Chapter 4
“I swear, I never want to see another fucking beetle for as long as I live,” I mutter under my breath.
Which might be as long as an hour from now for all I know.
We’ve been stuck on top of this foul-smelling thing for over ten hours now. At least. Possibly even longer. Just floating on the fire. If my ass was capable of feeling anything in this form, it’d still be numb.
Bright side, three out of four guys just got a lot of proactive rest before day two starts out the same way day one ended.
Jude is the only one awake. He never really slept as deeply as the other three, and I’m fairly sure he resents the hell out of all of them for sleeping as well as they have. And he resents me for my wicked vagina voodoo.
My milkshake brings all the boys to naptime…Yeah, that’s not how that song goes. The song is a lot sexier, but beggars can’t be choosers.
They’re a tough crowd, so I take the small wins that come along.
“Fucking finally,” Jude says, causing my attention to lift.
I spot gray land with nothing but a shadow behind it, almost as though there’s a second picture out of frame, and for a second I’m relieved, until I see a girl and guy lifting bows and launching arrows.
“Get the hell up!” Jude shouts as I leap to my feet.
Before I can even react, he flips into the air, snatching both speeding arrows, and lands in a crouch back on the beetle.
He casually tosses an arrow to Ezekiel as he lands at his side, and the two of them throw the arrows so hard they zip through the air in a blur of speed.
Both archers drop to the ground, the arrows sticking out of their throats as their bodies convulse.
“They could have just went on instead of mistaking you to be vulnerable on the back of a beetle, and they’d have survived,” I state, as though they need a reminder of the obvious.
“Depending on their ability to heal, they may still survive if we leave them,” Jude tells me.
They’d better stay dead.
“Does that mean you’re going to do your five-finger-death-punch to ensure they don’t chase us down and try to kill you again?” I muse.
He gives me an annoyed look.
“Did you really just do that?” he asks incredulously.
“What? Use your favorite band to name your Hulk Smash and Decay power? Yes, yes I did,” I say very seriously, holding his gaze like there’s a challenge to see who holds it the longest.
He breaks our stare-down first, and Kai smirks, even though he seems distracted.
“Well. That’s certainly problematic,” I announce in a huff when I see what has their attention.
The closer we get, the louder the telltale sign is, making us view the optical illusion differently. It’s not one stretch of lake we’re seeing anymore. There’s a massive drop below before it levels out, and we’re actually seeing two levels of fire now.
The newest issue is a massive, fiery waterfall that we’re fast approaching, and there’s roughly a hundred foot gap from the start of the firefall to the land across from us.
Hell really sucks.
“How far can you guys jump? Because that’s a little difficult for me even in this form,” I say warily, my heart starting to hammer now.
Gage looks around like he’s searching for something, as Ezekiel answers me.
“We can’t make that jump.”
No land is on either side of us, not giving us any other option, since we’re surrounded by hellfire lava. And this firefall? It’s five times the size of Niagara Falls in width.
The fall isn’t that steep—maybe fifty feet—but there’s no way the beetle won’t submerge with all that weight, even if they manage to all stay on it during the fall. They’ll never survive the hellfire burns.
And the Devil wins.
“Now would be a good time to figure out the riddle early,” I tell them, frantically waving my arms as though that will spur them into brilliance.
“How do you cross an uncrossable passage layered with flames of fucking death without falling or jumping into the fire, when there’s no obvious escape around you?” Jude asks on an annoyed breath.
“I hate that riddle,” I point out, not coming up with my own genius idea this time.
“Jude and I can throw the farthest,” Gage says, cracking his neck to the side. “And we can jump farther as well.”
“Obviously that’s Plan Z. What’s Plan A through Y?” I reasonably ask, knowing he can’t possibly be suggesting that as anything other than a last resort.
They ignore me, and I ignore the firefall’s edge that we’re getting closer and closer to. Okay, so maybe I don’t really ignore it at all. It actually has most of my attention.
This is so not the time for this bug to be speeding up. In fact, this is the worst possible time for it to finally feel like it’s motoring along.
