Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Here?” Caelian yelped, glancing around as though she half expected someone to jump out of the bushes and catch them unaware. “Now?”
Kjeld winked. “I can think of no better time nor place.”
“But…” Nervous energy crackled around her. “What if someone sees?”
He kept her locked in his hold, already imagining all the ways he planned to unravel her within the security of the enchanted forest. “I doubt we are the first to bless the Myrkwild with our natural forms.”
Caelian’s cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink, and Kjeld slowly removed the vine binding their hands. He wrapped it into a small coil and set it aside, reminding himself to grab it later when they returned to the Eldergrove because he was certain it would make itself useful again.
“I don’t know what to do.” She wrung her hands together, uncertainty flitting over her lovely features. “This is my first time.”
“We’ll go slow.” It might kill him in the process, but he’d dreamt of this moment for months. He wanted to memorize every second of her undoing, to watch her face when he finally buried himself deep inside her. “For now, let’s explore, shall we?”
It didn’t matter if he already knew what she looked like naked, he was going to kiss every inch of her skin. He would learn what she liked, what made her squirm, what made her shatter. And then he would do it all again. Repeatedly.
Kjeld removed his vest, pulling it over his head, pleased when Caelian didn’t hesitate to touch him.
Her hands were dainty and delicate, the pads of her fingers gently roving over his shoulders, tracing the tattoos that marked him.
She ventured to his chest next, nails lightly scraping his cut abdomen, following the hard lines of his stomach.
Her dark blue eyes trekked over him, her tongue darting out to swipe across her plump bottom lip, and when she ventured toward the waistband of his pants, his cock swelled.
“Not yet.” He snatched her wrist and tugged her hand away, knowing that if she dared to touch him there right now, he wouldn’t be able to control himself.
Restraint was difficult enough with her, and the last thing he wanted was to move too quickly and hurt her in the process.
Reaching around behind her, he expertly untied the laces of her corset until the leather bindings fell away.
The blouse she wore tumbled off her shoulders, swooping dangerously low across her ample breasts until he could just see the rosy pink hue of her nipples.
Blood surged to his cock as currents of lust raced through him, fogging his mind.
Wisps of silver, light pink, lavender, and frosty blue hair slipped free from her bun.
Her skirts fluttered around her legs, the tempting slit revealing a swath of smooth skin each time the breeze ruffled the flowing fabric.
With her flower crown perched atop her head, Caelian looked like an ethereal woodland sprite, and he wanted to fuck her senseless.
He gripped her hips, his rough palms skimming up her waist and over her ribs, until his thumbs stroked the perfect buds of her breasts.
She arched into him, his thick length nudging against her navel as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Her lips peppered his bearded jaw, leaving pillowy kisses in their wake, and when the tip of her tongue glided along the scar marring his bottom lip, he groaned.
Dropping his hands, he cupped her ass, hoisting her up. Caelian was weightless in his arms, and she locked her legs around his waist as he positioned her against the willow’s trunk, pinning her in place.
“I fear”—he bit the words out, giving her ass a good squeeze—“that I will not be able to go as slow with you as I ought.”
Caelian tangled her hands into the long strands of his hair, grabbing fistfuls, dragging his head to her bosom. “Then don’t.”
A stream of unfiltered curses blared through his mind. “You know not what you ask.”
She sent him a withering look.
Kjeld had never fucked a female in his fae form before, and he knew Caelian was untouched.
He was never one to be arrogant, but thus far, everything about him had been amplified once he turned fae.
His arms, his legs, his stature, his cock, all of him had doubled in size.
While he may have been without magic, he was certainly not lacking in stamina.
“If it gets to be too much for you, if things start to move too quickly,” he warned, looking up at her, “promise you’ll tell me to stop.”
Caelian nodded, squirming in his hold, her chest heaving. “I promise.”
Bending forward, Kjeld forced himself to start at a leisurely pace.
All it took was a single nip at her neckline, and the blouse she wore slipped free, exposing her perfectly round breasts.
He laved his tongue around her pert nipple, licking and teasing so her fingers tightened in his hair.
A gentle scrape of his teeth, the smallest of bites, and already she was panting in his arms.
