Until the World Falls Down

by Jordan Lynde

. . .” “Is it too hard for you to say? Would you like me to help you?” he offered, lifting his hand to tuck my hair behind my ear. I nodded, falling into his touch. “Repeat after me, then,” he said, pulling his hand back. “‘I want you on your knees before me, Enver.’”

“Are you enjoying yourself, pet? Am I pleasing you?” “Yes,” I breathed. “Then I want to hear your appreciation and encouragement,” he said. “Let me know how much you love what I can do to you with my tongue and fingers, or I will stop. No more sounds out of you unless it is you praising me. Understand?”

“You can do better than that. Praise me, my little lover.”

“You really wanted me that badly?” “Yes. I still do. Very much so. How much more do I have to convince you of that? Your mere presence drives me to the brink of insanity with the desire I feel toward you. Every moment you are away from me, I am left with an emptiness I feel more profoundly than the one created by my absent heart.”

“Only having you completely will ease this torture you cause me, my little lover,” he said, cradling my jaw in his hand. “Only when you are mine will I feel whole once again.” “I don’t understand,” I said. “Why me?” It was never me. Never. Not until him.

“I am simply drawn to you. Something inside me tells me I need you. As stars need darkness to shine. As shadows need light to cast them. I need you to exist.”

“She has. I suppose that would explain the new feeling within me.” “What do you feel, exactly?” “Warm, when I look at you,” he murmured. “As if you are in my veins, running through me, filling me with a warmth that seeps into my very bones, staving off the cold I have grown accustomed to.” He paused, seeming to search for the right words. “I feel . . . weightless, too. As if the world is not as heavy a burden to bear as I previously thought. Not when you are here with me.”

“You are anything but average. You are beyond what I can put into words. You are my fantasies brought to life. My wishes fulfilled, and my dreams realized.”

I studied the statue again. “She looks like someone who would be worshipped.” “If that is the standard to which a goddess is measured, then there is no doubt you are a goddess yourself, for I would worship you and bow to your every word.” I glanced at Enver, seeing the teasing smile on his face, and I returned it. “You probably don’t even remember if you’re religious or not.” “You are correct, but the fact remains you are divine.”

“You forget yourself, my little lover. I am not a kind man. I am not the victim you wish me to be. Leave before you mistake my manipulation for kindness again. Before your desperation for love becomes your downfall.”

Because now I knew how to describe the hollow atmosphere that haunted Enver’s castle. How to explain the darkness and melancholy etched into the stone walls. To explain the dust on the unused furniture. The dozens of seats at the dining table that only ever hosted one occupant. The chill that clung to every corner. The stillness that permeated every corridor. The quiet that blanketed the air. Loneliness had cast its dark shadow over every possible inch of his castle, transforming it into a shell of what it should have been. A loneliness reflected from the man who ruled over it. Enver was lonely.

“Because you are correct. I am lonely. I have endured this loneliness for over a century. It ate away at me at first—the isolation, the quiet, the longing for touch from another. But eventually, I resigned myself to being alone. I convinced myself that the loneliness did not affect me since I accepted my fate. That I did not feel alone—therefore, I was not lonely. And I remained that way. Until you appeared. Then, that devastating loneliness brewed within me again, and when I tried to brush it aside once more, it only festered and grew every time you came to me and left again.”

“Because of you. You are a reminder of all that I am missing, all that I long to have again, and all that I stand to lose. I want to have you by my side. I do not want to be alone anymore. I cannot deny it anymore.”

“I am unable to resist you. Powerless against the temptation of your touch. Your kiss. Your voice. You have become my sole weakness, my inevitable undoing, and my relentless obsession.”

“Oh, my little lover,” he murmured, stepping closer to me and cradling my cheek in his hand. “Do you not know? I am already yours. I was yours from the very moment my gaze first fell upon you. I am yours now, even when you will not offer yourself back to me. And I will continue to be yours even after you leave me. There will never come a day when I am not yours entirely and irrevocably. I may not be able to love you, but I am yours nonetheless.”

“Why?” I whispered. “Because being yours is something I know I am intrinsically, no matter how little I can recall,” he said. “You are something my soul recognizes and yearns for. Something familiar and precious. I cannot explain it, but I cannot deny it either.”

called to me too, drawing me to him, and leaving me helpless to resist. He was a stranger, yet the pull I felt toward him was unmistakable. Undeniable. Being with him felt right despite our circumstances.