When they continue to stare at each other like they’re calculating the probability for survival and considering this ridiculous plan as their true course of action, I throw my hands up.
“That can’t possibly be the right answer to the riddle,” I shout at them.
Remember what I said about the drop being fifty feet? I was very much off on that calculation.
The closer we draw, the more I realize my depth perception has been masterfully deceived.
That drop now seems endless before it levels back out again.
Damn that Devil and his illusions.
I don’t find myself any fonder of plummeting from a firefall than plummeting from a mountainside. And I close my eyes, because if I can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist.
I can also ignore the roar of the falls that only seems to add to the drama of the dire situation.
“I don’t see any other option,” Kai says like he’s frustrated and furious. “You’d better damn throw me harder than anything you’ve ever thrown in your life,” he tells someone. “Because I’m up first.”
My eyes fly open as I gape at them, but I don’t yell anything because I sure as shit don’t want to distract them when Gage is already winding Kai up, spinning him out like a father would a daredevil child for giggles.
I’m not seeing why those masochist children find this amusing right now, because my stomach is in my throat, terrified a hand is going to slip and Kai will be skipped across the deadly surface.
Just the image and fear of this has me convinced children are sociopaths. It’s always the ones you least suspect.
About ten feet from the edge, he launches Kai, and Kai sails over the massive divide.
I watch with my mouth hanging open, even as Jude starts winding up Ezekiel, preparing him for the same thing. My heart is divided in halves, watching as Kai sails and Ezekiel is being wound up to do the same.
Kai lands with a crash on the other side, bouncing so hard and rolling out of sight.
Before I can shout for him, my words are stolen as I stand frozen and watch Ezekiel sailing faster across the same distance.
My eyes are bouncing everywhere when Jude and Gage dart to the back of the beetle and get into a launch position as they stare straight ahead.
I glance over as Ezekiel lands just as harshly, rolling into the shadowed land hidden from us amongst the fiery lake that is coming to an abrupt end.
Just as the tip of the beetle starts over the edge of the firefall, I turn in time to see Gage and Jude rushing by me, grit and determination shading their eyes as they pass through me in a blur.
I whirl around with them as they pass, watching as it all seems to happen in slow motion. They run to the last tip of the beetle they can reach before they leap as hard as they possibly can.
For an agonizing tenish seconds, I have repetitive heart attacks.
Jude barely makes it across, and he immediately rolls back up to his feet so he can turn in time to see Gage’s fingertips just barely graze the ledge a fraction of a second too late and centimeters too short.
Gage’s eyes widen as he falls to his back, reaching for the hands that make it another fraction of a second too late to grab onto him. Resignation is painfully immediate in his eyes, and his hard gaze turns cold as he falls helplessly toward the lake. My heart lurches as I leap over the edge, diving for him, zapping myself closer to make up ground.
Our fingertips just barely touch, and I turn whole, grabbing onto him as that light bursts from me again.
No magnificent strength saves us as I scream as loud as I can, begging for a miracle of some sort to stop this from happening. I stay whole, knowing those flames won’t simply pass right through me like this.
But I don’t care. I refuse to let him die alone, even as I scream and feel the tears rushing up the sides of my eyes.
A vine slaps against us, and I try to snatch it, having no idea where it came from. Seconds later, a body barrels by me, and Ezekiel turns upside down, reaching out with one hand and grabbing Gage by the wrist.
Our hands are violently yanked apart when I keep falling and he comes to an abrupt halt.
Gage dangles above me, holding on to Ezekiel, and Ezekiel holds onto the vine with his other hand as they swing over the lake.
“Fucking go phantom!” Gage shouts at me as that light continues to beam from overhead.
I immediately lose my flesh, and I zap myself back to the very top of the cliff’s ledge where the other two are peering over.
Then I collapse as that weird light vanishes from the sky.
Even though I can’t feel my legs in this form, they still give out. I can’t possibly stand. I feel like every emotion I have was just put through the wringer then boiled in a sadistic witch’s brew. I’d wager said sadistic witch made a deal with the Devil for her power, because I’m blaming him for everything right now.
