57
Flare
I came back to him.
Across the sea, I hurried back. Across a thousand miles, I rushed back.
There he stood, filling the cupola’s doorway. Crystalline eyes riveted on me, long hair dashed around his features from the breeze, and his open shirt revealed smooth muscles—but for several old scars from our time here—and the vial of sand hanging around his neck.
My eyes glistened. My heart burst.
He dropped the satchel he’d been holding. I dropped the hibiscus flowers I’d been picking.
With a cry, I sprinted across the stones. On a growl, Jeryn charged. Launching his way, my bare feet threw flecks of dust into the air. Vaulting toward me, his strong body got larger, closer.
Divine Seasons. I was on him first, flinging myself into his arms. My body crashed into his, the collision wild and desperate and everything that mattered. A tormented noise ripped from Jeryn’s lungs. His hands snatched my hips and tore me off the ground, my legs hooking around his waist as he rammed me against him.
Balancing my ass with one powerful arm, Jeryn grabbed the back of my head, his gaze taking a precious moment to soak me in. Then with a snarl, his lips dove for mine. In a single move, he lunged my head forward, his lips seizing my own and breaking them open.
A fractured sound cracked from my throat as I clutched his face. Our mouths locked, fitting as they used to, as they always had. With our lips crushed, we threw ourselves into the kiss, the force of it encompassing every minute, hour, day, week, month, and year apart. And oh, this felt the new and old, different and the same.
So much had changed. Yet nothing had changed.
My nostrils inhaled needle forests and blustering winds. His touch ignited my soul. So achingly familiar, so eternally missed.
Jeryn.
The hard line of his jaw shoved forward, splitting my lips and pouring lava through my veins. In a rampant tempo, he flexed that hot tongue inside me, infusing my blood with pleasure and yearning. My cry melted into a moan, and I opened wider for him, our tongues writhing.
He still tasted of dark wine, still hissed in that same cutting way. Only now, the sound lasted longer, reached deeper. Rhythmically, he skewered my tongue with his, flexing into me until my thighs sizzled and my limbs turned to batter.
We should talk. We should slow down.
But when had we ever done anything in the expected order? And when had I ever cared about expectations?
I clasped him tighter between my legs, my breasts heaving into his torso, the sensations heady and surreal. Elated tears burned the rims of my eyes. Pained whimpers cluttered my tongue, which quaked against his own.
Our mouths clamped, the kiss shaking, tongues tangling. I weaved myself around him, welding my body to his, knotting us together. Never again, after this. Let no kingdom come between this ever again.
We lurched back only long enough to draw a sliver of breath. Then we switched angles and flew back into each other. A territorial noise grated from Jeryn’s lungs, and I smiled into the kiss, my delirious moans alternating with sobbing laughter.
On a rasp, Jeryn pried his mouth from mine. “Flare.”
“Jeryn,” I wept and chuckled.
He shook his head in disbelief. His thumbs stroked my cheeks, my eyelashes, my swollen lips. “I didn’t know if …”
If he’d redeemed himself. If he was worthy of me.
I sank my hands into his hair, the blue mane spilling between my fingers. Tilting my head, I gave him a watery grin, because this Royal shouldn’t have doubted.
“Silly man,” I said.
Happiness and desire flooded my being. That, and one other emotion. A feeling that belonged only to him, an enduring bond that hadn’t been severed and never would be.
Jeryn dropped his head to mine and braced me into his chest. “My little beast.”
“My villain king,” I whispered.
That’s what he’d become. A king of Winter. Yet he was still the man who’d claimed my heart in this wild, still Jeryn, still mine.
The king swooped down, his mouth aiming for me. In a sudden mood to play, I reeled back and nipped his lower lip. The movement jutted our waists together, his heavy cock flush against the cleft of my thighs. Wetness seeped from my crease, and a throb spread to my clit.
We panted into one another. Between the gaping shirt, his muscles hitched, and his pulse drummed into my own. Our fingernails curved, biting into one another’s flesh.
The king bared his teeth. “Say it,” he begged.
My mouth curled. “Work for it.”
Taking advantage of Jeryn’s surprise, I wiggled from his arms. Shimmying to the ground and hopping out of reach, I sidled past him. He needed only a moment for understanding to dawn, a famished light honing his irises.