Every tender touch, every sweet whisper, every stolen moment. How could I forget him when I wanted him so badly? My body begged for his touch, but my heart yearned for his love, and only one of those was a possibility. I would love him with all of me and receive only a part of him in return. I would break my own heart every time I remembered he didn’t have one.

“You do not know how much it pleases me to hear you say that. You should be more cautious.” “Cautious? Of what?” He leaned in, his lips skimming across my ear as he spoke. “Of me. You have admitted a part of you is mine, and now I know it is possible for me to take more. I want all of you. Every beautiful, precious part. And I am tempted to steal the rest right now.”

“I warned you what would happen if you touched her,” he said, low and lethal. “Now, there is nothing that can save you from me.”

“I will ruin you,” he murmured, his breath caressing my inner thigh. “I will take you apart piece by piece until you are a quivering, needy mess, begging me to let you come. Until you know nothing but me. Then, when you are completely undone, completely shattered, I will give you everything you crave and more. I will put you back together with my touch, my tongue, and with the way I thrust deep inside you. And then I will do it all over again until there is no place you would rather be than here—with me. Underneath me. Surrounded by me. Surrendering to me, and only me.” “Ruin me, Enver,” I breathed. “Please.”

I could do it for hours, my little lover. You could use me all you wanted. I would be content to lie there, pleasing you, letting you grind against my mouth. Taking what you want, for as long as you want. I can think of no better way to spend my time. I wish for nothing more than to be your obedient plaything.”

“I wish to make a mess of you,” he murmured. “Mark every inch of your skin. Claim you in every way possible. Leave no part of you untouched, no place unknown. I want to fill you in every way possible. Take you repeatedly until both my scent and seed cover you. Until everyone in the world understands you are mine.” Holy fuck. “But even then, it would not be enough,” he continued, his voice dropping to a dark and sensual purr. “I would become selfish. I would take you and lock you away so only I could see you. Only I could touch you. You would be a prisoner to my desire. I would keep you here, next to me. Wet and aching. Wanting. Ready to receive me wherever and however I wanted.”

“And when I have to leave you alone, I will not leave you empty,” he vowed, words rough as he rocked his hips up against me to create friction against his own aching need. “My shadows will take care of you in my stead. Keeping you stretched and filled until my return. You will always have a part of me inside you. Always feel me within you. Always belong to me.”

“I’m scared because I don’t think I’ll care either way. Even if you killed someone before, even if you did horrible things, none of it matters to me. I don’t care about who you were, Enver, because I know who you are now. And this version of you is the only one that matters to me. Nothing you might have done in your past could stop me from caring about you.”

“My little lover,” he murmured. “For over a century, I have existed in shadows and loneliness, unable to recall my past or the reason for my cursed existence. Never caring nor fearing, unable to die no matter what I tried. Nothing ever mattered to me before. Yet, everything is different now. I still do not fear my past, and I still do not fear the cause of my curse. But now . . .” He cupped my cheek, his thumb stroking my skin affectionately. “I fear losing you.”

“Losing you . . .” His lips brushed against mine. “Your smile, your kindness, your heart. That is something I cannot bear. You are what matters most to me now. If I lose you, then I lose everything. I would rather have my heart, my memories, and my emotions torn from me again than be without you. I have known darkness for so long I thought I would never know anything else again, yet the time I have spent with you has been the brightest and warmest of my existence.”

“Let her go, and you will have my heart. My everything. You will be enough for me—you are enough for me, Enver. I will give myself to you entirely. Every single piece. I will be yours. I am yours.” His voice came out distorted as he spoke—too deep and resonant. “Until when?” “Until forever,” I promised. “Until the world falls down.”

“You’re right. I don’t deserve him,” I said, smiling at her. “I don’t deserve a cheating piece of shit like him. And I don’t deserve a selfish, jealous sister like you. You both deserve each other. I refuse to take the blame for what you two did. If Julian was that unhappy, he should have broken up with me. Not cheated on me. If you were so jealous of me, you should have focused on improving yourself instead of trying to steal what I had. And while I regret I made you feel unloved when I thought I was giving you all the love I had, what you two did to me is unforgivable. Any chance of reconciliation was lost when you decided to cheat. So, this is the last time I’m going to say this— get the fuck out of my life. I don’t want or need you two in it.”

“What if I can’t love you properly?” I asked, the last of my worries slipping through my lips. “Would you still want me?” “There will never be a time I do not want you, my little lover,” Enver responded, his gaze steady, his voice firm. “Heart or not. Love or not. I will always want you. I will always be yours.” “Until when?” I whispered. “Until the world falls down,” he promised.