Chapter 36 #3
“I want all of that,” I told him, pausing my work on his buttons to run my fingers through his mussed hair.
His lips were reddened from more than the kiss: the stain on my lips was a sturdy one, best removed with oil, but even it couldn’t withstand this passion, and the streak of crimson at one corner of his mouth made me feel possessive.
“I want to make love with you. I want to dance with you. I want everyone in Mistei to know I’ve chosen you, and I will keep choosing you. ”
From my earliest days collecting in the bog, I’d always valued the treasures found in unexpected places. I wasn’t going to let go of this one.
Kallen made a rough sound and seized my lips in a fierce kiss again. His thumb finally moved that last inch inward, stroking through my core, parting the outer lips to get to the softness within. I whimpered when he brushed my clitoris.
“Wet,” he said, sounding awed. “So fucking wet. All for me.”
“For you,” I agreed, spreading my fingers over the slice of chest I’d managed to bare. His heart raced beneath my touch.
He rubbed the sensitive nub, keeping up a steady rhythm until my hips were rocking for more, then rotated his wrist to press his middle finger against my opening. “Is this what you like?” he asked, sinking it inside me.
“Yes!” I gasped, clenching around his finger.
He tightened his other fist in my hair to tip my head to the side, then brought his lips to my ear. “I need to put my mouth on you. Let me taste you, Kenna. Please.”
He stroked me deep inside, his palm rubbing against my clit, and a whimper left me at the feeling and the mental image of Kallen on his knees. Then I thought of what he’d confessed. “Are you— Have you done that before?”
“No,” he murmured. “But I’ve been spying for centuries. I’m very familiar with how it’s done.”
Kallen was truly a virgin. It was shocking considering how long faeries lived, but it also made sense in the context of what he’d experienced.
He had learned the worst, most brutal lessons when he was young: that openly valuing something was the fastest way to have it stolen, that betrayal was inevitable, and that love made an excellent weapon.
He’d never trusted anyone enough to let them get close.
He trusted me, though, and the swell of emotion that came with that thought was nearly painful.
“Is that a problem?” he asked, pulling back to look at me. His eyes weren’t the furious black of Void anymore, but his pupils were wide within their ring of midnight.
“No!” I hurried to say. “Not at all. I just want it to be good for you.”
He kissed me swiftly, hand still working between my thighs. “I’ve been imagining the taste of you for months now. There’s no way it’s going to be less than earth-shattering.”
I gasped as his palm pressed harder against my clit. “Months?”
His sigh wafted over my lips. “This isn’t new for me, Kenna. I’ve been obsessed with you from the start, even if I was in denial about the nature of that obsession for a while.”
The way he looked at me was all-consuming. Thinking of that focus dedicated to the task of making me orgasm, I shuddered. “Please taste me.”
He grinned, fast and feral, then slid his hand out from between my thighs and picked me up.
He carried me to the fireplace and laid me down on the fur rug, then settled between my legs, kissing me again.
Deep, endless, devouring kisses, like he could spend the entire night at my lips and still never get enough.
He finally broke away, gasping. “I want to cut this dress off you.”
“I like this dress,” I protested.
“I do, too, which is the only reason it’s being spared.
” He rolled me to my stomach and started working on the laces at my back.
I listened to the hiss of them sliding out of their grommets and the crackle of the fireplace, curling my fingers in the soft rug.
When the dress was loosened enough, Kallen dragged it off me with the chemise and underskirts, and I was left bare except for Caedo at my wrist.
A shuddering exhalation left him. I looked over my shoulder and found him staring at me with heavy-lidded eyes. He trailed one hand down my back, raising goose bumps, then stroked over my bottom and squeezed. “Lovely,” he breathed.
It wasn’t fair I was the only naked one. I turned over, then struggled to my knees and started ripping at the remaining buttons of his tunic. The fabric parted beneath my fingers, and I shoved it off to reveal his muscled chest.