This, we’d always done well. As slow as a wolf, the king turned on his heel. Those predatory eyes targeted me as I sashayed backward and crooked my finger.
“Come and get what you want,” I taunted.
From then to now, this hunt had never ended. He’d chased me across nations, and I had chased him back across the sea. Until the last sunset, this would be our own kind of sacred hunt.
The king prowled my way, possessiveness stretching his features taut. The blades of his cheekbones sharpened. Those clear eyes fixed on me.
For my viewing pleasure, Jeryn stripped out of his shirt. His sculpted abdomen and whipcord arms contorting with his movements, the sexy vision parching my tongue.
Matching his gesture, I plucked the waistband of my skirt, the material trembling down my legs and puddling to the floor.
Jeryn swore under his breath, his black pupils flashing like knives. I wore nothing beneath the skirt. Metallic whorls of ink danced up my calves. At the crux of my thighs, my slit glistened, the folds shaven clean, as Summer women sometimes preferred. Because he’d never seen my pussy this bare, I relished his furious reaction. Those eyes reflected mayhem, devotion, and worship.
His gaze conveyed a dozen things. That I’d stolen his breath. That I was protected. That I was his.
That he was mine.
At a leisurely pace, the king’s lips tipped into a cold grin. “Run.”
With a giddy shriek, I flipped around and raced past the cupola. Bypassing the stairwell facade, my toes slapped the parapet as I bled into the shadows. Heart clattering, breathing shallow, I darted through swatches of darkness.
Plumerias glinted. The sultry air glossed my skin in sweat.
How I’d missed this. The wild. The chase. Him, coming after me, seeking me, ravenous for me.
Run from me, Little Beast.
Catch me, Villain King.
Because the ruins’ highest level extended from one end of the palace to the other, there were plenty of crevices in which to get lost, to stash myself. Through drooping tails of foliage, I rounded a pillar. Colorful sprays of flora illuminated the space, gold and emerald and ruby dappling my flesh.
At the sound of footfalls, I whirled to evade his approach. At another bend, his silhouette appeared, forcing me to whip around and sprint in the opposite direction.
I could have jetted down the stairs, into one of the corridors. Yet there was time for that later. From this day forward, we would have so much time.
Plastering myself behind a column, I stalled. Nervousness wrangled a smile across my lips. My chest heaved with antsy breaths, the sounds audible to him, regardless of the fauna calls pushing through the trees.
Rapt with anticipation, I twisted and peeked. He stepped into view like a specter. Loose pants gripped his waist, the V of his hips a primal temptation.
Those lucid eyes probed the expanse. And they landed on me.
I bounded from my hiding spot, letting my expression speak for itself. He may have spotted his quarry, but she’d spotted him first.
The king’s mouth twitched, the faintest hint of amusement. As he stalked forward, I backed away with a naughty, joyful, beaming smile.
Despite the dark lust carving across his face, Jeryn’s eyes gleamed. “Going somewhere?” he wondered, his gaze raking down my frame while unbuckling the clasps of his pants. “Think again.”
“It’s a big forest,” I reminded him. “Plenty of areas to escape to.”
“Good. Because when I catch you, I’m going to make you come for years on end. In every corner, on every surface, in every chamber, and in every fucking pool of water.”
My knees quivered. “Only if I let you catch me.”
Skirting the column, I untethered the knot of my shirt and let the hem tremble down my hips. Then I picked open the first closure, then the second, then the third. My breasts lifted from the material, the dusky points of my nipples hard and tight.
“Fuck,” Jeryn hissed again. “Come here.”
That baritone voice penetrated me to the marrow. Deep as a chasm, sharp as a blade, icy as Winter itself. Arousal puddled in the seam of my legs, my wet cunt pulsating.
Instead of obeying his request, I edged along the rim on jellied legs, expecting him to follow. Then I yelped. Jeryn’s arm punched through the mist, snatched my waist, and yanked me forward. I flew across the stones, my breasts jostling as the king slammed me against him.
“Gotcha,” he rasped, flanking my hips and steering me backward across the roof.
“Wrong,” I vowed against his feverish mouth, my hand cupping the bulge of his thick cock. “I’ve got you.”
