The sunlight filtered through the delicate lace curtains, casting soft patterns on the floor. Marlena stood there, her breath shallow, eyes shimmering with unshed tears. John's hands cradled her face with a tenderness that almost broke her. She had just told him she wanted to make amends with Brady, a revelation that had sparked hope in his eyes. She felt the weight of their past, their shared pain, and the fragile thread of redemption that hung between them.

 

John's thumb brushed away a tear from her cheek, his voice a low murmur, "Don't worry, Brady’s not here, we're alone."

 

She wanted to believe him, to lose herself in his reassurance, but the uncertainty gnawed at her. Their lips hovered, mere inches apart, the space between them charged with unspoken words and unresolved emotions. The air was thick with tension, her pulse quickening at the proximity.

 

His breath was warm against her lips, a tantalizing promise of the connection they both craved. Marlena's heart pounded in her chest, each beat echoing the doubts that still lingered. But when John's lips finally brushed hers, it was as if a dam had broken. The tentative touch of their lips sent a shiver down her spine, a soft sigh escaping her.

 

He kissed her gently at first, testing, seeking permission. The warmth of his mouth was a balm to her aching heart, each kiss a silent plea to forget the world outside. She responded with equal fervor, their kisses deepening, becoming more urgent. His hands moved to her waist, pulling her closer, and she felt the solid strength of him against her.

 

Just as the kiss became a fervent exploration, the shrill ring of the phone shattered the moment. They broke apart slowly, the reality seeping back in. Marlena's heart pounded, the sound an unwelcome intruder. She turned away, walking toward the phone, her movements mechanical, like a marionette pulled by invisible strings.

 

"Hello?" Her voice was steady, belying the turmoil inside her.

 

"Marlena, it's Roman. Can we meet?"

Before she could respond, John was beside her. His hand closed over the receiver, gently taking it from her grasp.

"John, wait," she protested, her voice tinged with frustration. "Roman needs to talk to me. It’s important."

He tightened his hold on the receiver, his eyes locking onto hers with an intensity that made her pulse quicken. "I know," he said, his voice firm, "I need you."

"John, you can't just—" Marlena's anger flared, a mix of irritation and lingering desire. "This might be important. I need to address this."

But John didn’t relent. He placed the receiver on the table, not bothering to hang up, the click of the phone against the wood echoing in the silence. The stark reminder that Roman was still on the line, listening to every word, hung heavy in the air.

"John," she started again, her tone a mix of exasperation and pleading, "Roman is waiting. I can't just ignore him."

He closed the distance between them, his hands finding her face once more. "Marlena," he whispered, his voice a rough caress that sent shivers down her spine, "I need you."

Marlena's breath hitched as he placed the receiver on the table, not bothering to hang up. The click of the phone against the wood was loud in the silence, a stark reminder that Roman was still on the line, listening to every word.

 

"John," she started, but the words died in her throat.

 

He closed the distance between them, his hands finding her face once more. "Marlena," he whispered, his voice a rough caress, he repeated. "I need you more."

 

Her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. The guilt of leaving Roman hanging on the other end, the fear of Brady's disapproval, the overwhelming love she felt for John. It all crashed over her in waves, each one threatening to pull her under.

 

But in John's eyes, she saw a lifeline. A promise of redemption, of a future where they could be happy again. She let herself be drawn into his embrace, their lips finding each other in a kiss that was anything but tentative. It was desperate, hungry, a clash of need and desire.

 

She clung to him, her fingers threading through his hair, as if holding on to him could keep the rest of the world at bay. His hands roamed her back, grounding her, pulling her closer. She could feel his heart beating against hers, a rhythm that matched her own.

 

In that moment, nothing else mattered. Not Roman, not Brady, not the past that haunted them. There was only John and the promise of a love that could weather any storm.

 

The phone lay forgotten on the table, Roman's voice a distant echo, as John and Marlena surrendered to the fire that burned between them.

