CHAPTER 83 Wren
CHAPTER 83
Wren
‘An alchemist’s greatest wisdom is intuition. Follow it’
– Arcane Alchemy: Unveiling the Mysteries of Matter
A GENTLE brEEZE rippled across the emerald-green grass and the blooms, carrying a whisper of fragrant jasmine and orchids.
‘Where are we?’ Wren asked.
‘The far northern border of the academy. I found it when I did my initial security sweep of the grounds. Only the masters know of it, and now you. I was told there are rare plants here that are not accessible in the main gardens, but this place isn’t used for anything at the moment. I’ve wanted to bring you here for a long time.’
Tears stung Wren’s eyes, but she blinked them back. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured, drinking in the sight. She could already see the rich violet of dragon’s breath orchid peeking out from the verdant fronds, and the subtle glow of moon lilies...
She turned to the Warsword to find him staring at her in the same way she was staring at the meadow, a gleam of awe in his eyes, his mouth slightly parted. The space between them was suddenly heavy with anticipation, with those vows he’d made in her rooms, in that tunnel...
Torj was moving again, leading her by the hand through the wild blooms that blanketed the land, towards a towering willow tree that fractured the horizon. There, he took a blanket from his pack and laid it out atop the fallen leaves.
Wren took in the secluded spot, the sprawling hills of wildflowers. ‘You’re not worried about our safety out here? That we’ll get into some sort of trouble?’
Torj closed the gap between them, gripping her chin with strong, warm fingers and lifting her face to his. ‘I was in trouble the moment I met you, Embers.’
And then he kissed her.
She surrendered to him, opening her mouth and losing herself in the intoxicating taste, in the strokes of his tongue. Her hands slid up into his hair, tugging him closer to her in desperation.
He kissed her passionately, a wild hunger sweeping them both up in its midst. She moaned against his lips, gasped as he captured her lower lip between his teeth and whimpered as he licked over the flash of pain, deepening the kiss again.
Wren’s body went molten beneath him, arousal pooling between her legs, her breasts aching for his touch. Her hands went to the buttons of his shirt, and this time, he didn’t stop her. Gods, how she wanted him.
Under trembling fingers, the fabric came apart, revealing that golden skin, scarred and tattooed. She broke away to press a kiss to the marred flesh there, feeling the thrum of power beneath. As she traced the scars with her lips and tongue, Torj let out a pained groan.
‘Do you mean to kill me, Embers?’
His powerful frame was rigid with tension – with restraint, she realized.
‘Because if you’re to be the end of me, it’s an end I’ll greet with open arms.’
He peeled off his shirt, revealing every inch of that sculpted torso and broad shoulders before his hands were at her laces and his lips were at her neck, teeth scraping the fragile column of her throat.
Wren cried out as her bodice loosened and he slipped his hands beneath the fabric of her dress, cupping her breasts in rough palms. A strained noise escaped Torj, as though the feel of her alone might send him hurtling over the edge. Just as frenzied, Wren pushed off her boots and helped him with the rest of her laces and dress, at last letting it slide down her body to pool at her feet.
She heard Torj’s breath catch as his gaze raked over her naked form, lingering, as though committing every inch of her to memory. He traced the lines of her body with reverent, featherlight fingers – the arch of her hip, the swell of her breast – before they brushed down to her navel, and lower.
A tempest bloomed inside her, and Wren couldn’t wait any longer. She clawed at Torj’s leathers, sliding them down his muscular thighs, the hard length of him springing free.
Her mouth went dry at the sight.
Furies save her, he was glorious. Every inch of him the war-honed warrior she’d come to know and—
He kissed her fiercely again, taking her in his arms and laying her down on the blanket he’d brought for them. She touched the soft fabric.
‘How long have you been planning this?’ she asked between breathless kisses.
‘For ever,’ he panted. ‘It feels like for-fucking-ever.’
His hand slid between her thighs and her legs fell open for him, completely and utterly exposed. Cold air kissed the most intimate part of her as he traced her clit, eliciting a gasp from her as sparks burst across her skin.
She rolled her hips, moving with him, before his mouth closed over her nipple.
With a moan, she took him in her hand, learning the shape and granite feel of him, imagining it buried deep inside her. She explored him from base to crown, swiping her thumb over the moisture she found there, causing him to buck beneath her touch with a quiet curse.