A choppy breath fled his throat. “You’ve always had me. From that first moment on Summer’s coast, you were the most stunning creature I’d ever seen. In Autumn, you became more so.” Through the pants, his solid length warmed my hand. “Alluring. Intimidating.” He jerked me into him, rough but reverent. “That’s when you became the strongest creature I had ever seen. I could not think straight. With you, I have never been able to think straight.”
My heart leaped into the sky. On a covetous growl, I snared his waistband and tugged the king firmer against me. Our mouths smashed together, clinging and rocking into one another.
As our tongues fought, we erupted into motion. Stumbling with me across the platform, Jeryn peeled the gaping shirt from my shoulders. His lips fastened to mine, his tongue flicking deftly, electrifying my skin.
I whined into his mouth, the sound brushing against his groan. My hands snaked under the open waistband, dove into the heat of his body, and found his cock primed for me, the stem hard and hot. Molten noises skidded from his mouth as I palmed the weight of his sac, draped my fingers up the veins, and thumbed the wide crest. A bead of cum rose against my digit, intensifying the pounding between my thighs.
Jeryn pinned my frame to the nearest pillar and kissed me deeper, graver, needier. Together, we shoved the pants down his limbs. The bridge of his cock rose, flushed and flared at the head, the vision wrestling an appreciative sound from me. I wanted him inside my body, thrusting eternally, climaxing forever, filling that hole, the empty space no one else could reach.
My dominant hand siphoned up to his ruddy crown and down to the seat, and his mouth clamped onto mine. We traveled naked across the level, back to the cupola. Along the way, we attacked one another, taking turns to pin the other against the next available surface.
He nailed me to a wall, gasps jumping from my mouth on impact. Scooping one breast in his palm, Jeryn gusted his lips over my nipple and spoke against the sensitive peek. “I need to know if these perfect tits taste as I remember.”
His voracious mouth latched onto the bud, stretching it between his teeth and sucking. Embers blazed where he devoured me. I clawed through his hair, shoved my aching breasts firmer into his mouth, and chanted a million entreaties.
Spurred by my response, the king dragged his lips to the other breast and vanquished the last vestiges of my balance. My joints gave, but he bolstered my weight as he licked the shell, kissed my breasts, and groaned with satisfaction.
Then we were off again, steering one another across the ruins. My tongue sketched the cleft in his chin, his fingers traced my slick cunt, my teeth skated across his jaw, and his lips consumed the ledge of my ear. By the time we reached the cupola, he’d turned me into the sun—burning, flaming so hot and bright I could scorch the world.
At the top of this forest, I shoved Jeryn down onto the ledge. Overlooking the wild and the distant roaring sea, I climbed atop his lap.
At the same time, Jeryn snatched my hips, split them wide, and hauled me into his frame. My pussy bucked into his cock, the friction heavenly. I whimpered, my clit bracing his crown, sparks dashing across my skin.
Desire leaked from my body, coating the top of his erection, mingling with the fluid rising from the line of his tip. Restless, I strapped my arms around his shoulders and poised my entrance above the head.
Eyes glazed, Jeryn palmed my ass in one hand and clasped the back of my scalp with the other. “Only you. There has only ever been you.”
He didn’t mean strictly in the rainforest. My patient villain king had waited for me, as I’d waited for him. Three years, but not a second longer.
My eyes stung as much as his did, that single tear like a loose chip of ice. I flicked my tongue over his lashes, and his eyes darkened, the deep wells of his pupils pulling me in.
His cock twitched against my slit. My crease dripped down his flesh.
Jeryn pitted his fingers into my ass and held me firm. “Show mercy, Little Beast.” He nudged his cock. “Say it.”
I pressed my lips against his. “I love you.”
A hiss cut through him. Then he swept his waist upward. With one steady pump, the broad head splayed my cunt.
My mouth fell open, remembering this, missing this. My thighs shook around him, my knees bending on the ledge.
With another measured piston of his hips, his cock plied me deeper, reaching higher. A moan quavered from my lips. I matched the movement, giving in kind, swatting my waist and lodging him farther between my folds.
“Say it,” I echoed, gliding my teeth along his throat.
Jeryn fisted my hair. With slow, agonizing juts of his cock, he opened my pussy wider. “Your strength.” His waist circled, making my eyelids flutter. “Your fearlessness.” Fixing my hips to his, the king slid out and swung back in. “Your selflessness.”
