by Lucy Auburn
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do that,” he says, hands picking me up and sliding me slowly off his shaft—then effortlessly dropping me back down on it as he rocks upwards with his hips. “I’ve got this, Dani. You just relax.”
So I do. He’s a gentle but strong lover, guiding me up and down on his body, twisting and pressing his hips forward to grind against my clit and bring me pleasure. I moan softly and let him do all the work, feeling selfish and giddy, undeniably turned on by the kind of strength that can pick me up and fuck me without even straining.
“That feels good,” I moan, as he bottoms out inside me and presses me hard against the wall. I pull him into me and rub myself against the hilt of his shaft, wide open and dripping wet on his thick length. “Just like that.”
“As you wish.”
So he grinds against me instead of stroking, rocking his hips in slow movements, sealing my mouth with a hard kiss. My legs tighten around him, and I dig my fingers into his shoulder. The hard press of the ice cold opal tickles the back of my neck, but I ignore it; there’s a different kind of heat going on here, one I won’t deny myself. A pulse starts inside me with Lynx’s rocking motions, and I clamp around his dick, enjoying the shudder that goes through him as I tighten my walls against his shaft.
As Lynx pushes me towards the edge yet again, as my body unravels around him and dig my fingernails into his muscular back, my eyes are drawn towards the corner. Nearly forgotten, barely visible, Ezra watches us, his mouth slack as he edges towards orgasm. Our eyes meet, and his cock twitches in his unforgiving grasp, pulsing as he comes. He stares at me, grabbing his cock head and holding it, mouthing something in a silent voice.
For a moment, I swear he’s saying...
Lynx groans and pants against my neck. He bottoms out inside me, hands spreading me open wide. I gasp at the feeling of him so deep in my body; catching my mouth in his own, he rubs my clit in circles with the hilt of his cock. A pained whimper spills from my throat, silenced by his lips, and I start to pulse all around him as I come.
This time the orgasm is white-hot, sharp and fast, wiping out every thought in my mind. I close my eyes and throw my head back as I come on Lynx’s hard shaft. He groans and repositions my body against the wall so he can drive his length inside me in fast, hard, punishing strokes. Setting a relentless pace, he keeps my orgasm going on and on.
Then I feel him shudder, bottom out, and groan. He freezes, hips canting just slightly, and starts to come.
He keeps coming.
And coming.
Pulling out, pushing back in, pulsing. I can practically feel his balls shudder and shake as he presses them against me and lets all of his desire course out into my body. His fingers dig into my thighs, his mouth open on a quiet, shaking groan, his legs shaking as he uses all his strength to hold me up. I lick my lips as the last of my own orgasm comes to an end with a pulse around his shuddering dick, and his back muscles strain as he spills more inside me.
“Almost done.” His voice is ragged; he twists his hips out and back in one more time, grunting against my neck. I can feel him shake all over, like a horse at the end of a race, his strong body covered in sweat. “I think that’s the last of it. Oh, gods.” He shudders one last time, hips canting towards me, buried in my body completely as he answers the call yet again. “I swear, Dani, I think that was the last of it.”
I laugh despite my exhaustion. “You’ve got to be dehydrated after all that.”
“What can I say,” he murmurs against my neck, “I was holding it in for a long time.”
We lean our foreheads together, panting warm air, bodies trembling. He lets my legs down carefully, one at a time; they feel like that weird jello at the dining hall I never eat.
“Shit. That was amazing.” I lean back against the wall, blushing at the wetness sliding down between my thighs. “What do I do about the uh...”
Lynx blinks at me, hands pressed against the wall on either side of me, erection softening between his legs. “The what?”
I feel like I’m going to combust. It’s Mateo, in a sprawl on the bed, who bawdily answers for me. “She’s got enough cum on her legs to make a slip and slide, ya nerd. It comes out of there when your dick isn’t keeping it inside anymore. Don’t you know physics?”
Lynx cuts his eyes at him. “You should go wait for Sebastian to get out of the shower. Wash your mouth out with soap while you’re at it, dick.”
