Dark Castle by Shanna Handel

17

Willow

“Prue! What have you done?”I cling to the railing. A cannonball of lead sinks into my stomach as I watch Santo fall down the grassy hill, rolling into the leaves.

“Prue?” Her tone bristles. “Didn’t I give birth to you? Haven’t I earned the respect of being called your mother?”

She doesn’t give a single care for Santo, if he’s alive, if he’s dead. Anger surges through me. I snap, “You earn respect, you earn the title of mother by being there. Not by disappearing for a decade, by…by hurting people. By doing this!” My arm gestures wildly over the wall, to where Santo lies.

I run across the stone tiles toward the stairs, but she’s faster, blocking me. She stands between me and the quickest way to Santo. I feel like I’m staring back at Posie, with her cornflower blue eyes and intense determination. “If I have to knock you down, I will.”

She laughs. God, I suddenly hate the sound of that laugh. I go to run at her, ready to follow through with my word and knock her down. But she holds her thin hand up, fluttering her fingers before me and my mind turns to cotton. “Such a shame you’ve wasted it. I’ll bet you regret that choice right about now.”

I can’t fight back. It’s too late. My vision goes white, my mind cloudy.

Later, I wake in a damp cell. She’s gone. I know he’ll find me, and he does.

He comes to me, his body bruised and battered, but he’s fine. He’s just fine.

He kisses me. He folds his leather jacket and lays it on the ground making a bed for me and finally, finally, we go there, we cross that line. My legs spread further, my hips loosening as I let him in. My body knows what to do, warming and stretching and finally, I’m filled with the full length of his hardness.

He locks his eyes on mine and asks, “Ready?”

Am I?

Yes.

My God, I’m so ready…

My answer is my legs wrapping around his waist. His mouth finds mine, devouring me with hungry kisses as he rocks back, then with a flick of his hips, buries himself in me. Pain flashes through my core and he captures my gasp in his mouth, but he doesn’t let up.

He pulls back, thrusting in me again, then again, and the movement that first caused me pain now becomes a source of pleasure. Oh my God. I didn’t know it would feel like…this.

All the racy books I’ve read, the images I’ve conjured in my curious mind, the times I’ve let my own fingers dance shyly over my sex, nothing, nothing could prepare me for this feeling. Electric pulses seem to be borne from my core, static-ing their way through every nerve ending in my body.

My hairs stand on end, chill bumps rushing over my skin. My sex tightens around him, my legs hold him closer, my hips rock in rhythm with him. My body knows what to do. I know what to do.

I slide my hands around his neck as our kisses grow deeper, as he goes deeper. He scoops an arm under my lower back, bringing me off the floor, tilting my hips higher so he can bury himself deeper.

Just as his body moves further inside of me, I feel the essence of him moving further inside of me, like every fiber of his being is connected to mine in some strange way. As our bodies intertwine, that invisible force that draws us to one another strengthens.

There is no going back once you’ve crossed this line.

I give him my body. I give him my heart. I give him all of me.

I have to trust him not to break me, not to let me fall and shatter into a million little pieces. Because after today, after this moment, I know I won’t be kept away from him, no matter who or what tries to keep us apart.

My thoughts, my worries fall away as my body seems to wake up to a new, higher level of consciousness that is nothing but touch and feeling. That astonishing power grows inside me like water rushing to the wall of a dam. But the dam’s not strong enough to hold. Each time his body rocks against mine, a little bit of the dam crumbles away, the water rising, rushing, demanding release.

I thrust my hips against his, breaking away from his kiss to cry out his name, “Santo!” They tell me his name means saint and I know it’s true because in this moment, the man brings heaven to Earth. I cry out, the noise I make caught somewhere between a cry and a scream.

The dam breaks.

My fingers dig into the flesh of his shoulders, my legs wrap so tightly around his waist he gives a groan, but I don’t let go. If I do, I fear I’ll be washed away by the power of the climax. “Oh my God. Santo.”

Waves of pleasure shoot through me, rocking my soul as much as my body. My breath comes fast and labored as I try to recover. But he’s not done. He holds me tight and rebuilds the wall, making the waters rise again, angry and greedy and demanding.

I don’t have anything more to give, but his body says that’s a lie, taking from me, making that tightening build back up in my core. I bury my face in his shoulder, curling around him like a baby and I whisper his name, “Santo.”

He kisses my hair, my face, his breath coming faster, his skin damp with effort as he presses against me. My name is a whispered promise from his lips. “Willow.”

His body tenses into one tight muscle and he growls my name, “Willow.” With a gasp, he pushes his hips against me, burrowing his cock inside me and his seed bursts forth. Hot liquid fills me, spilling from me as he holds me like he’ll never let me go.

He kisses me, hot and spent, the demanding need gone, but still a tangle of emotions passes between our tongues.

He brushes his fingers over my bruised lips. “We’ve got to keep moving. We’ve got to get out of here.”

He pulls away, our bond suddenly seeming fragile. So eager to finally have him inside me, I hadn’t thought this part through. Before, we were tied together by a force with only desire stretched between us. Now that I’ve given myself to him, now that we’ve crossed that uncross-backable line…

We fight this war as one.

We take on this life—as one.