Eternally Devoted (Frostbite 4)

Finally, he blew out his breath, lowered his head to me, and gave a sad smile. “For now, I’ll agree to that.”

There, in his focused stare, it became glaringly obvious. If I couldn’t solve his situation soon, Kipp would no longer listen to me. I suspected he wouldn’t allow me the right to continue to help him. Yes, I knew the strain all this had on me. I’d seen it every time I looked in the mirror, but giving up wasn’t an option.

Words of any kind failed me. We were at impasse. How could we go forward when we continually seemed to be fighting for something that appeared unreachable? Even after all we’d been through—the Hannah Reid case, the demon in Memphis, and the Animus—we weren’t any closer to solving Kipp’s situation.

We had nothing. No spell to save Kipp. No magical answer that would fix everything. All we had was hope, and right now, I wasn’t sure that was enough anymore.

With sadness tightening my chest, I asked for the only thing that could make me feel better now. Tears made Kipp blurry and I blinked them away, seeing a single tear trailing down his cheek. “Kiss me.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he sealed his lips over mine in soft passionate kiss that didn’t hold any of the heat our real first kiss had in the Netherworld. He offered his love for me in his gentle touch and I relished in the simplicity of it.

Each brush of his lips over mine wasn’t to bring pleasure, but was to remind me that right here...right now…everything was all right. That touched by him didn’t bring pain or misery, and instead, meant home.

In his arms, I’d always be safe and loved. Kipp, as always, was solid, the one piece to my crazy world that had never changed. He bulldozed his way into my life, stole my heart and he’d never let go. He’d always been the one thing that never faltered and he’d never wavered in his love for me.

His kiss told me he never would.

With his help, my back pressed against the ground, and it was soft beneath me. That told me one of us had changed the scenery in the Netherworld. Seeing that before the background had been an empty road, and now I suspected grass lay beneath us, that was the logical assumption.

However, I didn’t look at our surroundings, because I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was Kipp’s lips on mine. How he kissed me. How he stole the thoughts right out of my mind, as well as the worries. And how the moment became only about each other.

He settled himself between my thighs and his hardened flesh suddenly nudged my moist center. I hadn’t known that either of us shed our clothing—in the Netherworld’s magical way—but I didn’t care.

I needed Kipp.

His warm body against mine saved me.

I wrapped my legs around his hips, being as close to him as I could get, as his erection pressed harder against me and sought entry. He lowered the entire weight of his body against me and I needed him to blanket me, as if nothing could ever separate us.

Tears burned my eyes as he thrust forward and stretched me. He filled me so deeply that it only made me cry harder. This, I craved with a desperation that was so raw and real. I wanted forever with Kipp. And the more we tried to achieve that, the more it seemed like an impossible want.

When he slid into me fully I arched up into him, pressing more firmly against his kiss. I didn’t want soft and gentle. I wanted powerful. I wanted to feel Kipp firmly and all over my body. I wanted him to make me ache with the force of his body. I wanted not to be reminded gently of his touch, but to have it marked all over me.

I wanted Kipp imprinted on my soul.

Clearly hearing my needs, he broke the kiss and placed one of his hands around the back of head. He tangled his fingers into my hair and held me close to him. I gazed into the depths of his eyes and read Kipp’s pain. For the first time, I finally witnessed what maybe he preferred to keep hidden. The loss of control he suffered and the pain he endured.

With each hard thrust, I read in the strain of his muscles that more than him being worried over his own life and what not being saved meant for him, Kipp hated that he hurt me. Which brought a harder sob from my mouth and he stole the sound with a soft kiss. As if to apologize that he’d come into my life. As if, to try and make it better.

Nothing would ever make this better.

Not until I had forever with him.

Keeping his mouth pressed against mine, he pinned me to the ground by a hand on my hip. His thrusts came deeper and I arched up into each one. Every thrust he made reached into the very core of me and I needed him there. I needed to feel him inside me. I needed to believe, for this moment, that we could have this.

That all of this was meant to be.

His lips were everywhere, on my cheeks, my lips, my ear, my neck. His breath was heavy, and I loved hearing the sound that Kipp still lived. The knowledge that until his living body died we still had a chance filled me with hope, even if I noticed how weak my hope was now.

Maybe that’s why he drove so deep into me and pumped his hips so hard against me. Perhaps that’s even why he pinned me as he did. To feel like he had some control in the midst of all this chaos.

He pressed his body harder against me, caging me beneath him, and he rocked harder…faster. Our breaths synchronized as trickles of pleasure descended through my body, filling low in my belly and spreading warmth through my veins.

Above me, Kipp drew his lip between his teeth, as he always did when he approached climax. The focused look on his face, the love I spotted there in his eyes as he nibbled his bottom lip, all made my inner muscles clamp tight against him.

He groaned a low and masculine sound that had me vibrating. My fingernails dug into his arms, and he stared at me. He looked right through me, as if nothing else mattered to him but that he touched me now.

His cock hardened inside of me and I wanted to shut my eyes with my building orgasm that curled my toes. Yet, nothing would break my connection to him. Nothing could come between this man, his love for me, and my love for him.