“Oooohhhh, Lynx said a bad word!” Mateo’s sing-song voice is enough to make me wish I had something to throw at him—or the energy to do the throwing. “What a bad, bad boy.”
The bathroom door opens, and Sebastian walks out of a cloud of steam, naked and dripping all over, rivulets of water streaming down his chest and nestling in the V between his hips. His dark hair falls into his gorgeous blue eyes, emphasizing the sharp cut of his jaw, the pale stretch of his skin.
I just fucked him and three other men, but I swear I could do it all over again right here, right now. That’s how undeniably gorgeous he is.
“Here.” He holds out a wet washcloth to me, and I stare at it. “I could hear the fucking loud mouth through the door and over the water pressure combined. Wipe the mess off your legs. Or don’t.” The smirk that dances on his lips is full of sexual energy, even after everything. “Some people are into licking it off.”
As much as that thought sends my mind skittering down a thousand filthy imaginings—who knew you could go from virgin to pervert so quick—I don’t think I could survive another orgasm. They’d have to bury my body in an unmarked grave, because I’d die in such twisted agony that no one would be able to identify me.
“Thanks!” Snatching the warm, wet cloth, I press it between my thighs.
And Lynx reaches down to cup my hand, then takes the cloth and slowly brushes it up and down the insides of my legs. His sultry brown eyes are watching me; I lick my lips and clamp my legs around his hand, enjoying the pleasure that slides across his expression.
If demons are wicked, then they just put that wickedness inside me, because I find myself thinking that I could actually do this again. My eyes trail down Lynx’s muscular, expansive body, flicking to the member between his thighs. I heard plenty of stories from the group home about teenage boys who came in a flash and never got it up again, but I have no idea if that applies to men, especially the kind of men who can choke people to death with their bare hands.
As if reading my thoughts, Lynx slides his hand off the wall and brushes his fingers against the pulse in my throat. He presses lightly, palm wrapping around me, eyes settling on my face. His touch a gentle yet somehow erotic reminder of my strength—and yet at the same time, all I find myself thinking is that I could order him to stop and he would have to.
I could make him get down on his knees in front of me and lick the mess off my skin, then press against his tongue and clamp my thighs on his head. I can almost feel the press of his cheek stubble against my sensitive skin.
“Alright.” Ezra’s voice startles me; I somehow forgot he was splayed out in my desk chair in the corner, that he came watching us have sex just a moment ago. He’s cleaned himself up since then and looks like it never happened.
Standing and stretching, he kicks the bathroom door shut, watching me with Lynx, wariness on his face. “This has already been dangerous enough. We have to go before we risk this stretching Dani’s powers and somehow hurting her.”
Mateo grumbles. “She hasn’t been hurt so far. How much of her power does she really use by passively summoning us? It can’t be any different than when she summons her fire.”
“No.” Lynx pulls back and throws the washcloth into the hamper in the corner, regret crossing his sweet, gentle face. “Ezra is right. We can’t risk it. Especially for something as selfish as sex. Besides, she was a virgin before this—we could hurt her.”
“I don’t feel hurt,” I grumble.
But as the words leave my mouth, as Lynx pulls away from me co
mpletely, something drops inside me. His touch leaves me and trepidation fills the place where it was.
An instinct, one born in my lizard brain—that little part of every human that remembers what it’s like to be the hunted as well as the hunter—screams that something is wrong. A dizzy, overwhelmed feeling washes over me and weakens my knees more than any mind-blowing sex could.
“Are you okay?” Lynx is staring at me, concerned. Jokingly, he adds, “Too many orgasms?”
I open my mouth to pithily respond.
And fall over in a heap instead.
Chapter 23
“I’m fine.” I push Lynx’s hands away, try to ignore the dark expression on Ezra’s face. “I’m okay. It’s nothing.”
“You’re sure?” Sebastian asks, voice quiet. “If there’s pain, I can take it away.”
