17. Keira
Chapter 17
Keira
A rage like a summer thunderstorm whips through me. I shouldn’t have to go to war because I said no to a man. Because I wouldn’t allow him to keep using and abusing me. Finan doesn’t get to touch me just because he is a king. This war isn’t my fault. Is it?
“I would love to know what you are thinking, so I can end whoever put that frown on your face,” Aldrin rumbles in my ear, his breath tickling my skin. It sends a shiver of anticipation down my spine.
“I was thinking that Finan is a waste of life,” I grind out.
“Something we can both agree on.” Aldrin laughs. I don’t know how he is in a good mood.
My father is too embroiled in an argument with Lord Tomas at the end of the war council to notice me slipping away with Aldrin. The relative quiet and dimness of these corridors is almost soothing, our footfalls the only sounds. Most of the inhabitants of the fort would be long asleep by now.
My neck and back ache from built-up tension. I rub at the tight muscles, but Aldrin takes my hand in his.
“Let me do this for you. Do you have private rooms?” His voice is seductive velvet.
My stomach tumbles at the implications of his offer. Then I laugh bitterly. “No. I’m in a dorm with five other priestesses.”
“I thought as much,” he says. “I have an idea I think you will like, but first we need to lose those guards following us.”
“What?” Shock thunders through me. Surely my father wouldn’t have taken matters that far. I strain my ears, but I cannot hear anything. I don’t dare turn around and clue them in.
Aldrin grabs my arm and swiftly pulls me down a side corridor to a four-way intersection. He flattens me against the wall with his body and holds a finger to his lips as he weaves an air shield before us. My eyes watch the tendrils of magic build upon each other, but I cannot tell what he is crafting.
Within mere minutes, two men walk past in the emerald-and-bronze uniforms of the Appleshield Protectorate. They look straight at us, but keep walking.
Aldrin’s entire chest shakes against mine, and when I turn to him, he is desperately trying to hold in laughter, a hand clapped over his mouth. “I can’t believe that worked.”
“How did they not see us?” I whisper.
“I created a mirror in front of us that reflected the opposite side of the corridor, but they didn’t pick up on the irregularities. It wouldn’t have worked if it weren’t so dark here. I am terrible at that kind of wield.” He grips me around the waist and moves me along. “Quickly, before they return.”
Aldrin opens a plain door and shoves me inside. It has a single window slit high in the wall that lets in moonlight to illuminate shelves of cleaning supplies.
“You couldn’t have picked a nice, unused bedroom?” I whisper.
He scoffs. “I doubt there’ll be any of those available.”
He turns his back to me and works on layering shields and wards on the door. First, he fills the lock with hardened air, stopping it up. He plugs the hinges next, so they cannot move. Finally, he erects a sound shield, weave by weave. It takes time, longer than we had when we were naked in the farmer’s cottage.
I spend every moment taking in the beauty of his powerful body. The broad shoulders with shifting muscles that are visible through his light tunic, the dark hair tumbling down to the middle of his shoulder blades. The tapered torso that meets a narrow waist. That perfect ass and those thick thighs.
Mischievous light sparkles in Aldrin’s amber eyes as he turns to me, and the silvery moonlight makes the sharp angles of his face seem severe.
“You can scream as much as you like, dear heart, and they won’t be able to hear you.” He steps closer, wrapping his arms around my waist and murmuring in my ear. “But we will hear them, walking past unaware of what we are doing on the other side of this thin door. Looking for you and calling your name, while I pound into you and make you forget what your name is. No one is going to stop us this time.”
A thrill rolls through me, hot and heavy, making my skin burn.
I reach up onto the tips of my toes and press my lips hard against his. They immediately open for me and something feral awakens within us as our tongues collide, as we suck and bite each other’s lips. I melt into his arms, all my tension and rage forgotten.
Aldrin’s grip around my waist tightens, and then he pulls away from me.
“Not yet,” he says, putting a finger to my lips before I can protest. “I made you a promise.”
“A promise?” I repeat dumbly.
He turns me swiftly on the spot so my back is against his chest. “I want to massage your neck and shoulders first. To touch every inch of your bare skin,” he murmurs as his fingers play with the fabric of my clothing. “I want you a shaking mess of desire before I fuck you.”
My heart thunders as he pulls off my decorative silk corset and tosses it over his shoulder. Then his hands make quick work of the buttons on my sheer blouse. That goes flying too, landing haphazardly on the corner of a shelf.
