Page 177 of Nightshade

I moaned at the ache. How long I’d needed to be touched.

Flickering sparks lit up his wings again, as what must’ve been another bolt of lightning struck him. The vibration from before intensified, and when he put his mouth to my breast on a long, tormenting suck, I could feel the tiny quiver of electricity on his tongue. It rippled across my flesh and converged at the apex of my thighs. On reflex, I bucked forward and tipped my head back. A sound, a cross between ecstasy and hysterics, beat through my chest. Every nerve felt like a bouncing livewire, desperate to ground itself into something. Every touch magnified.

Intense.

“I’m going to enjoy fucking you, Miss Ravenshaw,” he rasped against me.

From his wings, he plucked a feather, and the white, electrical threads dancing across its surface told me it was still charged from the lightning of moments ago. A thrum of fear rose up inside me, and I lost my footing for a moment. A soft, vibrating tickle caressed my thighs, and I fought to catch my balance as a new surge of pleasure swelled inside of me.

“This current running through you? It magnifies your sense of touch. I could breathe on your skin, and you’d come as easily as if I’d played with your wet little clit.”

I let out a sharp exhale and a moan, my body swaying as I hung limp from the bracket. Weak with pleasure.

He kicked a crate propped against the wall closer to me, and hiked my thigh up on it. Fingers pressed against my flesh, he held me open. Exposed. Vulnerable. The anticipation twisted and coiled deep in my belly. “Things are about to get a little shaky,” he whispered in my ear, and the moment the feather hit my clit, sending a jagged pulse of electricity through me, I tipped my head back on a deep guttural scream.

Every muscle in my body trembled and shook, as the plumes of the feather skimmed over my sensitive flesh. I curled my fingers and let out a long, droning moan. It felt so good, it brought me to tears.

He dragged the feather over my hot, trembling thighs, sticky with my arousal, and my muscles pulled with tension as the tiny pulses danced over them. The light sting of the current, coupled to the soft sweep of the feather, had me writhing and breathless. As the incessant vibrations relentlessly tickled me to climax, I bucked and cried out, screwing my eyes shut to the jagged flash of light.

Not once.

Nor twice.

Three times, I hit the pinnacle of ecstasy, my head light and dizzy, and I screamed out, “Oh, God!”

Jericho chuckled darkly. “He could only dream of being buried between your thighs right now.”

The clink of a belt alerted his intent, and I looked down as he sprung himself free. Once again, I found myself questioning the laws of physics, as I took in the size of his erection that was undoubtedly not human. Electricity danced over the surface, the veins in his cock pulsing, as if excited. Hungry.

At that, he hiked both of my legs up and wrapped them around his waist, leaving me dangling from the bracket by my panties. Weak and exhausted, all I could do was let him maneuver me however he wanted. His plaything to do with as he wished.

With my sex positioned against his stomach, he grabbed my bottom, stirring my wetness over his skin, and his masculine sound of approval left me blushing.

Darkness settled over us, as his wings closed me in.

“You belong to me, Farryn. Should another man dare to lay so much as a finger on you, I will flay his hand and shine my boots with his skin.”

The sound of that should’ve disgusted me. Should’ve had me running from him and never looking back, but it didn’t. Because I didn’t grow up with anyone so intent on wanting me, or protecting me that way. I’d always taken care of myself, even while living with my father. I must’ve been sick for the way it turned me on. Besides, I knew in my heart, it’d never come to pass. There wouldn’t be another after Jericho. How could there be? In the span of one night, he’d ruined me for all men. Particularly the human variety. After all, what human male had wings that doubled as a thousand disposable vibrators?

He might as well have pulled out a contract for my soul at that point.

Stroking a hand down my hair, he tipped my head back, his gaze unyielding, the determination there inviolable. “Say it,” he growled.

“I belong to you.”

His jaw clenched, as he lowered me to his tip, the tremors across its head and down its shaft twitching my thighs. One slow thrust, and I arched my back on a moan, as my body invited in him inside with a slippery glide. Inch by inch, he rooted himself deep, and as I stretched around him, a whimper of panic escaped me.

Once fully seated, he stilled, resting his head against my shoulder, breathing. “You feel exactly as I dreamed you would.”

Arms wrapped tightly around me, he moved in a slow and languid pace, the wet slide making for a sloppy sound that only goaded my arousal, making me wetter with the incessant drive of his hips.

The vibrations pulsed inside of me with every upward thrust. The feeling of being wholly connected to him, so powerful and consuming, brought tears to my eyes. Something foreign and new rose up inside of me. Like barbs across my heart, it squeezed a slow, aching pump to my body. The first blooms following an endless winter. I closed my eyes to an unbidden visual.

The men in robes breaking in through the cottage door. The screams. A red-haired woman reaching out for me. “Lustina!” The men dragging her away. A crowd of people gathered, spitting on me and calling me names. The smell of burning flesh on the air. More screams. “Mother!”

The visions arrived fast. Too fast. Fear strangled my breath, and I gasped for air. “They burned her. Alive. In front of me.” Tears filled my eyes, my chest aching with the pain. “Oh, God, what is happening to me?”

“It’s all right.” Jericho kissed my cheek, still thrusting in and out of me. “All your memories are returning, darling. Don’t be afraid.”