“It was nothing. Just a little fainting spell. Like one of those women in silent movies. And Lynx caught me.” I give them my best reassuring smile, hoping they don’t notice the black opal is resting against the back of my neck, impossibly cold. “I’m sure I’m just a little dehydrated or something. All I need is a good night’s sleep.”
“On that note,” Ezra says, “we should go. Now. The risk is too great.”
To my shock Mateo says, “Agreed.”
I blink at him, feeling a little wounded. “Really?”
“Don’t pout at me,” he gripes. “I just don’t want to watch you die from something as dumb as sex. Although if it’s with me, it would be worth it.”
A wink follows this last declaration. At least he’s consistent.
“Alright.” Sighing, I give them each one last look as they walk around the room gathering up clothes, weapons, and everything else they want to take with them to that nowhere place. “It’s not like there’s room for the four of you in my bed. I guess I’ll just cuddle the pillows.”
“Or use that ten thousand dollars still stashes in your wardrobe,” Lynx suggests. “That’d buy you at least one body pillow. You could even give it abs like mine.”
Chuckling, I wave his suggestion away—then take a breath in, let it out slowly, and release all my worries and concerns at once. Satisfied as I am with the evening we just had, it’s easy enough to let it ebb out of me and let go.
They fade away slowly at first, becoming incorporeal and just slightly different in the light of the overhead fixture, and then vanish all at once as they disappear to that other place, where I can’t follow.
As soon as they’re gone the black opal heats up to my skin temperature once more. Mouth dry, I reach around and pull it to the front of my neck, staring down at its glossy black claws and strange silver clasp. Something about it nags at me, but I can’t quite figure out what; maybe I’m just tired, but I’m getting a sudden sense of déjà vu. Which is ridiculous, because I’ve been wearing the necklace for a while now.
Shaking the feeling off, I step into the still-steamy shower—thanks Sebastian—and wash everything as thoroughly as I can, reveling in the ways that my body feels different but also the same. By the time I step out, towel wrapped around my middle, I’m exhausted. But I manage to spare the energy to strip the bed, cringing at the damp stiffness of the sheets. A spare set is in my wardrobe; I yank it out, roll my eyes at yet another phoenix-branded nightmare, and stretch the four corners over the mattress until the phoenix’s wings are spread wide.
It feels nice to have something like this, something that’s mine to keep clean and use as I wish. I don’t have to worry that someone will wake me up before sunrise tomorrow to kick me out of this bed and hand it over to the next aching body.
When I finally flop down between the comforter and the sheets, hair still damp, wearing my pajamas, I fall instantly asleep. It’s the dark, dreamless kind of sleep, so deep I’m barely aware of time passing.
I wake once, in the middle of the night, to a sharp prickle against my chest. A sudden sense of foreboding fills me, and I’m certain somehow that there’s a figure standing over my bed. But as soon as I stir it’s gone. Blinking my eyes, I turn around onto my other side and fall back asleep, joining the dreamless darkness once more.
I barely wake up in time for my classes. Stumbling through the early morning motions, I make it to Yohan’s classroom without a second to spare. He doesn’t lecture me, but he does sigh a little through the nose, like he’s disappointed, and his mouth thins into a disapproving line.
A line that gets thinner and thinner when I not only fail to summon my wings, but my fire as well. “I don’t know what’s wrong,” I tell him sheepishly as class ends.
“Figure it out,” he suggests.
A suggestion that carries over into my combat and history classes, where I fumble through moves I know I can do, and find myself barely able to keep my eyes peeled. Something is wrong, but I don’t know what.
An absurd thought comes to me halfway through the day: maybe the demons fucked the talent out of me. But it’s so ludicrous that I dismiss it right away, even though I have to admit I’m walking a little gingerly today, after last night. I may not have felt any pain at all during our epic rounds of carnal lust, but my not-so-virgin body is raw in places I didn’t know could get raw.
Let’s just say I’m glad I don’t ride a bicycle anywhere.
