Chapter 156: Chasing Pleasure (II)

Elara:

Pleasure rolled through me in waves as my whole body clamped down around nothing. My thighs shook against Lorien’s hips, my head thrown back, and I bit down on the heel of my hand to keep from screaming.

He held me through all of it, his hands steady on my hips and his forehead pressed to my collarbone. He too was breathing like he had run a race. The orgasm went on and on until my vision went white and I sagged against him, boneless and panting.

For a moment there was nothing but the car and the road and our breathing.

"My moon," he said quietly. His hand came up and pushed the hair off my face. And the gentleness of it, after everything, made my chest ache. "You should sleep."

"I don’t want to sleep." But I was already heavy, my limbs full of sand. Even the heat had already softened to a warm glow. "I want-"

Instead of finishing, I gave another roll of my hips, and the ember caught again. He was still hard against me, and his breath caught at my unexpected move. I looked at him through my lashes - flushed and wrecked and beautiful - and made a decision.

I wanted to come again. I wanted to do it on him, with him, and I wanted him to watch.

I started moving again, slow at first, a lazy roll that made his hands tighten and his jaw clench. "One more," I said. "Give me one more."

"Elara-"

"Just one more." I ground down, harder, and the pleasure was a fresh wave, hot and bright. My body remembered exactly where it had just been and wanting to go back. "You said-"

"I said nothing." But his hands came up and cupped my face, and then he kissed me. It was slow and deep, and I felt the last of his resistance dissolve.

I tasted it, the way his mouth went soft and gave in under mine. I rode him with everything I had, fisting my hands in his open shirt, mouth on his, and hips moving in a rhythm older than any rule either of us had ever lived by.

The second peak came faster, building out of the first’s ashes, and I chased it shamelessly, grinding down on his hardness through the fabric. My slick made everything slippery, and my clit burned with it.

His hands were everywhere - my back, my hips, my hair - and his mouth kept saying my name, over and over, like a prayer, like a warning, like an end.

"Elara. Elara-"

It hit me like a wave breaking. I cried out against his shoulder and came. Hard. My body seized in his arms, and he held me through it with his arms banded around me and mouth pressed to my temple. A shudder went through him as my body clenched against him - his own control fraying, snapping for one white-hot second.

Then it was over, and I was gone.

I slumped completely in his arms, boneless as a rag doll. My forehead fell on his shoulder, my breath coming in shallow pants. His arms stayed around me, and his voice came from somewhere above me - gentle, wrecked, and warm.

"There," he said softly, and his lips brushed my hair. "There. I have got you, Little Silver."

I wanted to say something - about our tangled relationship, about what had just happened, about what would happen next. But the words were too heavy, and the car was warm, and his heartbeat was under my cheek, steady as a lighthouse.

I was asleep before we reached the gates.

- - -

My alarm began ringing somewhere beside my head, and for several seconds I genuinely considered throwing it against the wall.

My head was throbbing so violently that every sharp beep felt like someone was hammering a nail directly into my skull. I groaned, blindly reached for the alarm, and finally managed to silence it before burying my face into the pillow.

It took me several painfully slow seconds to realize that I was back in my own bed. I stared at the ceiling, trying to remember how I had gotten there, but the harder I tried, the worse my headache became. The only things I could clearly remember were Jasper leaving, Lorien arriving, and then... nothing. Or rather, fragments.

My memories after Violet and Myra left were scattered pieces that refused to form a complete picture. I vaguely remembered the car. I remembered heat. I remembered Lorien. After that, everything became frustratingly blurry.

"What happened last night?" I muttered to myself, immediately regretting speaking because even my own voice seemed too loud.

I forced myself out of bed and somehow made it to the kitchen ten minutes later, where I prepared a hangover drink with trembling hands.

I emptied the entire glass in one go and waited for the horrible pounding in my head to ease. Thankfully, it worked enough for me to think again. That was when I finally noticed what I was wearing.

I looked down at myself and froze. I was still wearing the dress Violet had practically forced me into the night before. I had apparently been so exhausted... or drunk... that I had simply collapsed into bed without changing.

My eyes moved over the dress, and then I noticed one of the thin straps hanging loosely from my shoulder. It was broken. I stared at it for several seconds, wondering vaguely how that had happened. Then something clicked.

The car... Lorien... Kiss...

My stomach dropped. Another memory surfaced, clearer than the others, followed by another and another, until my entire face went hot.

"Oh no," I whispered.

I remembered leaning toward him. I remembered staring at his lips. I remembered being far too close. And then I remembered exactly how thoroughly I had ignored every sensible thought in my head. I covered my face with both hands and made a strangled noise of horror.

"No. No, no, no, no, no."

I paced across the living room, my broken dress strap bouncing against my arm as I desperately tried to convince myself that I had somehow imagined everything. Unfortunately, my memory was becoming clearer by the second.

I had been drunk, under the influence of that ridiculous moon orchid cocktail, and apparently my common sense had decided to abandon me completely.

"I kissed the Headmaster," I whispered before immediately correcting myself in horror. "No. I didn’t just kiss him. I-"

I stopped, unable to finish the sentence, and stared at the ceiling as though the Moon Goddess herself might provide an explanation.

"What was I thinking?!"

I dropped onto the edge of the couch and buried my face in my hands again.

"I am never leaving this room. Actually, I’m never leaving this dorm. Someone find me another realm. Immediately."