He contorted his buttocks, the motions rendering me delirious with want. “Your words. Your voice.” Because he could hear me. Because he was the only one who’d ever truly heard me. “All of you.” My arousal smeared Jeryn to the base, pouring freely now and urging another groan from him. “I fucking love every piece of you.”
Then he lunged upward, his cock pitching to the hilt. I arched, a cry vaulting from me. Seasons, yes.
We didn’t wait, because we had done enough of that. We charged into each other, moving in desperate sync. Ushering my gaze down to his, Jeryn launched his hips, and I bore my pussy down on him, our waists beating, our faces pressed.
“I have thought of this,” he grunted. “I have wanted this every second since you left.”
“I did too,” I whispered. “I touched myself every night, made myself come to memories of you.”
The king rasped and hurled his cock into me, keeping pace with my swinging waist. The points of my breasts rubbed his pecs, which rose and fell in rapid succession. I hunched into him, lost in a stupor, lost in his arms, lost in this forest. And there, I found my treasure.
My love. My home.
With sweat drizzling down my spine and my hair in disarray, I unraveled like a loose knot, my stomach waving, grinding on his lap. I savored the feeling, his cock expanding, the prow splitting me open. I bobbed up and down, flinging my hips into him, moans shooting from my mouth, loving how he watched me, his gaze piercing.
With our bodies attached, mist poured onto us. We made love and fucked until everything beyond faded. I feasted on the sight of him, how the sharp inclines of his face tightened with each measured pass of his cock, my pussy sealing around the rigid flesh, his control slipping with every whip of my ass.
Heat swirled in the place where we pumped into one another. The volcanic noises I made grew louder, longer, faster. Jeryn’s cock hardened more, spreading my walls, the traction building.
He saw it happening, felt the combustion approaching. I wept, because it was too good, too soon. Yet Jeryn only magnified the torture by accentuating his movements and grabbing me tighter, tacking me to him so that I felt every puncture of his cock.
“You’re going to come,” he hissed. “You’re going to do that now.”
“Fuck,” I sobbed. “Please.”
Please not yet. I wanted more, everything, always.
But before I could delay, my senses climbed that zenith. My cunt tensed and then burst into the ether. Eddies of heat scattered, my pussy convulsing and draining down his cock.
Jeryn made a serpentine noise. His waist didn’t let up, siphoning in and out while I broke apart around his thrusts. I shouted from the pit of my lungs, the tumult blasting like dynamite, like a roaring ocean, like a heartbeat.
Linked around Jeryn’s powerful bulk, filled to the brim with him, I writhed like a bonfire. I came for him, for myself, for us. Then I collapsed, the climax flowing through my veins, stirring my body to life instead of exhausting me.
The king held me fast, his gaze intent as I rode out the crescendo. And still, his waist kept thrusting, his cock stroking my walls and reigniting me. Not seconds into this bliss, he riled up my senses again.
Unable to keep still, I arched my waist and released Jeryn’s length. Elated by his protesting grunt, I unwound my legs from his waist, scrambled off his lap, and reached for him. My villain king catapulted off the ledge, knowing what I sought.
Spinning me toward the vista and nipping the side of my throat, he murmured, “Eyes on the wild, my beast.”
My pulse clamored as he ran his palms up my biceps and lifted them. Twining my arms over his shoulders, Jeryn threaded my fingers atop the nape of his neck. Flush against his torso, I felt his heart galloping, his cock lifting against my ass, the flesh glazed in my climax.
Securing me to him, Jeryn glided his knuckles down my side. My eyelids hooded at the sensuous maneuver, then my head rested on his collarbone as he sank his fingers between my thighs. Oxygen caved from my lungs as he felt the shape of my pussy, the soaked groove, and the ruched flesh of my clit.
Muttering an oath, he swirled the liquid over my bare folds. The gesture stoked my cries, his name dangling off the tip of my tongue. I squirmed, then sighed when he pulled away, ghosted his hand down my inner thigh and hooked beneath my leg. Raising it off the ground, Jeryn fanned my limb outward and planted my foot on the rim.
On instinct, my other leg extended, splaying me fully. Humming, the king banded one arm around my midriff, joined his free fingers with mine at his nape—and lashed his cock into me.
