Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Our breaths mingled, ragged and hot, punctuating the rhythm of our hips as thin streaks of silver eather speared the heated honey of his irises. The contrast of silver and gold was startling and beautiful as he held my stare, each thrust igniting fiery desire and sending it throughout my entire body. My breath came in short pants as the chamber echoed with the sounds of skin meeting skin. Pleasure built and spun, coiling tighter and tighter. The gentle sweep of his thumb down my throat was so at odds with his almost punishing thrusts.
“Casteel,” I gasped.
“Say it again,” he urged. “Please.”
“Casteel,” I cried out, the heat within me too intense, the pleasure too exquisite. I clung to him, my nails digging into the skin of his shoulders, urging him on. “I love you.”
As he lifted himself, the rumble that came from his chest sounded different and deeper. It was almost beastly, and my body shamelessly reacted to it with tiny shockwaves of pleasure. I could feel his climax building, his breath hitching in his chest, his body hardening, cooling…
My eyes flew open, and I fixated on where my hand rested against his shoulder. Shadows writhed and twisted just beneath the surface of his flesh.
I tried to speak as dark tendrils coiled under my splayed fingers, but his thrusts became more insistent, his strokes filling and touching me in places that sent shockwaves of pleasure radiating through my body.
I watched in helpless fascination as the smoky shadows crept higher, climbing the strong column of his throat and sliding along the carved line of his jaw and the sides of his face. The pattern of those shadows was vaguely familiar in how they pulsed and undulated with each relentless thrust of his hips, but there was also something different.
Casteel lowered his head, his lips brushing mine as he spoke one word with a low growl. “Mine.”
“Oh, gods,” I gasped.
“That’s it.” Casteel hooked his arm behind my head, keeping my body from moving with the force of his thrusts. “Come for me.”
My body clenched around him as he lifted his head. That deep coil of tension began to unravel. The first wave of intense pleasure rippled through me, and I screamed his name for a third time as the eather in his flesh changed. My gaze snapped to his, the breath catching in my throat.
My gods.
“Fuck,” he rasped, his hips rolling against mine.
Waves of ecstasy crashed through both of us as I felt him spasming deep inside me, each pulse of his cock igniting aftershocks as he held my stare. There was something in his eyes.
Something that shouldn’t exist within him.
With a shudder, Casteel dropped his head to the crook of my neck, bracing most of his weight on his arms as his hips slowed, and my heart pounded.
I watched the essence swirling across his shoulders. It was shadowy but not the shade of onyx I’d seen in my skin. His reminded me of hematite’s dark-gray hue, though Casteel’s was charcoal-gray streaked with crimson.
The essence of pure, raw death.
My hand trembled as I slid it up his arm, halted, then spread my fingers with a soft inhale.
The muscles beneath my hand bunched as the eather pulsed and then slipped under my fingers. I felt the eather as a charge of energy shot up my arm. It was cool and tingling, and it stirred the essence within me. Some of it felt and looked familiar.
But it wasn’t.
I’d never felt anything like what I felt radiating from him. It was something infinite, powerful, and…new.
“Casteel,” I whispered.
He dropped his forehead to mine, his hips slowing. “Hmm?”
“Are you…?” I sucked in a breath as I felt his length twitch deep within me. “Are you okay?”
“My cock is deep inside your warm, wet heat,” he said, the stubble on his jaw teasing my cheek as he dragged his nose over mine. “I’ve never been better.” He pressed a kiss to my temple. “Are you?”
“Yeah.” I slid my hands over his shoulders, and his entire back arched, reminding me of a feline seeking more pets. “Um, I’m not sure if you realize this or not, but I can see the essence in you.”
Casteel stilled against me, then turned his head to the side to look at the fading shadows in his flesh.
He shifted, and being that he was still buried inside me, he hit that spot. I gasped, drawing his attention back to me.
“That’s why,” he breathed.
“Why what?”
“You touched where you saw the shadows, didn’t you?”
“I did,” I confirmed. “The shadows sort of thickened and spread from your cheeks down your throat.”
Tension formed brackets at the corners of his mouth. “Did it hurt you?”
“What? No. Not at all,” I quickly assured him. “All it did was make my fingers feel like they were vibrating a little.”
His exhale was full of relief. “I felt the eather pushing to the surface when I was in you,” he said, and that flush returned. “I tried to rein it in.”