I kick away my skirt as it falls to the ground. He reaches my thin shift and pulls it over my head, sighing when my breasts are revealed. I am left in nothing but my lacy panties.
Aldrin’s hands run across my skin and cup my breasts, his rough calluses brushing against the tender flesh. His thumbs flick over my nipples while he leans in and places kisses up and down the skin of my neck.
I gasp at the softness of his lips and the trail of fire that radiates from each kiss. “I thought you were going to massage my back.”
His laugh vibrates through me. “I’m warming up to it.”
I wiggle against him, feeling his erection already digging into my back. He continues fondling me for a few heartbeats longer, then his hands move up to my neck, brushing my hair to the side. His body pulls away. I almost protest, until his strong hands knead the muscles of my shoulders.
Fire, pain and pleasure all burst from the sensation in the most delicious blend, and I melt under his touch. He pays focused attention to each muscle and the paths they make down my spine, bleeding the tightness from each one until the pain is gone.
Then his thumbs rub up my neck in long, slow strokes, digging in deep grooves, and the muscles there sing beneath them. My whole body becomes loose and light. My mind floats on a sea of calm, the knots released from it as well.
Aldrin’s tongue licks up the entire length of my spine, while his beautiful hands dig into the flesh of my lower back, removing tension I didn’t know I had. He forces me a few steps forward and pushes me against a cupboard, my body rhythmically pressing against it as he works on my back.
His hands move back to my shoulders as he thrusts a thigh between my legs from behind, propping his foot on a low shelf to get the angle right. With each press of his fingers into my flesh, he drags my core across his leg.
Lightning flashes through me from that most sensual point, and my hips thrust of their own accord, chasing that high. He grinds me against his leg again and again, and delicious friction builds within me.
“Do you like it like that?” he whispers in my ear, thrusting again. “Or perhaps you would prefer it like this?”
He moves our bodies so quickly that I am suddenly bent over the small table at the other side of the closet, my hands and cheek pressed against the wooden top.
A shuddering breath leaves me.
He stands behind me and spreads my legs so his erection is between them, against my throbbing core with only a few layers of fabric between us. He kisses his way down my spine while massaging my shoulders again, then his hands grip the sides of my lower back, thumbs still working the muscles in large circles while he moves his hips, grinding that huge cock against me again and again in long strokes.
I will combust, right here, like this.
Pleasure builds inside me; it shoots to every part of my existence, driving me to the brink of insanity. My breaths come out in ragged gasps. “Aldrin, please,” I moan. “I need you inside me.”
“Not before I taste you,” he growls.
Multiple footsteps echo in the corridor beyond this tiny room. They walk right past us as Aldrin gets to his knees and pulls down my panties, exposing me to him completely.
He slaps me on the rump. “I will never get sick of this perfect ass.”
Those strong hands spread me wide, and then I feel the precise flick of his tongue on my core as his face presses right into my most intimate parts. I shudder and cry out at the intensity of that carnal sensation that spikes through me.
Those footsteps double back past the door as Aldrin’s tongue licks up my slit again, circling on my clit and swiping right back down, again and again, working me until my legs shake. I grip the edges of the table, needing something to hold on to.
My hips thrust back into him of their own accord, moving into each pass of his tongue in synchrony with him, chasing that friction. Wanting more. The press of his face into me as his tongue reaches for my clitoris from behind feels absolutely wicked.
“You dirty thing.” His words vibrate through my core. “They have no idea what I am doing to you just a few feet away.”
There are more footsteps, and voices too. They are so close.
Aldrin’s hand moves from where it grips my ass, plunging two fingers into me, curling them in and out with brutality. Combined with his tongue swirling at its apex and his face buried against me, it is all too much.
The tension builds to an unbearable amount, and I crash straight over the edge of the abyss. I combust into a powerful orgasm that stretches out for so long my heart will surely give out. My inner muscles clench against his fingers that still move, guiding me through each wave. I float in a sea of bliss, in utter oblivion, as pleasure rolls and crashes through me. It lights up every bit of my body.
I lie there, unable to move. The swish of fabric as Aldrin tears off his clothes and the slap of them hitting the ground drags my attention to him. I turn, not wanting to miss a moment of it.
Aldrin stands before me in all his glory. Sweat gleams on the hard ridges of his chest and abdomen. The ropy muscles of his thighs are accentuated by the dim light and shadows.
His cock stands erect, waiting for me. I wrap my fingers around it and fall to my knees, ready to take it as deep as I can down my throat, but Aldrin catches me.
“No,” he says. “I have waited too long to fuck you again.”