He left a trail of kisses between the valley of her breasts, moving to her other nipple, and she clamped her hands around the back of his head, pressing him into her. Kjeld sucked. Hard. Dragging his teeth back and forth until she cried out.
If he suffocated between her delicious flesh, then so be it.
Using one arm to anchor her against the tree, he gradually brought his free hand to where her skirts spilled around her waist, baring her to him.
His palm skated from her knee to her inner thigh, and she pushed her hips forward, letting her legs fall open to grant him easier access.
Caelian was warm and soft. Pliable. He could mold her, shape her, forge her to fit against him.
Taking care not to startle her, he gingerly wedged his fingers between them, only to find her hot and slick.
“Fuck.” Kjeld dropped his forehead against her chest. Her sweet, floral scent flooded his mind, sending waves of raw, primal desire coursing through him.
Coupled with the heady arousal thickening in the sticky air, his shaft strained, throbbing until it ached.
He fused his palm to her core, relishing the way her rampant heartbeat coated his tongue like honey.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, a tremor of worry harbored in her tone even as she rocked, grinding herself against his hand.
“No, Starweaver. Nothing is wrong.” He pulled away for a second, preparing himself to push one finger inside her, because if this was anything like when he’d given her a bath, then he wanted to witness every sensation as it passed over her face. “I’m merely impressed by how wet you are.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
He chuckled and the low rumble filled his chest. “It’s a very, very good thing.”
Flicking up his middle finger, he nudged it against her center, slowly pushing past her wet folds.
Caelian jolted, grasping at him. “Oh sweet stars, is that…is that you?”
Kjeld ducked his head so she couldn’t see the grin that split across his face. “No, it’s only my finger.”
He wiggled it and she squirmed.
“Oh.”
He shoved the digit in deeper.
“Oh.”
“How does that feel?” he asked, stroking her tight cunt. Because damn, part of him worried there was a slight chance his cock wouldn’t actually fit inside her. He was going to have to work her first. Stretch her. Prep her to accommodate his size.
“Lovely,” she breathed, the warmth of her sigh tingling near his ear. “But—”
He stilled. “But what? Does it hurt? Do you want me to stop?”
She shook her head, stray pieces of her hair clinging to her damp neck. “It feels like something is missing.”
Kjeld frowned.
“Like it’s not quite enough.” She worried her bottom lip, a question blooming in the blue of her eyes. A pretty shade of pink bloomed in her cheeks. “I need more.”
His mouth ran dry, his throat seized up. And it was as though all the air was siphoned from his lungs.
“More?” he croaked.
“Yes,” she pleaded. Her heavy-lidded gaze dipped down between them to where he cupped her. “I saw you in the forest that day, remember? I saw the way you gripped yourself, how badly you craved me. And that’s what I want. I want that. I want more.”
There was something about the way she said it, about the absolute yearning tainting her soft voice, that caused Kjeld to ignite. Obsession burned through him, an inferno he couldn’t tame. And that tightly wound grip of control, the reins that held fast to the feral beast inside him, snapped.
Kjeld lowered Caelian to the ground so she could watch as he unfastened his pants. Popping open the last button, his bulging cock burst free from its confines and her eyes widened, fascinated, as he fisted his hardened length.
“Is this what you want?” he taunted, stepping forward, pumping himself.
“Y-yes.”
Her response sounded like more of a question. “Are you sure? You’re looking a little nervous, Starweaver.”
Caelian’s eyes, swimming with the haze of lust, lifted to his face. She pulled her shoulders back with authority and undid the ribbons of her skirts, letting them fall in a heap around her ankles. “I’m not nervous.”
There was an almost undetectable waver to her voice, and it fueled the flames of his infatuation.
Kjeld lifted the hem of her blouse, dropping to his knees to kiss the line of jagged scars marking her hip.
She stiffened, unease and tension coiling through her as she sucked in a sharp breath.
But he didn’t want her to feel like she wasn’t beautiful, like these new scars would ever deter him from loving her.
Trailing his tongue across the puckered skin, he murmured two words over and over again.
“My wife. My wife. My. Wife.”