Chapter 57 #2
Stark lifts his hand and brings it down on my other ass cheek. I let out another moan, and he groans in response to it.
“Are you ready to be a good girl?” he asks tightly. He scowls down at me, but all I can feel is his desire throbbing against my stomach.
“No,” I tell him petulantly, and he swats at my ass again. I twist against his grip, and he does it again.
Then he holds me in place with one arm while using the other to yank my boots off my feet, tossing them to the ground.
Socks go next, and he pulls my trousers and panties all the way off so that I’m entirely bare from my torso down.
He lightly slaps my ass one more time, then shifts the arm that’s holding me down.
He yanks my jacket off, firmly tugs my shirt over my head.
Last to go is my breast binding, which he rips straight through.
By the time he’s finished tearing my clothes off, I’m quivering with need. I want to turn in his arms and straddle him, sink onto him and never let him go.
But I also want to see how much further I can push him.
He scoops me up and stands, then takes several large strides over to the edge of the hot springs. Then he sets me down.
“Get in,” he growls. “Now.”
Before he can so much as blink, I turn and sprint away from him. My heart pounds in my ears as my feet crunch over the frozen fallen leaves around us. Stark curses loudly, and I hear him quickly ripping off his own clothes. I smile to myself, and keep running.
This is thrilling and exactly what I need—the perfect distraction from whatever tomorrow holds. One last night to safely lose control.
Then comes the sound of his huge body moving in pursuit through the dark forest. Anticipation races from my head to my toes.
I’m fast, but he’s faster—his legs are longer, thickly muscled. It doesn’t take long for him to catch up to me. His fingers brush mine, but I keep moving. I can hear him lunge, and his warm hand wraps around my ankle.
I fall face-first toward the ground. Even then, he’s faster than me. He somehow turns me and maneuvers a hand behind my head so I don’t smash it onto the hardpacked forest floor. We go tumbling onto the ground together.
I’m pinned beneath him, his tattooed, scarred chest tight against mine, and we’re both panting hard.
His rigid cock throbs against my stomach, and the sensation makes my nipples pebble.
“You dirty, feral creature,” he snarls at me. He reaches a hand down between us and strokes between my folds, then lets out a harsh breath when he realizes how wet I am already. “You love disobeying me, don’t you?”
I try to rub against his hand, to seek reprieve from this consuming need burning me up from the inside out, but he won’t let me have it. Instead, he moves his hand to my hair, pulling it just enough.
“Say it,” he demands.
“I love disobeying you, Alpha,” I moan. “Make me listen.”
He shifts and suddenly the head of his cock presses tightly against my entrance. I moan again and send him mental consent.
Stark slides into me roughly, seating himself to the hilt. I gasp at the sudden stretch, the expansive fill of him. He always feels like almost too much, but it’s perfect, erasing every coherent thought I might have, removing any worry.
We lock eyes then, and his demanding gaze softens slightly. He leans and kisses me, his soft lips a beautiful contrast to the stubble that grazes my face. I respond with fervor, wrapping my arms around his neck, drawing him somehow closer.
He slides his cock out of me almost entirely and slams back into me fully. I whine against his mouth and he does it again. Then he shifts backward, pulling me onto his lap. My arms are still around his neck, and his come around my back, holding me closely to him. I wrap my legs around his middle.
And then he gets his feet beneath him and stands. I whip my head around, looking at the forest. “What—”
“Eyes on me,” he commands. I obey him, and his stern gaze makes my toes curl. “You wouldn’t go in that hot spring on your own, princess. So I’m making you listen, just like you asked.”
He starts to stride back in the direction we came from, carrying me like I weigh nothing.
As we move, he fucks me, thrusting in and out me with an unbelievable level of control. Each step shifts us and makes us bounce in a different way, and I try not to squirm too much in his arms because oh fuck. It’s pushing me rapidly toward a peak.
Finally, we near the hot springs again. Stark bends down to grab a packet of soap out of his clothes, keeping me pressed against him still. He doesn’t bother setting me down this time; he’s not about to let me bolt again.
Instead, he walks straight into the hot springs with me.
The steaming water burns against my cold skin. Between the bite of it and the stretch of Stark inside of me still, I’m becoming overly sensitized. Still, he doesn’t let me go. He moves us over to a rock outcropping, setting me down on the flattest part of it.
He pulls out of me slowly, and I moan at the indecent feeling of it in the wet heat of the water.