 

“John, I’m not kidding, Roman, he was looking for me…This is a bad idea.” 

 

His hand captured her neck, palm welded to the sexy slope as he tipped her chin up. “I agree. It was a very bad idea to wear that fucking skirt, sweetheart.” She arched a delicate eyebrow. “Are you going to shred this one?” But all flirtatious banter was replaced with raw, carnal want. 

 

“Fuck. John, don’t shred this one⁠—” 

 

Then his mouth was on hers, swallowing the tiny moan that escaped her parted lips, determined to rectify the hours he had spent away from her. Hell, the fucking months of torture spent without her. Gripping the thin material in his fist, he dragged the skirt up her legs and pushed his hand between her thighs, earning another sweet moan. He swirled his fingers over the soaked material, a guttural curse wrenched free as he confirmed how aroused her fear made her. 

 

He had her in his arms and pressed to the stone wall, his need to taste her unleashed. Her moans turned breathy under his fierce demand as he trapped her wrists against the stone, his body pinned to hers as he greedily devoured her sounds. She turned her head to drag in a breath. “John⁠—” 

 

“I should have never stopped kissing you,” he said, the confession dredged from the vile depths of him. “I should have taken you to bed and made love to you until you could no longer comprehend the meaning of shame.” He drew in air past his constricted lungs. “I should have never believed you and Roman we’re getting too close.” Eyes wide and cast upward, her gaze soldered to his. Freeing a wrist, she placed her hand on his chest. With her index finger, she gingerly traced the crescent she carved into his flesh to inflame it further. 

 

“I don’t know why I ran away to the Salem Inn, I should have stayed here with all of you,” she admitted. Moving her hand to his face, she kissed him slowly, tenderly, answering his suspicion. While Marlena had recovered most of her memory, there was still a vital piece missing. A selfish part of him wanted to accept the gift of her selective memory, but that was not how this worked. As time passed, she was going to suffer her guilt more acutely. When she attempted to pull away, he kissed her harder, brutally stealing her breath to make it his own, as if he could siphon her grief. 

 

Everything between them had been topical, a calm but fragile surface with delicate banter and traces of passion to mask the dark and torrid vortex beneath. Only when she was breathless and gasping against his mouth did he break off. “So I’m going to keep kissing you,” he swore to her. “I’m going to keep touching you, and making love to you, and fucking you, until I exorcize the shame you’re suffering from every cell of your body, even if I have to exhaust you in the process.” He would eat every bit of it for her if only she would let him. 

 

She latched onto his shirt, clenching the material in her slender hands. “None of it was your fault.” Her swallow was painful. “I wasn’t able to be objective, to help Brady and that pain… I don’t know. If I could’ve found a way, than I wouldn’t have been so obsessed with punishing him. I needed someone to punish.” She shook her head, hiding her eyes. “I’m the one who lost touch with reality long before that night he got shot.” 

Brady and Roman.

The tragic accident that left Brady paralyzed, and no one to punish for that except Roman. The very first tipped domino. “But I can’t go back there,” she said, and he was unsure if she was referring to the physical place or the hell inside her mind. “Just…touch me. Keep touching me until I shatter. God, make me feel anything else.” 

 

A primal growl tore free, and he had her insufferable skirt hiked up her thighs before he pushed a hand beneath the hem to feel her, wet and ready for him, the thin fabric of her panties dangerously close to being shred right along with his restraint. “I’ll give you anything you ask of me. Just don’t disappear again.” He breathed the words across her lips before he recaptured her mouth. 

 

While sparks of light rained down like falling celestials from the darkest court of heaven, he feasted on his own fallen angel, devouring her sin with each greedy, lust-filled kiss. 

Fuck, he would be the one to commit every deadly sin to keep her his. 

