The Sorrow of Shadows (Crimson & Shadows #1)

Chapter 25

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

brEYLA

I t’s well past midnight by the time I’m able to slip out of the ball unnoticed. I’m exhausted, but the rest of the evening continued without incident. I wrap my shadows around me so I can make the trip to my chambers undisturbed.

The information I learned tonight circles my mind enough to distract me from the fact that my bedroom door was unlocked. I realize my mistake as soon as the door clicks shut, and my back is shoved against the wood. My mouth opens on instinct to alert the guards but is quickly covered with a warm, rough hand.

“They won’t hear your screams, little demon. Tonight, they belong to me.”

Heat pools low in my abdomen at the same time recognition hits. He presses his body into mine, letting me feel his hardened cock against my belly. I whimper at the feeling of him against me.

“I spent all night watching other males dance with you, touch you, stare at you, and it nearly killed me. Actually, it nearly killed them .” He lays light kisses along my neck and collarbone in between his words. Words that should disgust me but have the opposite effect.

He finally removes his hand from my mouth, and I manage to say, “You can’t go around threatening the lives of any male that touches me, Aurelius. I have regular interaction with males, and that won’t stop just because you want to fuck me.” The possessive behavior of his has my thighs clenching, despite how unrealistic his expectations are. I’ll be damned if I ever admit any of this out loud, though.

His fingers wind through the hair at the back of my head and he pulls. The sensation is a delicious combination of pain and pleasure that has me moaning. “Don’t you get it, yet? I. Don’t. Care. You are mine, Breyla. I’m done pretending otherwise.” Butterflies erupt low in my belly. This isn’t just physical pleasure he’s promising; this is a claiming for him. Feelings that border dangerously close to more than lust swirl in my chest, and I push that aside for now.

His lips are on mine the next second, his kiss hot and demanding. I meet him stroke for stroke, pushing myself off the door and moving us toward the bed. The heat he sparks in me is a raging inferno as I greedily drink from his darkness. I rip his dress shirt open, the buttons flying in all directions as they pop off his shirt.

Without breaking our kiss, I shove him on the bed and straddle his hips, pulling his shirt down his arms and discarding it behind me. His hand is still tangled in my hair as he pulls my head back just enough to drag his mouth down my neck in rough kisses. I groan as he nips the skin along the base of my throat.

Unable to reach my hands lower, I use my shadows to make quick work of his belt and pants, leaving him naked beneath me. His free hand trails up the slit in my dress and he grips my ass tightly, pushing my hips down onto his hardened length. The friction is delicious as he grinds against my oversensitive body.

His fingers trail the undergarments, and he smiles that devilish way he seems to reserve for me. “You’re soaked for me, little demon,” he says as he rips my underwear clean off my body.

I gasp at the brutish action and how much it turns me on. Pulling my dress fully out of the way, I lean back until his tip is at my entrance. Before I can sink onto him, I’m flipped onto my back with Aurelius staring down at me, smirking.

“Not yet, Princess. I told you I’m going to take my time devouring you the first time I have you, and I meant it.”

In a move that’s equal parts infuriating and erotic, he rips clear through my dress, starting at the slit and going up. The dress was very well constructed and I’m in awe that it took him all of a few seconds to destroy it.

“Hey! I loved that dress!” I protest.

“I told you I wanted to see it on the floor. I’ll have a new one made for you.”

Before I can continue my complaints, his mouth is on me again. He takes a nipple into his mouth and swirls his tongue around it, eliciting a low, breathy moan from me. He nips and sucks my hardened peak until I’m writhing under him, desperate for more.

I feel his fingers trail up my thigh to that spot where I’m desperate to feel him. He circles my entrance before roughly shoving two fingers inside. His fingers pump in and out, then curl toward him, hitting that delicious spot inside that has my back arching off the bed.

My fingers lace through his locks as I demand, “More.” I shove his head lower, my intentions clear.

He smiles against me and does what he’s told, trailing kisses down my belly until he reaches my center. Wasting no time, he licks a line straight from entrance to clit, his tongue circling the bundle of nerves while his fingers continue pumping in and out.

It’s then that I notice his power working through my body. Like the day of our first encounter, I feel him increase the blood flow to all my most sensitive parts. I’m panting beneath his ministrations and the heightened pleasure he’s creating.

Two can play this game.

I let my shadows out, making them wrap around his length. I move them up and down as if it were my hand pumping his cock.

He lets out a deep growl and nips my clit in response. I thrust my hips up, grinding into his mouth in a clear demand for more. Aurelius continues his attacks on my pussy, alternating between sucking my clit, swirling his tongue around it, and licking me from opening to clit over and over.

Just as I feel myself teetering on the edge of release, he adds a third finger, stretching me and causing a sweet burn.

“Scream for me, Breyla,” he demands, his words finally pushing me over the edge into oblivion.

My legs are trembling as waves of euphoria ripple through me. Aurelius crawls up my still-pulsing body, a sexy, knowing smile plastered on his face. He leans in next to my ear and nips.

