“You know, you keep spoiling me and it’s going to be hard to go home,” I whispered, realizing my mistake when he stiffened behind me.
“Your home is with me now,” he replied, his hands moving around to encircle my waist as he kissed my ear. “You’re mine. You go where I go; I go where you go.”
“Azrael, my people depend on me. At some point, I have to go back to the Ark. I need to speak to Addy. She’s probably really worried about me.”
“Addy is enjoying Liam; she’s fine without you.” His voice was soothing, as if he was trying to comfort me. “Tonight, it’s just us. Leave out all the rest, Emma.”
I turned to look at him, finding him smiling as his hands slipped between my legs. Oh shit. I felt his cock growing hard against my derrière. He turned me around until I was facing him and then lifted me up so that I was sitting in his lap.
“I want you,” he stated, his eyes growing heavy as lust filled them. “Tonight, I’m going to enjoy you the way I have always wanted to. Tonight, I show you what it’s really like to be with me. Last time I was careful with you because I didn’t want to scare or hurt you. It’s been a very long time for me, and I didn’t want to shock you. There’s so much that has changed, and so much I want to try with you.”
I swallowed down the moan that was caused from his words, mixed with the sensations of my pussy rubbing over his cock in the warm water.
“What exactly do you want to do to me?” I whispered huskily. Considering how wild our first night together was, I couldn’t even think of what else he could do to me if that was his idea of going easy on me.
“Everything,” he growled as his mouth crushed against mine.
His kiss was hungry, as if he was starving and couldn’t get enough. His hands rocked my hips against his velvety length until I thought I would come from that alone. The moment I got close to the brink, he lifted me up with him as he stood. Water went everywhere; tiny tendrils raced down his chest, and before I could stop myself, I was kissing them, catching them with my tongue as he groaned.
He set me on the bed carefully, like a treasured jewel, and I watched as he stood back, his fist working his massive cock. “Spread your legs,” he whispered huskily.
I did, and his eyes slid to my heat and turned red. They glowed with an emotion I couldn’t place, but then he snapped out of his haze and his eyes rose to hold mine.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured as he climbed onto the bed, and scooted my body until I was situated to his liking. He reached over me, pulling down a length of the sheer material that had adorned the bed, and used it to capture my hands. I felt a rush of panic as he secured them to the wrought iron frame. “Scared?” he asked, sitting back to look down the length of my exposed body.
“A little,” I replied honestly, unable to hide the quiver in my voice. I watched as his lips broke into a roguish grin, as he lowered his mouth to capture the peak of my nipple, which he nipped at. A moan erupted from my lungs before I even knew it was coming. He let his teeth graze my flesh softly, before his eyes focused on mine.
“I’m going to enjoy this.” He reached up for yet another length of fabric, and I shivered as he lifted my head and covered my eyes before he kissed me. I swallowed as he pulled away, fully intending to ask him what he was thinking, but the velvet tip of his cock pushed against my lips.
I opened for him, knowing I wouldn’t fit all of him in my mouth, but I worked the tip and sensitive flesh with my tongue and lips the best I could, since I was trapped in this position. His fingers found my heat and slowly worked my flesh as I moaned and made crazy noises with his cock securely in my mouth. I was about to come when his fingers stopped, and he slapped my pussy hard enough that I cried out in wonder. He used my surprise to push his dick in further. It slammed against the back of my throat as his hand slapped my pussy again. He withdrew a little, and his fingers softly caressed the stinging skin.
“You enjoy it rough,” he mused as he rocked his hips, filling my mouth as he pleasured himself. His fingers felt like heaven against the sore flesh; one tantalizing finger slid teasingly into my molten depths. There was no denying that I liked it. I was soaking wet, he had the proof of it there for his greedy eyes to see, if he was looking at it. I struggled to take more of him, crying out with frustration as he withdrew from both my mouth and pussy.
