I meant to shoot him in the leg, but he didn’t need to know that.
He jumped and scurried from the floor, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. I worried he might decide to just reverse the full spell—though I didn’t know if that were possible.
The pain pushed forward again. Erik grabbed the book, flipping to a specific page.
“So help me, if I feel something off, I will shoot you before you before I die, understand?”
His jaw tightened, but he spoke in a language I’d never heard, but somehow seemed familiar. Maybe because I’d been birthed by it. As he spoke, the veins pulled back, receding up my arms, back toward my heart. The pain ebbed and faded.
When I felt the last bit of release I nodded. “Enough.”
He stopped reading, closed the book and put it on the desk. He clicked his tongue, face going pensive.
“So then. Now what?”
I loved him. Even though a spell manufactured it, I still loved him.
But I couldn’t trust him. As much as I wished I could. As much as I wished things were different, I knew Erik would most likely try to find a way to make me pay for what happened with Cooper. For everything. Somehow, someway, his own insecurities would walk him down a path that ended with my suffering—or worse.
So, I did the only thing I could do.
I shot him in the head.
12
Poe teased his way down my body. His mouth trailing passionate kisses that left goosebumps in their wake. I arched my hips, wanting more. The new bed had already been put to good use many times. So had the dresser, the kitchen, the couch. Pretty much every place in the house we could claim, we did.
It was Cooper’s face that looked up at me. That damn, sexy dimple still poked out of his left cheek. His stark green eyes filled with lust as he continued to move down. He was agonizingly slow, the nips of pleasure only making me need him more. A wicked grin turned up his lips. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Driving. Me. Insane.
“Poe!” I bucked beneath him, practically begging for more.
He slid his arms under my ass and pulled me close. His warm breath brushed over the most sensitive place and I shuddered with anticipation. Then his mouth was on me and I cried out at the surge of pleasure. It raced straight to my core, and I slid my fingers through his dark hair.
“Yes!”
As his tongue moved over me, working me in a way that seemed impossible, the pleasure mounted. He slid one finger inside me, then two, stretching me. It filled me and set my nerve endings on fire.
“You taste so fucking good,” he said in a voice that belonged to none of the men before him.
Before I could reply his tongue was on me. I cried out, holding his head between my legs. The pleasure mounted, and I was on the cusp, ready to fall over.
He pulled his mouth away.
“Poe!” Frustration seeped into his name.
He chuckled and kissed his way back until he claimed my lips. I could taste myself on him. I moaned. And then he thrust into me. He moaned too.
Heat radiated between our bodies as he moved. He was so thick, so hard. Sometimes it seemed like the pleasure might be too much, but I couldn’t get enough of it. One day, it might drive me insane. Magic, as I learned, always came with a price.
Maybe going mad with pleasure was the price for creating Poe.
A price well worth it.
I twisted, and he took my cue. We rolled so I was on top. He never pulled out, and I rode him. Not slow and sensual. I gripped the top of the headboard and braced my legs on either side of him. With the leverage I pulled myself up higher and let myself drop on him. He impaled me in the most delicious way possible. The pleasure heightened. It always seemed to when I was in control.
Poe slid his hands up my legs. He panted, fingers digging into my skin. He grew inside me, and I knew he was so close and that sent me over the edge. I slammed down on his hard cock one last time, screaming his name as I came undone around him. He grabbed my hips, holding me down as he shouted his own release.
I fell against him, closing my eyes as I tried to catch my breath. Beneath my hand, his heart thumped in his chest. I moved, putting my ear there instead so I could hear it beat.
He traced his fingers along my back. “I’m here.”
“I know,” I said.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He kissed the top of my head.
“I know.”
Part of me wondered. But unlike what Erik had done with me, I hadn’t left Poe in the dark. Once he woke, I told him the truth. Who and what he was. Where he came from. The men he had been.
Erik’s mistakes wouldn’t be mine. He had been controlling. So consumed with fear of loneliness that it drove him mad. We found six cameras in the house. Erik had always been watching. It was almost cathartic destroying them.
When I put the men together, I said the spell straight through, no mistakes. It hadn’t taken long to figure out. As if I was akin to the language. I was born from it, so it made sense. The magic flowed through me, called to me.
And now it flowed through Poe as well.
I left out the part where he would feel physical pain should he have his own thoughts. Poe had free will. Since Erik reversed the spell, I hadn’t had anymore chest pains or weak knees. I had free will too.
Poe had none of the personality traits of the men before him. I knew nothing about the women I had come from. But I suspected it was the same. I