“The next time I take you, I’ll ask you how you want it, but I want to see your eyes as I bury myself in you for the first time. I want to hear every delicious sound coming out of that pretty mouth.”

I groan at his filthy words and thread my fingers into his midnight locks, pulling his lips to mine. His tongue finds mine and I taste myself on him, the flavor intoxicating. I bite down on his bottom lip, causing a moan to slip out of his mouth.

This isn’t the first time I’ve tasted his lips, and each time feels more intoxicating than the last. But something feels different now. Like walls are coming down between us and we’re discovering there’s more between us than the lust, hate, distrust, and physical chemistry that we’ve both clung to for so long. There have been plenty of others for each of us before now, but none of them felt like this for me. Like I wanted to erase the memories of all the others from my past. None of them made me want to forget the world just for the male before me.

“Put your ankles on my shoulders, little demon. Right fucking now.” He gasps against my lips.

I happily oblige, pulling my legs up and resting my legs along his back. The next second I feel his tip at my entrance and I whimper, begging him to end the anticipation.

He’s big; bigger than most, and the slight burn I feel as he stretches me has me moaning. Aurelius slides in slowly at first, then when I’ve adjusted to his size, he thrusts the rest of the way in. The absolute fullness I feel has me gasping.

“Don’t ever stop making that noise,” he growls.

“Don’t ever stop fucking me, then,” I say breathily, my voice caught in my throat.

My words snap something in him, and he pulls out then slams back into me, fucking me at a fierce pace. The angle he has me at lets him hit that spot inside me just right, and I can’t contain the moans fighting their way out. I rock my hips to meet his thrusts, my hands digging into the sheets below me.

Over and over, he thrusts in and out, never letting up his pace. His hand reaches around my leg and finds my clit. He rubs in slow circles, the exact opposite of the speed he’s fucking me at. I feel another climax build, starting low in my belly, but growing quickly.

My inner walls clench around him as another orgasm tears through me at full force. His thrusts don’t slow or stop, though, and he continues his brutal pace, like a male possessed. I can tell I’ll feel this in the morning, but I don’t care.

My body trembles, my nerve endings overstimulated and overwhelmed by the pleasure. My muscles spasm, unable to handle the waves of pleasure still coursing through me.

I whimper, “Aurelius, please.”

His eyes sparkle. “Please, what?”

“I can’t take any more; it’s too much. ”

He gives me a sinister grin. “You can, and you will. I’m nowhere near done with you.”

He wraps his hand around my hip, tilting me just slightly and allowing him to fuck me at a new angle. I wrap my hands around his neck, tugging on his shoulder-length black waves with one and scraping down his shoulder with the other.

His hiss, then groan, tells me I’ve broken skin, but also that he likes the pain. I grin at him and do it again. I didn’t think it was possible to thrust any harder than he already was, but he proves me wrong as it sends him into a frenzy.

To my surprise, I feel another climax building. My inner walls flutter, and I see his eyes widen at the sensation.

“I can feel you gripping me like a vice, little demon. Be a good girl and come for me again.” His words and praise are all I need to find myself tipping over the edge once again. This orgasm is so intense that my vision starts to blur and darken at the edges right as I see his hand twitch, but I’m too caught up in pleasure to think about what lesser magic he was using just now.

“Aurelius!” I scream his name as my back arches off the bed shadows tear out of me, blanketing the room in darkness.

I feel his thrusts turn erratic and desperate before he shutters his release just moments behind mine, my name on his lips. His head drops forward until our foreheads meet, our breathing erratic and hearts racing.

He lowers my legs from his shoulders but doesn’t remove his still partially hardened cock from inside me. Tender kisses are peppered along my jaw and cheeks before he finally takes my lips in one last passionate kiss.

“Mine,” he growls. Just as I felt earlier—a claiming.

“Yours,” I agree, nodding slightly. A claiming I’m apparently agreeing to in my lust-induced haze.

“I could stay buried in you forever. I think I might.” He chuckles and continues kissing my face.

“You have to let me up at some point. ”

“Never,” he says, nipping my bottom lip playfully.

I shove his shoulder gently, trying to move him off me. “I have to pee, Aurelius.”

With that, he finally relents, pulling out of me and rolling onto the bed. The sudden loss of him leaves behind an emptiness I wasn’t expecting.

On shaky legs, I stand slowly, relishing the burn and ache in all my muscles. Apparently, it’s too quick, seeing that I stumble, my legs still not ready to hold my full weight.

I hear Aurelius's arrogant chuckle behind me. “You alright there, Princess?”

“Wonderful, you cocky asshole.” I smile sweetly back at him.

He lets out a full laugh, and I leave the room to relieve myself.

Once I’ve done my business and cleaned the evidence of our joining off myself, I return to my bedroom. Aurelius is still lounging on the bed, staring at me with hungry eyes. They travel up and down my body as I make my way back to him.