Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
ATLAS
Rune continues to the door where the hooded figure and Elvira disappeared with his eyebrows furrowed and his jaw clenched.
I don’t know exactly how, but I can feel the tension in his body vibrating in the space between us, like a plucked guitar string.
It’s absolutely not the time for this, but my dick is still stiff from that kiss, and the taste of Rune’s mouth lingers on my tongue along with his promise of more.
What does he mean exactly by more? Does he actually want me to fuck him to see how much magic it might generate?
Or would frotting get the job done? And how exactly am I supposed to ask him a question like that?
One glaring issue is that we don’t have any lube around here.
That’s not always an issue, depending on the species I’m fucking, but something tells me Rune’s human hole isn’t self-slicking and might have a bit of a tough time taking what I’m packing without it.
I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but first I’m going to need to help him relax if he’s going to keep trying to summon his magic through me.
I’m not sure how I know it, but the same way those Turkish words filled my head before, I simply know that magic users need to be centered and relaxed not only to summon their magic, but to be able to direct it properly.
I put my hands on his shoulders from behind and find a pair of knots at the base of his neck with my thumbs. Rune startles.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Giving you a massage to relax you.”
He looks over his shoulder at me with a skeptical look. “No one has ever massaged me before.”
I quirk one side of my lips up in a half smile. “Good, because I’ve never massaged anyone before, so at least you’ll have no way of knowing if I’m terrible at it.”
He huffs a laugh. “Be gentle with me.”
Heat flutters in my gut and my cock twitches eagerly, swinging heavily against my thigh. I bend down close to his ear and whisper, “I promise.”
Rune’s eyelids flutter, and I swear I feel a physical pulse of heat radiate through that spot in the middle of my chest that feels like him.
“Come here,” I coax, moving to sit on the cot and spreading my legs wide to make space for him. Then, I gesture to the floor right in front of me.
I know he can see the shape of my erection snaking down my thigh, bulging inside the prison of my pants, but he doesn’t say a word about it, even if his eyes do linger for a few seconds. I wish I had somewhere more comfortable for him to sit—like my lap—but this will have to do for right now.
“Oh, one second.” He closes his eyes and a faint glow emanates from his tattoos again, much duller than when we were kissing. He murmurs the same words he said before when he set the white noise spell, and a slight whooshing noise fills my ears.
“You still have your magic.” My words come out flatter than I meant them to. That’s a good thing. If he still has some magic, then maybe we don’t need to do more after all. Maybe it will just continue to build inside of him and soon he’ll be strong enough to get us out of here all on his own.
He shakes his head as he gathers his long hair up and ties it into a messy knot so it’s out of the way.
“That was the last of it. It’s gone again.
” He lowers himself onto the hard, dirty floor, making himself as comfortable as possible between my thighs with his back towards me.
“It’s so damn frustrating. Usually, my magic feels like a river inside me, flowing without end, easily fed by the energy I can pull from the air all around me.
But now it’s like a puddle, shallow and useless.
” I can feel his frustration pulsing and writhing like a living creature.
“And it’s bothering me that I can’t put my finger on where I’ve felt that magic before,” he mutters as I put my hands back on his shoulders and find those tense knots again with my thumbs.
I grunt, sinking my thumbs right into the tight spots.
Rune lets out a gasp that sounds like pure sex, and his shoulders slump with the release of tension.
“Fuck, Gargoyle,” he groans. “You’re pretty damn good for your first time.”
I chuckle and another wave of heat rushes through me.
“Maybe you shouldn’t try to think about it so hard.” I find another knot to work on, a little lower down and right near his shoulder blade.
“What? Your magic hands?” he asks before he moans again.
“No, I mean who that person is, the one who’s holding us hostage. Any time I’m trying to remember something, the harder I try, the further away the information feels. If you stop trying, sooner or later your unconscious mind will put the pieces together and suddenly you’ll just know.”
“That’s… actually really smart.” He tilts his head to one side to give me better access as I work my way up, kneading all of the tight spots I come across along the way.
