Echo(100)

Reaching my hand to his face, I press my palm against his stubble, and all I can manage to get out is a breathless, “I’ll love you no matter how dark you turn.”

And with that, he finally kisses me, pressing his lips to mine in a fever of emotion that tells me everything that is buried deep within him. His body, heated in bands of roped muscle, rolls on top of me. We’re flesh on flesh, transparent, bare. Scars opened wide for each other to see.

His lips move with mine, opening me up to reunite, claim, and control in carnal ustulation. He growls, rolling his tongue with mine, as I tangle my hands in his hair, savoring his taste.

His cock is thick and hard against me, but the moment he grinds himself over my *, I wince in pain, crying out as I flinch away from him. He tenses above me, and I try pushing him off of me, but he doesn’t budge.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out as he allows me to sit up.

“It’s okay,” he soothes.

“I just—”

“You don’t need to say a word.”

Coming in, he takes my breast into his mouth, sucking my nipple, all the while keeping his eyes pinned to mine as I look down at him. He feasts in primal need and I don’t deny him of his need for closeness in this limited capacity. With my legs bent and spread, he lowers himself on me, dropping his lips to my *.

“Don’t let me hurt you,” he tells me as I run my hands in his hair, fisting it the moment his tongue dips through the seam of my core.

He keeps his touches soft in a very un-Declan-like way that I’m not used to. Dragging his tongue over my clit and then pressing the flat of it against me in slow circles, sending a chill up my spine. Gently, he sucks the bundle of nerves into his mouth. His deep groans vibrate against me, and I know he’s restraining himself, so I grant him permission, saying, “It’s okay. You won’t hurt me.”

As soon as my words are out, he bares his teeth, sinking them into my most tender flesh as I pull his hair. I hiss in a pleasurable pain that only Declan is able to give, and I’m satisfied in knowing he’s content to inflict it upon me. I sink down into the bed when his hot tongue begins f*cking my *, dragging in and out of me in torturous delight.

Grabbing on to my hips, he begins to move me over his tongue, up and down, push and pull, forcing me to now f*ck his face. Sparks flicker when I close my eyes, and I give in, grinding down on his face, and his approving growls to selfishly take this pleasure he’s offering spurs me on more.

Thighs quiver, hips buck, heart thuds, and I don’t deserve this.

“Stop.”

I push him away and scoot back.

“No,” he barks at me, pulling me back down, wrapping his lips around my clit as he grips his cock and starts jerking himself off.

“Declan, please,” I whimper as he draws me closer to my orgasm, but he ignores me.

His tongue laps over me, teasing, sucking, biting, licking. He’s fervent in his movements with only one goal in mind, and when he rolls my hips against his mouth, I explode.

Shattering waves of electricity burn and spark through nerves and veins, heating me in a frisson of passion. I come sinfully hard, feeling every pulsing contraction of my * gripping Declan’s tongue as he moans out his own orgasm. Our sweat-covered bodies writhe together as internal wounds open in vulnerability. Tears spill from the corners of my eyes when he kisses his way up my battered body, over my breasts, along my neck, and up to my lips where he says, “Taste how perfect you are for me,” before dipping his tongue in my mouth so I can taste myself on him.

And we kiss.

We kiss like no two humans have ever kissed before.

We’re tear-stained savages, sharing a single breath of life, death, and love. Giving, taking, bruising, and reuniting what I thought was forever destroyed.

And for the first time in a very long time, when I tire out and close my eyes, I spend my slumber with Carnegie.



WAKING UP, DECLAN is sitting up in bed next to me, drinking a cup of coffee and watching the world news on the flat screen above the fireplace that’s across the bedroom. As the rain falls outside, pelting against the windows, I lie still, allowing my body to wake up slowly as I watch a breaking news segment.

When I stretch out, Declan notices I’m awake, saying, “Morning, darling,” and opens his arms up for me to curl into.

“What time is it?” I ask in a groggy voice.

“After one. We slept all day.”