Chapter 51 The Aftermath

Chapter 51 The Aftermath
I wake up in Thad’s arms with no memory of how I got here.
The last thing I remember is the white. The power devouring everything around me until there was nothing left but energy and silence. Now I’m lying in his bed, wrapped in sheets that smell like sandalwood, and he’s watching me with eyes that hold something I’ve never seen from him before.
Relief. Pure, overwhelming relief.
“You’re awake,” he breathes.
“What happened?” My voice sounds like I’ve been screaming for hours. Maybe I have been. “The battle. Cassius. Did we—”
“We won. Because of you.” He brushes a strand of hair away from my face. “You destroyed half the Primigenii forces in a single blast. Cassius retreated with what was left of his army. They’ll be back, but hopefully, not anytime soon.”
“I don’t remember any of it.”
“You collapsed after the energy released. I carried you here. I thought… I thought I’d lost you, Thelma. When you wouldn’t wake up, I thought—”
I don’t let him finish. I grab the front of his shirt and pull his mouth down to mine.
The kiss is desperate and messy. I need to feel him. I need to know he’s real, that we’re both still here, that we survived something that should have killed us both. He slides his fingers into my hair and angles my head back to take more.
“I thought I was going to die,” I admit against his lips. “I felt the power eating me alive and I thought that was it.”
He pulls back and searches my face. “You need to rest. You almost—”
“I don’t want to rest.” I sit up and swing my leg over his hips, straddling him. “I want you. Right now.”
He finds my waist and digs his fingers. He’s hardening beneath me, and I rock my hips against him just to watch his eyes flutter closed. The groan that escapes his throat sends heat pooling between my thighs.
“Thelma.” My name comes out strangled.
“Tell me to stop and I will.” I lean down and press my lips to his throat, right over his pulse point. I drag my tongue along his skin and taste salt and smoke. “But I don’t think you want me to stop.”
He answers by flipping us over. One second I’m on top of him; the next, my back is against the mattress, and he’s hovering above me, pinning me down and making me gasp. The weight of him feels like exactly what I need.
He drags his mouth down my neck, nipping and sucking at the skin as he goes. When he finds the sensitive spot below my ear, I arch into him and fist the sheets beneath me.
“I watched you disappear into that energy,” he mumbles against my throat. “I couldn’t reach you. I couldn’t do anything but watch.”
“I’m here now.” I tug at his shirt, desperate to feel his skin against mine. “I’m right here. Show me we’re still alive.”
He yanks his shirt over his head, and I eagerly run my palms across his chest, tracing the muscles and the scars that map his centuries of survival. He shudders under my touch, and the power I feel in that moment has nothing to do with the Valdris bloodline.
He strips my shirt away next and tosses it aside. His mouth finds my collarbone, and he trails kisses down to my breast. When he takes my nipple between his lips and sucks, I moan and drop my head back.
“More,” I demand. “I need more of you.”
He gives me more. He works my nipple with his tongue while he palms my other breast, rolling the peak between his fingers until I’m writhing and whimpering. Every touch sends sparks shooting through my body, chasing away the cold that’s been lingering since I woke up.
I reach between us and fumble with the waistband of his pants. He’s hard and straining against the fabric, and when I wrap my fingers around his length, he hisses through his teeth, and his teeth elongate.
“Careful,” he warns. “I’m barely holding on as it is.”
“Then stop holding on.”
He strips away the rest of my clothes, and when he settles between my thighs, I can feel every inch of him pressed against my entrance. Hot and hard and exactly what I need.
“Look at me,” he orders.
I open my eyes and meet his gaze. He holds it as he pushes inside me, slow and steady, filling me inch by inch until I can’t breathe. The stretch burns in the best way. I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him deeper, needing to feel him as close as possible.
He drops his forehead to mine and says, “God, Thelma. I almost lost this. I almost lost you.”
“You didn’t.” I cup his face in my hands and force him to keep looking at me. “I’m here. I’m yours.”
He pulls back and drives into me again, setting a rhythm that has me gasping with every stroke. I lift my hips to meet him thrust for thrust, chasing the pleasure building low in my belly.
“Harder,” I gasp when the pace isn’t enough. “I need you harder.”
He holds onto my hip with one hand and braces himself against the headboard with the other. The new angle lets him drive deeper, and I cry out as he hits something inside me that makes my vision go blurry around the edges.
The headboard slams against the wall with every thrust. I don’t care. Let the whole mansion hear. Let them know we survived. Let them know we’re still here, still fighting, still refusing to let the darkness win.
I rake my nails down his back, and he groans in response. The sound vibrates through me and pushes me closer to the edge. Everything is building now, coiling tighter and tighter until I can barely stand it.
“I’m close,” I warn him. “Thad, I’m so close.”
He adjusts the angle again and grinds against my clit with every stroke. “I’ve got you. Let go.”
The orgasm crashes through me without warning. I cry out his name as pleasure rips through my body, wave after wave of it cresting and breaking until I’m shaking beneath him. I clench around him, and he follows me over the edge with a groan that rumbles through his chest.
He collapses against me, still buried inside, both of us panting. I run my fingers through his hair and press my lips to his temple.
We don’t speak. We don’t need to.
The battle is over. The Primigenii are gone. And we’re still here, tangled together in sheets that smell like sweat and sex and survival.