His hot breath fanned my flesh as he placed soft kisses against my skin. He kissed my neck, then the swell of my breasts as he kissed and licked a slow, lazy trail down my belly, until his mouth hovered over my pussy. I lifted my hips, expecting him to do what I wanted, but he didn’t. Instead, he kissed the inside of my thighs, slowly making his way to my calves and then my ankles. It was torture; beautiful, painful agony. I felt as if I was in physical pain, needing him to take me.
I whispered his name repeatedly, but he ignored my pleas for mercy. He spread my legs, pushing them open as he slowly moved between them. His cock pushed against my opening, slowly sliding over it until I was panting and lifting my hips off the bed to increase the contact. He stopped, backed away, and then his mouth kissed and licked around my opening, never once touching the flesh I needed him to.
“You’re killing me,” I whimpered, and he laughed huskily.
“Fucking is easy,” he mused. “Making you beg for something you desire while you squirm; that’s something I’ve dreamed of since you became a woman, Emma. It’s so much better than I had envisioned it,” he groaned as his mouth went back to work, kissing around my heated flesh. “You smell of heaven, so wet with the need to be fucked. If I could keep you like this forever, I would,” he whispered hoarsely.
His fingers parted my flesh and held it there, exposing my secrets to his eyes. His tongue slowly worked my pussy from the front to the back, and I cried out as the storm in my belly began to unfurl and shoot towards my pussy.
“Azrael,” I whimpered, as he ignored my plea yet again.
“Mmm, so wet, so fucking good. Out of everything I missed when I lost the ability to touch, it was the taste of a woman when she was in need. I could taste you for eternity and never tire of it, sweet girl,” he groaned as he moved his mouth in a frenzied motion over my flesh. His fingers pushed inside and I lost all control.
I shattered. My back bowed, and my legs clamped around his head, holding him in place. His free hand reached up, pinching one nipple and then the other as he continued pushing his fingers to a silent tempo as his mouth sucked and kissed my pussy. I was floating, or dying. I didn’t care. It didn’t matter. I was in heaven, and he’d taken me there.
He pulled away and I screamed for him, the loss of him too much to bear. His mouth touched mine as he pushed inside my body. He kissed me with fervor, an urgency that matched my own as he filled my body until it was painful to take anymore. He tore his mouth from mine and lifted my legs, rocking my hips until I took what he gave me.
“Jesus, woman, you undo me,” he roared, as he pulled out only to lunge in again. He rested my feet on his shoulders, and I struggled against the delicate material as I tried to free my hands to touch him. I couldn’t see, couldn’t touch him. He only allowed me to feel what he wanted, and it was too much. I lifted my hips, giving him more depth as he rocked and worked his hips.
Once he’d worked me into another storm, he stopped, causing me to growl at the loss of his cock. I tried sitting up, but he merely laughed at my sad attempt. He turned me over onto my stomach, parted my legs with his knees, and then pushed his fingers deep inside my pussy as he lifted my stomach with his other hand.
“You’re wet, Emma,” he announced, like it was some sort of surprise.
“You think?” I asked, turning my head in the direction where I knew him to be. His hand came down hard on my ass, and I moaned.
“Jesus,” he mused as he lowered his mouth and licked my pussy around where his fingers continued to work me over. H
e pulled his mouth away and I moaned, over his slow seduction and ready for the next orgasms. My body was tight; it was like a guitar string, ready to be played and he was toying with me as he primed and tuned it.
“Just do it…ow!” I screamed as he bit my ass. “You did not just bite my ass!” I yelled out as he did it again, and then he kissed it gently. “No kissing my ass!”
He laughed.
I turned to glare at him, but unfortunately, it had little impact since my eyes were still covered. He pulled away; his hands grasped my hips as he nudged my legs apart again. One left my hip to slowly glide up my back to touch the back of my head. I was just about to ask what he planned to do, when he thrust inside me and pulled my hair at the same time.