“Can I trust you not to run?” he asks, voice rumbling.
Sparking at the challenge, I shift away from him, ready to move.
Stark swipes his hands through the air, calling his shadebending power as Sovereign Alpha. The shadows come quickly to him, wrapping around my arms and ankles and binding me to the rock. I fight uselessly against it, but the shadows don’t give.
It’s strange being on the receiving end of this power. The shadows have weight to them but also feel like nothing—as if I’m being held in place by something invisible, even though I can see the darkness of them.
“Seriously, how are you so good at that?” I grumble.
A line forms between his brow, and I wonder at his reaction, wanting to press more. But he doesn’t give me the chance. He shakes it off and steps forward with the soap.
“Time you clean you up, princess.”
He reaches down to work the soap into a lather between us, then without words, he bathes me.
Despite my restrained position, his touch is gentle and sends sparks dancing across my skin as he scrubs my entire body.
He eases off his shadows just enough that he can help me duck my hair into the warm water, and lathers that clean, too.
Finally, the last of the suds are rinsed from my skin. Stark gives me a heavy look.
“Tomorrow,” he starts.
“I don’t want to talk about tomorrow,” I tell him, my throat tight around the words.
The truth is, I’m afraid.
Afraid we won’t succeed, and what it will mean for Nocturna. Afraid that we will succeed, but that the cost might be either of our lives.
“Fuck me like we have forever,” I beg him.
Stark lets his shadows dissipate, and I open my knees slowly, deliberately in invitation. He steps up between them, pressing close.
He kisses me, his lips hard and unyielding at first but softening the more I push myself into him. As he licks his tongue into my mouth, I wrap my arms around his broad back, pulling him closer, closer.
The soft sounds of the water around us, the breeze in the pine branches, and the calls of birds hunting in the cold night air blend together like a harmony. I shiver at the chill of the breeze on my wet skin and the relentless heat of Stark’s body against mine.
Throwing my head back, I gaze up at the sky. Stark’s lips and teeth trail down my neck, the scruff of his cheeks and chin setting my sensitive skin alight.
Our bodies press closer together, and closer still, until I barely know where I end and Stark begins. The hard heat of his cock slips and slides against me, teasing me without giving me the fullness I crave.
I moan, a small, desperate sound, and he tangles his fingers in my wet hair, tilting my face toward his. He looks me directly in the eye as he finally pushes inside me again.
It feels so right, so good, I almost forget to breathe. When he pulls out and pushes back inside, starting up a steady rhythm, he does it slowly. There’s nothing desperate or punishing in it anymore. Instead, it’s reverent.
I savor every brush of his skin against mine, every second of completion as he fills me again and again, deeper and deeper. His breath goes rough against my neck as he approaches his peak, and I savor that, too.
Just before he comes, Stark reaches his hand down to strum my clit with his fingers, and that’s all I need.
I’m falling, tumbling into my orgasm. His pace picks up, every thrust sending me to new heights, and I dig my fingers into his shoulders so that I feel his entire body clench and shudder as he also hits his peak.
There’s a sea of shadow dancing around us, I realize, my pleasure and emotion spilling out of me in dark waves that swell to caress us both. As we regain our breath, clinging together, the tendrils of power begin to dissipate and fade away.
Stark wraps his arms around me, staying inside me as the final shocks of pleasure roll through me like ripples in the steaming pool around us. His arms wrap around my back, chasing out the cold that threatens to catch us now that our movements have stilled.
We stay like that for a long moment, my face pressed into the crook of his neck, head tucked under his chin.
Finally, reluctantly, we dry ourselves as best as we can and pull our clothes back on. The two of us head back to camp quietly, lying down together in front of the fire. Sleep comes easily.
I’m not sure how much longer I rest, but when I open my eyes, the sun is rising. It casts long shadows through the trees and bathes everything in a golden glow.
I’m still curled against Stark, sheltered by his strength. He looks so beautiful in its light. His eyes are still closed. He looks younger when he’s sleeping. Like he’s who he was before all the pain came. Or like he’s who he could be, given time to heal.
With me, maybe. With me.
“Meryn,” Anassa says softly. There’s affection and understanding in her voice.
I shut my eyes, wishing I could deny the rising sun. Wishing I could summon enough shadow from my blood to turn the sky dark again and flood it with stars.
But even I have limits.
“Anassa,” I reply.
And she says the words I knew were coming.
“It is time.”