Page 47 of Tender Thorns
Stealing my attention, Ziv dips his head and presses his mouth to mine. His kiss is deep and controlling, and he tastes my tongue as if he can’t get enough of me. I match his fervor with my own. In a swift move, he rolls us so I end up flat on my back with him looming over me.
Huge black wings unfurl from his back, proving him to be the fallen god I suspected from the beginning. With our hips still locked together, he traces the thorns tattooed on my neck and shoulder, trailing down my arm as if memorizing each branch, but seconds later, matching markings appear on his neck, shoulder, and arm.
“How?” is the only word I can get out as he continues to assault me with pleasure, pushing so deeply into me, I wonder if pain even exists anymore.
“I am a god.” He leans down, kissing my lips with the tenderest of touches. “Everything you are is mine to take.” The black, thorny vines I know so well solidify on his skin, creating a visual link between us.
I trace the familiar lines with the tips of my fingers, and a smile tugs at my lips. “That may be true, Ziveet, but you are just as much mine as I am yours.”
He lowers himself over me until I feel his entire body pressed against me, crushing me between him and the cushions until he is all I can see and feel. “No what-ifs,” he states as he nuzzles his nose against mine. I’m so distracted by the sweet gesture, I scarcely notice him taking a hold of my hands and lifting them above my head until I’m fully splayed out under him.
“This is to make sure you never forget.” He kisses me so softly, I lift my head off the mattress in a bid to deepen the affection, but I drop back to the lounge when he slams into me roughly, and I lose my breath. The onslaught doesn’t stop there.He uses me and makes me feel and think things I never imagined possible, yet I already know I will crave every touch again and again. He is addicting and insatiable.
My eyes fall closed for the tenth or maybe hundredth time. My exhaustion is fickle, only lasting until he forces yet another orgasm from me or teases me until I’m a mess, begging for more. This time, when my eyelids lower, he kisses my temple before placing his wrist over my mouth. “Take,” he rasps out while still fucking me.
My mouth opens, but the desire to bite him is as weak as I am. I cry out again as another orgasm overrides my system, arching my spine and making my eyes roll back in my head. He pushes his wrist against my teeth, and his blood fills my open mouth.
I gasp as his teeth sink into my shoulder at the same moment, connecting us in every way imaginable, so even our thoughts mingle. The pleasure and contentment amplify to a level I know no mere mortal could ever experience unaided. The connection only lasts a heartbeat before my mind can’t handle it and goes blank.
I think he fucked me into the void.
KAGE
The entire institute is on edge after the discovery of the body. Instructors are making their presence much more known, while the novices are walking around like they think they will be next. Everyone is looking for Briar, including me. I haven’t seen her since yesterday, when Ziv took her from her room early in the morning.
I’ve heard the whispers—that my creature is a killer. With each muttered rumor, her status morphs into something they fear and respect. It places an entirely different kind of mark on her back. The other novices will see her as a threat, as someone they need to be wary of, but it will likely make her competition in their eyes too.
I move through the halls like a specter. The only acknowledgment I get are people stepping out of my way to make sure I don’t get near enough to touch them. They try to pretend it’s not intentional, that they need to cross the hall at that exact moment or leave the area altogether, but it’s obvious to me and anyone else paying attention.
It doesn’t take me long to reach my destination—the instructors’ wing. The novices are not permitted in this area, and most don’t even know how to get here, but it’s not my first visit. I’ve made it my mission to explore every inch of Ivy and learn all her secrets.
I’m tempted to use my shadow form to slip into Ziv’s room, but the minute I step foot in the hall, I can feel his wards gnawing at me to turn around and go back the other way. They are much stronger than the ones on the restricted library.
Gritting my teeth, I lift my arms and pound my fist on the wood. If the desire to find my creature on the other side wasn’t so strong, I might not have had the fortitude to do it. My skin is crawling, my body demanding I leave.
There isn’t a sound before the door opens a minute later, which is a good thing, because I’m not sure I could have knocked again. It’s only when I see Ziv, rumpled and sneering, that I realize I’ve backed ten feet from the door.
“Just because I can’t touch her doesn’t mean you can keep her from me.” Getting close to the door is easy now, since her scent is enough to override the ward the fallen placed on his threshold.
He leans against the frame, completely nude and smelling of my creature. There’s dried blood on his shoulder, his, and a smear on his cock, hers. A spike of jealousy tightens my throat.
No wonder I haven’t seen them in over twenty-four hours—he completed his bond with her. My next inhale of their mingledscents feels like a knife to my sternum. I will never know the complete peace he has now.
I’ve never been so tempted to kill anyone in my life. The only thing that stops me from lunging forward and ending his life is knowing it would hurt Briar, and I can’t do that.
“I’m not keeping her from you,” he argues without hostility. There’s a definite shift in his demeanor when it comes to me. I suppose that’s what being bonded does for you.
“Where is she?” I try to look around him, but the big bastard fills most of the doorway. He leans to the side, turning his neck to get his own view of Briar. She’s sprawled out on her belly over a mass of cushions piled on the floor. It’s probably easier for him than trying to fit his ass on furniture. I step forward on instinct. The draw to be close to her is getting harder to resist every time I see her. I can’t help but wonder if maybe things would be easier for me if Ziv took her from me. The tightening of my throat and chest makes the question moot. I would go insane before the loss of her would ever be easier.
Ziv steps to the side, and it’s not because he’s afraid of me getting too close, he just makes enough room for me to move past him. I hover several feet away while she sleeps soundly. “Is she?—”
“Fine,” the fallen interjects as he closes the door. “I’m impressed you could even knock.”
“It was only because she was in here,” I admit without shame.
“I figured it was you or Syrinx.” He saunters past me, and I realize I missed something about his appearance when I got hung up on the blood earlier. He has markings that perfectly match my creature’s thorns. I do a double take of her, just to confirm what I already know. His markings are new. I’ve never known a god, even a fallen one, to desecrate their body in such a way, but I’ve never known another that would allow scars to remain on their body either.
As if he can feel my eyes on his back, Ziv looks over his shoulder and about knocks the wind out of me with a single sentence. “I told her about you.”
