Seated deep, he pumped inside her like a piston, his rigid muscles flexing under sweat-slicked skin. She tried to raise her hips up to meet him, seeking his next determined thrust, but he was too strong.
The friction ... his growls of pleasure ... the thick heat swelling within her.
Just watching his body move like this was about to send her over the edge. Her hands were drawn to him, palms caressing his sheening chest, then dipping down his torso.
With each of her strokes, with each of his relentless plunges, tension built inside her, spiraling, until she throbbed. "Demon!" she cried, desperate for release. Her head thrashed as the pressure within her gathered, readying to explode.
At last, the pleasure seized her. Scorching. Boundless. "Ah, gods! Malkom, yes!" Her back arched, her nails digging into his hips, wanting more, wanting him even deeper.
"I feel you," he bit out between clenched teeth. "Feel you coming round me." At the last minute, when she was certain he'd remain within, he jerked his hips back.
With an agonized yell, he shoved his shaft over her belly, mindlessly grinding atop her for his final shuddering throes.
When he collapsed over her, she gazed above him at the misty sky, tears welling as she hurt for him - hurt with him.
At her ear, he grated, "I'm still not done with you, wife."
When Carrow woke just before dawn, a cocoon of fog had wrapped around her and Malkom. The last time she'd checked on Ruby, it'd been raining. Now all was still and soft.
Malkom remained asleep, which wasn't surprising. He had to have exhausted himself in the previous hours of sweating, frenzied - and, she hoped, cathartic - sex.
Yet never once had he hurt her.
And at the end of the night, he'd turned on his side so he could enfold her in his arms, clasping her tightly to him. His body still shuddering, his voice raw, he'd said, "A witch holds my life in her palm. Ara, I live or die for you."
Now she gazed down at him. His brows were drawn, his eyes moving behind his lids. His lean cheeks were covered in blond stubble.
So beautiful. Her wild, lost male. How could this demon who'd known so much hurt and shame be so proud and good?
She grazed the backs of her fingers over his face, repeating his words, "Carrow is Malkom's."
Wanting to get back to her own bed before Ruby woke, she reluctantly extricated herself from his arms, earning a soft growl, though he slept on.
She dressed in tattered clothes, then made her way to the cabin, reflecting on the secrets he'd confided, the revelations of all that had been done to him.
In the past, she'd wondered if hatred and abuse might be preferable to neglect and abandonment. At least then she might have found out why her parents hadn't loved her.
After hearing Malkom's tale, she knew how fortunate she'd been. She'd been able to find a new family - a mother, sister, daughter.
And now a husband.
Carrow was lost for him. She admired him, respected him, loved him.
She felt as if they'd turned a corner. He'd let out all his frustrations, told her his secrets. It had to have bonded them. She'd become certain that he could get over her betrayal.
But could he get over the rest - the four centuries of expecting and receiving duplicity - without breaking her heart first?
When he woke, she would tell him that things were going to be different. She wouldn't tolerate him saying cruel things to her - or about himself. He was her husband, and she'd be damned if she let anyone call him those things, not even Malkom himself.
Going forward, she would show him that he was more than his past. Did Carrow believe that the love of a good woman would heal all his wounds? Counteract years of abuse?
No. But the love of a good woman and a new daughter, the respect and gratitude of a witch coven, the eventual welcome into a community of immortals - well, these things couldn't hurt.
She intended to fight his doubt, calling on all her available resources to kick its ass to the curb. If he thought his past was stronger than their future, then he'd never seen a witch hell-bent on saving her demonically proclaimed marriage.
Heartened by her decision, she rubbed her thumb over her ring.
Am I not more than my past as well? She was ready to fight his doubt, but not her own?
Though the ring wasn't as loose as it'd been, she realized it no longer fit her. She removed it, clasping it in her palm as she detoured to the beach.
Standing before the roaring surf, she peered down at it.
Carrow was done.
She'd made this resolution before, but invariably, as time went by, she would try to contact her parents. Always she'd held on to this damned ring, held on to unfounded hope.
Done. She threw the ring into the waves.
At once, she gasped, tempted to dash into the water and find it. But she stopped herself. Tears welling, she raised her face to the mist. Good-bye.
Turning on her heel, she headed back to the cabin. With every step she took away from her past, she felt lighter, as if a crushing weight on her chest were dissolving. The longing, the bafflement, the desperation - all ... ebbing.
She sighed, feeling as if she could finally breathe after so long.
In the bedroom, she tugged Ruby's blanket higher, leaning down to brush a kiss over her forehead. I'm going to take care of you, Ruby. I always will.
Satisfaction coursed through Carrow, a flare of power surging within her. Though doused by her tor"ue, it had arisen...
From within me?
With a bewildered laugh, she climbed into the other bed. All her life, she'd been waiting for this answer. Carrow had always known she could feed her powers from anyone's happiness. She'd just never figured it could be her own - because she'd never been truly happy.
Not until she'd let go of her past and welcomed a new future.
She stared at the peeling ceiling, which looked so different from when she'd left it. Because I'm different now.
Then she smiled, was still smiling when she gradually drifted to sleep.
But not long after, she bolted upright in bed, just as Ruby did.
"Did you feel that, Crow?" the girl murmured. "Something bad's coming."
Chapter 44
"What do you want with me, Mariketa?" Conrad Wroth said as he traced with his wife into Andoain's great hall.
As soon as Mari had been able to locate them - a feat in itself - she'd asked them here to meet with her and Bowen. "I need a favor," she said, beholding the towering, red-eyed vampire. The key.
Conrad was an immortal male, filled with evil - in the form of a vampire's blood-borne memories - and he was obsessed with Neomi, his phantom Bride. Who was asintangible as smoke.
Fortunately, Conrad owed Mari big-time. The ballerina Neomi, now one of Mari's friends, was alive only because of her.