Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
ELAINA
They were close enough for her to feel Cyan’s breath skirting down her cheek as she looked down at their intertwined hands. The heaviness she’d been feeling since her last stint up at the station was gone, replaced by a weightless charge enveloping the space around them. Anticipation coiled tight as Cyan’s breathing deepened next to her, his thumb tracing circles in the back of her hand.
Tilting her face toward him, Elaina whispered, “What did the sword want you to?—”
He captured her lips before she could finish, taking the underlying invitation. Electricity zinged to her head and down her spine as she leaned into the kiss, turning toward him as he turned toward her. Leaning into him as he leaned into her, a magnet and a mirror. He brought his free hand to her face, enveloping her cheek in the heat of his palm. A strained sound left her throat as his tongue nudged at the seam of her mouth, and she complied, parting her lips.
Cyan’s kiss was not shy—he deepened it, leading the exploration of their tongues, and Elaina took the chance to nip at his lower lip, tasting him. The soft grunt the bite elicited made her clench, her hips shifting instinctively as she turned further into him.
“Spread your legs a little for me,” Cyan’s voice was hoarse against her lips, and her body reacted before her brain could, her thighs parting. He untwined his hand from hers to slide it gently to her thigh, the light pressure raising chills on her skin. He leaned his forehead against hers, lips hovering a sliver away, so close she could still taste him, as his hand stroked her inner thighs.
“I like when you tell me what to do,” Elaina swallowed, her eyes glued down to his mouth, a little blurry in its proximity.
Something shifted in the energy between them. The thought of giving herself to him completely, relinquishing control, pooled between her legs. This wasn’t just about following his lead—it was about letting herself trust in whatever happened next.
“Come here,” he rasped.
His hold on her cheek hardened and he tilted her face up for a forceful kiss as his other hand traveled to the apex between her legs. She gasped as he finally touched her, lightly at first, then harder, and then it was gone as he gripped her hip instead and shifted them both, dragging her on top of him.
Heat spread across her skin like plainsfire, every nerve ending sparking under his hands. Her breath caught as she slid against him, taut with need. The air was heady with the scent of his skin—a mix of leather, musk, and something uniquely Cyan. Every shift of his body beneath hers sent the sound of rustling fabric through the weighted silence in the tiny cabin, punctuating their uneven breathing.
Her knees planted on either side of his waist, her hands finding their way on their own up his sides. His fingers laced at the nape of her neck, pulling her face toward him, his hips coming up against hers, longing through layers of fabric. He took her hand and guided it down between them.
“Feel that,” he said, groaning as she pressed her hand to the hardness through his trousers. “Feel what you did.”
Elaina choked on a moan, the quiet, steady words burrowing into her core.
“I did that?” She glanced down. She wanted to hear it again.
“Mmhmm,” he said. “You did.”
Elaina shifted herself against him, her body feeling like it was ready to unseal, to open wide and let him in. Her blood pumped with newfound urgency, rushing in her ears like a power surge building to overload as she brought her mouth to his cheek, down his jaw, to his neck. She wanted to devour him. She wanted to be devoured.
Slow down, alarm bells tried to make her see reason. It was too soon. She barely knew him. She wasn’t ready.
But she wanted this.
“Do you want to get on your knees?” Cyan muttered, stroking a lock of hair behind her ear as her lips and tongue explored his collarbone, her back arched up over him, her hands roaming.
“Yes,” she breathed. She was practically salivating at the thought. That, she was ready for.
“Good.”
How could one word make her melt so completely? She let him shift her down to the floor as he pushed himself up on his elbows. Cyan grabbed the pillow from his bed and put it down for her knees.
“Thank you.” She smiled up at him, positioning herself between his splayed legs. She trailed her hands down his shirt, fiddling with the archaic Gaian button-clasping system. He helped, his rugged fingers replacing her own to give her access to his abdomen. The salty musk of his skin seeped onto her tongue as she tasted the trail of his stomach, her hands lowering to tuck her fingers into his waistband.
