"It's been like two hours," I reminded him. My thighs were still aching from the position he'd had me in before.
"Too long," he rumbled, reaching to toss my book on the nightstand before grabbing my ankles, pulling me flat on the mattress so he could yank my pants down my legs. "Too fucking long," he added, moving between my thighs, pulling my panties to the side, and starting to devour me.
That was the only way to describe how Drex went down on me. He devoured me. Like a starving man when presented with a meal. It didn't seem to matter how often he feasted, either. He was always ravenous.
And I was always happy to be devoured.
I was just as happy when he finished eating, grabbed me with those sharp talons, then pulled, tossed, and shoved me into the position he wanted.
Then he fucked me.
Or told me to fuck him.
Hard, fast, rough, dirty.
That was how we'd been with each other.
But when Drex moved to sit off the side of the bed, pulling me so that my back was to his chest, something inside me begged me to slow down, to take some time, to try something new.
The shiny hadn't worn off the old way. The rough and fast and dirty and soul-breaking way. I was sure it would never lose its appeal.
But I couldn't deny myself something new, either, as I hovered over his hard length, then slowly started to lower myself down.
Inch by each exquisite inch.
"Drex," I whimpered as he settled deep, as my walls tightened hard around him, making him hiss out his breath.
"Nova," he growled, his talons sinking into my flesh.
"I want it like this," I told him, rocking my hips gently against him. "Just this once," I added, leaning my head back onto his shoulder.
"Anything you want," he agreed, voice rough.
He didn't try to rush me, to take control, to force me to go any faster.
His talons pierced my skin as he struggled to hold onto his control, to give it up to me fully.
Time seemed to slow down around us, the sounds of the world fell away.
All that existed was us, was the perfect sweet torment of slowly approached relief. The perfect ache of delayed pleasure.
"Drex, I..." I whimpered, feeling pushed to that edge, hovering there for a long moment until Drex's hand moved between my thighs, working my clit as I continued my rocking. "I..."
And then I did.
And he did too.
I could feel the heat of his release inside me even as the power of his orgasm made his wings shoot outward, wrap me up tight as I cried out my release.
"Fuck, baby," Drex hissed into my hair as the aftershocks racked my system.
"I want this," I told him, brain and body fuzzy, but I knew that much.
"You have it. Anytime you want it."
"No, Drex, I want this. I want it forever," I told him. "Do you know what I mean?" I asked.
"It's too soon, Nova," he objected, pressing an uncharacteristically sweet kiss to my temple.
"No, it's not. I want it, Drex. I've never been so sure of anything before."
"You thought you were once," he reminded me.
"No, don't do that. Don't compare that. What Renwick did was take away the world. What you've done is give it back to me."
"Nova..."
"It's not too soon. I am sure. I... I love you," I told him. "I'm... Claiming you," I added, shooting him a smile that faltered and fell at the raw vulnerability I saw in his eyes. "You Claimed me. Now I'm Claiming you back. Okay?"
"Okay, babe," he agreed, his usually rough voice soft.
"So, I want to talk to Lenore," I told him. "And I want her to make it official. The forever part."
"You have to give up a piece of your soul, Nova. Your humanity."
"But so did Lenore. And Jo. They're still good women. It must be a very small part of our souls."
"I want you to talk to them first," he demanded.
"I have. I've talked to both of them about it. About what the ceremony is like. About what feels different after. And I've studied all of Ace's books. At this point, I'm pretty sure I know more about demons and hell than you do," I teased.
I'd been meticulous in my research.
I knew all about what it meant to be a demon, about how demons Claimed their mates and what that meant, and I'd been careful to look into procreating since I knew that, some day, I wanted that for me, for us. When I'd asked, Drex had agreed that a kid would be good one day.
"Okay," he agreed. "I have a concession though."
"Okay, what is it?"
"We get your weight up first," he said. "Once you become part like us, you won't have as strong an urge to eat anymore. It will be hard to change your weight. I want you healthy first."
"I'm getting closer," I told him, then felt his hand slide up my thigh, over my belly both of which I believed had already gotten plumper.
"Yes," he agreed. "But just a little more, yeah?"
"Yeah," I agreed because, well, I did agree. I wanted to be as healthy as possible when I made the transition. After so long of being so unwell, it was important for me to feel as good as I could. "But then I become yours. Forever."
"Forever," he agreed.
Epilogue
Nova - 10 months
I expected to feel an actual physical change. Even though both Lenore and Jo said it was all very subtle. And mostly, they claimed, things you noticed more and more over time. Like less of a strong reaction when you saw something sad because your empathy had changed slightly.
But I found myself oddly disappointed that I didn't feel any different as Drex and I stood in the woods after the ceremony after the others had departed.
"Mine," Drex growled, grabbing me around my wider-than-before hips.
We were both loving my new body.
It wasn't that different, all things said and done. I'd always been on the tall and thin side. But I'd gotten some padding around my hips, thighs, butt, and belly. And my boobs, well, those went up a whole two cup sizes.
I'd gotten some color back, too.
I wasn't always cold or tired.
I looked and felt the best I ever had.
It was why we'd finally decided to move forward with the ceremony, make it official.
Drex, when I'd approached him about it, hadn't had any hesitation.
Because we both knew.
There was never going to be anyone else for either of us.
It was practically sickening how into each other we were, how we couldn't get enough.
I'd never seen anything like it before.
Except for with Lycus and Lenore and Ace and Jo.
That forever kind of love, that until the end of time kind of love, it was something different entirely.
And I felt so incredibly lucky to be a part of it.
It was hard to wrap my hand around forever, no matter how many times I thought about it, how many times I'd racked all the demons' brains about what it felt like to watch the entire world change around you while you remained exactly the same.
"So, do we consummate this shit?" Drex asked, giving my butt a slap.
"I think we..." I started, trailing off when I heard a snapping sound—twigs on the ground crunching—coming from deeper in the woods.