I look down the length of my body as Kai turns around and relaxes at the sight of me. Jude has a flicker of relief in his eyes before he turns away and stares over the edge again.
“Nobody gets to die. I’ve decided I can’t possibly survive it,” I say almost breathlessly, though I have no actual breaths in this form.
Ezekiel hauls himself over the edge, smiling at me like he’s amused.
“You solved the riddle,” he tells me. “And just in time.”
“What? How?” I ask, sitting up slowly as Gage heaves himself over and collapses to his back, breathing heavily as he scrubs his face with both hands.
“Screaming vines,” Jude states flatly, gesturing around us.
For the first time, I take notice of the fact there are a lot of black, wide vines all around us, dangling from those ashy trees we saw at the beginning. Most of the vines vary in thickness from one to ten inches. The overachieving thick vines are definitely the creepiest.
“What’s a screaming vine?” I ask, wondering how the hell I didn’t see a forest full of vines that drape over that edge and hang down the length of the firefall.
You think I’d have noticed an entire freaking black-treed forest.
“The vines grow the largest the closest to a fire source,” Kai says as he lifts one of the medium-girthed vines and gives it a shake. “And if you scream loud enough, it forces them to react. You answered the riddle when you screamed like a banshee, and the forest appeared.”
“The answer is to scream for the only vines long enough to span the depth of the Devil’s bowels,” Ezekiel finishes.
“The bowels? We’re out of the belly?” I ask hopefully.
“Just being cycled back up,” Kai tells me. “We’re going in a loop it seems. We’re at the top again, just on the opposite side of the forest we originally decided to skip.”
Of course we are. Why would we get to skip at least one death option?
“That’s a terribly sneaky riddle, because if we can’t see the forest before we answer the riddle, then how do we know the forest is part of the answer without prior knowledge of the course?” I ask incredulously. “What we saw through that wall after it opened was a flat, fiery tundra. That turned out to be the small gulley we started in, and not even a big part of the course. It was all an illusion to think we knew the course.”
“We saw the forest in the beginning. That was the clue to our answer, because to finish the course, you have to complete every obstacle,” Kai says with a shrug.
Ezekiel randomly lets out a loud yell, startling my already traumatized heart, and the vine in his hand slaps forth like an exposed wire full of untethered electricity. He dodges a few slashes it makes.
“The vine closest to you always reacts the wildest,” Jude says quietly.
“You sent the entire horde of vines near edge of the forest over the cliff because your screams were so loud and echoed around. It was almost like you knew the answer without realizing it,” Kai adds.
“No,” I confess, holding up a finger for a correction. “That terrified the living shit out of me. That’s why I was screaming. Apparently I’m a panicky screamer when plummeting to a fiery death.”
Gage laughs under his breath, still staring up at the sky and lying flat on his back.
“For the record, that was a horrible plan. You’re certainly no closer to being my favorite now,” I prattle on nervously to Gage.
A little bit of reluctant laughter follows that as we all turn to face the forest. The high we’re on from the survival of something that seemed impossible is now eclipsed by the dark forest that grows so pitch black we can’t see any deeper than ten feet.
My eyes glance over to the forgotten archers who are now covered in vines and being treated like they’re officially part of the forest.
“At least now I know why they were trying to kill us instead of just running along. They needed a beetle to cross a fiery stream. They could have shot an arrow with rope. But how they planned to paddle the thing upstream is a mystery,” I say as I look back to the guys.
I think Ezekiel gives me a pity laugh, but the others just start walking into the forest.
“I’m almost positive this was their starting point,” Gage says, gesturing over to the two fallen archers. “The forest ran over them like it considered them collateral instead of passengers.”
“I guess they’re not too good at riddles then,” I state absently.
I’m the only one who can see, apparently, once we get into the thick of it.
My night vision isn’t grand topside, but I can see in shades of gray down here, while they stumble their way around. The one person who can’t trip is the only one who can see.
Ironic twist, huh?