Like a rope pulled taut, I snapped. My spine arched into Jeryn’s muscles, a moan clotting my throat. The position changed the angle of his flesh, the crown striking high and narrow.
From behind, Jeryn resumed his pace. He threw his pelvis into me, the width of his erection hitting that dazzling spot, the place where my screams resided. In tempo to his body, I jostled upward, taking his thrusts, my pussy drenching him.
I matched his cadence, using the ledge for momentum and rolling my backside.
Jeryn panted into my neck, his breath fraying at the seams. “Kiss me,” he demanded. “Kiss me, Flare.”
Twisting my head, I captured his mouth with my own. I swallowed his groans, sweeping my tongue over his and licking every sound. Avid, Jeryn burrowed his lips as if I might disappear.
Our mouths braced, moans colliding there. He pounded into me, and I pounded back. The brunt of our movements grew rougher, faster, headier. Ardency had us clasping one another, an attempt to fuse ourselves together, forming something unbreachable.
Jeryn flexed his tongue and pitched his cock, the motions far from composed. I cried out and reeled my cunt, sucking him deeper. My fingers met with his over the back of his neck, and his other arm pressed me close.
“I would kill for you,” he swore, thrashing his waist into my ass. “I will live for you.”
Venting for air, I pleaded, “No. You will live with me.”
For a third time, we moved in unison. Jeryn released me and slung his cock from between my thighs. Vacating the ledge, I whirled on him, and we flung ourselves into each other.
The king hoisted my leg over his hip and fastened me there. I grabbed his ass in one hand and seizing his profile with the other. His free digits carved into my hair and hauled our foreheads together.
This was my favorite way to fuck him. Standing tall, face to face, equal in every way.
Dark blue lined those frosted eyes, the orbs catching me in their grip. I rubbed my nose with his, prompting a hiss and an instinctual flick of his waist. Rocked to the core, I cried out again as Jeryn hauled his cock between my folds.
My pussy grabbed his solid flesh as it pumped. Like this, his tip struck a place that wrenched a holler from me.
“Jeryn!” I encouraged. “Oh, Seasons. Right there.”
“Where, my beast?” He exaggerated his movements, snapping his hips and splitting me open for him. “There?”
“Yeah,” I said, nodding vehemently.
Fuck me there. Love me there.
Flush with each other, we stared and vaulted in place, mist and sweat raining down our skin. Anguished sounds fell off my tongue, in tune with our movements. Jeryn throttled his waist between my legs, his fingers bracketing my thigh, my knee steepling over his lurching ass.
We shouted into one another. The noises merged into a single one, loud enough to fell the trees, powerful enough to stir the ocean. It went on and on, my body sealed to his, rubbing and shaking and gyrating.
The weight of his sac hung heavily, the sensation enticing as the wide head of his cock stuck in and out. His tempo stretched me, filled me, fueled me. My pussy clutched his girth, the length toughening, the abrasion turning me into a firecracker. Any moment, I would ignite, blast into the canopy, and explode into a thousand flecks of light.
Jeryn’s gaze moored itself to my own, eyes flashing, the slopes of his face tightening. I knew that look. I loved that look. Those eyes like glass, so clear on me, easy to see through. They revealed everything, including the heat pressing against the edges of his being.
I’d seen him come infinite times, knew the harsh slant of his features meant he was close. Blood mottled his glistening chest, the size of his cock broadened, and his muscles shuddered. The impending release gushed to the crown of his body, his vigorous cock soaked by me. His fingers burrowed deeper into my backside and scalp, and his tongue pressed against the wall of his teeth to restrain a bellow.
He was suffering, holding back, waiting for me. The knowledge kindled me anew.
Releasing his ass, I slid my hand up the side of his frame, tracing every toned muscle. My palms skimmed his lunging waist, the track of his spine, the hewn surface of his abs, the plates of his chest. Jeryn’s gaze flickered, awe and chaos churning there.
My hands alone did this to him, I realized. Maybe they always had.
My free fingers cradled the ledge of his jaw, my thumb stroking his profile. With the other hand, I continued my ascent, gliding and sketching over his biceps, his pecs, drawing a path to his heart.
When my palm landed there, Jeryn’s pulse went wild. It slammed into my hand as though trying to break through and reach me.