Shards, he was beautiful. Thick slabs of pectoral muscle, a rippled abdomen, and two cut ridges arrowing into his trousers.
The signs of his suffering were here, too, though.
In addition to the scars on his arms, a large one curled over his ribs, another arced across his abdomen, and a third wound down from his clavicle.
I ran my hands over him, feeling the slightly raised skin of those scars, then leaned in to kiss the mark at his collarbone.
His muscles flickered beneath my touch. I kissed his neck as he had kissed mine, loving the sigh that fell from his lips as my hands stroked slowly down his torso.
When my fingers reached his waistband, he snapped, surging forward to toss me to my back on the rug.
He bent his head to my chest and opened his mouth over one nipple, licking and then sucking as he kneaded my other breast.
I gasped at the damp heat of his mouth and the calloused rub of his palm. My back arched as he worked his way from one breast to the other. He gave a strong suck that made my toes curl, then gripped my thighs, pushing them even wider. “Need to taste how wet you are.”
“Do it,” I said, feet flexing against the rug. I was soaked and aching, eager to feel that clever mouth moving between my thighs. “ Please , Kallen. I need it so badly, please.”
“I like hearing you beg.” His voice was guttural. “And I’m going to earn it.”
Kallen didn’t seduce—he overwhelmed . Every word, every touch, every taste had a desperate edge, like he was afraid it would be the last.
He looked up, gave me a quick, heart-stopping smile, then shifted down my body, settling his shoulders between my legs and curling his hands around my thighs. He just looked at me for a moment, breath puffing hot against my wet skin, before dragging his tongue over my center.
We groaned simultaneously. “Fuck,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut in what looked like ecstasy. Then he set in with hot, ravenous kisses, like he was starving for me.
My hands flew to his head, and I jerked against him, moaning. When he sucked my clit, my cry was loud enough to make the magic guarding the door ripple.
Kallen’s eyes opened, and I saw the flash of his smirk between kisses. “That’s it,” he told me, voice rumbling against sensitive skin. “Let me hear it. I want to know exactly what I do to you.”
Kallen had a filthy mouth. I could hardly believe this was what he’d been hiding beneath those layers of cold reserve. I was drowning in the intensity, losing control of my body and voice as I gripped his hair and rocked against his face. “Please,” I begged deliriously. “More, please…”
He gave me more, his lips and tongue thorough and relentless.
He watched me while his mouth worked, and I could tell he was cataloging every reaction, because whenever a flick of his tongue got a moan or twitch out of me, he repeated it with more intensity.
The pressure was almost too much, right on the edge of what I could handle, and it was sending me towards the peak faster than anything ever had.
Shivers raced over my skin as tension coiled in my belly.
The sensations were so overwhelming that my legs instinctively tried to snap shut, but his shoulders kept them spread wide.
He released my thighs to plant one hand on my stomach, moving the other to stroke at my entrance before sliding his finger inside me.
“Kallen, gods —”
A second finger joined the first. The pressure, the stretch, was exquisite.
Crimson magic began glimmering at my fingertips, and my feet slid over the floor while my hips churned.
He made a snarling sound, and when he sucked my clit again, the escalating passion finally broke.
Waves of heat swept over me, and I cried out as my body clenched in rhythmic pulses.
My abdomen flexed as I curled upward, clutching his hair like it was the only thing keeping me tethered to earth.
Stars burst at the edges of my vision, and I tumbled into a bliss so intense it was nearly terrifying.
He didn’t let up, and each flick of his tongue was followed by a short, sharp groan. “Never enough,” I heard him say, distant through the haze of pleasure. “I’ll never get enough.”
The orgasm stretched out impossibly long as he kept working me.
When it was finally done, I was a wet, quivering mess.
My limbs were heavy, and my hand shook as I pushed on his forehead.
He licked me one last time, then slid his fingers out of me and knelt up between my legs.