Jude follows close behind me, as though he can see my outline and is using me for guidance. I pass through a tree, and I hear a loud grunt when he runs right into it.
I grin as he curses me.
He’s apparently glutton for punishment because he gets behind me again.
“You can turn whole for a while in here. He can’t see you,” Gage says as he comes up on my side, stumbling a little.
Instantly turning whole, my hand darts out and grabs his like I’m stopping him from falling, though he doesn’t need my help. The physical contact feels so good after watching him almost die the last time I was touching him.
He clutches my hand for a second a little too roughly, almost a desperate sort of cling, then drops it and walks ahead, feeling his way around as he manages to pull away from me.
At least I can see with my own eyes that he’s okay. And even in flesh, I still have gray vision. I can’t see too far ahead, but it appears to be more visibility than they have.
“We need some light,” Ezekiel gripes.
Feeling out the energy stirring in me, I test out my powers in whole form. I haven’t been able to do that yet, since I only just started being able to reach for it. Maybe it’s all the adrenaline these damn trials are pumping through me after my level-up.
With one hard push, the acidic power bursts into the vine I grab. It sizzles and sparks, then lights up, slowly climbing up the rest of the vine. If these things like fire, then I’ll consider this their “watering.”
Yes, I contain my laughter for my own joke since they likely won’t find it as funny.
The small flames don’t put off much light, but I do it every ten feet or so, offering them some visibility.
“That’s called a burn,” I say jokingly.
I get groans instead of laughter. See? It’s like someone cut out their ability to find humor.
“That’s not even close to what that nineties line is referring to,” Jude, the all-knowing prick, says.
“If I’m using nineties lines, does that mean I’m from the nineties?” I ask.
“If you’re using nineties terms wrong and causing those around you to cringe, it’s likely you’re from a few generations earlier than that. It was always the parents that screwed up the best phrases when they got in on the fun,” Jude goes on.
“Says the guy who is centuries old. You could be my great grandparents’ great grandparent.” I grin as I add, “Burn.”
More groans. Damn it, I thought that one was awesome.
“It’s a good thing we don’t need your help insulting people,” Ezekiel says, patting my shoulder a little patronizingly.
“Careful not to hit the base of the trees. If they catch fire, it’s like tossing a match on gasoline. The entire forest will go up in flames and burn until the screaming vines drink all of it in,” Gage cautions.
“Well, I’m glad you decide to share that after I’ve been lighting these thirsty bitches up for a while,” I point out.
“You just used thirsty bitches wrong as well,” Kai states from in front of me.
“I don’t think I want to know your definition of that phrase,” I grumble, causing all of the chauvinist dicks to chuckle.
The deeper we go, the more suspicious I get. It’s been terribly quiet. Nothing has tried to eat us, roast us, or drop us into a fiery pit in quite a few hours. Granted, the beetle ride took a while, and aside from a few bird-snakes flying overhead rather ominously, it was rather uneventful.
I’m sure this is just like that. Something long and dull to break down your guard so you aren’t on as high alert when a three headed hellhound comes after you.
“Are there such things as three-headed hellhounds?” I decide to ask aloud.
Gage and Kai shake their heads, and Ezekiel smiles to himself, walking easier under the small bit of illumination.
“Sometimes I wonder how your thought process works, and what all happens from the last time you speak until the next time,” Gage grumbles. “That’s what I find most surprising.”
“Glad my entertainment stock is going up, but I’m actually expecting an answer to that.”
“The Devil invited us to a party last minute, ambushed us with an early final round of the trials, set everyone up for failure on a three-day, impossible quest, and then sent us in here unarmed, while allowing all our competitors to carry their weapons of choice. During all that calculated and obvious plotting, he decided to kindly hand over a list of all the possible creatures we may or may not encounter,” Jude states, each word dripping with sarcasm as though he’s really trying to drive home his point.
Just because I’m feeling petty, I scream loudly, startling all the rest of them.
Three vines whip through me as I go back to phantom mode, and they crash into Jude hard enough to send him flying backwards into a tree. I smile over my shoulder at him as he pushes to his feet, glaring at me the entire time.
