Where Lightning Strikes (Bleeding Stars #3)(76)

Darkness flickered at the edges of my eyes.

The spark of a storm.

Streaking light.

“Fuck,” Lyrik whispered hoarsely, clutching me tighter. “Tell me you’re okay, baby. Tell me, Blue.”

“Yes.” It barely passed through my trembling lips.

He pushed in deeper, body stretching mine in a searing pleasure, just as my breath stretched thin, the pain scorching and blissful and dangerously dark. I gasped and writhed as he seated himself deeper. Deeper and deeper until I was trembling and shaking.

Forcing himself to keep still, he hugged me closer. There was no space left between us. No room for breaths or thoughts or actions that weren’t shared between the two of us.

Dirty.

Memories of the cursed word flitted at the outskirts of my mind.

But, no.

Never before had I felt closer to another soul. Never before had I touched on a beauty quite like this.

The kind found in complete surrender.

In a place where you’re defenseless.

Willingly.

Where your preservation comes from the hands that could just as easily crush you.

Emotion gripped every cell of my body, taking up my heart and filling my head. It grew so profound I felt it shatter my spirit. It scattered in a frantic bid to meet with his.

Lyrik had knocked down every wall. Wiped out every physical barrier. Eclipsed every fear.

And he’d replaced them all with himself.

Just like he’d promised from the beginning.

But I knew it was so much greater than that.

This menacing, mysterious boy had completely captured my heart.

“Tell me you’re okay.” It came through gritted teeth, and I knew he was barely hanging on to a quickly unraveling string. “Tell me you’re with me. Me.”

“I’m with you.”

Because he’d captured all of me.

Taken.

Possessed.

He slowly withdrew before he slid back in. He wrapped an arm just under my breasts, the other winding up at the side of my hair. He tugged me a little to the side, his mouth coming down on my exposed neck, nibbling at the skin, trailing my chin. Oh so soft as he brushed it against my ear.

“Do you have any idea what this feels like? Being in you this way? Fuck…so f*cking good, Blue. No girl should feel this good.”

He struggled for a breath. “But it’s more. You. Trusting me. Letting me take. Fuck…just wish I could give. Do you hear me? What have you done? What have you done?”

I’d fallen.

He began to move in a hypnotizing dance.

Slow and fierce.

Careful and abandoned.

Pained and perfect.

That energy rose up on all sides. Billowing and blistering and building.

The entire world dropped away, and we were in a free fall.

It was the weightlessness that felt so good. No thought given to the ground that would come up so quickly. No consideration for the sharp, jagged rocks waiting to pierce us when we landed.

Lyrik released his hold from under my breasts, his hand so hot against my stomach as he rocked into me, our bodies lost to a heedless, reckless rhythm. Callused fingers played across my lower abdomen, drifting lower until he spread me, stroking my clit.

“Lyrik.”

He melted with me until I was lost. Until my head spun with dizziness and my body burned with bliss. Until I was shivering and pushing back against him, wanting more when I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

Until just like he said, the only thing I knew was his name.

Lyrik.

Lyrik.

Lyrik.

I screamed when I came, falling apart in his arms as he clung to me, holding me up as my bound hands went weak in the same moment as my legs.

His hips jerked and his body bowed around mine.

He shuddered and groaned.

“Blue.” The whisper caressed like the wisp of a silken sheet.

I sagged against him and he quickly loosed the tie he’d made in my bra and freed my hands.

I crumbled in his hold. Carefully, he shifted to lie us down in the middle of my bed, never letting me go. Up against all his hard and heat and mystery, I curled into a ball. He buried his nose in my hair, exhaled into the night. “My brave, beautiful Blue.”

Silence took us over, the only noise the faint whir of a passing car in the distance, the cold air pumping in through the vents, and the erratic beat of our pounding hearts.

God.

I felt it.

Felt it as if it’d become detached.

Physically removed.

That tightly held roughened exterior gone.

Shredded.

That girl I’d run from for so long relieved, as if she’d lain in wait amongst the deepest roots. Dormant for the winter. Blossoming beneath the sun. Sprouting new growth.

Freed.

Lyrik squeezed me closer, and I could feel his hesitation, a suppressed turmoil that pressed against the warmth enveloping us. Like an echo of my own fear and hope. “Come with me to California tomorrow.”

Shock froze me, but he continued on, his words pouring out as if maybe he wanted to stop them but couldn’t. “We’re heading out early and I’m going to visit my family before the show Anthony has organized for tomorrow night. Come with me. Shea’s gonna be there one last time before the baby comes. I want you there, too. Stay the weekend. I’m not ready to let this go.”