Twisted Soul (Cursed Legacies #3)

24. Crypt

24

CRYPT

My heart races at Maven’s words. I press my forehead to hers, pulling her tighter to me.

“You still haven’t answered my question, love.”

“If we survive the next few days, I’ll give you an answer,” she promises, pressing her lips against mine.

That’s all it takes before we’re kissing frantically. Her tongue slides along my lower lip, teasing as my fingers tangle and twist in all her glorious hair, tipping her head so that I can deepen our exchange.

Finally, my keeper breaks away, fighting for air. “Why are you still wearing clothes?”

That is an excellent question. I quickly remedy this newfound problem, stripping and tossing my clothes off to the side. Before I can pull her back to me, Maven gracefully gets to her knees, tracing one hand over my chest as she goes so she can teasingly tweak the piercing in my left nipple. I exhale harshly at the delicious sensation before she wraps one hand around my hard erection and pumps it slowly.

Her touch is both relief and torment, yet something about her on her knees doesn’t sit well with me. My darling is a powerful, dark, dominant force of nature—sovereign of my entire existence.

She should kneel for no one.

Maven smirks up at me as if she knows just what has me frowning. “I’m doing this because I want to. Next time, you’ll be on your knees for me.”

I smile, tracing her lovely face. “The perfect position to enjoy every moment of your pleasure.”

She returns the smile before leaning forward, her soft lips sliding over the head of my cock to wet it. It feels divine, and then I jolt, gasping when she uses her teeth to gently tug on one of my piercings. The sensation sends raw need dancing along my spine while Maven looks up with that glimmering, mischievous gaze I can't get enough of.

She licks slowly around the tip, exploring further and further until I can no longer hold back my groans of bliss. Then she pulls back to murmur, “I want to feel you in my throat.”

Fuck me.

I nod and tangle one hand in her hair, desperately trying to keep my wits about me so I don't snap and become too rough with her.

“Open wider for me,” I whisper raggedly before she sinks lower on my cock.

When she hums in acknowledgment, I swear and bite my free knuckle for something else to focus on besides the consuming pleasure of her deliciously warm mouth sucking my cock so perfectly. Maven sinks further, taking almost all of me as she reaches up to cup my aching balls curiously.

I moan and tip my head back, panting. Gods fucking save me, this lovely mouth of hers.

“Darling…go slower, or I’ll?—”

She hums and swallows around my head, and my vision nearly whites out.

“ Fuck ,” I curse, pulling out of her heavenly mouth as fast as possible to try to stop the intense, telling tingle low in the base of my spine.

Such a naughty tease. As if I'd fucking come before her.

My attention drops to Maven's hand, which is in her panties, circling as she licks her lips and gazes at my wet, aching erection.

“On your back,” I rasp.

She arches a brow and moves so fast that I go breathless when I'm suddenly lying in the grass. She straddles my chest, so I have a mouthwatering view of the wetness between her thighs when she slips her panties down enough that I can see her pretty cunt.

“No. You get on your back,” she whispers.

So sensually devious. She drives me insane with such sweet cruelties.

I adore the teasing and can do nothing but watch, burning alive as my obsession strips atop me ever so slowly. When she shucks her oversized shirt, her fingers brush softly along her exposed skin, tracing her bare sides. She’s not wearing a bra, thank the gods.

I groan with need when she begins toying with her perfect nipples, shutting her eyes before she ever so slowly glides one hand down to slip her fingers through her wet, beautiful little cunt. Her head tips back in a soft moan.

I'm a madman.

I have been for quite some time.

But even though I’m thoroughly enjoying every moment of her teasing, when Maven withdraws her wet fingers and brushes them against my lips, I snap. I can't fucking take any more and reach up, ripping the panties from her thighs to toss them onto my nearby jacket.

I’m keeping those as a godsdamned souvenir.

Then I scoot her forward, cup her ass, and drag my tongue through all the delicious nectar she's dripping just for me.

Maven gasps and arches, grinding against my face as I suck and lick her greedy pussy, my head spinning as my cock weeps and pulses, desperate for her.

“Maven,” I whisper against her entrance, rubbing my face there to coat myself in the proof of her arousal.

She groans and pushes me back down, kissing me just as ravenously as I kiss her in return. The taste of her mixing on our lips is a heady addiction.

I want to be consumed by her. Utterly lost. There is nothing but Maven and me under the eerie dark sky streaked with green and purple as my mad obsession sinks deeper into my very bones, taking my thoughts and very breath until finally, I flip over, bringing her with me.

“Take me.” I bite her lips, dragging the pierced head of my aching cock through her wet, hungry cunt.

“Yes,” she groans, arching against me.

“All of me,” I demand. “Always.”