He helped with the clasps on that too, and Elaina tugged his trousers down below his hips, her stomach flipping with anticipation.
When his shaft sprung free from its restraints, Elaina’s hands and tongue gravitated to its hard heat. Cyan grasped the back of her hair, firmly staying her impatient momentum. She lingered before him, so close, and so hungry.
“Look at me when you put me in your mouth.”
A fresh wave of heat coursed through her and she obeyed, her gaze locking onto his. The intensity of his stare pinned her in place, as if he were reading every inch of her soul, not just her body. His eyes darkened, and she felt herself falling—into him, into the moment, into something she couldn’t control and really didn’t want to.
Cyan was a storm looming over her. His brow furrowed and his expression was firm even as he nodded his approval. She opened her mouth as he stroked a thumb along her bottom lip and moaned in response to the small smile he had deemed to grant. Finally, his hand on the back of her head guided her to her destination.
Elaina’s eyes nearly closed when she finally tasted him, the head sliding between her lips, but her eyes quickly flew open and back up at the firm words from above: “Eyes up here. Look at me.”
He pushed her lower, forcing her to spread her knees wider on the floor to get down, looking up as she took him deeper in her mouth. The single-minded focus in his eyes was life itself, and Elaina moaned as his hips came forward to meet her. Her lips curled around his shaft on the flat of her tongue and she took him as deep as she could manage—not deep enough—and then moved back.
“Fuck,” the curse escaped him as his hips began to find a rhythm. She matched his pace, gripping his bare thighs, eager fingers digging into thick skin. Her belly tightened when he tangled his fingers roughly in her hair, bringing her forward, his breaths growing ragged.
Elaina couldn’t take it anymore. She withdrew, a trail of saliva linking the head of his shaft with her lower lip. Elaina took a beat to catch her breath before choking out her request: “May I touch myself?”
The smile that lit his face was a wildfire that made her insides pool between her legs.
I would kill for that smile.
The unbidden thought chilled her so suddenly that she was sure he must’ve noticed. Her heart raced, not just from arousal, but from the terrifying prospect of the realization. She barely knew him, but it really felt like she meant it.
“Are you okay?” Cyan brought her back, his grip in her hair turning into something gentler. She nodded, but he pulled her up higher on her knees, bending down to tilt her chin up and still her sudden hesitation with a kiss.
“Yes,” Elaina swallowed. “I’m okay.”
“Good. Then yes…” The kiss turned harder then, more decisive. Cyan’s tongue explored her mouth like he owned it and then he withdrew, forcing her to look at him. “You can touch yourself.”
That was enough to push aside whatever distraction her brain had begun to concoct, and Elaina brought herself back down. She slid an eager hand between her thighs and her mouth back in its place on Cyan’s cock, stars flaring behind her eyes as pleasure twisted from her clit and through her body like a live wire. She quickly remembered herself, opening her eyes to look at him.
“Fuck yes, just like that.” Cyan bared his teeth in a concentrated scowl. She watched him watch her, his attention pinning her in place and driving her dangerously close to the edge as she felt him swell further with every increasingly haphazard thrust. Elaina’s finger quickened on her clit, rubbing impatient circles, her thighs trembling with each ripple of pleasure skittering through her body. And when Cyan grabbed her face in both of his, his thumbs stroking the hair back from her temples for a better look at her eyes, Elaina felt herself start to break open.
“Cwunicumm?” She mumbled through her full mouth, his pace unrelenting, and something in the wicked grin that twisted his face told her he liked that.
“What was that? I didn’t hear you,” Cyan bit back.
Elaina pleaded with her eyes, begging for him to just give her this. “Cw—cwun—I—swum?” She tried again, eliciting a joyful laugh from the man fucking her mouth.
“Yes.” He nodded at her—her favorite motion and apparently her new favorite word. “Yes, you can come.”
That was all she needed. Elaina moaned his name indecipherably and began to come apart.