Vitality (Vitality Series #1)

Chapter 34 Don't Fear the Reaper pt.8

A movement in the bed began to stir Ava from sleep.

She felt Layton shift from his side and lean down to linger over her neck, and then he touched it very lightly with his lips, setting butterfly kisses very slowly up as his fingers massaged gently over her clitoris. She moaned from sleep.

His mouth found her chin, then her lips. "Ava..." he whispered over them.

He slid into her before she understood she was awake, where she was still wet and soft from earlier pleasures, and slid out, slowly and sweetly back and forth. The smell of him consumed her.

He'd been so rough with her just before. Rougher than he'd ever been. Rough in the way he'd moved her, in the way he held her, the way he would not stop. He was harsh when he'd gripped her, turned her, pushed her, bit her, and ravaged her, taken her. In the way his hand snaked up around her throat and silenced her, immobilized her, controlled her very life, to the moment of almost losing consciousness. In this, he was lost, unfamiliar, unreachable, and unyielding; and she was lost. Who was he; who was she; except for their two bodies and souls intertwined.

It was all a blur. But she could still feel every last moment. Especially the moment it actually felt like she'd disconnected from her body, anchored and conducted by his flesh, and joined in completeness and freedom with his soul somewhere else. The confusion tore into everything she'd ever thought or felt before. And it pained her twice as much.

She'd never had so many orgasms in one night, and didn't think her body could withstand any more. But he whispered against her skin that he wasn't done. Was this punishment? Her mind was weary of him; he was going to suck every bit of life from her; and yet her whole body ached for him and died when he was gone. Whenever her mind came back to the surface, it was swallowed by the need of her body and the forceful demand of his.

He slid softly in and out of her, until she was swollen again with aching need and putty beneath him. And then he stopped, pausing to carefully rip open her bra between her breasts and remove it from her. He lowered again to kiss tenderly along her skin where the material had clung against her, alighting her senses with reprieve and gently nurturing as he moved onwards. Next, the garter belt was unclipped and pulled from her, the freed skin kissed again. The stockings, he took care to slide one at a time from her legs, massaging and kissing her toes, her feet, up her leg, and then freeing and caring for the next leg. Until he had her arms and legs sprawled out weakly and ventured down for her sex, which he tended to even more carefully than the rest. She was drowning when he entered her again.

The room was pitch black, no skylight, no candles. Only the sound of their breath and the rain beating lethargically against the windows, the feel of his body taking hers, the taste of existence.

***

When she woke again, she was on her stomach, and she could feel his presence behind her. He was standing by the other side of the bed. She could always feel his presence, like a dark heavy weight suffocating her, and yet when it was gone, she felt brittle.

His finger touched her back and traced its contours, but she didn't move. Only her eyes closed as a tear fell to the pillow. They tried to stay closed until he left.

He came around to her side where he traced her face with a finger for a long moment, before lowering for a goodbye kiss... but as he lifted from it, a whisper fell from his lips, "I lov—"

He stopped. His hand dropped from her. There was a deep silence, and then she felt his presence slip away just as she turned to him.

"Layton..." But he was gone, and another tear dropped.