“Yes.”

I plunge into her, and we both gasp and moan at the feeling. Gods above, I would live buried in her perfection if I could.

I press deeper into her, setting the pace through the pure pleasure. She winds her arms around me, clutching me closer as I fuck my keeper harder, deeper in the dark midnight of this distant field.

Here, we are the only things in existence. Nothing fills this world but our ragged breathing, the way her body takes mine just the way the gods intended—and the way her eyes lock onto mine, capturing me as if she's gripping my black heart in her lovely hands.

She can fucking keep it, no matter what it does to me.

Obsession is fascinating, but it is also agony.

Aching need.

A dangerously endless craving for her that I know can never truly be satisfied.

“Crypt,” Maven whispers, gasping when the breathless sound of her voice sends me spiraling, and I pound harder into her. “Fuck—harder. Gods .”

She's close.

I'm closer. That will have to be fixed quickly.

I groan and slip one hand beneath her upper back, lifting so she arches her spine. Her perfect breasts are close enough that I can lick and nip at them, giving my gorgeous obsession the extra stimulus she needs.

The rougher I get, the more desperate she becomes for that release—and finally, she gets it, clenching tight around me as her entire body tenses and her breathing catches. Seeing her face and hearing the little sounds that escape as she comes undone pushes me over the edge.

Insanity takes hold as my cock spasms inside her tight wetness, and I lose track of what plane of existence we are in. Space and time cease—it's only us. I bury my face in Maven’s neck as I moan and shake with the end of my release.

We're both panting. Her hands smooth over my back as I try to come back to myself, and when I can't stop kissing her, she tries to block my lips.

"Let me catch my breath.”

“Let me be your breath,” I counter, capturing her lips again.

She laughs and pushes at me again playfully before murmuring, “We're in Limbo.”

Damn. I didn't mean to do that.

Still, when I look down and see my keeper’s dark hair drifting around her face as if we are underwater, those hauntingly beautiful eyes and the way her lips curl up in satisfaction…

Fuck me, she is some mythical creature I wholly belong to. What a divine fate it would be to lose myself in her.

"As irrevocably as I am yours, you are mine,” I warn her. “If you ever forget that, I'll be forced to do something drastically violent."

She grins, clearly liking that thought. "Gods forbid.”

"The gods hold no power over me anymore. Only you do."

Maven kisses me. I wrap her close and turn again, pulling us out of Limbo so that we roll sideways into the mortal world. She relaxes on top of me, her head on my naked chest so she can listen to my heartbeat as we both come down from the high.

I shut my eyes in utter contentment, memorizing the way her perfect body presses into mine.

Long, blissful minutes pass like this. I would wonder if she fell asleep, except then she starts to slowly trace my markings along my neck, up to my scalp, and back down over my shoulder.

Finally, she yawns and sits up, straddling me and brushing hair out of her face. My attention immediately catches on her chest.

Ecstasy floods me.

There it is—the triangle of my House upon her lovely skin. It nearly lines up with the Elemental square, with the Arcana line straight through the middle on top of her scar.

It’s beautiful. She’s beautiful.

“We’re bound,” I rasp, relief washing over me.

Maven glances down and breaks into a smile, tracing her new emblem.

So we are, she murmurs…inside my head.

And just like that, I'm ready for her all over again.

Darling .

Yes?

I pull her back down for a kiss, allowing my hands to explore everywhere as she inhales sharply and begins to rock against me. Her deliciously devious fingers again brush up my chest to pinch and tease my piercing.

Gods above.

Allow me to worship you again , I groan telepathically, rolling once more to kiss down her neck and lick the place my emblem now sits proudly on her pretty skin.

Gods. “Yes,” she whispers, delving her hands into my hair as we begin again.

Every whisper of her voice in my head, every touch, is excruciatingly perfect. But I need more. I groan and position myself at her entrance, sliding the tip of my cock through the wetness seeping out of her from my last orgasm.

Maven moans, arching her back to add to the friction as I continue to tease her, a desperate madness beginning to buzz through my veins.

“Fuck—those piercings,” she gasps.

I thrust hard into her, gritting my teeth against the onslaught of pleasure.

Fuck.

Yes. Fuck. Now, she replies, only heightening the frenzy building between us.

I swear and press her legs back until her knees are beside her head. Her mouth drops open at the stretch before I slam deep into her. Pleasure sparks down my spine, tightening my balls and sending me into a mindless haze of lust as I fuck Maven with abandon, giving us what we both need once more.

Her nails dig into my back, scraping. The slight bite of pain makes me hiss through my teeth. I grow rougher, losing any remaining control.

“So tight,” I grit. “So wet. So—fucking— mine .”

I slam deep between each word, making her cry out.