Leaning down, I brushed my lips over that spot and kissed. A stricken noise blew from his lungs. I gasped as Jeryn caught my chin and hefted my gaze back to his. The pupils blackened to a point where I saw my reflection, my golden irises dominating his vision.
Then I gasped again as Jeryn’s mouth shoved into mine. His tongue pried open my lips and drove inside, stoking me with feverish laps. A moan split from my throat, his kiss in tune with the sinuous thud of his hips.
He worked his cock, fucking me beautifully. Keening with bliss, I clamped around him, my pussy fluttering. Once more, the heat built in the nexus of my legs, every stroke of Jeryn’s waist edging us to the brink.
On a hiss, he quickened his pace and wrenched his mouth away, the better to watch my response. I mewled from the short, shallow juts of his hips. The muscles of his abdomen clenched, the flat of his stomach grazing my aching clit.
I met his enthusiasm, matched his fervor with swats of my waist, my cunt rippling around him. Jeryn’s mouth hung ajar, his breath thick and hot. Yearning to disarm him completely, I withdrew from his jaw and dove my fingers between us, the place where our bodies locked. Coating my fingers in slickness and traces of cum, I quested my hand to his lips.
While splaying a set of fingers over his heart, I trailed the opposite digits across his slack mouth, charting its shape and then dipping inside. A feral noise cleaved from Jeryn’s chest. His lips closed around me, devouring my fingers and tasting us.
Tasting the flavor of our lovemaking.
My turn. I pulled away from his mouth and sucked the same fingers, my head swimming as our combined arousal seeped into my tongue.
Then our lips slammed back together. I seized his face while he squeezed my thigh and cupped the back of my head. We flew at one another, fast and deep and loud.
Pleasure spiraled at the crux of my legs, stalled at the precipice, and dropped off that cliff. Not into oblivion. But into eternity. My pussy convulsed, and his cock spasmed, and a prolonged scream tore from my body.
Jeryn hollered my name, his body shattering. Liquid heat streamed from the crown and spilled into me. I clutched his jaw, coming for a second time, coming with my villain king, watching the rapture tear his features to shreds.
We shouted and clung and didn’t let go. Never would we let go again.
With my cunt still pulsating, I sagged into Jeryn, and he slumped against me. We staggered, his arm shooting up to a low hanging branch and steadying us. Our eyes met, and I chuckled in breathless exhaustion while a grin dabbed at the corner of his mouth.
Struggling to recover, Jeryn sobered first, the candidness of his gaze quieting me. Our hands roamed, unable to stop touching, needing to prove this was real. Looping beneath my other thigh, he hoisted me off the ground and strapped those steel arms across my back, his cock still inside me. Linking my ankles over his ass, I wrapped myself around his frame, hugging him back.
For a long time, we stayed like that, inhaling and exhaling. I clasped him tighter, and he gathered me closer, his fingers skating up and down my spine, my hands lost in his damp hair.
Separated by kingdoms, I’d spent three years dreaming of this moment, hoping for this moment, fighting for this moment. All this time, it had only ever been this man. And his earlier declaration had made it clear—the feeling had stayed mutual.
Jeryn pulled back and nuzzled my face until I chuckled again. At the sound, he descended deeper into the crook of my throat, humming and biting and enjoying how I squirmed, because he knew my ticklish spots.
Inching back again, he brushed the tousled hair from my forehead, then carried me from the cupola. The kisses and touches continued as Jeryn traveled into the heart of the ruins, then into the cave tunnels, where the grotto waited.
The surface gleamed, strands of light dancing across the walls. Aside from that one shark attack, none of its kin had appeared during the time we’d been living here. Yet Jeryn froze on the threshold, his eyes searching the depth for a shark. I saw it then, how his panic hadn’t lessened over the years.
Predatory waters might always be a source for him, but the fear dwindled as I caressed his cheek and whispered. Because if he would be my safety, I would be his.
We didn’t have to go in, I told him. We had other cave pools to choose from.
Still, my touch eased the trenches in his visage. Focusing on me, Jeryn made his decision and waded into the pool, not wanting to be ruled by his past at every turn. Slowly, his intakes evened out, and while this respite might not last, it worked on him for now.
He’d chosen to bring us here, turning what had once been horrifying into something better. That was promising. As for the rest, we would live through it minute by minute, day by day. Together.