“Burn,” I say with a saccharine sweet smile.
Third time’s a charm, apparently.
Kai bursts out laughing, and the vines stay dormant. They truly do only like a good scream. Not just any noise will do. Makes sense, since it’s hell. Screams are probably a part of its diet.
“We’re going to have to stop for the night, or we’re going to—”
Gage’s words are cut off when the light disappears and a cool chill creeps in. I hear thunder, and I worry what it’s warning us is to come. Somehow I don’t think rain and a little lightning are what’s in store for us.
“Black ice,” I hear Kai say on a short breath. “Run!”
“Find shelter!” Gage shouts, dashing through the forest as it lights up in neon blue pulses.
Thousands of flying spiders go crazy when the light starts glowing brighter, slithering like an oozing, neon, live entity over the black trees.
I can hear the sound of rain gaining on us, and I’m too scared to ask why it’s called black ice. I’m also scared why the forest is turning a creepy, glowing blue, but I’m positive the two are related.
Kai shouts, tumbling sideways with Gage as they roll with the shifting ground of the forest that seems to be breaking apart to drink in the rain.
Jude curses as he gets stuck out in a newly made opening, and he dives for the coverage provided by the thickly vined trees.
But the rain catches up too quick, passing through me as I shout a warning to them.
Ezekiel dives to the same broken hole Kai and Gage fell to, but Jude is swallowed up by the earth much farther away. I zap myself to him, landing beside him as he roars in pain, his back arching as agony steals every feature and twists him in knots while the merciless rain pelts him.
I turn whole, not feeling whatever excruciatingly painful thing he is feeling. The rain slaps against me, pounding relentlessly, and I grab his arms, dragging him over to a small cave. The forest has been full of them, but I don’t actually think we’re in the forest right now. It’s more like we’re under it with massive openings over us, exposing us to the surface.
Roots are sticking down all over in this underground world with thousands of large cave holes that I hope aren’t occupied with monsters the same size.
The rain pours through the openings that lead back up the large drop to where the forest is, but at least I have Jude sheltered from it now.
Jude is shivering violently, and I hate to leave him, but I have to make sure the others are alive and okay before I focus on what’s going on.
“Are you okay? Can I go check on them?” I ask in a panic, even though I can sense all three nearby when I go phantom.
“Go,” he bites out. “Check on them.”
I vanish, feeling sick about it as I zap myself to the others.
Ezekiel is staring down at his arm, cursing as he makes a frustrated and pained sound. I dive to him, looking around for the other two, wondering why Ezekiel is just in his boxers.
“What happened?” I ask on a gasp when I see his arm.
It looks and smells like decay, and it’s visibly spreading through the veins.
Kai and Gage jog over, both of them also down to their boxers, and Kai answers.
“Black ice. If it penetrates the skin, it starts freezing you with certain death from the inside out. It spreads fucking fast too,” Kai growls.
Gage starts looking around him. “We need something to cut away the arm.”
My hands reach for Ezekiel’s arm on instinct, and I turn whole when phantom hands don’t seem to be doing much.
“Don’t!” they all shout at once.
Immediately, I flinch at the burning cold on his skin, but the pain is brief, and his relief is instant as his eyes flake gold again, his arm warming under my touch.
Then my stomach roils when I think of how violently Jude was shaking.
“I have to go,” I gasp, zapping back to Jude.
My stomach completely drops when I get back to see him practically convulsing as he wheezes in pain. His neck has an icy, veiny black coloring, as he continues to shake violently on the ground.
I turn whole and dive to him, ripping open his shirt to reveal his entire torso. The decay is spreading quickly, and it’s so much worse than Ezekiel’s was.
With panicked, shaky hands, I fumble with his belt before getting it off, then grab his pants and boxers, jerking them both down to his ankles.
The decaying process goes all the way down to his knees, and it’s spreading lower.
He starts choking when it reaches the top of his throat, and I strip out of my Devil dress, whipping it over my head before I drop to him. Putting as much of my skin against his as I can, I press my cheek to his, hoping this works as fast on an area five times the size of what Ezekiel had.