 

Their tongues tangled and lashed with each heated exchange of breath. Their touches became desperate, fighting to be closer. She had his overcoat pushed off his shoulders and the buttons of his shirt pried open so she could flatten her palm over the crescent, ratcheting his heart rate to the climbing beat of a drum. And fuck, she was soaking her panties as he rubbed her, coaxing him to intrusively push at the barrier, the soft give of her pussy driving him right out of his damn mind. 

 

He tugged the elastic away from her body and slipped his hand under the fabric, his fingers seeking the perfect center of her. Marlena gasped over his mouth as he pinched her clit between the slat of his fingers. Her blunt nails tracked across his skin before she pushed against his chest for leverage as she provocatively worked her hips to shred his sanity. 

 

She rode his hand so fucking sexy, grinding her clit against the heel of his palm as he plunged two fingers inside her cunt. Jaw clenched, he braced one hand on the wall above her head and fucked her pussy with his fingers, his cock straining against the closure of his pants at the seductive feel of her arousal. Her scent torturously invaded his system as her inner walls tightened around his fingers, warning how close she was to breaking, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the erotic way she was rolling her hips. 

 

“Fuck, so fucking sexy,” he gritted out between gnashed teeth. “Do you want to come on my fingers or my cock?” he demanded, his voice gravel. Her heated gaze snared his. “I want your cock.” 

“Fuck, Doc…” Untamed need unfurled in his veins, and he swore she had already incinerated the last of his control until she tugged at the clasp of his slacks, and he came undone. 

 

With pained effort, he took a deliberate step back, chin tipped up as he tore the belt buckle open and lowered the zipper, issuing a silent command. Beautifully disheveled, Marlena pushed off the wall, her hand finding his pants before she took him out. Her soft palm fisting his cock was such sweet torture, he bit off a growl. As he captured her mouth, tasting her exquisite mix of sin and virtue, the buzz of her phone sounded out in an infuriating disruption. Breaking away, she breathed a curse as she knelt and dug out the device from her bag. 

He glimpsed the “Roman” Institute on the screen, and a hit of fury spiked his bloodstream. Fucking bastard. 

Rationally speaking, he could never identify the precise moment insanity overtakes the mind, as one is already gripped by madness. But by then, he was also too possessed by desire to suffer any remorse for what he had to do to obtain it.

 

As Marlena’s phone vibrated with an annoying buzz, she stared at the screen, her thumb hovering between Decline and Accept. Composure all but stripped, John confiscated the device and sent the call to voicemail. “Roman has been trying to contact me,” she said. “I should find out what he wants.”

 

He dropped the phone on her bag, tempted to crush it beneath his shoe. Instead, he let his hands fall to the wall on either side of her, brazenly settling his cock against her belly. “Maybe he wants the good doctor’s services. You do seem to have a thing for complicated cases.”

 

Her glare was disapproving, but beneath that obvious reaction, a hint of doubt crested. With a forced breath, Marlena placed her palms to his chest and stepped around him stepping outside onto the terrace, digging the loss of her deeper as she cautiously eased toward the railing but stopped a safe distance away. She could feel his fingers on her lower belly. “We’re too exposed up here. There’s not enough shadow to hide us.”

 

Despite her avoidance, he sensed her torn emotions. His dark muse was in there, yet as always, she just needed to be pushed past the edge. “I don’t need the shadows to make you come.” He pressed up against her and wrapped his arm around her waist, forcing her toward the railing.

 

“John—” Her fear spiked his adrenals, dosing him with a pure fucking hit to render him drugged. He grabbed her hands and anchored her palms to the cool iron, trapping her between his body and the bars. “Keep your eyes right there,” he commanded her, “on the sky.”

 

Her breathing was erratic, she pushed into him, her backside delivering satisfying friction. “We’re right in view⁠—”

“To whom? We’re just a couple watching the sky.” 

His grip tightened over her hands to hold her in place, his body caged around hers. “To Roman’s apartment. He can’t hear the filthy things I’m whispering to you, or feel how your body responds to me.”

