shrug emoji goes here

Cinnabar hair spilled across crimson sheets and coppery skin brushed against satin as she was laid down gently, like she was made of paper and glass. Before she could react, her vision was filled with his dark brown eyes, settling her restlessness with their deep, loving gaze. Like dark chocolate and umber. Like the woods at sunset. Warmth, even in their darkness. What a beautiful man.

One by one her clothes fell away from her body, showing the tattoos and scars underneath. From the lotus sigil with the flowing, swirling writing underneath, to the musical scroll down her other arm, to the brass dragon along her back. The tribals on her shoulder, the Gemini symbol on her hip, and a new one, below her navel, a stargazer lily sprouting from her most tender of places like new growth.

“Ah...” He brushed his fingers over it, eliciting a tiny noise that could be either pleasure or distress depending on how you looked at it. But he knew what she was feeling, what she was thinking. He had seen it before, indeed, when he had first brought her here, but it still tickled him to know what it meant and why she had gotten it.

“You are still absolutely sublime, my dear.”

“I don’t know about that...”

“Now now, none of that. It is the only word I could use to describe you, and your radiance. Every inch of you is like coiled and concentrated perfection, my sweet, and I will not hear a word otherwise.” He couldn’t help but chuckle as his words brought forth a blush that spread from her cheeks to her ears.

Eager hands continued to take her body into consideration, tracing delicately over a number of rough scars. Thin lines on either arm, some of them long since covered by tattoos, a permanent mark of her life full of stress and hardship. Opposite the hip with the symbol, what might have been a much deeper gouge from a silvered talwar if not for her healing factor. And over her chest, a stab wound that she had inflicted upon herself in a fit of anguish that had been covered up before her sister could ever see, but still left a scar.

“May I..?” He traced a hand over the base of her neck. As she nodded, he brought himself down upon her, and she felt fangs pierce the skin. Shortly thereafter, a rush hit her head like a daze as the feeling of pleasure from the bite radiated from that spot on her neck. She dare not move, nor would she want to, nor really could she, particularly not once he began his work on her.

With his every touch, she shivered, and with his every thrust, she cried out. He brought her close and felt wetness as she cried into his shoulder, felt her tremble under him as the sheer emotion overwhelmed her, bottled up over the course of months and years with nowhere to go and threatening to shatter her if not for this one release.

And he called out to her, and as if at his command, she sang out with the throes of rattling and intense ecstasy.

And then, it was still.

And then, it was quiet.

And then, it was peaceful.

After a while, he chose to break the silence, as he gently stroked her hair as they laid there tangled deeply in a lover’s embrace.

“Absolutely sublime, my heart, my soul, my very essence.”

“Mmh...” For a moment, she tried to think of some way to argue against him, but she soon decided it wasn’t worth speaking out against. If there were ever anyone who could make her feel as if she were worth it, it was him.

For the first time in a very, very long time, she felt at peace.