Bowen makes a noise that’s almost a laugh, but it sounds like it’s strangled halfway through. “I don’t have any contraceptive spells on me. I haven’t needed one in quite some time.”
I know it’s just horny hormones fucking with my head, but I have to clamp my lips together to prevent myself from confessing my undying love. Tomorrow, I can remember all the ways I find him infuriating. Right now, he’s too good to be true.
When I’m sure I can speak without embarrassing myself, I clear my throat. “I have one in place. A witch can never be too careful, you know.”
He strokes his big hand up my thigh over my hip to press against my stomach. I would call it a calming touch if he didn’t have two fingers’ worth of magic still buried in my pussy. “Give me a few more orgasms, Evelyn. I won’t last once I get inside you. I need to feel you come again.”
Oh no, he’s not getting away with that. I muster my body into motion and lean up to grab his hand and pull him forward until he covers me. “Are you going to roll over and go to sleep after you come, Captain?”
His jaw drops. “Fuck no. I’ve wanted you too long to be satisfied with a single time. I want you again and again and again, until we’re both too exhausted to fuck.”
I was hoping he’d say that. I kiss him, tasting myself on his tongue. I clench my thighs together, which serves only to drive his magic deeper. “I want your cock. At this point it’s not a want, it’s a need. Please give it to me.”
He props himself up so he can see my face. “You’re a menace.”
“Guilty as charged.” I snake my hand between our bodies and wrap it around his thick length. And it is thick. He’s a big motherfucker everywhere. I tug, and he allows me to guide him by his dick until he’s settled between my thighs.
He’s still fucking me with his magic. I shake. “Is it—”
The feeling inside me shifts. Later, I’ll let my mind be blown by the fact that he’s got magic inside me and it’s bringing only pleasure and no pain or fear. The control required will give me a bit of a meltdown … later.
Right now, I can’t stop whimpering as he uses his magic to part my pussy lips. Opening the way for his cock. And still he keeps up that delicious stroke against my G-spot.
Considering how we started this encounter, it’s so fucking sexy how he holds himself perfectly still as I press his cock down until it notches on my entrance. I drag a single finger down its length and wrap my hand around his base as best I can. I use that hold to guide him closer, guide him into me, inch by devastating inch. He’s wide enough that it’s on the far side of uncomfortable, but I don’t stop. Not when my body is already melting for him.
“Evelyn.” His voice is a ragged gasp. “Evie, you’re killing me.” Before I can ask him if he wants me to slow down, he grinds out, “Don’t you dare stop.”
I don’t stop. I’m not doing most of the work anyway. He’s the one thrusting at my gentle command, filling me so fully that I’m certain I’ll burst into flames. It takes forever and nowhere near long enough for me to envelop him to the hilt. Bowen, my fiercely honorable pirate, holds himself perfectly still over me, in me, as tremors rack his body.
His expression is almost agonized. “You really are a witch, woman.”
I would laugh if I had air to breathe. He might think I put a spell on him, but the feeling is entirely mutual. I can’t get enough of him. Even now, I’m fighting to stay still, to not wrap him up in me until I don’t know where I begin and he ends. I’m so fucking greedy for him that I truly hope what he meant about going all night, because I don’t know if even that kind of marathon will be enough to satiate me. “Bowen.”
Just like that, his shakes still. “Say it again.”
I reach up and he lowers himself enough that I can hook the back of his neck and tow him the rest of the way. When I say his name again, I do it against his lips. “Bowen.”
He rumbles out a sound that’s part moan and part growl. Then he takes my mouth and begins to move between my thighs. For all his comments about going too fast, I’m the one who begins to spiral at the slow slide of his length inside me. He made me come too hard earlier; I don’t know if I ever came back down properly.
It’s all frenzy.
I move on instinct, doing anything to get closer, to hold him to me tighter. He’s obviously of the same mind, because he works his arms between me and the bed, pinning me to his body as he grinds into me. Each stroke is barely a stroke at all, as if he’s trying to reach some secret part of me deep inside and he can’t bear to retreat more than absolutely necessary to thrust again.
I’m moaning. Maybe I’m whimpering. Fuck, I might be speaking some arcane language known only to lovers.
It doesn’t matter, because he understands me. He gives me exactly what I need. Bowen uses his arm beneath my hips to lift just enough to hit—“Yes, there.”
And then I’m coming again and, holy mother of gods, I think I’m squirting again as he grinds into that spot over and over, milking every bit of pleasure from my body. Too good. Everything about this is too good. How am I supposed to walk away now?
You know how, little bird. One foot in front of the other.
CHAPTER 19
Bowen
I NEVER HAVE BEEN A MAN WHO QUESTIONS HIS PURPOSE. When I woke up on the deck of the Crimson Hag, I might as well have been a newborn for all the history I brought with me. Ezra became something of a father to me, and the C?n Annwn Council my gods. Never to be questioned, always to be followed with a devotion that was more than earned. Or so I thought.
Nowhere in that worldview is there room for lies.
I still don’t understand why the villagers here didn’t report the deaths. Once a beast takes a human life, theirs is forfeit. Except …
“What are you thinking about so fiercely over there?” Evelyn trails a single finger over my chest. She’s draped half on top of me, her body loose and sleepy.
“I didn’t realize you were awake.” True to our word, we had sex for hours before passing out sometime in the dead of night. Judging by the angle of light coming through the windows, it’s close to midmorning.
She snuggles closer until I put my arm around her. It’s very, very cute. “That’s not an answer.”
I want nothing more than to roll her onto her back and lose myself in the pleasure of her company for a few more hours. Even if I do, these thoughts will still be waiting on the other side.
I sigh. “When humanoid people end up in Threshold, they’re given the same choice we gave you. It doesn’t matter how they got here or what kind of person they are. They can join or die.”
Evelyn’s finger stills. “Yes?”
“Those we deem monsters don’t get a choice. Every time we’re called in, it’s after a death has occurred … or so I thought. What if we’ve been butchering them simply for the sin of wandering where they shouldn’t?”
She props her chin on my chest, her green eyes serious. “Would it matter?”
The question stings. “Of course it would matter.”