What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(100)
A human wouldn’t have survived without being sewn closed, but already the signs of his flesh knitting back together were evident. Pink skin formed over the very edges of the wounds, healing while I cleaned him.
His dark eyes sparkled with the light of a thousand stars enrobed in the shadows of the night, his gaze heavy lidded and jaw clenched. “Are you afraid, Little One?” he asked, something deeper echoing in his voice. An element that tasted like power coated my skin, making my flesh pebble as if the cold of a winter’s storm brushed over me.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I murmured gently, feeling the truth in those words. At least physically; I had no doubt that my body was safe with Caelum. He would never hurt me, never allow anything to harm me. He’d been willing to sacrifice himself to a cave beast to buy me the time to get away to safety.
If I’d doubted his confession of love before, could there ever be any doubt after that?
His answer was quiet, the words hanging in the air with gentle menace. “You should be.”
I swallowed down my nerves and finished cleaning his wounds, shifting my attention to the blood on the rest of his skin and trying to ignore the threat that seemed to hang between us.
No matter what he said in the moments after his battle, I couldn’t bring myself to heed the warning.
He tipped himself back, lowering his hair into the water so I could run my fingers through it and wash it free of the creature’s blood. When he was finally clean, he gleamed like new gold. Something about him seemed stronger, better, after the battle with the monster who would have made a meal out of him.
As if he danced on the edge between something human and something…not.
“When I put my hand between your pretty thighs, will I find you already slick for me?” Caelum asked, the words more a growl than his true voice. I glanced around, my nerves rekindling as I realized that the majority of people who remained in the room watched us intently.
I couldn’t fault them, not with the energy rolling off of Caelum. I couldn’t decide if I was about to be part of a sexual exhibition or a sacrifice.
If he’d fuck me or bleed me.
If I hadn’t trusted him not to hurt me, I might have run, but as it was, I couldn’t make my legs move away. I worried my bottom lip, reconsidering my choice to touch him in the first place.
There were too many eyes, too many witnesses, and I realized with horror that more people had filtered into the bathing cavern as I’d washed him. “You had your chance to walk away,” Caelum said, touching a gentle hand to my cheek. He brushed my hair behind my ear, taking a single step closer until his body pressed against the front of mine.
He was already hard, his length teasing the flesh of my stomach. “But you haven’t answered my question, Estrella. Are you wet for me? Does the idea of them watching me fuck you turn you on as much as it does me?”
“I didn’t think you wanted them to see me,” I whispered, trying to align his desire with his possessiveness. It didn’t make sense, leaving me with the distinct feeling that I was missing something very vital.
“I don’t want them to see you, but I have no qualms with them seeing you take my cock like you were made for me,” he growled, glancing up at the men who watched. His gaze paused, snagging on someone as I turned to follow it. Jensen stood at the edge of the bath, watching intently while I gulped. His nose was a crooked mess, the skin around his eyes blackening. “Because by the time I’m done with you, they’ll know exactly who you belong to.”
Caelum’s hand brushed over my mark, drawing a startled gasp from me that he swallowed when he crashed his mouth onto mine. He tilted me to where he wanted me, maneuvering me while I struggled to breathe against the force of his assault.
His lips were bruising mine. His fingers were harsh where he gripped the back of my neck in a controlling hold that left me no argument. No place to run, no escape from him.
His hand drifted between my thighs, shoving them wide enough for him to feel me. He took the answer I hadn’t been ready to voice, the distinct slickness of me coating his fingers as he shoved them inside of me and worked my pussy open for the cock that would tear me in two.
He growled into my mouth, the sound resonating through him and into my chest as he walked me backward to the edge of the bathing pool. He lifted me, setting me on the ledge as he had the night he fucked me for the first time. There was no patience in his movements as water sloshed onto the cave floor around me, his hand shoving me until my back struck against the stone floor.
My nipples pebbled with the shock of cooler air, my attention straying as the feeling of eyes on my body threatened to overwhelm me. I squeezed my legs shut, moving to sit up as Caelum’s hand shifted from where he’d pushed me into position to gripping my entire breast in his hand and kneading it.
A strangled moan came from me as I fought to sit up, that punishing grip pressing down firmly enough to keep me rooted to the spot. Pinned in place and on display.
“Show me my fucking cunt,” he ordered, slapping his free hand down on the outside of my thigh when I didn’t immediately relent. “Show them what they will never have.”
I sank my teeth into the inside of my cheek, biting down sharply and squeezing my eyes closed as I slowly spread my legs to Caelum’s invasive stare. He stared down at me, at the space between my legs, and touched gentle fingers to my core that were so at odds with the predatory way he watched me. “Good girl,” he said, sliding those fingers inside of me. He leaned forward, burying his face into me without pretense.