The worst class, by far, is at the end of the day. Walking towards the back campus towards Meyer’s gym feels like a journey, especially so soon after having my ass handed to me by a disapproving McKinley with nothing but her bare hands. If I know Meyer, he won’t be any easier, and I have the feeling my phoenix fire won’t come to me any easier than it did this morning.
I’m dreading it—so much so that I barely manage to resist summoning the demons. After Ezra’s stubborn resistance yesterday, I don’t want to deal with his disapproving green eyes. And I especially don’t want him to see me fail to use my powers. I’m sure he’ll blame it on what we did, as if his dick has phoenix-energy-sucking abilities. And for all I know it does.
Meyer is waiting for me when I step through the double doors to the gym. He has an odd look on his face, like he’s been holding something in for just this very moment. Maybe he’s constipated.
“Are you still wearing the black opal?” He sounds worried, which confuses me.
“Yes.”
“Show it to me.”
This is odd; he’s never acted so aggressive or impatient before. Then again, I’ve known him less than a week.
Drawing the necklace from beneath my shirt, I put it on my palm, uncertain. “Is something wrong?”
“No. Yes. I don’t think so.” Frowning, he paces over and stares down into the opal, his mouth and brows creased with worry. “Something has changed. Something is...”
Suddenly his face falls into shock, and he looks at me accusingly. “Sexual demonic energy! You gave in to temptation, didn’t you?”
Nothing could burn as hot or dark red as my cheeks right now. “That’s none of your business!”
“It is my business!” He waves his hands in the air, then starts to pace back and forth, hand on his chin. “This can’t happen. It’s too fast... need to make it to Wednesday... no time...”
Half his words are drowned out by his own worried mumbling, but he manages to shoot me a glare more than once, making it clear what he thinks of my sexual choices. Not that it should be his business, but I feel embarrassed; I haven’t even told my friends that I lost my virginity last night. They haven’t even met the demons.
Oh. Which reminds me. “I’m supposed to ask you if I can compete in the group combat drills this weekend. Fisk wants to put his upperclassmen up against a few demons, and since I have four ready to go—”
“I’ll take care of that,” he says, sounding more than a little peeved. “You shouldn’t be summoning this quartet of yours so flippantly, and your other teachers shouldn’t be getting in the way of your Grim training. Especially the shifters.”
He says the last word the way you might says heathens or peasants but somehow all r
olled up into a singular ball of scorn. Grims, I’m learning, don’t come from a very non-discriminatory culture. No wonder the only non-Grim allies they have in battle are the demons that they summon and control.
And no wonder the shifters send their kids here to protect phoenix students and fights Grims. Besides the obvious financial advantages they get from being near the once-a-generation Gold Phoenix—more than one legacy here had grandparents who rolled in money when the last one was discovered—they don’t get judged by uppity Grims. I wouldn’t want to fight on the side that thinks I shit in the streets and roll in it.
“So, here’s what we’re going to do.” Apparently having made up his mind about something without even speaking a word to me, Meyer turns on his heels to face me, expression resolute. “We’re going to test your powers. I want to see just exactly how much harm this particular... transgression has caused.” I narrow my eyes at his word for me losing my own damn virginity; it’s not like it was his choice to make for me. “If we’re lucky, you’ll still have plenty of power to last you through to next week. But if not, we’ll have to take extra precautions.”
“Such as?”
“You can’t exactly practice using your powers if every time you do so risks activating the soul bond and draining them.” He crosses his arms over his chest, looking defiant. “I may be the newest teacher here, but I won’t let my most important student—”
“Only student,” I mutter.
“Only current student,” he corrects me. “I’ll be teaching the upperclassmen how to defend against demons, siren song, and Grims as well soon enough. But this isn’t about me as a teacher; this is about you, Dani, and your future. A future you won’t have if you don’t take extra care with your powers. So let’s see just exactly how much you have left.”
He snaps his fingers at me, and I give him a puzzled look. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Summon your fire.”
Oh. Great. This is a pile of shit already, and I haven’t even tried anything at all. But Meyer doesn’t look like he’ll take “I don’t wanna” as an excuse, so the old academy try it is.