His eyes burned into hers, searing her with their intensity. Never looking away, he slowly pulled her legs apart. Heat flamed in her face. She should have felt vulnerable so wantonly displayed, but it only made her burn hotter. Once she was fully spread beneath him, Lucian dropped his eyes. The hunger on his face nearly sent Effie over the edge, her inner muscles clenched, a silent demand for him to fill her.
As if he could hear the call of her body, Lucian lowered his head, his eyes lifting to hers as he groaned her name. Not breaking eye contact, he ran his tongue along her core, the sweet pressure too much for her. Effie shivered, the wet glide of his tongue reverberating between her legs. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she lost herself in the feel of him as Lucian played her body more masterfully than a musician, his symphony composed of her soft cries of pleasure.
Liquid desire surged through her veins, igniting her even as need continued to pool within her. She whimpered, her body chasing something she didn’t know how to ask for. Lucian was there, his hands on her and in her as his voice filled her mind.
“That’s it. Just let go.”
Her hips shifted, moving of their own volition as they followed the gentle command. Lucian continued to stroke her with his tongue, one hand pressing down on her belly while the other curled up into her, rubbing against a bundle of nerves that had tiny stars exploding behind her eyes.
Lucian growled in satisfaction as she spasmed around his fingers and the vibrations sent her over the edge. Effie’s back arched off the ground as the world unraveled around her. For the second time that day, Effie floated in a sea of consciousness, sparks of pleasure continuing to flicker on the fringe of her awareness.
Before she could even comprehend what happened, Lucian’s lips were at her ear, his voice a deep rumble. “I’m not done with you yet.”
A grin stretched across Effie’s face as more happy tingles sparked inside of her body. She barely managed to open her eyes in time to see Lucian’s clothes answer to the same fate as her own. A small gasp of wonder left her lips as he knelt between her legs.
If she was cast from moonlight, he was kissed by the sun. Golden skin stretched over cords of muscle with a dark sprinkling of hair that only enhanced its natural radiance. She eyed him hungrily, drinking in the sight of his powerful body looming over hers, his eyes hooded, his cheeks flushed with need.
Need for her.
The knowledge wrapped itself around her, giving her a siren’s confidence as she reached out to take him in her hand and guide him to her center, her need for him an ache that wouldn’t be denied.
Lucian’s breath escaped in a hiss as she stroked him, reveling at the silk and steel feel of him in her hand. Her name was a tortured moan as it left his lips, and Effie felt it ring through her body as she arched her hips up, pressing the tip of him against her.
“Please, Lucian. Don’t make us wait any longer.”
His eyes were barely more than bronze slits as he grabbed her by the hips and shifted her position.
“Please—” she moaned, and her eyes rolled back as he circled his hips, dipping the barest inch inside of her.
“What do you need?”
Whatever she intended to say was gone. The words lost in a haze of pleasure.
He slid in a little further, her inner muscles fluttering as they stretched to accommodate him. “Tell me,” he demanded, his hands flexing into her skin.
Effie forced her eyes open, swallowing thickly as she looked up at him. If there was any piece of her heart that was still her own, it was lost in that moment. She was hopelessly and irrevocably his.
Somehow she managed to find the words to tell him what her soul recognized long ago. “You—just you, Lucian.”
His eyes closed at her confession, his throat bobbing as his fingers dug in almost painfully. Several heartbeats passed before he opened his eyes again. When they did, they flared with the full force of his power. Just like the first time he’d used it on her, she was consumed by the overwhelming feeling of experiencing everything all at once. Lucian chose that moment to slide the rest of the way inside of her, joining them completely in one hard thrust.
The feeling of him inside her was so exquisitely perfect that it was almost too much. She couldn’t help the moan of pleasure as it was torn from her lips as her body pulsed around his.
“Are you alright?” he asked, veins straining in his neck as he held himself perfectly still, letting her body adjust to his length.
“Oh yes,” she breathed, her eyes peeling open just long enough to see the flush of pleasure her visceral reaction caused. “More,” she demanded, her hands running down his back to grasp his ass.
Lucian gave her a feral grin and flexed, every wonderful inch of him pressing into the most secret places within her.
Effie exploded around him, his name a sob on her lips as the world turned into a ball of pure light. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced, but she only had eyes for Lucian. He was made of glowing strands of golden energy, and it was the most devastatingly beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
I’m seeing Lucian’s essence, she realized once she returned to herself. Is this what he meant by fuj d’âme, she wondered as she drank in the beauty that was Lucian’s soul.
“It is,” he confirmed, leaning forward to claim her mouth with his. Weaving fingers through hers, he deepened the kiss, pressing their joined hands to the ground on either side of her head. “And it’s only just begun.”
He rocked his hips back as Effie wound her legs around him, locking him in place as she let out a low growl of protest.
His responding laugh was both tender and potently male. “Let me love you, Effie.”
“Well when you put it that way . . .”
He chuckled against her lips, the laughter ghosting through her mind like the sound of rustling leaves. When he pulled back again, she didn’t fight him. Instead, she focused on the sensations rolling through her body like an oncoming storm. Recognizing them as the promise they were, Effie gave herself over to them. To Lucian.
He activated every single bundle of nerves with each toe-curling thrust of his hips. She never knew it could be like this. So aware of—and unable to control—her body. He milked every cry from her throat, every single shiver, and still he demanded more. It wasn’t until she was desperate with need, her body quaking beneath him, that he finally increased the pace, driving into her with a mindless purpose.
“Lu—” she gasped, not even able to finish his name as he propelled them both toward release.
This time when she came apart, Lucian was right there with her, his consciousness mingling with hers as they floated somewhere above the golden threads of their physical forms. There was no telling how much time passed as they existed there, their souls’ very essence entwined in a way few must ever experience.
Effie didn’t have the words to explain the all-encompassing bliss searing through her in that one endless moment. It was perfection, and just as she expected, now that she knew what it meant to truly be with Lucian, she would never be the same again.
Sometime later, head resting on his chest and legs tangled with his, Effie sighed. “Now that we got that out of the way, I think you have some explaining to do.”
Chapter 17