He lifts me and deposits my ass on a shallow shelf, pressing his body over mine until I am pushed tightly against the wall. I have no purchase at all, so wrap my legs around his hips instead. My breasts crush against his chest, and I savor the sight, and the feel of his hip bones digging into me. Aldrin grabs his cock, positions its head at my core, and we both watch it intently as he guides it home.
I let out a whimper as his hardness slides into me, stretching and filling me up to an impossible depth.
“Louder,” he demands. “I want to hear you scream. I want you to test my sound shield.”
He pulls almost all the way out of me, then slams back in to the hilt. My whole body jolts under the impact and pleasure explodes within me. I let out a strangled cry. Gods, it feels so good. Like I am on fire. Alive. Like I have come home after being lost at sea for a long time.
“More,” he snarls, then slams into me again.
I scream, tearing my nails down his back. Aldrin rams into me again and again, harder each time, moving with impossible speed. Those footsteps approach again, so close they must be just outside the door.
“Where is the Lady Keira? How did we lose her?” a voice asks, and it sounds like they are standing right next to us.
Aldrin doesn’t miss a beat, pumping in and out of me so hard my body jumps, and a clay pot falls from the wall to crash to the ground. I let out a long moan as he fucks me hard, more footsteps approaching and another person standing just outside the door.
“She was right here a moment ago. Search every room for her. I bet the Lord Protector will give us a decent bonus if we catch her doing the wrong thing,” another voice snickers.
“I want a fucking promotion,” the first guard snaps. “Or at least something I can use as blackmail against her.”
Aldrin grunts rhythmically like some sort of predator as he drives his massive cock into me, rough and hard enough for me to see stars. Deep enough to hit that spot. To light every inch of my being. More pots crash around us, and I moan and scream and whimper with every exhale. It is a wonder they cannot hear us.
The door handle shakes, and the thrill of near discovery almost has me climaxing. I tighten my legs around Aldrin while he hammers into me. A smirk grows on his face as those burning amber eyes soak up every second of my blissful expression.
“This door is locked. Do you have the key?” a voice says, inches from us. He bangs on the door, as though to indicate which one.
“Yeah, let me try it,” the other man says. “Do you think they are fucking in there?”
Both men laugh viciously. “That would ruin her image for the war. Good blackmail material.”
Aldrin gives me a wicked grin, then lifts my ass from the shelf.
I widen my eyes at him. “Oh gods, Aldrin, no!” Horror runs through me as he transfers my weight against the door, never pulling out of me.
“Yes,” he growls, pausing. “Tell me yes.”
“You dirty bastard,” I groan as keys jingle at the door and a strange thrill runs through me. “Okay. Fuck yes.”
Aldrin moves again, his hard cock slamming in and out of me, in and out, my entire body jolting with each impact. His wards hold, and the door somehow doesn’t move or make a sound.
I moan almost continually, and Aldrin makes a deep, throaty sound as keys continue to jingle in the keyhole next to us. As the guards on the other side try one after the other, muttering to each other as they do.They are completely oblivious to us.
The tension builds within me to an explosive point, and I cry out as my body seems to convulse and clamp and shudder around Aldrin’s cock.
He continues to slam into me while I climax, until I am limp around him, and it is his turn to lock up and groan with release. I feel him tremor within me, and then we are both still, panting and gripping onto each other, unable to move.
“My damned key doesn’t work,” one man says. Gods, it sounds and feels like he is speaking right in my ear.
“Don’t worry about it. I doubt she went into a locked supply cupboard anyway,” the other guard replies.“I’m fucking pissed we lost her. I have gambling debts up to my ears.”
Laughter bubbles out of me, and it tips Aldrin over the edge and into hysterics with me. It courses through me until I am crying with it. Aldrin’s chest heaves as the sound bursts from him, and somehow we both end up curled up on the ground in fits of mania around shattered pottery.
Aldrin composes himself first. “Fuck, that was good. I told you it would be.”
A huge smile splits my lips as I raise my eyebrows at him. “I can’t believe you threw me up against the door they were trying to open!”
“You enjoyed it. Though I do need to track those guards down and destroy them for wanting to blackmail you,” he says, eyes darkening. Heat enters his gaze all over again as it roams over my naked body. “You know, we might not get another opportunity like this anytime soon. Maybe we should make the most of it?”
“Do you ever tire?” I say, throwing a wave of air across the ground to sweep up the shards of pottery, then crawling over his naked body, pressing his chest down with a hand so he lies beneath me.
“Of you? Never.”