 

“John, stop.” Her panic was tangible as she looked down. Towering over her, he collared her throat from behind and forced her head back as he dropped his lips against her ear, lowering his tone to a lethal decibel. “There are no safe words between us. You want this to stop, you know how to make it stop.”

 

Her swallow pulsed enticingly against his palm, her heart taking flight. “Slow your breathing,” he instructed as he loosened his hold. Gently, he stroked her throat, taming the wild creature in his grasp. “That’s it. Good girl. You know with one command, you can enrapture me or end me. You felt it in the room as you watched me come undone and lose my goddamn mind at the sight of you riding my fingers, coming so pretty for me as your eyes held me captive, and I was dying as I came so fucking hard for you, Marlena. That’s the power you possess over me.”

 

She didn’t have to own it. 

They both knew she could annihilate him right this instant, and he’d praise her while she delivered her lovely damnation. Her body relaxed into his, her breathing deep and slow as he tenderly traced her neck before he removed her hairband, loving the way the soft layers fell over her shoulder. “Fuck, at that moment, I would have traded what’s left of my past memories for just a taste of your sweet, sweet pussy.” His cock throbbed at the prospect. He speared his fingers into her hair and pulled her head back. “Tell me how wet you are.”

 

A reflexive tremble gripped her muscles.

“Soaking my thighs,” she said, shamelessly torturing him. A guttural sound worked free from deep within his chest, and he fastened his eyes closed as he released her and pressed his lips to the top of her head. The air had no temperature. There were no scents. The sounds of the town below had faded away. She was all that he sensed.

 

“You consume my fucking cells, Marlena. I’m always touching you, always inside you. I know you feel me.” He slid his fingers through hers on the railing. “Admit it.”

 

“Yes,” she breathed, her voice scarcely carrying over the wind. “I always feel you.”

 

Like a fiend, approval inflated his ego. “It’s our own unique chemistry. Just like quantum particles whose fates are intertwined, we were created together during the same event. We’re entangled, our properties forever linked wherever we are. Opposites that continuously communicate across time and space.”

 

She shook her head in silent rebuttal, yet he knew she understood every word, believed every word. It was her logic that wanted to deny their connection, because it was inexplicable. So what he was about to do to her would blow her damn mind. His voice dropped to a low rumble. “Don’t remove your hands from this rail.”

 

She clung to the safety of the bar, her body tense, as he slipped one hand away. He grazed his palm up her arm, over the stitches, coasting higher until he was positioned between her shoulder blades where he unhooked the bra closure. She gifted him an involuntary flinch. “Doing your bad-boy moniker justice,” she teased, but he could hear the breathy uncertainty in her voice.

 

“Oh, I’m absolutely about to do it justice, sweetheart.” He sealed his words in a threat as he ground the length of his unrestrained erection along her ass. “You want me to shatter you, then I’ll shatter you from the inside out.”

 

He pushed the bra straps down her shoulders, allowing the garment to slip to her abdomen, her breasts free to experience the satiny sensation of her top. Like a masochist, to torture himself further, he unfastened the button right below the low neckline, granting himself a sexy, teasing view of her breasts. The temptation to capture her peaked nipples between his fingers was a hot demand in his groin, but he returned his hand to hers. “While touch is addictive, the mind is what makes the sensation real.” His claim was backed by the cool caress of light, the haunting notes of the city sounds. “An orgasm is more cognitive than physical, but my little Marlena knows this,” he whispered in her ear. “When the mind and body are in tune, an energy orgasm can clang the fuck out of that tuning fork, and there are no two people on this planet more aligned than us.”

 

Recovering his memory was only one facet of his awakening. Marlena didn’t just have to face her fear, she had to look into the eyes of her monster and surrender. Emergence of their darkest aspect was not a sickness. It was not psychopathy. It was providence. To deny this part of themselves was contra naturam—a sin against their very nature. And Marlena’s denial would damn them both. 

