My arousal continued to build at his touch. At his thrusts, hot and heavy with a demanding tempo. My thighs trembled as his hips rocked and pumped.
Staring into his eyes, revealing how turned on he made me. How far to the edge he was pushing me. Keeping me revved so near to falling into an abyss.
Refusing to break eye contact, I defiantly held my own as I held onto my power so that he could see I was strong enough to hold us both up.
A long throaty groan of desire escaped my throat. Never wanting this feverish pleasuring to cease.
His thumb’s circling stilled. “Anya.”
“Yes?”
“Come for me.”
Heady from his command, jaw gaping, and mind free-falling, unable to fight this orgasm, fight my feelings for him, struggling for air, my pelvis begging for deeper penetration that came with each pummel. Our lips hovering so close his breath merged with mine.
His left hand grabbed my throat. “Like this?”
“Yes.”
Feeling like his possession of me was complete.
His voice was husky. “Because you’re mine now.”
“I was always yours.” And I always would be.
His thrusts were relentless as the intensity grew, capturing me in its thrall.
Effortlessly, I chased after my climax, this blinding pleasure holding me in a spiral, sustaining the ecstasy, stealing what felt like my last breath. Seemingly dragging me along through an erotic wilderness, swept up into a dream, I was too gone, shuddering through erotic sensations that made us one.
His completely.
Just as he was now mine.
Cassius
Anya lay fast asleep with her head resting on my chest. Locks of her soft hair spilling like still water over me.
It felt like a drug when she touched me. Being in her presence was enough to calm me.
As she rested, I allowed my thoughts to carry me back to the carnage of the hours before.
To the room where it all started for us. Had I purged the darkness living inside of me? If anyone could help me, it would be Anya.
Her eyelids blinked open.
“I’m sorry.” I said the words that I’d been dying to tell her as she slept.
She stretched languidly. “You already apologized.”
“I know.” I let out a regretful sigh. “It doesn’t excuse what happened.”
“You were angry. You were hurt. ”
I pulled her in and pressed my lips to her forehead. “I was, but that wasn’t you. I wasn’t angry with you. You can’t condemn the daughter for sins of the father.”
“But isn’t that why you brought me here?”
“I do feel like I saved you from him. Even if that wasn’t my intention.” Because my intention was catastrophic. Living with this would never be easy. “You.” I looked into her eyes. “You’ve changed me.”
She stared up like she wanted to believe me but wasn’t sure.
“You asked me to tell you, so I will. I want to show you . . . me.” I eased myself from beneath her and swung my legs off the bed and got up. Getting dressed, I gestured for her to do the same.
Then I took her small hand in mine. “Do you trust me?”
“I do.”
“Come with me.”
“Where?”
“We have to go back.”
Her eyes widened in concern as she interpreted my meaning. After a few seconds, she agreed with a nod.
Together, hand in hand, I walked us back to the place where it all ended for me. Where my life as a young man changed irrevocably. Where I became the man I was now.
Together, we went back to the chapel.
We walked along the well-worn pathway to the place that had once brought joy but had morphed into a prison for my soul, where it was destined to be trapped forever—before her.
Before this beautiful woman came into my life. Agreeably, I had brought her here, but she wanted to stay, which felt like an unseen miracle.
Anya, this young woman who carefully stepped over the threshold with me to the most haunted location on the property, one where the ghosts continued to savage me day in and day out, cleaving to my being as though I was the only vessel for their revenge.
The place was desolate and, at the same time, filled with chaos. Debris was strewn across the aisle, with not one patch free of disarray, paying tribute to all the sins cast amongst the crumbling walls.
I leaned back against one of the pews. The only one not touched by a sledgehammer. By my hand, no less.
Folding my arms across my chest, I said, “You were going to try to clean this place up?”
She nodded. “Seems silly now.”
“No, it was more than I could ever have asked for. More than I deserve.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I’m sorry to bring you back in here but I think it’s the right place to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Tell you what really happened that day.”
Whispers of memories scurried out of the shadows.
She nodded, encouraging me to go on and turning to look for a place to sit on a half-destroyed pew. She gave a shy glance my way as though knowing she was drawing attention to what I’d done to the seat all those years ago. There was enough there for her to get comfortable.