What You Bargained For
What You Bargained For
Ruven didn’t waste any more time. He snaked an arm around me and hauled me into the shallows. We didn’t even make it all the way onto the beach before he had his fingers in my hair and his mouth on mine.
I moaned from the flash of heat as his tongue gripped mine. The powerful length of his tail wrapped around my calf and his thick cock flexed in my hand. Every tiny, needy sound from his throat sent reckless desire skidding down my spine. He was mine . There was no reason to deny him what we both wanted.
I sat up and straddled him, thighs splayed across his hips, and seated my wet heat against the pebbled length of his prehensile cock. Ruven let out a sharp cry of need, his head thrown back and horns digging gouges into the sand.
“Av,” he gasped.
“Hmm?” I started rocking against him, the movement sending sparks into my blood. His hips bucked, driving his length against my folds with a blaze of need.
“ Av— ”
“Aw, where’s that clever tongue now?” I asked in a teasing lilt, my skin buzzing with desire, my eyes focused on his open mouth and slanted brows. I lifted myself up off of him, which got me a desperate whine, and stroked my hand down his length.
Ruven’s fingertips sank into the flesh of my hips. “Gods, ride my tongue or ride my cock, paradise, but please fucking ride me.”
As much as I enjoyed the begging, I couldn’t bear to wait any longer. Nothing else in the world mattered but the man underneath me, the sound of his need, and the cock in my hand. I didn’t even have to guide him into me. All I had to do was to tilt my hips for him, pressing him up against me, and that prehensile length curled just right , the tip hooking my entrance and pushing deeper.
I sat down onto him with a moan that was more than halfway to a whimper. He could have dragged me flush to his hips in an instant, but Ruven let me set the pace, an expression of raw pleasure on his face while the thick shaft of his cock flexed inside me. He was so big , stretching me open. The ache and burn of it warned me to go slow, but the reckless lust of months of teasing demanded I take him now .
“Oh, fuck, Ru,” I panted out, rocking him deeper into me. “How the fuck did no one take you up on this?”
He groaned, his arms shaking and eyes glazed. “May-maybe I was— I was meant to be for you— Gods, I’m for you , I’m yours—” His voice broke into a harsh moan as the rest of his shaft slid in, my soulmate seated deep inside me.
The shorter tentacles at the base of his shaft writhed against me, rubbing against my skin. Without thinking, I ground down against them, chasing my pleasure.
They started vibrating .
I let out a surprised whine, and Ruven went tense underneath me.
“Aw, fuck,” he said, all but gasping out the words. “I didn’t mean to do that. Have a little patience with me. It’s my first time—”
His pleading expression and light humor was wiped away when I growled in frustration and started rocking my hips, keeping my clit up against the shifting press of his crest. “Don’t you dare stop,” I snarled. I planted my hands on his chest and rode him harder, picking up the pace. “God didn’t give you a built-in rabbit vibe just for you to fucking turn it off .”
“You… want it?” Ruven’s lashes fluttered as he relaxed away from the sharp tension, his hips lifting and tail sliding up around my waist to wrap around one breast. His tail-tip flicked across my nipple with a sharp burst of pleasure, and at the clench of my pussy around his cock, his tentacles started vibrating again—gently at first, but then in stronger pulses, rubbing along my clit and folds.
I’d used vibrators before, of course. I’d even had boyfriends use them on me, or let me hold a bullet vibe against my clit while they fucked me. Most of the time, I couldn’t get off without a vibe or suction, and since I refused to fake it, I got rid of the men who sulked over their dick not being magic pretty damn fast. The combination of a good dick and a better vibrator was my favorite way to get off.
It didn’t even compare.
Ruven’s cock flexed as he met my rocking thrusts, grinding the thickest part of his shaft against my g-spot with unrelenting force and never managing to thud into my cervix with painful force despite his length and girth. His crest of tentacles massaged me, the waves of vibration timed to his motion. Two held my clit between them, moving in counterpoint to each other, an endless, glorious press of throbbing vibration and manual stimulation.
Heat and tension flooded through me. The pulses of vibration wound me closer and closer to ecstasy. Everything built like floodwaters behind a dam, my core spasming on Ruven and my pussy so wet he glided in and out of me like he’d been lubed. I went from ‘hot for it’ to ‘whimpering mess’ in minutes, my arms shaking so hard I couldn’t hold myself up.
When I collapsed down onto him, Ruven snarled like an animal, wrapped his arms around me, and started pistoning his cock into me with hard thrusts of his hips.
“Come for me, paradise,” he growled into my ear, breath hot and voice insistent. “Come on my cock. Come so hard you milk me dry.”
I whimpered, pussy closing on him with a flash of pleasure that dragged me to the edge of orgasm, the imminence as all-consuming as the moment of anticipation before the roller coaster drops. His textured cock rubbed against my sensitized channel, everything glowing with need. His tentacles rubbed, and vibrated, and rubbed —
“Come for me,” Ruven said again, desperation creeping into the words. “Come for me, come for me, come for me—” His pace sped with each repetition, hard slams that bottomed him out in me, leaving pleasure radiating through me like the heat of the sun. “ Avalon— ” he pleaded.
Everything broke. My whole body arched back as ecstasy slammed into me with physical force. My breath caught in my throat. White-hot glory raced through my veins, my core closing down on him over and over again, waves of pleasure crashing through me like a stormy sea battering the shore. Distantly, I heard his hoarse cry; distantly, I felt heat pulsing into me as he came with me, my soulmate losing himself in me.