“Crypt,” she whispers, chanting. “Crypt, Crypt…fuck, I need?—”

I will always know what she needs. Cursing as I further unravel, I brace one arm beside her and reach between us to pinch her clit ruthlessly.

Maven swears as she comes, squeezing her eyes shut as the most beautiful, decadent bliss sweeps over her face. Feeling her perfection tighten and gush around me proves too much, and I moan as I bury my face against her neck. My cock pulses once again with release.

Gods. I fucking love your cock, Maven thinks in a daze.

I smile against her skin, kissing it. “My dark little darling, did you just confess your love for me?”

“I distinctly said your cock.”

“Last I checked, that’s part of me. I’ll have to tell the others that you officially professed your undying love to me first. Hopefully, it leads to a gloriously violent altercation.”

She rolls her eyes, but I sense the satisfied sleepiness that is slowly weighing her down. My pretty newlybound keeper is going to need more rest before we leave tomorrow to hunt her prey.

I kiss the tip of her nose and gently pull out of her, trying not to groan at the sensation. I scoop her up and begin walking back to the cottage.

“I can walk,” she protests through a yawn.

“I much prefer holding you.”

She hums and slips into tranquil unconsciousness. A few minutes later, just as I’m nearing the cottage, Frost’s panicked voice floods the bond.

Maven? Where are you?

Crane is right behind him. Are you all right, sangfluir? What happened? Where did you ? —

I scowl when Maven begins to rouse from sleep due to their stupidity. Sending the softest ripple of my power through her, I lull her back into a deep rest.

She’s exquisite as always, so don’t get your knickers in a twist, I tell them telepathically just as I open the door of the cottage.

Their shocked expressions are priceless, made even better because they both squint like idiots, unable to see me well in the dark.

Decimus sits up groggily. “What the fuck’s going on?”

I hush him and lay Maven gently beside Crane once more. “Shut your mouths. She needs sleep.”

“Were you just fucking her outside? ” Frost growls quietly. “Out in the dirt where anyone could have seen? She deserves the comfort of a bed at least, you?—”

I roll my eyes and touch his leg to send a much less gentle pulse of sleepiness through him, quickly giving Crane the same treatment. But when I turn to Decimus, he’s not making a fuss like the others. He’s longingly watching Maven sleep.

“So what’s it like? Being bound to her?”

“Like beautifully fucked-up puzzle pieces falling into place,” I murmur and then sigh. “Don’t pout. You’ll be bound to her soon enough.”

He lays back down, staring at the ceiling. “Yeah, I really fucking hope so.”

I slip back into Limbo, leave the cottage to gather our clothes, redress myself, and quickly return to wait for Maven to begin dreaming again.

But Decimus isn’t falling asleep. Just as I’m debating putting him out, too, he sits up.

“Hey. Crypt?”

I emerge from Limbo to show I’m here, but the dragon shifter hesitates, rubbing his neck.

“Just spit it out, Decimus.”

He clears his throat. “Thanks for looking out for me. Back then, I mean.”

Idiot. I thought we had an unspoken agreement not to talk about any part I played in his past, so I roll my eyes again.

“Never mistake us for being friends. If you lose control of that fucking dragon again and come anywhere close to hurting Maven, I’ll kill you without blinking,” I warn.

“I’d deserve it,” Decimus nods. Then he frowns in the darkness. “Was Overbite telling the truth about you burning out from your curse?”

“Piss off.”

“Get over yourself and spill, Stalker Boy. Because if you die, it affects the quintet—and it’s going to really affect my mate, so I have the right to ask, and you’re going to fucking answer. How old were the past stewards when they burned out?”

Cocksure prick.

But he’s correct that my inevitable demise will affect the quintet, so I sigh. “On average, thirty years old.”

“Shit.”

“Well-put.”

He’s quiet for a long moment before glancing at the bed. “She didn’t shower.”

“Don’t you dare wake her for that.”

“No shit, creep. I meant , she didn’t have that delayed reaction where she starts to get uncomfortable about all the touching and scrubs her poor skin raw in the shower when she thinks we aren’t looking. If you’re still helping her with that fucking phobia of hers whenever she’s asleep, it’s helping.”

I have been, but I shrug. “She still can’t stand touch from anyone outside the quintet. Perhaps she’s just growing accustomed to knowing we’re hers.”

“I like the idea of that.”

As do I.

He lays back down with a dramatic sigh. “Anyway, no hard feelings about tonight. You were obviously just doing Maven a favor and saving the best for last. Like a dick appetizer.”

It’s incredible, the things this shifter chooses to let leave his mouth.

His ego is far too fucking loud, so I kick his leg to send a jolt of my power through him, too, sending him into a deep sleep.