Although I hated to detach from him, Jeryn slid his cock from between my walls. He bathed me, and I splashed water down his torso, then we submerged ourselves.
Jeryn pinned my slick flesh to his and dove that evil mouth beneath my jaw. “I’m going to fuck you again,” he swore into my throat.
I whimpered and curled into him. “Here.”
“Soon,” he agreed in a husky timbre.
But first, we told each other everything. Despite his craving, Jeryn resisted with only a minor growl. I slipped behind him, my breasts resting against his shoulders as he reclined into me and hooked my legs over his stomach.
The last three years unfolded in whispers, interrupted by kisses and Jeryn’s mouth searing a path across the whorls on my calves. He liked the markings, inked symbols of my own choosing.
From somewhere above, I heard the ocean run its wet fingers over the sand. Despite other elusive places such as The Wildflower Forest and The Lost Treehouses, people still questioned the details about this realm.
How had it remained uncharted for centuries? How had a born soul been the first one to see the map hidden within that legendary song?
Maybe because nature didn’t discriminate between born souls or anyone else, because it was diverse in its flora and fauna, as varied as the people who lived on this continent. And maybe the elements had cloaked the forest through a trick of sunlight.
I would say the forest chose its visitors for a sacred plan. My villain king would say no such thing. And that was okay.
The reason all these mystical places existed across the Seasons could be science or faith, happenstance or destiny. Though for once, I wondered if it might be both. Logic and madness. Explicable and magical. Yet always wild, such as humanity itself.
We talked about this until my hand got sneaky. Reaching in front and sliding down his granite chest, I snaked my fingers around his cock, which lifted beneath the water.
A hiss diced between Jeryn’s teeth. “Fucking little beast.”
I purred into his ear. “Where should we mate in this grotto?”
“Wherever you want. I’m at your disposal.”
“Oh, I’m never disposing of you. I’m keeping my king.”
“Much better, because I’m not letting you go again. As I said, I plan to make you come in every part of the forest.”
The question crept from a crevice inside me, a place that still worried this would end. “Only in this forest?”
Taking the hint, Jeryn moved without hesitation. My hand fell from his cock as he straightened, twisted, and hefted me in front of him.
Planting me on his lap, he framed my cheeks. “Come with me,” he said. “Come to Winter.”
I blinked, my heart skipping a beat. I had expected us to meet here, in the ruins on a lasting basis. A safe haven where no one could judge or condemn us.
Yet Jeryn’s face reflected a greater ambition. One replete with determination and devotion.
I knew this man better than to assume. He didn’t mean to divert my mission or change my purpose. He would never ask that of me. Yet this went beyond a compromise. It was a risk and a chance and a dare. It offered more than a secluded realm. This promised everything, from danger to happiness.
Mistaking my silence, he rushed ahead. “I don’t mean … I would never ask …”
My eyes prickled as I set my fingers on his mouth. “I know what you meant.”
Relief cemented his voice. “Let Winter be your home, as Summer has become mine.”
“Split our time.”
“Yes,” he urged. “But not apart.”
Not apart. Together.
I would travel through Summer, and he would rule his nation, and we would meet every month, alternating between my Season and his. Although Jeryn had claimed I’d vanished in the rainforest and likely perished from predators or an illness, that tale would be easy to reverse, thus painting me in an impressive light regarding my resourcefulness and survival skills. He vowed to keep me safe in Winter, which would be possible now that our kingdoms were shifting, the people changing. I would stay in his court for however long I wished, whenever I wished.
We would show the world that even hate could turn into love. This would be our key. Our new mission.
After three years, we’d earned this.
First, we would spend time here, reuniting with the rainforest and each other. Then we would set out for a world of needle forests and blustering winds.
“Winter is yours.” Jeryn’s throat constricted. “If you’ll have me.”
Through my tears, I grinned and knotted myself around him. “I warn you, I might set your kingdom on fire.”
“I’m counting on it.” My villain king hauled me forward, his thick crown poised at my entrance. “And if you’d like, we can stop somewhere on the way.”
I sighed in pleasure, lowering myself on his cock, my pussy taking him deeply. “Where?”
As Jeryn rocked me on top of him, his lips quirked. “Where we began.”