Chapter 250: What The Soul Remembered
[Warning: Mature Content Ahead]
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[Music recommendation: Should We Have Connected? | Death Stranding 2: On The Beach (Original Video Game Score)]
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"Gods, Eve," he moaned in a deep, almost guttural voice, and the sound alone sent shivers racing down her spine.
She loved the effect she had on him, and it made her more confident. Soon, she began to move her hips on her own, trying to match his rhythm with the help of his strong arms supporting her.
As the pleasure began to build once more, she gathered herself and started moving independently, riding his thick, hot, hard length without needing any assistance from him, drawing groans of pure delight from his throat.
Ivan felt every time he thrust deep inside her, she clenched around him so tightly that it made the hair at the nape of his neck rise. And each time he was about to pull out, her inner walls seemed to suck and wrap around him, as though she never wanted to let him go.
It was truly the most mind-blowing experience he had ever had in his life. As she rode him on her own, he let his free hands roam over her quivering body before bringing them up to cup her round, soft, supple breasts, which moved up and down with each roll of her hips. Pressing them firmly between his palms, he lowered his mouth to latch onto them, licking, sucking, and gently biting until she arched her curvy back in response.
He continued to lavish them with attention and affection before dragging his tongue up to her neck, ravaging her with his mouth. When he felt her beginning to tire, he took control once again, giving her delectable hips a firm squeeze before slamming into her harder and faster.
"Ah, Ivan," she cried loudly as he pumped his thick member in and out of her again and again in a wild rhythm, until she could no longer form words at all. The delicious pleasure building toward its peak shattered any remaining sense she had, leaving her utterly incapable of forming a single coherent thought.
The sound of wet squelch and skin slapping filled the room, accompanied by their raw grunts and broken moans.
As Ivan neared his limit, driven by his relentless pace, he slid his hand between them and gave her sensitive nub one final rub, making Eve go rigid before she threw her head back and shattered against him in a breathtaking release. Ivan’s fangs elongated as instinct took over, and he buried them into the damp, exposed curve of her neck.
With her clenching so tightly around him, pleasure crashed through him so violently that his vision blurred, the world dissolving into heat and sensation. He filled her with arch upon arch of his hot seed, holding her so tightly as though he never wanted to let her go.
The sensation of coming undone while drinking her blood was so overwhelming, so impossibly profound, that it felt as though he had brushed the gates of heaven once more. It was not just the taste, but the bond, the intimacy of it, that tore through him completely.
Eve’s hands, once clutched tightly around his neck, slowly lost their strength, her fingers slipping as exhaustion finally claimed her, and Ivan knew she had reached her limit for the day.
Reluctantly, he finished drinking her blood and licked the remnants clean. He cradled her head in his warm hands, as though she were something infinitely precious, and looked into her heavy-lidded golden eyes, still glowing faintly as they searched for him in her haze.
His chest rose and fell with unsteady breaths as he brushed his thumb tenderly across her flushed cheeks, his touch filled with raw devotion.
Then, in a voice rough with emotion, barely above a whisper, he confessed, "I love you, Evelyn."
He sealed her lips in a soft kiss, only for her to hum faintly before her body went limp against him. Pulling back, Ivan realised she had blissfully passed out from sheer exhaustion. Only then did he carefully pull himself out of her, gathering her sleeping form against his shoulder before planting gentle kisses on her head and along her ear.
Letting out a quiet sigh, he laid her back onto the bed with great care before finally rising. He walked into the bathroom and turned on the hot water, beginning to fill the tub so he could clean them both.
When he returned, his molten red eyes fell upon her body, marked by him with so much love, and the sight filled him with a quiet sense of elation. Though a faint twinge of guilt stirred within him for pushing her to the point of exhaustion, yet he could not deny the deep satisfaction he felt at having kept the promise he had made to her by the stream, back when she had teased him so boldly.
Gently, he lifted her into his arms and carried her into the bathroom, settling into the black tub filled with hot water to wash away the remnants of their passion. As he cleaned her with painstaking care, desire still coiled fiercely within him, leaving him far from sated. He knew, without doubt, that he would have taken her for several more rounds had she not slipped into unconsciousness like this.
But he reassured himself that there were many more days and nights ahead of them, moments in which he would fulfil every promise he had made. Not just days....but forever. He would be with her forever, until his very last breath. After all, she was the woman he loved with all his heart and soul, and when it came to them, there was only forever. He would not have it any other way.
After cleaning them both thoroughly, he dried them carefully before settling them back into the bed. He did not bother dressing either of them, wanting to savour the feel of her soft, naked body pressed against his skin. At the back of his mind, he reasoned that it was only practical, given the cold outside, and that sharing his warmth this way was the most effective solution.
As he embraced her gently, his molten red eyes continued to take in her beautiful features, the back of his fingers lightly tracing her cheek. He wondered whether she had heard his confession back then. Regardless of whether she had or not, Ivan knew he would say it a thousand times if needed, because loving her was simply the absolute truth of his existence. And that would never change, no matter what happened.
His thoughts drifted back to a dream, and the echo of his own voice from when he was five years old rang clearly in his mind once more:
"Then take this rose," he had said softly, "to seal the promise....that you will be my bride."
A tender smile bloomed on his lips at the thought of it. Even as children, the pull he had felt towards her had been undeniable.
But then a crease formed between his brows as another memory intruded, that of the cloaked woman who had whispered to him to forget Evelyn.
’Who was she? Ivan questioned silently. ’And why did she want me to forget about Eve?’
He tried to recall anything beyond that moment, but his mind came up...blank. What he did know by now was that whatever she had done, she had succeeded in erasing his earlier memories of Eve. And the thought unsettled him deeply, leaving him to wonder why anyone would go to such extreme lengths to make him forget her.
’What would anyone gain by making me forget about her?’
Especially when he had been only five years old, not even a fully grown adult, with no obvious benefit to be reaped from erasing those memories.
Ivan could only be grateful for his awakening, which had allowed him to uncover what had been hidden or tampered with. It was not everything, but it was a beginning, one he knew would become clearer with time.
Another thing he was grateful for was this simple, undeniable truth: no matter what had been taken from them, even without memories of their past selves or their childhood, their souls had always remembered each other.
The memory of the souls was engraved so deeply that, despite every force working against them, they were still drawn together. And it had led them to this very moment, where they lay wrapped comfortably in each other’s embrace.
His gaze returned to Evelyn’s sleeping face, and another thought struck him. ’Just like me, did someone tamper with her memories as well?’ And if they had, then it could mean only one thing....they knew something about them, something so significant that they did not want the two of them to be together.
Then, all at once, his heart skipped a beat as a single word surfaced in his mind.
’The prophecy.’
But even if they knew about the prophecy, the dark forces were only aware that he himself was connected to it. Did that mean someone also knew that Eve was tied to it as well? Ivan did not know whether Eve was even aware of the prophecy, one his own father had kept hidden from him in an attempt to protect him.
But what about Evelyn?
Did she know? And if she did not... then who else knew the truth?