“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” I tease. “I might not be a brilliant, powerful mage, but I do have a useful thought from time to time.”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” he says, a little more softly than I’m expecting. “To be fair, getting yourself trapped in here with me wasn’t the most genius thing you could have done, but outside of that, you seem reasonably intelligent.”
“I don’t think it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” I murmur as my eyes roam over the slope of his neck and the hard edge of his jaw, taking in the few loose strands of his hair breaking free from the knot he tied them in.
His tattoos shimmer with a muted glow when I slip my hands underneath his shirt to work on the knots in his lower back.
He’s breathtaking. Even if it is the wrong time and all of his interest in me is practical rather than romantic, I can’t deny my attraction to him.
He laughs. “Fair enough. And I suppose I’m grateful for it.”
“So, that ‘more’ you mentioned…”
He shifts away from me, ending the massage, and swivels in his spot so he’s still seated on the floor between my thighs, but facing me now. He leans against one of my legs and tilts his head as he looks up at me with an uncharacteristically coy smile on his lips.
“I don’t know exactly how far we’ll need to take it. Skin contact seems to be the key, so perhaps if we got completely naked together, it might give me enough access to my power to pull the bars down.”
I clear my throat to hide the hitch in my breathing, and I nod.
“Sounds like a good place to start.”
RUNE
If I’m trembling with anticipation, it’s only because I’m so eager to feel my magic coursing through me again. It has nothing to do with the obscene bulge in Atlas’s pants or any kind of desire to find out what else he can do with those strong hands of his.
And since we’re in agreement about where to start, I suppose there’s nothing left to do except get to it.
I lick my lips and get to my feet. I can feel his eyes on me as I tug my t-shirt over my head, and my hair tumbles free of the loose knot.
I’m loath to drop my semi-clean clothes on the dirty floor, but there aren’t a lot of other options, so I try not to cringe as I let my shirt slip through my fingers and fall near my feet.
Atlas’s stone-gray eyes glow with the slightest hint of my blue magic as he drags his gaze over my bare chest and down my slender belly, stopping when he reaches my jeans, which are hanging just a little loose after so many days with sub-par food.
“Can I?” he asks politely, his voice taking on a deep, husky timbre.
“Be my guest.” I chuckle, carding my fingers through his thick beard as he reaches eagerly for the button on my jeans.
My cock never completely settled from that last kiss, and between the massage and the heat dancing in his eyes, I’m hard and aching again.
Outside of the theory about my journal, I don’t have a damn clue how Atlas became a well of my magic but thank the gods it was someone so easy on the eyes.
In a different world, where we hadn’t already met under such complicated circumstances, he’s definitely the type of guy I would pick up at a bar to have some fun with for a night or two.
As soon as he lowers my zipper, my cock springs free, bouncing inches from his face with a glistening drop of precum on my tip. My foreskin is already rolling back, the dark veins lining my shaft swollen and prominent with my excitement.
“They didn’t give me any underwear after my shower,” I say with a chuckle, and Atlas grunts in response, his attention fixed on my cock like the gentle sway of it is hypnotizing him.
“If I…” He clears his throat again. “Put my mouth on it… could that help your magic?”
My breath hitches and my cock jerks.
“Maybe.” I sound breathless.
His nostrils flare as he leans forward, his hot breath fluttering against my sensitive tip, summoning another dribble of precum that’s too heavy to stay pooled at my slit.
The clear, sticky strand starts to drip, and Atlas catches it on his tongue.
As if the flavor of my arousal flips a switch inside him, he lets out an animalistic growl, digging his fingers into my hips and engulfing my cock with the wet inferno of his mouth.
“Fuck,” I gasp, my hips punching forward involuntarily.
He makes another inhuman sound that vibrates down my length and tightens around my balls, lapping at the throbbing veins in my shaft with his tongue.
Prickles of my magic dance along the spots where we’re connected, where his fingertips are pressed against my skin, sparking every time his tongue strokes over me, but it’s not enough.
“Take your clothes off,” I pant, reluctantly nudging his head back and slipping my cock out of the glorious seal of his lips.