpered helplessly. I didn’t know how to do anything but surrender to the pleasure building in my chest. Once I accepted that Soren was about to wring out the mostintense sensation I’d ever experienced, it built quicker and quicker and quicker until I was falling over the edge in ecstasy, my entire body seizing with the sheer force of it.

It kept rolling in waves, one after the other, never ceasing in the endless onslaught of blinding pleasure as my body gave over to him. The Bond only got louder in its low buzzing, damn near shaking my body from the force of it, doubling down on the sensations.

All through it, Soren rolled inside of me with punishing strokes, hitting right where I needed him. His hand drifted over my hip, sliding across my lower stomach and slipping over my clit in easy strokes.

When I finally started to regain some consciousness, I realized that Soren’s breathing had gotten so heavy, each inhale sounded like a low groan.

“Keep going,” I begged, needing to chase that feeling again. Soren’s eyes briefly slid over my face before returning to my back, glazed over with pleasure.

His gaze swept to every edge of our Mark, all the places I was branded with the evidence of our Bond before his thrusts grew slightly stuttered and he collapsed over me with a moan, spilling inside me.

I didn’t even realize that I had crested into orgasm again until a shock hit my chest, shooting warmth into my limbs.

Soren’s breathing returned me to reality, hot and heavy against my neck. He had collapsed over me, blessing me with the full weight of him along my back.

My Mark burned like skin affected with too much sun exposure, but it was actually pleasant.

The Bond had finally been satiated, curling up in the back of my mind to take a healthy nap. There was something deeper, calmer under the insistent pressure of the Bond.

A feeling that even without it, I’d still be as content as I was now. It may have forced me into Soren’s orbit, but … I’d be here even without it. It was inevitable.

That thought made urgency kick back up in my chest. I’d all but blacked out, unsure how long we’d been connected and simply lost to the feeling. No matter what stretch of time it had been, it was too short.

Soren seemed to feel the same. He was still hard inside of me, despite being spent.

I guess that was what happened when you denied yourself your true desire for so long. Or maybe he was just always like that.

“Soren,” I said softly, my words slightly muffled against the mattress. “I want to see your Mark now.”

His hand slipped under my stomach, easily pulling me against his chest. He slid out of me and a sound of protest fell from my lips.

Soren smiled against my hair. As much as I loved how confident he was, two could play at that game. I twisted in his hold, moving to straddle him.

What I saw when I looked over his shoulder made me smile.

Soren followed my gaze, finding his strong, muscled back, with my Mark inked there, reflected in the large mirror leaning against the back wall of my bedroom.

Good , the Bond purred in my chest.

Soren’s lips fell to my neck, but that wasn’t good enough. I grabbed his face in my hands, pulling his mouth to mine. He wasn’t hurried anymore and he took his sweet time torturing me within an inch of my sanity.

With every slow glide of his tongue, my hips pressed down against his length more forcefully. He kept my hands pinned to my side so I couldn’t position him against me, turning me into a writhing, sloppy mess just trying to chase the feeling of his skin against mine.

Eventually, I was so heated I had to use his refusal to hurt me against him. I twisted and pulled on my hands until he was forced to release me, going straight for his hard length.

When I finally sank down on him, a guttural sound of relief left my throat. I could have stayed like that, as close to him as any person would come, but my hips started moving on their own accord, grinding back and forth in small movements.

Soren took over, digging his strong hands into my hips and moving me.

Even though my eyes were hazy with pleasure, I blinked them open to look in the mirror behind us. I almost finished right then and there.

The image of Soren’s back flexing, shifting our Mark with each small movement, combined with me on top of him was enough to drive me insane.

“Go on,” Soren prodded, his voice rough and hoarse. “Tell me what you see.”

“I see that you’re mine,” I all but moaned, my voice not entirely my own.

I got lost again, falling into the dazed pleasure of his body moving in mine until I was releasing choked sobs as he wrung out a climax so intense I coated his neck in my tears.

After Soren followed me with a low groan, he fell back against the bed, pulling me down on top of him.

As I tried to catch my breath, his hand coasted over my back in soft, comforting strokes. “We should have done that a long time ago.”

“You did not like me at first,” I countered, nuzzling into his neck.

Soren turned his head so that his lips fell to the line of my hair. “I didn’t like your family. I wrongly took it out on you.” He leaned in and nipped my ear playfully. “I still think it would be wonderful to see your father fall on his own sword, but I’ll only laugh if you say its fine.”

“You can laugh,” I said, my voice thick with a laugh of my own.

We laid there, simply existing together for a while. Neither of us said anything, but we knew Soren wasn’t going anywhere. We’d wake up together in the morning before he snuck out of my rooms, but he was spending the night.

There was no way the Bond would let us do anything different, not that I disagreed with it.

The domesticity of it all made my heart clench painfully. Watching Soren lazily brush his teeth instead of the quick, efficient movements that were so common on Muli. Wearing fine, silky clothing instead of durable cotton.

Falling asleep in a wide bed, but choosing to tangle together in the center.

It all felt too precious, too special.

Life had a way of taking away precious things.