Chapter 4 #2
He took a drink of his juice before dropping his other hand back to my wrist, stroking his fingers over the exposed skin at the cuff of my shirt.
“Vostop asked her to marry him before we arrived, and he said that she did not answer him.” I bit my lip, unable to burden Tallu with the rest of our conversation, the sadness of it, the idea that Vostop could so easily accept his lover’s death.
I couldn’t. I would never swallow Tallu’s imminent death like poison masked in nectar, accepting the inevitability of the pain because the drink was so sweet. “I have an appointment to meet with her tomorrow, but she seems worried about Prince Hallu. Have you heard anything?”
Tallu shook his head. “I’ve spoken with him a few times since our return from Krustau, but he is a child.”
I nodded. Tallu’s fingers still stroked absently over the inside of my wrist, tracing the tendons and veins with his fingers.
Then, with a wicked leer, I rose from my knees, standing above Tallu and stroking his soft hair. “With that done, should we move on to more entertaining pastimes? I think they will smell it if we do not make use of the room.”
Tallu reached forward, placing his glass on the table with a click. He raised his chin, one hand pressing against my stomach while the other traced circles at my hip.
“We can’t have that,” he said, his voice dropping to a husky growl. “It would be careless of us to leave behind evidence that we are plotting instead of lovemaking.”
I felt myself hardening, my cock straining against the tight press of my pants. I stroked my fingers through his hair again, enjoying the feel of the soft curls against my fingers. Moving my hand, I pressed my thumb against his bottom lip, my breath hitching when he sucked my fingertip inside.
He nipped and sucked, and I shifted my hand, drawing my finger out and lowering my head to kiss him, my breath coming in soft moans as I desperately wished we were already naked.
He pulled at my hip suddenly, and I tumbled into his lap, my knees straddling his hips as I rose and ground myself down on his cock. Even through the layers of clothing, I could feel how much he was straining for me, how much he wanted me.
He pulled on my hair again, forcing my head back as he bit and kissed along the sensitive flesh of my throat.
I held on, one hand fisting his robe at his shoulder, the other cupped against the back of his head. I was pulled as taut as a bowstring, my entire body arched for him. His lips pulled into a smile at my pulse point, and he sucked the skin, barely grazing it with his teeth.
He stood, and I automatically wrapped my legs around him as he pulled me tight against his body.
In a few steps, we were inside his bedroom, and he shoved me up against the stone wall, my back hitting it hard, but I didn’t worry about bruises or even the ache of strained muscles, because his mouth was everything, his hips grinding against mine.
We stumbled to the bed, and he let me fall into it, my arms and legs sliding against his. I looked up at him, everything in me wanting more. Slowly, he stripped off his clothing, letting it fall to the ground, exposing his bronze skin inch by inch.
The dark lines of his dragon tattoo curled and shifted as he moved, and then he leaned forward, beginning to unlace my clothes, tossing my boots and socks to the side, pulling the laces of my pants undone and working them down until he had exposed my cock.
Without warning he bent down, sucking on it, his cheeks hollowing as he drove me mad. His tongue worked the underside, his throat swallowing as he took the entire length into his mouth.
I nearly came then, but held on, fisting one hand in the bedding and letting the nails of my other hand bite into my palm.
After a few torturous minutes, he pulled back, his bruised lips forming a satisfied smirk.
He finished undressing me, the slide of my clothing so agonizing against my sensitive skin that I could barely breathe when he finally had me naked.
Then he sat back, watching me, and my skin flushed further. I was fully exposed. He was seeing me, all of me.
My entire life, I had been trained to be a shadow, to be nothing, to fade into the background for Eona?’s brilliance to shine and distract.
But Tallu saw me. Tallu saw me and I couldn’t bear the idea that I might lose him; I couldn’t breathe with it.
It choked me and when I inhaled, my breath came jerky and uneven.
Tallu frowned, opening his mouth to ask, but I reached up, grasped his arm, and pulled. He came easily enough, lying down on top of me, the pressure of his body so reassuring. No matter what happened, he was here now, he was with me now.
He reached down, grabbing both of our cocks in one hand and rutting up into his tight fist. The friction was too much; my skin felt like it was on fire.
