Chapter 21 #3
She nodded mutely, uncertainty shifting to something more heated as her hands came up. They followed the path another’s hands had trailed in another room. Up his torso to his chest, erasing all of it and leaving only her.
“But tonight, I just need you,” she whispered as she returned the favor and undid the buttons of his shirt.
“Tessa,” he groaned, her fingertips barely grazing his bare skin as she moved. Within moments, he removed the rest of his clothing and climbed onto the bed with her as she scooted farther up, her hair fanning across the plush pillows.
He stared down at her, and he found himself wondering if he was still dreaming because this… This was what dreams were made of.
“Mine,” he whispered, running his fingers along her side, tracing her ribs, grazing her breast, along her collarbone.
His hand trembled faintly, and he realized he would be content with this for the rest of the night.
Marveling at her willingly beside him. Naked and glorious and waiting to be worshipped.
“Please, Theon,” she said, the words bordering on a whine, breaking through his trance, and the reverence quickly turned into something wilder. Untamed. Feral.
Sliding on top of her, he sat back, touching and groping, because it had been far too long since he’d had her beneath him. He cupped a breast, her nipple peaked and hard, and another growl rumbled from him as he bent down, taking it in his mouth.
Tessa writhed, her hips seeking and searching. Aroused. Sensitive. His favorite way to have her.
“Patience, little storm,” he chided, sitting back and running his thumb over her nipple again. “I know what you need.”
“And I’m still questioning that,” she retorted.
His laugh was soft and dark as his hand skimmed up to her throat, gripping loosely. “We both know that isn’t true. We both know that I know exactly what to do when you’re needy and wanting. And we both know you’ll take whatever I give you.”
Releasing her throat, he slid back off her, settling onto his side and propping his head on his fist.
“Then what are you doing?” she demanded, once again breathless.
One of her hands came up, skimming along her skin, kneading her own breast, but there would be none of that.
His darkness unfurled, wrapping around her wrists—and that godsdamn cuff he’d be getting the fuck off her—and pulling them above her head, keeping them there.
“As if I’m going to let you touch what’s mine,” he said with a soft snarl.
“Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed touching you?
Sleeping beside you? Sliding my cock into your tight cunt and feeling you come undone?
” Her breath hitched at the words, and when her thighs rubbed together, he reached down, pulling one away.
“I’ll be the one to give you all your pleasure tonight, Tessa. Only me.”
“Then get on with it,” she retorted.
Or she tried to.
It was definitely a whine, and he chuckled again, leaning down to run the tip of his nose along the length of hers.
“Keep them open,” he said in a dark command as he ran his fingers up the inside of her thigh.
“Or I’ll do it for you.” She sucked in a sharp breath, but then she relaxed, her legs falling wider in obedience that she only ever gave him here.
When she needed someone else to make the decisions, to make her feel good, to let her exist without expectations.
Trailing his fingers up, he brushed by the spot he knew she wanted him to touch. “You can be so good when it serves you,” he said, leaning down to kiss along her jaw, down her neck. He nipped at her collarbone, her chest, dragging his mouth back to her breast. “You know you drive me mad, right?”
“Yes,” she rasped, squirming to try to get his fingers where she wanted them.
He smacked her inner thigh, a cry coming from her lips as he rubbed his palm on the same spot, soothing the ache.
“I’m glad you realize how crazy you make me,” he went on. “Because then you’ll understand why I want to see you just as undone, just as crazed, as you make me.”
“Theon,” she gasped when he sucked her nipple into his mouth once more, swirling his tongue around it before moving to the other side.
He didn’t stop there though. He finally gave her what she’d wanted, circling her clit fast and hard.
Her whimpers and gasps were a symphony he wanted to memorize.
The only music he ever cared to listen to again.
He planted kisses between her breasts, down her torso.
Gods, he was painfully hard, and all he wanted to do was climb on top of her and fuck her until they were so bonded, no one would ever doubt who she belonged to again.
There was only one other who would have her like this, and if he walked away, he was a fucking fool.
“Are you as insane as I am yet, little storm? Do you understand what you do to me yet? What I crave and need and have to have?”
“Yes,” she gasped, bucking against his hand.
“Are you sure? Because I don’t know that you deserve to come until you do.”
Her eyes had fallen closed, but they snapped open at that, lust and fury glaring back at him. “I always deserve to come.”
“Is that so?” he smirked, watching that confidence falter just a little as he rolled back over her.
He kissed her once, twice, before tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue.
His cock slid against her wetness, and she chased him yet again, grinding up against him.
“How do you plan to convince me not to drag this out? Because I’ll admit, it’s a sight to see you so needy for me. ”
She went still for the briefest of moments before her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer. Pressing his dick against a hot and ready cunt.
“Fuck,” he hissed, but she wasn’t done.
Even with her wrists suspended above her head, she managed to lift up, pressing her bare breasts against his chest as she licked a path up his neck.
He was chasing her now, leaning in, following her lips.
Her teeth grazed below his ear before her tongue flicked his earlobe.
