HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 70

WARNING: this chapter contains sexual content and a mild lemon. Read at your own risk.

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Chapter Seventy

My world and everything about it was different.

Something deep inside me had changed, had shifted, and whatever it was made me feel calmer, steadier, less naive, as if I'd somehow settled into my skin the way I always should have. As I lay there, staring at the ceiling with the sound of thunder against the windows, all I could do was feel. The wetness that refused to leave my groin, the tingling around my thighs, my pulse...

The afterglow...

I wondered what was going to happen.

The world was going to keep turning and eventually I was going to have to get up and start my day the way I usually did. Echo was asleep beside me, sharp shoulder blades facing me, black hair tangled and messy against his damp, sweat-slicked, passion-covered olive-toned skin.

I let my eyes rove over him, basking in the warmth and love that exploded through me.

I could still remember the way my darker fingers had looked against his olive skin when I'd dragged them over every knob of his spine. My fingers itched for a camera to capture this moment of beauty, the sight of my first morning after, with his body covered in and full of me.

I looked down across his backside, perky and round and perfectly divided, but still flushed and sticky and admittedly leaking from our passion. My fingers twitched and my claws lengthened; a grinding sensation hit my jaw and I felt my fangs extend, dropping with hunger.

I had the urge to reach out and just...

But I wouldn't. I still needed to mull over what this meant going forward. We'd had sex and I didn't regret. I would never regret this decision, but things were different now and it was new and confusing and I had no idea where to begin or what to say. I could hardly breathe.

There was something to be said about raw, unfiltered and honest beauty. Beauty was subjective. Ineffable in its nature and vastness. You couldn't decipher beauty or hold it accurately on your tongue. I'd seen many beautiful things over the years, and had appreciated them all.

And yet... Echo was the most beautiful.

That moment, when he'd given himself to me, and I to him, when our bodies had met... the feeling of being inside him, of knowing what it meant, of giving in... he had been the most beautiful creature on the planet. I had felt that realization go deep, and the fire that had been ignited wasn't going to be going out any time soon. I understood Sebastian's possessiveness.

The mere thought of anyone touching Echo now made me want to break necks.

I sighed and quietly got out of bed, moving over to the window and peeking through the curtain.

It was dark out, almost an hour before dawn... we'd been going at it for forever. I looked down at myself, at my naked body, at the clumped, matted, sticky fur around my loins and I felt proud because I could smell Echo all over me. It undulated inside me like a snake, that feeling.

I squared my shoulders, tilting my head back, pushing my curls off my face and tucking them behind my horns. I clenched my teeth, swelling with emotion, feeling as if I could just float right off the ground and start doing mid-air somersaults like Jiao. I was so happy I could cry.

I touched my neck, where he'd left several hickies, and then my chest, feeling myself all the way down to my stomach. The transition from scalding skin to velvety fur wasn't subtle, but I still dragged my claws down further, through the fur that was stained with the remnants of my first time. I twisted and turned to look at him, hands moving to my still-tingling groin and sheath.