Page 89 of Scarlet Wars
Because no matter how hard I tried, his words were still there.
“If you were mine, I’d have you sitting on my face, my tongue buried inside of you, coming over and over again until you screamed my name so much, it’d be the only one etched in that beautiful mind of yours.”
I clenched my thighs together, heat pooling low in my stomach, but it wasn’t enough.
My breath came faster, my pulse a slow, lazy thrum beneath my skin, building with every whispered memory of his words.
“If you were mine, I’d sink my teeth into that flawless skin of yours, leaving my mark on you, so every time you looked in the mirror, you’d see the proof. My claim on you—my stamp, branded into your flesh.”
My fingers drifted over my stomach, teasing the hem of my sleep shorts, slipping lower. My skin was flushed, my entire body hypersensitive, desperate for relief.
I squeezed my eyes shut, letting the images take over.
Caden’s hands, rough and sure, pinning me down. His mouth, hot and unyielding, dragging over my skin, his teeth sinking into my shoulder, my neck, marking me—owning me.
A soft moan slipped past my lips as my fingers slid lower, brushing over the damp heat between my thighs.
I shouldn’t be doing this.
But damn it, I couldn’t stop.
“If you were mine, I’d fuck you so hard, drive my cock so deep inside you, so often, you’d feel me with every step you took, so deliciously sore, you wouldn’t be able to forget me even if you tried.”
A loud gasp left me as I pushed my fingers inside, my hips rolling into the sensation, chasing the friction, the heat, the ache.
I imagined his weight pressing me into the mattress, his body flush against mine, his voice a growl in my ear. “I’d have you begging for me. No teasing, no holding back. Only me, giving you exactly what you crave.”
A whimper escaped me, my movements growing desperate, the tension inside me winding impossibly tight.
It was his hands, his mouth, his body pushing me to the edge, his name curled on my tongue as the pleasure built, coiling tighter, hotter, until?—
I came apart.
A choked cry of his name slipped past my lips as waves of pleasure crashed through me, my body arching, trembling, pulsing around the ghost of his touch.
I lay there for a long moment, my chest rising and falling in uneven breaths, the heat slowly ebbing from my limbs. But it didn’t bring relief. It only made it worse. Because even now, as the last tremors faded, I wanted more. More ofhim.
And that?
That was a big fucking problem.
TWENTY-TWO
CADEN
It had been a week since the first battle at Kanata C.
Every day, humans gathered at the edges of our world, voices raw as they shouted for Emma, spitting her name like it carried every curse they knew, like she was both their monster and their messiah.
I knew Saoirse was nexing Emma every day to make sure she was okay, but—true to form—Emma kept insisting she was “fine.” Which was basically code forI’m absolutely not fine but screw you for asking.
On Friday we emerged in the Human World, right outside the Metasphere near the US border, not far from where another group of humans had been spotted, according to this morning’s briefings.
One by one, my team materialized, their arrivals marked only by the faintest stirrings of movement before they melted into their assigned positions. No wasted steps. No hesitation.
“We’re in the Human World. From here on, only Emma translates,” I ordered. Then I let the teams fall back, moving ahead with just Emma, James, and Sean, minimizing risk, keeping exposure to a minimum.
The ground beneath us sloped into uneven terrain, jagged rock formations jutting out every two steps. The vantage point was perfect though: high enough to give us a clean view of the clearing below, but with enough natural cover to keep us hidden.
