Chapter 10 Annika #2
“Annika.” His words are laced with something primal, almost animalistic. A claiming in the way he says my name just like he’s claiming my body.
It shifts something inside me. I don’t know what, can’t possibly concentrate on it when my orgasm splinters into a million pieces of glittering starlight. Grazing from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes, sending bolts of electricity along my spine in the best way.
Dagon spills inside me at the same time, our bodies aligned, our releases the same, our breaths matched as we try to catch them. He gently pulls out of me, scooping me up in one smooth motion, and carries me straight into his shower.
We clean up in a haze of post-orgasm bliss and laughter, though I’m not sure what we’re laughing about.
I don’t need to know either. Not as he gently soaps up my body, his touch gentle and attentive.
Not when he wraps me in a warm towel or when he drapes one of his shirts over me that engulfs me.
Not when he tucks me into his chest as we burrow under his covers.
“One hour,” he says, his voice so much softer.
I turn to look up at him. His fangs are gone and blue fills his eyes again. He looks…content.
Warmth spreads through my chest. “One hour?” I ask.
He closes his eyes, settling deeper into his pillow, holding me tight against him. “Nap. Then, you’re mine again. After that, we’ll train.”
I bite back my grin, settling my head onto his chest. “Sounds like the perfect night.”
“Holy shit, Annika,” Dagon says, or more like gasps.
I do my best to ignore the rush of pride filling my chest at his clear shock, and focus harder on my power.
It’s been a week since we crossed lines with each other, and now everything is a hazy blur of bliss and training and more bliss. The training has only gotten easier, not to mention the ease between Dagon and myself now that we’re…well, I don’t know exactly what we are to each other.
That powerful connection inside me is so much stronger now. I can always feel it, find it, and hold onto it where before I’d never been able to connect with it at all.
Now? It’s all too easy to part the midnight ocean, splitting it on either side where we stand, creating the perfect path to walk a little deeper.
“You’re doing amazing,” he continues, walking alongside me.
He’s calm, not even a flicker of panic in his eyes as the walls of ocean roar on either side of us. I don’t know if that’s because he trusts me to hold it or if it’s because he knows he could keep it at bay if I lose control, but either way, I’m proud.
And I don’t feel like I’ll lose control. I feel the opposite. Like I could hold this for hours if I needed to.
The certainty is a win, but my chest deflates a bit.
I bend to pick up a seashell, ensuring it’s not alive before I palm it.
I’ve been collecting shells ever since we got here, but plucking them from the ocean floor is a bit more precarious.
I’d never want to take something living from its home.
Luckily for me, there are plenty of empty shells here.
I grab another of my favorites, a black lion’s paw shell, before I can face him again.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, somehow spotting the shift in my mood.
“Nothing,” I lie.
“Let’s head back.” He motions to the beach, concern etching his features.
I can’t help but wonder if that concern will travel back to the states with us.
Because the entire point of the king sending us out here was for me to learn to control my powers.
I’m nowhere near close to mastering it, I know that will take decades, but control?
I have control now, way more than I thought I would this fast. There’s no telling when we’ll head back now.
Of course, we’re here for Aurora to get a break too, but mainly, it was for my benefit.
And now that I’m close, I’m terrified we’ll return to the residence and Dagon will go back to ignoring me. Losing himself to the hunts and battles and nothing more.
It makes a pit open in my stomach.
“Come on,” he says. “No one is expecting you to hold an ocean back forever,” he continues. “Not this early, anyway.” His smile comes effortless this time, a shift I’m not even sure he notices. He extends his hand toward me. “Give it another hundred years or so.”
I force a laugh, taking his hand and letting him lead me back to the beach. “Then I’ll be as good as you?” I tease.
He glances at the ocean I’m still controlling. “I’d say fifty,” he says. “But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
My brows raise. He says that like he’ll be there to challenge me. Hope rises in my chest, but I do my best to hold it back.
I dove headfirst into this thing with him on a seize-the-moment-and-enjoy-the-night basis. No need to dwell on a future that isn’t certain.
I let the water go slowly, loosening my grip on the power so the ocean folds back together like it was never disturbed in the first place.
“Let’s get you in the hot tub,” he says, tugging me back toward the mansion. “Your muscles could use a good soak.”
I smile, shaking my head. Of course he knows I’m sore. Knows that holding my power isn’t merely a mental exercise but a physical one too. It’s another comfort, having someone who understands this journey I’m on, in more ways than one.
And as he helps me into the hot water, settling me between his spread legs so he can rub my aching shoulders, I can’t help but let that hope inside me grow a little more. Because this…the two of us? It feels a hell of a lot more than the pure physical release it started as.