“Oh God, yes!” I screamed as he started to move with precise, punishing thrusts that had me meeting him, teetering on the brink of orgasm. I didn’t hold back; I gave him everything I had. I screamed his name, praised his cock, and felt everything he did as he rode me. Fuck beast mode; this man was the God of sex. His cock touched that special spot. The spot that most men spend their entire life trying to find, and he went there with ease.
I exploded violently over and over again until the orgasms turned to pain, and still, I begged for more. My body was a mess of nerves and they were all being touched at once. He didn’t stop, even when I’d stopped moving. He was hard, unforgiving, and aggressive as he took me. He’d come at any moment, or so I told myself on repeat.
He didn’t. He flipped me onto my side and lifted my leg until it was in a painful position, then surged forward. I bucked against him screaming as I climaxed yet again. Tears filled my eyes as I whispered things to him until I felt him tense and shout as his cock jerked inside of me, and he finally rested his head against my breasts.
“I love you too, Emma,” he whispered, and I blinked. Oh. Fuck.
“Did I say that?” I whispered, my throat on fire from emotions he’d created by saying it.
“No, I feel it. I feel it as surely as I feel you when your orgasm rushes through you. Your emotions are no longer hidden from me. You don’t have to say it, I feel it. I’m guessing you fell in love when I bit your perky ass,” he teased lightly as sweat beaded against my skin.
I laughed. “I am a sucker for an ass biter, but no, I don’t know if I love you. I don’t even really know you,” I admitted, feeling his fingers as he removed the blindfold to reveal the tears in my eyes.
“I feel it, just like I know it is hurting you to hear me say it,” he murmured as he leaned over my sweat-drenched body to untie my hands. “I know you love him still,” he whispered. “I can wait for you to know it. I can wait until you’re ready to let me love you. I don’t expect you to forget him. I know he’s a part of you. It’s how you are built. You don’t let go easily, but neither do I. I’ve known we were meant to be together for a long time. You’ve just learned of it, so I can be patient with you.”
“It scares me,” I replied honestly. “It’s terrifying to feel so much this soon. I feel everything from you, shit, you came and I felt it. I felt your need to unleash your aggression on me, too. I wanted it, all of it. I wanted to be the one who took it from you. I’m not one who goes into anything blindly, and yet I’m willing to with you, and that scares the shit out of me.”
“You need to be in control,” he murmured gently.
“Always,” I agreed. “I have to be, or people die. Even before the virus hit, I had to have control. I had to be the parent for Grayson.”
“You’re barely old enough to be a parent, Emma. Grayson isn’t here, so you shouldn’t feel bad about letting go. You wanted me to be rough; you wanted to lose control, and yet you fought it. You fought your own needs because even though you think you’re giving me everything, you continue to hold a sliver of yourself away. The piece of you that thinks that, if you let anyone else see that you may have a weakness, they will use it to crush you. I won’t let that happen. You’re my soul, little phoenix. We’re in this together. You and me. Got me?” he whispered.
“It’s just not that easy.”
“It is, you just have to let it all go. As Sentinels we don’t control everything, it’s just not possible. You’ll find a way to live without having to control everything.”
Chapter 26
I’d slept like the dead. Azrael had wrapped me in his heat, curling my body close to his as I succumbed to sleep. I’d felt cherished, safely curled in his arms. The man unraveled me, terrified me, and wrung out every sexual desire all at once. He disarmed me and left me confused. Azrael made me confused about my feelings, myself, and my sense of purpose. I’d planned to escape him and yet, somewhere along the way, I’d stopped trying to. I still intended to go home, that much was a given, but the thought of leaving him physically hurt me. If I could get him to help me find Grayson, I’d have an actual chance of doing it without trading myself for him.
From the moment Grayson was taken, I knew I would most likely have to trade myself for him. I wasn’t an idiot; after seeing the way Hayden outmaneuvered me so easily during the battle with the wolves, I knew none of us could fight Trina and her group of Sentinels until I was trained. They most likely would have slaughtered us. I’d been desperate and naïve to think it would have worked, but now I had Azrael in my corner.