 

“Don’t take your eyes off the sky,” he commanded, the ache in his voice guttural and raw. “Watch those flickers of light and know their beauty could never compare to yours, Marlena. Not for me. There is nothing in this world or the next that will ever rival you. I knew that the very first time I saw you, with the setting sun your backdrop to illuminate you like a goddess. You owned the elements. You owned me.”

 

Her breathing shallowed even as her pulse screamed in her veins, beating wildly as he pressed his lips to the throbbing point in her neck. “You’re so fucking beautiful in every light,” he said, his voice thick with arousal, “yet even more striking in your shadows, where you think you’re safely hidden. You should know by now that you can’t hide from me. Everything you say and do twists me, makes me a feral heathen. You’re so fucking perfect the way you shamelessly ride my hand, your needy clit seeking friction, your pussy gripping my fingers and begging for my cock. So fucking sexy when you give yourself over to the frenzy, you make me a madman who wants to watch you come on my fingers and fuck you at the same time.”

 

The backs of her thighs rested along his, and he jammed his foot between her feet to unlock her knees and splay her legs wide. Unprepared, she tipped forward past the handrail. “Oh, God, John.” A muttered hum fell free as her gaze snapped to the ground far below. As she pushed back against his chest, he sealed his hands tighter over hers on the rail, his bruised knuckles pulsing in painful time to the quickening of her heart.

 

“I swear, I won’t let you fall.” He nuzzled her hair, deliriously drunk on her fear. “But I won’t stop until I discover what scares you, Doc.”

 

Her resulting shiver ricocheted through him, and he banded his body tight around hers. Every soft curve of her figure aligned with his unyielding form to tear at his control. “Every night, I taste you on my tongue,” he whispered over her ear, “becoming a ravenous beast as I’m torn awake, desperate for a chance to bury my face between your thighs and lap your cunt.” 

His cock jumped as she arched her back and rocked into him, her impulse overriding her anxiety. “And I know you feel me. I know the mark on your thigh is fire in the middle of the night when you stir awake to the hollow ache between your thighs. Because I feel you. I feel your fingers, shaky, as they explore over your trembling belly to touch yourself.”

 

He greedily met the slight roll of her hips with his own, catching the flames of her fire as she burned hotter, eliciting an erotic moan that slid beneath his flesh at the tantalizing friction. She was trying not to move, to keep from drawing attention, yet her body demanded the abrasive caress of her panties over her clit, her thighs quivering with need to clench closed and offset the ache.

 

“Do you know how many times I’ve imagined you wrapped around me, what you’d feel like as I buried myself deep inside you?” he said with a dark groan. “God, you have no idea how I’ve tried to satisfy my need for you, thinking the next moment we were alone, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from taking you. All the times I had to restrain myself from pinning you down and tearing your panties off, thrusting my cock inside you at least one fucking time just to get a taste of relief.”

 

His molars ground at the sound of her gasping whimper, his jaw locked as hard as his body to prevent him from ripping the barrier of her skirt away so he could take her right against this railing.

 

“And then the misery, the sheer fucking torment of you when I know you’re doing the same damn thing. When I sense you push your fingers inside, cloaked in the dark, seeking that achy need. Trying so hard to satisfy the desire. I feel you when it’s not enough and you grind into your bed”—he thrust against her ass in graphic demonstration—“burying your throaty moans against the pillow, your hips thrusting so lewd and sexy as you chase that elusive orgasm, your thighs spread wide to feel as salacious as you do when you look into my eyes and see that raw, carnal heat, and are tempted to let go and fall.”

 

Her body held captive in his embrace, every subtle roll of her hips drove him out of his mind. His lips grazed the thinly raised welts along her neck, choking his throat in a thick vise of lust. He breathed over the sensitive joint of her shoulder, the painful desire to sink his teeth into her skin a throbbing pain at the head of his cock.

