Nocticadia

by Keri Lake

He ached and burned as much as I did.

You’d be kicked out and sent home to whatever life you were living, and I’d be here, hating the fact that I fucked you up. That I took everything from you.”

“The things I want to do to you …”

“We’ll have to be creative. Assuming you’re interested.” “You know damn well I am,”

“And if you want me as much as you claim, you will.”

“You showed.” His tone carried a bitter snip of anger. “So did you.”

“I’ve been starving for you ever since.”

“If you ever show up to class like this, I’ll take you aside and spank your bare ass.” “Is that a threat, or a promise?”

How utterly intoxicated the man made me.

“You don’t want to know what you do to me, Little Moth.”

“Good girl,”

“I’m going to fuck you delirious.”

“You taste like innocence, Lilia. A good man would walk away from you right now.” “Are you a good man?”

I don’t want to hurt you.”

“But just looking at you stirs my compulsions. This rapacious need to take what I want.”

In spite of his warning, I still wanted it. Him.

“Then take what you want.”

I’m a man who fucks hard and thoroughly enjoys the torment of delayed gratification. You’re going to be sore. And I really fucking hope you want this, Lilia, because you’re going to hate me when it’s over.”

“I don’t share. If anyone else so much as looks at this pussy, I’ll take pleasure in dissecting him, starting with his eyeballs.”

I was willing to lay my pride down just to feel the kind of passion I’d only ever read about in books.

“I want …” “Your thighs are trembling. Say it.” “I want your cock.”

“Do it. Please.” I wanted him so badly, it physically hurt.

And I hated myself for that. Hated that I was so hungry for passion, starving for the need to feel so much at once, that I could even fathom letting him slice me open that way like one of his dead corpses, somehow brought back to life by his skilled hands.

“No. I didn’t … I feel … so much.”

“Keep your eyes on me, Lilia.”

“I’ve never felt something so intense before. Every moment with you is something new for me.”

“But if it’s a date you’d like, I’ll see what I can do.”

What I feel for you, Miss Vespertine, would destroy lives.”

I want this engraved on my grave

In the darkest corners, hidden from prying eyes, we were more than professor and student. We were forbidden.

And him. My moody and devilishly handsome professor.

“What is it?” I asked, wishing I could reach out and caress her face, but not being able to feel her skin would only stab me in the fucking chest.

Then I came here. And I met you. And I learned that loneliness was a choice for me.

“The decision was made the moment I met you, though. To stay here. I choose you.”

“I choose you,”

“And believe me when I say, you’re hard to forget, Miss Vespertine.”

“It’s so beautiful.” As she stared at the arch, I stared at her.

Over her shoulder, she shot me a smile–one so fucking beautiful, I wanted to frame it. Capture it. Study the alchemy of it. How wonderfully intoxicating one simple expression could be.

It was there that I began to wonder if what I felt for Lilia was something more than I cared to admit.

“You can’t leave. I won’t let you. You hear me? I won’t let you fucking die. You are my most important thing, and I swear, if you don’t come out of this, I will fucking hunt you down in the afterlife.”

“If you don’t come out of this, I’m burning all of your expensive coats.” “You’re not … burning … my coats,”

“Perhaps the most vindictive torment was having a brief moment of knowing what you felt like.”

“You’re the fever in my veins,”

“An incurable madness I can’t shake.

You’ve infected every part of me, and I can’t stop. I can’t stop this obsession.”

You’re in the throes of fire now, Little Moth. Show me how much it burns.”

“Eyes on me.

“You are a merciless vision of perfection.”

“This is beginning to feel like more than just sex for me.”

“You don’t have to be scared. I will never hurt you, Lilia. In fact, I’ll rain hell on anyone who ever hurts you again.”

I loved him. Every cell, every fiber of my being couldn’t hide that truth. Even if I wasn’t bold enough to say it or brave enough to risk the universe stealing it away from me, the words were as real as my fears.