The burning cold is so much harsher than it was with E, but I grit through it, telling myself in mantra that it’s working. That it has to be working. I’m too terrified to look and see, though.
I don’t speak, unable to find any words that sound soothing enough for this situation. It isn’t until I feel his shaking start to slow down, that I finally look up, finding his eyes already on me.
His teeth chatter, even as his jaw tics.
“If it’s not infecting you, don’t move. It’s working,” he manages to say through a great deal of strain.
I tuck my head back under his chin, sliding my hands over his shoulders that still feel cool, even though the darker color seems to have faded.
After a few more minutes, the shaking stops completely, and he releases a breath that sounds as though it’s been held for ages.
His arms slide around me, almost hugging me, while the rain ceases as abruptly as it began. The neon blue light flickers, losing some of its energy, but still lingering enough to offer us light from the roots above.
Lazily, his fingers toy with the garter straps holding up my red fishnet stockings. At this particular moment, they seem very inappropriate.
I lift up, my eyes meeting his as I cup his face in my hands, studying him to make sure he’s not still in pain. His hands tighten on my ass when my gaze flicks to his lips.
“Ghost Girl! Jude!” We hear Ezekiel shouting.
“Over here,” I say, going phantom and zapping myself up to the forest entry nearest to us.
I see Ezekiel running toward me, still illuminated by the lingering neon blue ooze.
Kai is right behind him.
Both of them stumble to a halt and rake their eyes over my barely dressed appearance. I’m only wearing the lacy panties, the fishnets hooked to the garter belt, and the matching red heels.
It’s definitely inappropriate now.
“Jude is down below, but I think he’s healed. Just a little tired from almost dying and all. Again. Seems to happen a lot with you four,” I say, reminding them this is a time for action as I fashion a more appropriate outfit.
They blink once my bare breasts are covered.
“Only since you came around,” Ezekiel tells me before he winks. “Care to go heal Gage’s leg? A leak sprung above us just before the black ice stopped, and it landed on him before he could get away. We can’t touch it, or it’ll infect us.”
“I’ll go.”
“We’re going to cover as much ground as possible while the black ice residue is glowing. It won’t last long.”
“Go on without us. We’ll catch up. I can find you,” I say before zapping to where I sense Gage.
The second I see the man of the hour, he gives me a tight, pained smile infused with frustration.
“Struggling to catch a break, it seems. Day two is not your day,” I tell him as I kneel down and try not to pay attention to the fact his boxers are now gone.
The gray icy pattern is spreading from his knee, and is high on his thigh. Trying to cover as much as possible all at once, I lose my new pants before becoming whole.
Gage’s eyes widen marginally, and his nostrils flare as I sit down on him in nothing but a corset. Because while I’m healing him, I’m going to be as sexy as possible just to be an ass.
I almost died for him, and still didn’t receive gratitude. Kai set the bar for showing gratitude a little high.
I straddle his lap, sitting back enough to where the bottom of my thigh covers the top of his. The sting of burning ice is once again enough to make me flinch, but it’s dulled almost immediately.
Gage’s hands go to my hips as we sit here, waiting on him to completely heal. His gaze dips to where he grows harder between us, his very aroused cock teasing me with its proximity.
Slowly, his hands travel up my back and back down to my hips.
“I think you’re healed,” I say a little too quietly.
When I start to get up, he tightens his grip on my hips and jerks me forward until my chest smashes against his, and his cock rubs against my slit in the most tormenting tease in history.
I shiver embarrassingly dramatic, and he smirks as I press even closer.
“You were going to go into that lake with me, weren’t you?” he asks seriously, his eyes searching mine.
I shrug and roll my eyes as though it wasn’t quite the big deal he’s making it. I wanted gratitude, but now I think it might make me uncomfortable if he actually gives it to me in such an intense manner.
“You were whole. It would have probably killed you too,” he goes on, still studying me like he’s expecting to see something.