 

“But you only drive that maddening ache deeper,” he said, his voice coarse, his sinew corded like ropes of fire around his bones. “You can never satisfy the need. Just like now, how we’re right here, so close, but unable to satiate our desire. The craving threatens to make us mad, tear us apart, until we’re clawing at each other and fucking like debased, wild and wicked things.”

 

“God, John. Please…”

 

He groaned at his name pleaded on her trembling breath. Her begging nearly unraveled him, and he shoved her closer to the rail, sparking that flame of fear higher. “Please what, Marlena? Fuck you and make you scream out in front of every person here?” he demanded, breath hot in her ear. “Will that satisfy the craving?”

 

She hesitated, her overstimulated nerves a web of need tormenting them both. “No,” she admitted. “It’s not enough.”

 

He drove her farther, her toes positioned right at the edge of the terrace. His own fear was tested as he dreaded the moment she slipped from his arms. The tighter he banded his hold around her, the more that fear thrashed at the last of his sanity. 

Her instinct was to run. To hide. To deny them. 

Yet the feverish flush of her skin bared her innermost desire to him, those dark little yearnings she refused to confront.

 

“Your appetite is just as wicked as mine, and I’m the only one who knows what you need, sweetheart. The dirty things you want to hear.” He licked over the marks he placed on her neck, letting his teeth take a greedy nip of her skin. “You want to tell me to stop, but that’s only so I’ll push you past that refuge. I wonder if you even know what truly scares you.”

 

She locked her forearms, the heels of her hands braced against the railing, her belly pressed to the iron as the dizzying sensation gripped her. “The fear is a fucking aphrodisiac as we edge closer.” He rutted against her, pushing her another inch over the railing. “Don’t close your eyes, Marlena. Watch those fucking rays of light, feel every fiery pulse rush your veins, how your heart pounds in fright. Let me taste that saccharine fear, baby, the one that really terrifies you.”

 

Lust gathered her muscles tight, her body tensed as she ground against him in need. He brought his foot next to hers and forced her legs together, dying as her broken moan raked over his skin. Her head fell back against his chest as a shiver of relief raced through her body.

 

“Fuck, you’re not actually scared of being caught. Your fear of heights won’t stop us either.” His voice was gravel as his erection stabbed her ass. “You’re not even scared of what I’m going to do to you when I get you alone. You’re frightened of what you’re going to let me do to you, beg me to do to you. And how much you’re going to love every filthy, deviant second.”

 

A breathy moan escaped as she arched her back, her nipples desperately seeking friction from her blouse, and his heart crashed against his chest wall at the erotic sight. Her body was possessed as she yielded to the desire. It took all his willpower to harness a fraction of self-control, to stop himself from fisting his hand in her hair and bending her over the rail and fucking her like her needy little cunt was begging to be fucked.

 

“Dammit, tell me what terrifies you, Marlena,” he demanded.

 

Her whimper set his blood aflame, the sensual roll of her hips pure torture as she salaciously rubbed along his cock. His unfastened buckle snagged on her skirt, and the feel of her frantically reaching for her release was fucking hell as he denied her. He ran his tongue over the smooth surface of his teeth, his lungs seared with her arousing fragrance. “Tell me,” he said with a low growl.

 

“Us.” The word escaped her on a rushed breath. “I fear us. The terrible things we’re capable of…the loss of control.”

 

But the way she was squeezing her thighs together revealed the dark current of truth beneath her confession, just how much those terrible things excited her, how badly she craved that loss of control. He could feel her so close, so damn close to that edge.

 

“God, John,” she breathed his name. “The ache…it hurts. Make it hurt so much worse.”

 

“Jesus, fuck.” He gritted back his need to gnash her skin and deliver the pain she craved from him—the sharp delivery of which could be the sweatheart relief. “Bewitching little siren, be careful what you ask for,” he whispered roughly into her ear.