Then her throaty voice rasped, “Please fuck me, Theon. I’m yours. Every piece of me, so claim me.”
He cursed again as he shifted, lining himself up and sliding into a paradise that he was sure was better than the After.
He felt her stretch around him, inch by inch, and he went as slow as he could, wanting to savor every second of having her.
Truly having her. But his self-restraint was too frayed, and he was sliding in to the hilt, his eyes rolling back as he settled fully against her.
There was a soft sigh from her as her legs tightened around his waist, and he lifted his head, his lips brushing over her closed eyes. Brushing his nose down the length of hers. Taking her lips with his own.
“Perfectly wild,” he murmured, kissing her again. “Perfectly untamed.” Another kiss. “Perfect.”
A soft cry sounded in her throat, and he felt her yanking at his magic. He obliged, freeing her wrists, and her arms immediately wrapped around his neck, keeping him close.
He tried to move slowly, sliding nearly all the way out before thrusting back in, but her heels dug into his back, urging him to go faster, harder.
“More,” she keened, her back arching with every thrust. “You know me, Theon. You know what I need, and it’s more.”
Well, fuck. She didn’t have to tell him twice.
Her hands slid across his back to his shoulder, nails digging into his flesh as he picked up his pace.
Every thrust had more heat pooling at the base of his spine.
It intensified every time he slammed back into her.
It was base and primal, and the need to claim her just as she’d demanded was blinding.
There was only them. Her pants and moans, his grunts and curses. There was only her rolling her hips to meet every thrust. Only the feel of her around his length, hot and slick and everything.
“This is it. You realize that, right?” Theon ground out, leaning back to grip her hips, angling them up to hit deeper, harder. “There’s no going back, Tessa. No more running.”
“No more,” she agreed, nodding her head frantically.
“No more,” he repeated, over and over. It was a chant he wanted to drive into her as hard as he was fucking her.
And when she started spasming around him, so godsdamn close, he reached between them, rubbing until she was arching off the bed, her head thrashing from side to side as she chased bliss.
“Eyes on me, Tessa,” he commanded, violet irises immediately finding his. “Good girl. Now give me what’s mine.”
And she did. She clamped down around him so tightly, he had no choice but to follow as she held him tight against her with her legs still wrapped around his waist. Falling forward, he caught himself on his forearms, not wanting to crush her beneath him, and her teeth sank into his shoulder as she cried out.
Pulse after pulse coaxed every bit of release from him, and she was clinging to him like she’d never let him go.
By the gods, he prayed she’d never let him go.
He stayed hovered over her long after they both came down from their highs.
He brushed the hair from her face, fingertips tracing and memorizing.
She lightly dragged her nails up and down his back.
Only when she shifted beneath him did he pull out of her.
He rolled to the side, his hand splaying across her stomach because he couldn’t not touch her.
Not anymore. Not with her here beside him.
“How long have you known? That I was pulling you into my dreams,” she clarified.
“Not long,” he answered. “Well, I guess that’s not true. I figured it out in one of your dreams when you said you don’t know how to trust anyone. But I haven’t been able to get back to you to explain. I was going to last time, but I ran out of time.”
She nodded, reaching up and sliding her fingers through his hair, along his jaw, across his lips, but she didn’t speak again.
Eventually they forced themselves out of bed to clean up, and Theon went to the small alcohol cart to retrieve them water, handing her a glass when she emerged from the bathroom.
He didn’t need to tell her to drink it. She did so without fuss, draining the whole thing before setting it on the nightstand and crawling back into the bed.
He followed suit, and she propped herself up on her elbows. The moonlight fell across her face as she said in surprise, “You’re staying?”
“Do you want me to go?” he asked, halfway into the bed.
“No,” she said quickly. “I sleep better with one of you with me.”
“I’m staying, Tessa,” he said, settling in and rolling onto his side. He reached across the bed, pulling her to him, her black flush against his chest.
Quiet seconds ticked by before she said, “What if they catch us?”
“They won’t.”
“How can you be certain?”
“I have a plan,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Sleep, Tessa. We’ll discuss it in the morning.”
She tensed before relaxing against him once more. “You don’t lie to me,” she whispered.
“Not once.”
She nodded, and minutes later she was asleep, her breathing soft and steady.
Theon dragged his fingers up and down her bare arm, reveling in the fact she was giving him this.
That she was his, and he was hers. And if it weren’t for the moonlight, he would have missed the cords of black and gold that were trailing his fingers, chasing him.
He stilled, his fingertips still pressed to her flesh, but those cords caught him, winding around his fingers, his hand, his arm while doing the same to Tessa’s arm.
Winding together until they couldn’t be separated.
A beginning and an ending. Light and dark flared brightly before dimming and settling once more.
Repairing something broken or maybe creating something new altogether.
And he felt her.
All of her.
The defeat and the resilience.
The wild and the untamed.
The uncertainty and the fierceness
The broken and the healed, but not quite whole.
He pulled her tighter to him, burying his face in her hair. “We’ll fix it, little storm,” he whispered. “I swear to you we’ll fix it all.”