The euphoria flooded into my body, muscles going lax, leaving me shuddering on Ruven’s sweat-slicked chest. I could hear his heart pounding under my ear. His cock flexed hard inside me, and I whimpered, my body’s answering spasm sending an aftershock through me that almost had me coming again.
“Av,” he whispered, stroking my hair out of my face. “Av,” he said again, sounding like he might cry.
I made myself blink the haze out of my eyes, pushing myself up enough to look into his eyes. “Are you okay, sweetheart?” I asked, searching Ruven’s expression. Those slanted brows, that pleading look, the gleam of unshed tears in his beautiful dark eyes… it wasn’t the bliss I’d expected to see on his face after I’d claimed him.
“I feel like— I feel like I’m being torn in half,” he said, half-sobbing the words. “Av, darling, paradise, I… I wanted this, I need this, I want— want you—”
“I love you,” I said softly, cupping his face in my hands.
He froze, ears dropping down, naked yearning lifting the inner corners of his dark brows. “What?” he whispered. His voice shook.
The world was standing still for us—had been standing still this whole time. Waiting for us to find that final piece of alignment and for everything to slot into place. I could feel it, the same timeless anticipation still wrapped around us, like a concert hall when the conductor raises her baton.
“I love you,” I said again. A soft smile started warming my face, the flush of post-orgasmic bliss melding with the heat of my affection for him. “You, this…” I dropped a kiss on his nose. “Us.”
“You… do?” The corners of his mouth trembled.
“Idiot,” I said, feeling like I had a star in my chest. “Nincompoop.” I brushed my nose against his. His breath warmed my face. “Of course I do. I love you, Ruven.” My lips skimmed against his with each word. “I love you ,” I murmured, and pressed my mouth to his.
Something in me settled as with the sensation of a sigh, or a key turning in a lock, everything so right with the long lines of his body against me and his lips moving with mine in mutual longing. It was the same feeling as my fear evaporating from having Ruven under me in the shape of a horse, except that instead of the lack of fear, it was the birth of certainty. Nothing else in the world mattered but the man in my arms. I was safe. I was home .
He was my home. He would always be my home.
We were home together, forever.
Our lips parted. For one long moment, Ruven didn’t move, his eyes closed and lips parted, an expression of total focus on his face as he savored the feeling of my kiss—and of the soft balance of our soulmate bond.
He let out a sharp exhale, then started laughing breathlessly. “Oh, gods, that’s embarrassing.” His tail wrapped around my thigh. “You getting on my back? Riding me here bareback, and laughing for the joy of it? Grabbing me by the cock and taking from me everything I barely dared to offer? Nope, not good enough.” Ruven dropped his head back and draped an arm across his face to hide himself. “I had to hear you fucking say it.” He smiled, a helpless expression, happiness suffusing his face.
“Gods,” he said, cupping the back of my neck with his warm hand and looking back up at me. “I love you, too, Avalon Hartley. It’s bliss to become yours.”
Affection warmed my blood, the heat of his body the perfect counterpoint to the cold sweep of the river across my legs and the golden glow of the sun. “Weren’t you already mine?” I twined my fingers in his loose hair and gave it a soft tug. “I know you’ve been waiting for me. Giving me time, and letting me learn to trust that you’ll always be there to catch me.” I leaned down and brushed my lips against his again. “You were very patient with me.”
“I would have waited far longer than this had you needed it, friction burns be damned.” He brushed his thumb along my jawline, a gentle expression of yearning affection softening his face. “I’m rather foolishly in love with you, as it turns out.”
I gave him a little wiggle and felt his crest curl up against me in response. “Are you still foolishly in lust with me, too?”
His expression sharpened. “Gods, yes,” he said, his voice dropping deeper. “Don’t worry. I’m fucking desperate for it. I’ve merely been waylaid by finding eternal bliss with the match to my soul.” Ruven’s tail caressed the curve of my ass. “Give me but a moment to recollect myself, and you’ll have me panting and hard for you again. Do you want a repeat, or to take advantage of the vast array of cocks I can wear for you?”
I snorted at that and gave him a nudge with my nose. “Bored of being yourself already?”
Ruven grinned up at me, tilting his saber-teeth and ears forward. “Feeling extremely secure in being wanted as myself, actually,” he said brightly. “Ridden, mated, and soulmated. Since you can’t life-bond me as we’re soulmates, and since we have another two hundred fifty-six days of sleeping next to each other before you can marry me, I’m not sure there’s any more claimed I could even get.”
“You’ve been counting the number of nights we’ve slept next to each other?” I asked, laughter in my voice.
“Of course I’ve been counting,” Ruven said in a mock-scolding voice. “How else am I supposed to schedule the wedding? Which I suppose I should invite you to, and also request that you kindly agree to,” he added, a bit bashfully. “I know humans marry much more frequently than fae, so I hoped you’d be amenable. I’ve, ah, been fantasizing about it for some months now.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing outright. “You’ve barely known me for four months, Ru.”
“And?” he asked, tilting his ears towards me. Ruven ran his hands down my sides with a sultry look settling onto his face. “I don’t need an answer right now, or even soon. But I would very much like an answer to my other question.” A sharp smirk turned up his full mouth. “Dimensions, shape, and structure, my dear. Man? Woman?” Wickedness glinted in his dark eyes. “Horse?”
With a smirk of my own, I sat back up onto him, looking down at him from under my lowered lashes. “Same dimensions, shape, and structure, of your kindness,” I said primly, then grinned at him like a shark. “But I want two of them.”
“Oh,” he breathed, a reckless smile taking hold of his expression. “Consider me at your service, paradise.”
****