He looked so smug I let out a delirious laugh.
The sound made his smile soften. “I could listen to that forever.” Then he lifted his fingers to his lips and sucked them clean.
A shudder raced through me. I felt wrung out, but looking at his flushed cheeks, slick lips, and passion-bright eyes, I felt an overwhelming urge to take him apart just as thoroughly.
I struggled upright, then planted my hands on his chest and shoved him onto his back.
He laughed, sounding surprised, and I wanted to hoard that sound with all the others, a greedy dragon collecting treasure.
I ripped at the fastening to his trousers, and a button went flying.
Kallen’s chuckle instantly turned into a gasp as my hand slid into the fabric and wrapped around him.
I pulled his cock out, and for a moment all I could do was stare in awe at how beautiful he was here, too.
Long and thick against my palm, with veins I wanted to trace with my tongue, and beneath the soft skin was a core like stone.
I tightened my fingers before stroking up and down, and Kallen grunted as his hips jerked.
I gave him a wicked smile, then bent to take him into my mouth.
Kallen made an animalistic sound and surged half upright before collapsing. His fingers speared into my hair, sending pins flying. “Kenna,” he gasped.
I lowered my head, taking more and more. A slow, delicious slide. I took as much of him as I could, then wrapped my hand around the base. I closed my eyes, breathing through my nose, absorbing the perfection of the moment.
I drew my head back up just as slowly, and Kallen barked out a curse. At the top, I swirled my tongue around the crown, tasting the drops that leaked out of him. I repeated the motion again and again, bobbing my head, licking him, sliding my hand up and down his slick shaft.
Kallen’s entire body was twitching, like he was determined to stay still but couldn’t quite manage it.
Stuttered noises spilled from his lips. I glanced up and found him staring down at me with wide, dazed eyes.
Shadows coiled around his arms, wisps of darkness signifying his loss of control.
When I moaned around him, he bared his teeth, and his eyes flooded pure black.
A thrill shot through me, and I worked him harder, cupping his testicles with my other hand.
He thrust upward at the touch, and the tip of him nudged the back of my throat.
“Sorry,” he gasped, but he didn’t need to apologize.
I took the feeling greedily, like I would always take all of him.
The pleasure and the pain, the violence of a need vaster than the night sky. There could never be enough.
“You’re ruining me,” he gritted out.
The shadows started curling around me, cold against my bared skin. I burned, though, consumed by the triumph of taking him apart. He swelled even harder against my palm, and as his groans grew louder, I moved my head faster.
“Going to—” He broke off, then shouted, back bowing and fingers tightening almost painfully in my hair. His orgasm flooded my mouth, and I drank every drop, reveling in the taste. I kept sucking through his twitches and stuttered groans, until he gasped and finally nudged me away.
He hauled me up his body, wrapping his arms around me and pressing his lips to the top of my head.
I lay with my ear over his thundering heart, basking in a deep contentment.
When I looked up at him, I was shocked to see tears glistening in his eyes.
“Thank you,” he said, looking at me like I was the entirety of his universe.
I smiled as a beautiful feeling unfurled inside me like a flower. “Thank you .”
I laced my hands together on his chest and rested my chin on them. We were quiet for a while, just staring at each other.
“No more running?” I finally whispered.
He shook his head, dark lashes sweeping down. “No more running.”
“Good.” I kissed the scar over his collarbone again. “I wish we could stay here all night.”
We couldn’t, though. I answered to more than just myself these days.
The masquerade was underway, and I needed to get there soon so Torin and Rowena wouldn’t grow suspicious.
Then came the council meeting, when I would finally set us on the course I’d delayed long enough committing to.
We couldn’t let our personal desires outweigh everything else that was at stake.
It would be sweet, though.
A matching regret filled his eyes. “We have obligations. But afterwards, will you come back to Void House with me?”
I smiled, knowing what that meant. Kallen’s home…and Kallen’s bed. “I would love to.”