Everything was too much. With his weight on top of me, it was as though he was holding me down, containing me. As though I was a shadow brought into existence by his light.
What would I be when he was gone? His life, his death, had been the focus of my entire existence.
Who was I when that wasn’t true anymore?
“Airón,” Tallu said, his voice low and intense, and my eyes snapped to his.
His russet gaze was fixed on me, pinning me in place like his body. He bent his head and kissed me, and I could still taste the sweet juice lingering in his mouth along with hints of my own pre-come.
“Are you with me?” Tallu asked.
I closed my eyes and raised both hands, desperately gripping his head, pulling his lips against mine as though I could consume the curse that ate at him, as though I could take it into myself and free him from it.
He moaned, pushing harder, and I wanted more. “I want you inside of me.”
He gasped against my mouth, lips moving in incoherent words. Then he pushed up, finding the jar of oil and dipping his fingers in briefly before pressing two to my entrance.
I barely had time to brace myself before he was pushing both fingers inside and it was too much and just enough and everything felt so close. I moaned, pushing my head back and arching my spine as he quirked his fingers, working them deeper inside.
“There you are,” Tallu said, his voice purring with satisfaction as he pumped his fingers in and out, murmuring, “Beautiful. And mine. Only mine.”
I gasped, wanting to give in to the building pressure at the base of my spine. There was nothing left inside me: no anxiety, no worry, no pressure to do the right thing.
There was only Tallu and pleasure.
He withdrew his fingers, and I opened my eyes, half-lidded, watching him grab his own cock tightly, stroking oil onto it before positioning himself at my entrance.
He raised both of my legs on his shoulders.
Then, slowly, he pushed inside, as though he wanted me to focus on every sensation as his cock split me open.
I panted as though I was the one doing all the work, whining when he was fully seated, but he barely gave me enough time to adjust before he pulled out and then pressed in again. Soon his hips were slapping against mine, and I forced my eyes open, catching on his.
His mouth was open, but his lips pulled up into a grin when he caught me staring at him. He redoubled his efforts, and soon there was nothing but white in my vision as I came.
He paused, his face tense as he panted, keeping himself still as my orgasm worked through me. When I was nothing but limp, trembling muscles, he started moving again, and my cock twitched, desperate at the overstimulation, at the wondrous truth of him inside me.
It took only another three thrusts before I felt him come, his body jerking as his climax overcame him.
He collapsed down on top of me, his fingers stroking gently at my shoulder even as his hips thrust again helplessly.
When we were both still, my heart rate returned to normal, I asked, “Do you think that was enough proof for them that there was absolutely no plotting going on in here?”
Tallu laughed, pulling free, and drew me into his arms, cradling me as though he needed to protect me from the rest of the world.
At my request, the servants set up tea for Empress Koque and me in one of the far gardens, distant from any building, the plants growing as wild as anything inside an imperial palace could. When the breeze kicked up, the sweet scents of honeysuckle and wild berries wafted over us.
Koque didn’t make me wait, arriving with a single servant, her eyes taking in the scene before she bowed to me, respectfully, indicating our equal rank.
“Empress Koque,” I said.
“Consort Airón,” she greeted. With a single gesture, she sent her servant away, leaving us in privacy.
Above us, in the tree, Terror croaked, “There’s no one else nearby. At least no one that I can see.”
The birds had taken the knowledge that Tallu and I could see ghosts as though it was a personal offense, and I got the impression that Terror considered the blood mages competition rather than allies.
Empress Koque poured tea for us, serving me, and I wasn’t sure if it was habit from her time with Emperor Millu, or if she was trying to offer me the respect that my position deserved, even as it grated on her own sense of pride.
The breeze rustled the leaves and Terror’s feathers, and I let Empress Koque take the lead in our conversation.
After taking a polite sip of tea, she brought up its quality, discussing where in the Imperium the leaves must have been grown.
Taking my own sip, I dutifully agreed with her.
Yes, it must have been in the peaks closer to the Blood Mountains than Krustau.
The leaves did have a subtle flavor only acquired when they had been shaded by pine trees.
Next, Koque brought up the weather and worried that it had been cold when we had gone to see General Saxu. Had he seemed ill? He did have some old injuries that weakened him when the weather turned cold and damp.