She smiled against his lips and stroked his length again, adding more pressure and watching in awe as his head tipped back with a groan.
‘We should talk about protection,’ he gritted out, thrusting with the motion of her hand, echoing the rhythm with his fingers on her. ‘Against pregnancy.’
‘I take a tonic,’ she breathed.
‘As do I,’ he told her. ‘So there’s nothing standing in our way?’
‘Nothing.’
When he looked at her again, his eyes were glazed with lust. He brought two fingers to his mouth and sucked her desire from them before sliding them back between her legs, pushing them inside her.
‘Oh, gods,’ she gasped, opening wider for him as he pumped those fingers in and out of her, circling her clit with his thumb in a way that had her writhing beneath him.
Torj’s mouth descended, painting her with kisses down her neck, across her breasts, and down her stomach, his beard grazing her skin.
He withdrew his fingers and she made a noise of protest – only to feel him replace them with his tongue.
That wicked, talented tongue.
He held her thighs open as he feasted on her, sucking on her clit, sliding his tongue inside her, until she was riding his face with utter abandon.
‘Torj...’ she cried out, her fingers tangling in his hair, trying to draw him back up her body.
Torj obliged her, capturing her mouth in a devastating kiss as he dragged the head of his cock through the wet heat of her.
They both moaned, loud and guttural.
‘I want you drenched for me, Embers.’
‘Torj,’ she warned, her nails digging into the muscles of his arms. ‘Please.’
He looked into her eyes in a way that stole the breath from her lungs. ‘I wasn’t meant to fall for you,’ he said hoarsely, pressing the tip of his cock to her entrance. ‘I wasn’t meant to want this, to want you. But Furies save me, I do. I do want you. And I’ll never let you go.’
With those words, he thrust inside her, sheathing himself to the base.
Wren cried out, stars bursting across her vision. She clung to him as a powerful surge of storm magic rocked her to the core.
‘Fuck...’ Torj murmured, moving with long, luxurious rolls of his hips, hitting a spot deep inside her that had her panting. He kissed her brutally, claiming her lips as he claimed her body. ‘Gods, you were made for me.’
His fingers threaded through hers and pinned them above her head as he thrusted, drawing out long spirals of rapture. She arched beneath him, wrapping her legs around his back, tilting her own hips up to meet his.
A blazing fire of need coursed through her, and she felt Torj’s heart pounding against her own as he moved inside her. She broke away from his kiss, staring up at him as a palpable current surged between them, locking them together in a cascade of sensations that transcended all else. He was everywhere, setting her senses alight, awakening the storm within.
He braced himself on his elbow as he fucked her, long and deep, reaching between them to roll her clit beneath his thumb. Pure ecstasy unravelled then. A strangled sob broke from her, and she clamped around him, the swell of her climax rising and rising.
Arching beneath him, she scored his back with her nails, bit down on his shoulder, became more animal than woman: marking him, claiming him as he did her. They were tethered together. She could feel it like a physical bond growing taut between them.
‘Wren...’ Torj growled against her lips. A note of desperation, of trembling restraint wavered in his voice, his kisses becoming rougher, more demanding, leaving her smouldering for him.
She moaned as she felt the first ripples of her climax start at the base of her spine. ‘Don’t stop,’ she panted.
Torj leaned back on his knees, holding her by her thighs, finding a deeper angle as he sank into her again and again. She was so full, so stretched, and she wanted every inch of him.
He pressed his thumb against her clit once more, adding to the explosions taking hold of her whole body. She met every one of his wild thrusts with a tilt of her hips, desperate for release, desperate to see him completely and utterly unleashed, all the while losing herself to his body, his touch. Higher and higher into oblivion she climbed, and there was no coming back down to reality now.
‘Go up in flames with me, Embers,’ Torj murmured.
Everything Wren was feeling, body and soul, exploded then and there, as he pushed into her and pinched her clit at the same time.
Wren’s orgasm ripped through her like a wild storm. She cried out, shattering into a thousand pieces, cresting in the most intoxicating, devastating way. Her body was not her own as it came apart beneath him, his cock driving into her, dragging out every last ounce of insane pleasure.
Wren came with his name on her lips, each stroke of his cock erasing everything but the two of them, and the power thrumming between them.