 

The explicit way in which she arched her back in pursuit of contact leveled him. He dragged his arms over hers, shifting her blouse to offer her nipples the stimulation she was seeking, and when she tried to stifle a soft cry, he was ash amid her fire. He wedged his hand in the confined space between their bodies and gathered her skirt at the waist. He tugged the back of her panties just enough to slide the soaked material over her sensitive clit, and she greedily took the friction.

 

“If you work those sexy hips any harder, I’m going to come all over this fucking skirt, Marlena.” A growl clawed free of his constricted chest. Every tender wound on his body blazed as she defiantly undulated against him. With marked effort, he uncurled his fingers from her clothes. “If I taste your pain right now, I won’t be able to stop.”

 

Her reactive shiver tempted him to the bounds of his control, and as he forced his hands over hers, she turned her palms up and threaded her fingers through his. “I trust you.”

 

Hell would swallow him whole. He lowered his mouth to her neck and breathed her into his aching lungs, tangled around her as she infused his whole being with her delectable scent, her desire for that hit of pain strangling him. “Breathe, baby,” he coaxed her. “Clench that sweet pussy around the throbbing ache. Hold the fire deep inside. Feel my hands touching every beautiful inch of your body. And stop fucking moving, or I swear I’m going to be forced to fuck you in the most obscene way in front of this whole city.”

 

Her body locked tight, the dare to move and end the torture was a charged current strung too viciously tight between them. If she even shivered, he wouldn’t hesitate to shove her infuriating skirt up and bury his cock inside her until she was screaming his name.

 

“I need your touch,” she whispered, flaying the last of his restraint.

 

Unable to deny her, he splayed his hand low on her belly, feeling her pelvic muscles contract. “That’s it, Doc. Feed those dark and needy things right here out in the open. You can’t hide from me, ever. I know the sordid thoughts that surface from the fringe, and how you want me to take you there.”

 

Her body trembled against his in concession, and he slid his hand down to her inner thigh to touch the sigil he carved there, stimulating one of her erogenous zones. He had mapped her body. Nipples, ears, thighs—all places Marlena’s body responded to, but nothing surmounted mental stimuli when it came to making his muse lose her mind.

 

Her throaty moan was pained as she tried to trap his hand between her legs. “You don’t know if you want the pain to go on or stop, it’s such sweet agony. That’s how you make me feel, Marlena. Every second with you is lovely agony, and the pain feels so goddamn good—that satisfying, edging bliss that’s right there, balancing between torture and ecstasy.”

 

The back of her head rolled along his chest, her body shuddering with desperate need for release. He was so fucking hard that with one well-timed thrust sewn to her sexy movements, he would come apart. The relief would be sublime, but fleeting. He wanted to exist in her frenzy. Despite her whimper of protest, he returned his hand to hers on the rail and shamelessly rocked against her perfect ass, becoming a madman as he abstained from giving in to her need. The violent, unrelenting urge to sink his cock inside her soaked pussy thrashed inside his chest like a caged animal.

 

“God, that’s it,” he urged her, his voice a coarse whisper. “You can feel me. I’m always inside you. Clench that sweet, needy pussy tighter and take me deeper. You can feel me as I thrust harder, becoming unhinged as I hit that deep, empty ache.”

 

Her breathing intensified, and he swore to whatever divine entity hung the stars, he could get off on the erotic sound of her breath alone. The throaty cadence sent an arousing jolt to his groin, and he locked his jaw against the feral need to spread her ass and spill deep inside her.

 

“I’m losing my goddamn mind, Marlena.” He groaned over her ear, rocking harder into her. “I need to feel you come for me, baby.”

 

Her body responded to his demand as she pulled her core tight, her yearning to quench the insatiable hunger provoking the demon within to take her far past the edge. They were not a dead philosopher’s soul mates. They were not born from divine thoughts. They were forged in the darkest recess by primal fire and base elements, where not even the gods dared to cross. They could spend eternity locked in each other’s embrace, with him whispering his passion into her ear, feeding off her arousal, bringing her to orgasm again and again, and he could be sustained by her heightened emotions alone. 