I sat on the bed as I brushed my hair, unraveling the inner turmoil that I’d struggled with for so long. I wasn’t in love with Jaeden as much as I thought I was. Too much had happened to go back to what we’d been. There wasn’t any way to salvage our relationship, and it broke my heart to let him go, but in a way, it was a kindness. If Azrael hadn’t come for me, eventually I would have caved and let Jaeden back into my heart, and eventually Shamus, his maker, or the elders would have given some stupid order that would have taken him away from me again. Or, if Hayden was right, when all of my powers eventually manifested, I would have turned him mortal. Either scenario would have made one or both of us bitter, and I hated to even think about how that would have played out.
A knock sounded at the door, and then it swung open to reveal Hayden. He looked as if he hadn’t slept at all last night.
“Emma, Azrael sent me to get you. He said you’d want to know that we’ve captured Dagan.”
“What?” I asked. My heart sped up, and my stomach dropped.
“We captured Dagan and a couple of Trina’s followers, but there’s something you should know,” Hayden’s voice was soft, a contrast to the tenseness of his body as he folded his arms across his chest. “They’re infected, and the symptoms look a lot like Pacers flu.”
“Sentinels are immortal.” I was really confused, because I still grasped little about what I was. What we were.
“Indeed, but he’s sick nonetheless.”
I was up and heading out the door. “Take me to him, he knows where Grayson is.”
“Emma, he hasn’t got long to live, if the virus he has is anything like the one the humans had. They’re holding them in the courtyard; I’ll take you to Azrael.”
I followed him, and I could hear the others chattering excitedly about the capture as if it was a good thing. I, on the other hand, had a sick feeling in my stomach that wouldn’t let up. Trina had gushed with pride when she’d told me Dagan was my father, so why would she allow him to get captured? Was she close? Was Grayson?
“Faster,” I urged, needing to get to Dagan and question him. We were in the courtyard within moments and once there, I felt like my heart and stomach dropped. Dagan was sick, very sick. He had bloody tears running from his eyes, along with a steady flow of blood oozing from his nose. I looked around the full courtyard and shook my head. “This is wrong.”
“It’s all wrong,” Hayden agreed as my eyes locked with Azrael’s; I knew he could sense my overwhelming panic as it rushed through me.
Trina wasn’t just a disgraced Sentinel; she was a scientist, and she
worked with some of the world’s most elite scientists. She’d gathered her followers before the virus, and together, they’d created the very virus that had killed most of the human race off within weeks. They’d created a perfect killer, one that would lift her up to where she wanted to be: queen of this world.
“They’re like a Trojan horse,” I whispered as the implications of what I was seeing whirled through my mind, as others gathered closer to where Azrael stood just inches away from Dagan. “Azrael,” I cried as he lifted his hand to wipe at a trickle of blood that slid from his nose.
I ran forward, needing to know he’d be okay. He was death personified; he couldn’t die, right? I rushed to him, but he held up his hand as his armor covered him protectively, as if he was trying to protect me from himself.
“No, I can help you,” I cried.
“Stay away, Emma. I won’t die, but the rest…” He let his words trail off as the complications of the reality of the situation hit him. “Shit.”
Others were watching us, and I noticed a few of the Sentinels—they must have been the ones who captured Dagan—also had blood trickling from their noses. Trina had found a way to kill Sentinels; she’d done the impossible. I wondered if the humans had only been an experiment in her plot, or had she needed them weakened as well?
“Why?” I demanded of Dagan, who watched me coldly. “Why kill your own people? She wasn’t happy killing off the humans, so now she’s willing to kill us all?” I screamed.
“Not all, just him. You weren’t supposed to be here, Emmalyn. You’re supposed to be with that horde of monsters you tramp around with.”
“Where is she? She left you here to die! Where’s Grayson?” I demanded, letting my emotions connect with Azrael’s, sensing that somehow he was purging the virus from his system. His heart was steady; his breathing was labored, but I focused on his heart.
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