“I thought it’d be a terrible way to die. It’d be even worse to have to do it alone. I just didn’t want you to be alone. Can we go now? We’re already going to have to run to catch up.”
I don’t even try to get up, because his fingers dig in harder on my sides. When his gaze dips to my lips, I decide not to delay the inevitable and lose the moment like I did with Jude. He meets me halfway, and our lips clash almost violently.
He groans into my mouth like he’s never done before, and he flips me to my back so fast that I’m left a little dizzied from the abrupt swap.
He settles himself between my legs, only teasing me more as he kisses me harder and the tip of his cock toys with the entrance of my evil vagina.
But I know he’s not going to have sex with me. None of them will cross that line until they’re sure my vagina isn’t going to destroy them.
Really, they’re so dramatic. I’m apparently just as dramatic, because I’ve started fretting about it as well.
That glorious tongue ring of his wreaks havoc on my fantasies, spicing them up as I imagine how good it would feel lower. The way I’ve witnessed him do for other women.
“I hate to point out the obvious,” I say when he breaks the kiss and pulls his hips away, kissing a heated path down my throat, “but your timing is positively terrible.”
He smiles against my collarbone as he kisses his way down.
“If I don’t do it now, it’s very likely I’ll talk myself out of it once my head clears and I’m thinking logically again.” He kisses a path through the space between my breasts, and my back arches, trying to push more of my body against his mouth.
“Do what?” I ask on autopilot, not capable of actually thinking.
This is my favorite feeling.
The intimate contact with one of them. It always reminds me that I’m finally alive instead of just surviving. Especially in the middle of a game of survival.
He kisses a lazy trail at the bottom of my stomach, teasing me with how close he is to where I want him.
“I know I’ll regret not taking this first for myself if I do talk myself out of it,” he whispers against my skin before he jerks my legs open wider and his head dips between my thighs.
I’m already making ridiculous sounds and squirming uncontrollably the second his tongue swipes across my clit. It’s way more intense with a mouth than with a finger.
Especially when he sucks it into his mouth and uses his tongue to add that much more stimulation. When that metal bar in his tongue only adds to the already overwhelming sensations, my fingers tangle in his hair and I make some garbled noise of praise and curses.
I’m pushing him away, and drawing him closer at the same time, and then doing some shameless grinding, as though my body is confused by the pleasure that is so intense it’s almost painful. His fingers dig into my legs, dragging me impossibly closer to his face as he grows more aggressive, driving me wilder with each new flick of his tongue.
It’s too much.
Erotic sensation crackles over me with so much force that it turns me hot and cold at the same time, and I cry out so loudly a vine slaps the wall near us.
My entire body goes lax after being so tense just seconds ago, as the ripples of pleasure skate over me in ebbing waves of awareness, the orgasm coming so hard and fast that it’s just too sensitive when his mouth doesn’t immediately relent.
He finally tears his mouth away, then his mouth finds mine again, his hand roughly grabbing my hair as he slides over me. Too far gone to think clearly, I’m convinced we’re going to break the rules and finally get answers about that virgin question, when he breaks the kiss abruptly, breathing heavily as his forehead drops to mine.
“We should run so we can catch up,” he says instead, pushing away from me as he leaves the abandoned boxers behind.
I’m glad he can abruptly shift gears after something like that, but I’m not built that way.
“I’m going to need just another minute,” I say as my legs tremble to punctuate the point.
Damn man is still naked, and my mind is a little feral at the moment.
He smirks over his shoulder, looking really damn proud of himself, as I stare at his incredibly firm ass. He gives me thirty seconds to recover before he reaches his hand down for mine.
I take it, and he easily tugs me up without me even helping him. Since I don’t need to be running around in hell’s belly naked, I go phantom and redress myself.
The sensations are watered down in this form, and I almost feel robbed of the post-orgasmic bliss once again.
“When we get out of here alive, you’re going to do that again to me on a bed,” I tell him as we walk out.
“Who’s your favorite now?” he drawls as he turns and starts backing away, a knowing grin on his face.
“Definitely you,” I say with one hundred percent honesty.