And he would still crave more.

 

“I know why you seek the shadows, Doc,” he said, his voice guttural. “I know what thoughts stir you awake at night, especially after what happened, the panic that invades your mind when the silence gets too loud. I want you to know that I don’t blame you” He tasted the full hit of her fear as she pushed back into him, her desire to run a hot lash down his spine. He bracketed his body harder around hers and inhaled her intoxicating scent of honeysuckle.

 

“I’ll be there in the dark with you when you wake,” he whispered, “when you’re trembling, terrified at how turned on you are by the thought of taking a life, the taste of revenge so satisfying and arousing it nearly makes you come in your sleep. I’ll be there for you to take it out on, to rake your nails over my flesh and draw blood and punish me as I fuck you senseless, until you’re unable to think about anything at all. You can lose yourself in the rage, and I promise, when you’re spent, I’ll make tender love to you.”

 

God damn, she was so close, her entire body trembling with her pending climax. “That’s my wicked girl,” he said with a deep groan. “All those dark, deviant thoughts you hide away…I sense them, Marlena. I see them in the storm of your beautiful eyes, feel them when you pierce your nails into my skin. And I taste them like the sweatheart sin in your kiss, the blood-stained on your lips.”

 

“Oh, fucking god…John…” She was unintelligible as she fastened her eyes closed, her body flushing hot and rioting with the agonizing desire to come as her orgasm fought to grab hold. He dug his fingers into the backs of her hands, refusing her escape, a monster as he fed off every painful current tearing through her body.

 

“I’m the only one, Marlena. Say it.”

 

She arched her back, her chest rising to chase each breath. “You’re the only one.”

 

“I’ve felt your pain, so beautifully broken. I’ve seen you at your darkest, and you never looked more exquisite. You’re a vision bathed in moonlight and blood.” He caught her earlobe between his teeth to earn a soft moan. “I’ll be the one to worship you until the end of time, when those forgotten gods scatter the last of the dying stars from the sky.”

 

His body was one white-hot strike away from igniting. To regain leverage, he looked past the terrace. The clouds raced and burned up in shimmering trails across the sky as the cosmos died right along with them. Breaths ragged, she reclined her head against his chest as she straddled the divide between pain and pleasure.

 

“I need the pain, John. Please.”

 

A growl ripped free. “And I need you thoroughly wrecked.” Restraint annihilated, he thrust his cock against her, so close to hitting that wet heat as he drew a torn moan from her mouth, hellbent on keeping his word. Everything that was violent and lovely about his muse was reflected in the chaos of her suffering. She wanted him to hurt her, to punish her—to let her experience physical pain in place of the one that haunted the darkest corner of her soul.

 

He dragged the collar of her blouse down her shoulder to expose her silky skin, and the sight of her injured flesh drove a fire-hot brand into his sternum. He was all fury and wrath as he ran his thumb over the gash along the joint of her neck from where the priestess destroyed his teeth imprint. The very place he marked a sigil on his muse had been defaced, and he had never wanted to burn the world to ash the way he wanted to right now.

 

Suppressing a furious roar, he gave in to the base monster and sank his teeth into the delicate arch of her shoulder. He breathed her in as he bit down, feasting on her flesh like a ravenous devil, his craving for her renewed as the sigil she scored in his skin flamed against the seductive friction her fight offered. Closing his hand around hers on the rail, his gaze fell to the ring circling his thumb, the weapon which had failed him time and again to banish his muse from his thoughts.

 

The danger in sigils becoming conscious lay in the madness. Consumed by their desire, psychosis was inevitable. And he was a fucking maniac for her, his sanity lost when he failed to purge her from his mind. To feed his obsession, he welcomed utter ruination. No one could ruin him more utterly than Marlena Evans.