Chapter 2 Kaelen #2
“Stop it.” Husky words, even as he leans to give me access to more of him. “I’m going to the Veilspire, Kae.”
My teeth sink into the juncture between his neck and shoulder. He shudders beneath my touch, his hands slipping beneath my leathers to trace down my back. “You cannot stop me.”
The growl reverberates into his skin. “Don’t fucking test me.”
Laughter. Whatever darkness I give him, whatever madness it is that means I cannot stop myself from being with him, he meets with a joy that I drink in like nectar. His fingers, coarse and calloused from his work, rub in soft circles against my back. “But I enjoy testing you.”
And I enjoy being tested. Usually. But not at this moment, and my hands tighten on him. “I should have said no.”
The teasing touch turns sharp. A knifepoint against my back, and I press myself into it, one eyebrow raising in a silent challenge even as Eres forces my face up, so he can see it. His full lips press together. “I am a soldier in this war too, Kaelen.”
I shake my head. Take his hand, turn it to the calloused, scratched skin of his palms, and press my lips to it. “That’s not what you wanted.”
“But it’s what I got. None of us have the luxury of keeping away from battle. Not forever.” Eres studies me. “I can fight just as well as you and Darian.”
The cool prick of shadow at my back is a reminder. I press my mouth to his again, chasing away any mention of the male who just left us. When I pull away, both of us are breathing heavily. My words are a snarl. Petulant, possessive, and both of us know it. “I don’t like his name on your lips.”
The sharp edge disappears. Eres’s face softens as he leans forward. “He is my friend. And he’s yours, too. Even now. He’s hurting, Kae.”
I don’t want to talk about Darian fucking Veyr. “When do you leave?”
I know my healer well enough to know he won’t want to linger here. He hesitates, his eyes dropping from mine. “An hour. Nythen and Valcor are preparing. I need to pack.”
An hour. I stiffen. Minutes, before he rides out of the gates and I’m forced to remain behind. To wait for news. To plan battles and strategy when he’s riding toward the enemy that haunts every fucking step I take.
The Lightbringers want to kill me. They’ve tried for years, over and over again.
I am not so easy to kill. But there is one way, and it’s through the male waiting for my response with eyes full of understanding.
He brushes his mouth against mine. Once, and then again.
Our breathing mingles, mint and sage and something uniquely Eres that I don’t think I can survive without it. “I will be fine.”
My hands remain on his face. Eres’s lips part. “Kaelen.”
I busy myself with his neck. Dragging my teeth over it as I call the shadows. They hide us from prying eyes, thick enough that none could walk through, rotating fast enough that none would dare. “Yes?”
“You…,” He inhales. “Here?”
I feel the shift in his body as his wrists are dragged up, pinning him against the cool stone. I force myself back a step, breaking the contact between us as I survey him.
His smile is slow, and curving. “You planning on punishing me for leaving? Because this doesn’t feel like a punishment.”
The light thrust of his hips tells me exactly how he feels about his current position. It almost makes me smile—he almost makes me smile—but I force it down.
I want to punish him for even attempting to leave me, no matter that it’s temporary. For putting himself in danger. For risking himself in any way, because Eres being at risk is fucking unacceptable.
“Kae,” Eres coaxes. “You’ve already lost five minutes.”
And I won’t lose a minute fucking more.
He inhales as I step into him. Our eyes stay connected as I reach for his trousers, unbuckling his belt and yanking it down. My palm meets hot, swollen flesh, and I finally flash a smile at his hiss, his hips bucking into my hand. “You’d better wear underwear out there, you little shit.”
I run my hand up and down his glorious fucking cock, my thumb rubbing over his head, feeling the liquid gather already. Eres’s head bangs back into the wall as I lift my hand and push my thumb between his slips. “Taste.”
There’s nothing quiet about his moan. I can hear footsteps, but they can’t hear us, and the knowledge emboldens me as I pull away only long enough to flip my hand.
Eres moves, allowing the shadow to push him into position.
His cheek meets the stonework behind him, pressing to it as his wrists are yanked apart.
A second set pushes between his legs, nudging his ankles apart and back, until he’s spread wide for me.
His stomach, warm and firm, flexes under my touch as I slide my hands under it and lower, barely brushing his cock.
He presses his forehead to the wall. “So help me, Kaelen, if you leave me wanting you—”
“Never.” The vow is immediate, and truthful.
I push his trousers down with one hand, hooking them over his hips until they tumble to his knees.
My hands almost shake as I flick open the buttons to my leathers, pulling my cock out and stroking it as I press against him.
My lips push into his shirt, into his shoulder. “You will come back to me.”
“Of course I will. You demanding little princess.” His voice shakes as I push my hand between the cheeks of his ass, my finger probing before I yank it away and slap his ass. He yelps. “If you want me to call you your highness, you’d better finish me first.”
“Fully planning on it.” Dropping to my knee, I nip at the tempting bare skin in front of me as I rummage through the supplies he keeps attached to his belt.
Even the sight of them tightens my chest, another reminder.
Tugging out the pot, I curve my fingers into it and rub the mix between my hands until it warms.
“Kaelen.”
My healer sounds precariously close to begging.
Staying where I am, I reach for him again and push my finger inside, stretching him with two, and then a third. “You look so perfect with my fingers buried inside your ass.”
“I’d look—” he sucks in a breath when he feels the shadow wrap around his dick. “Even better with your cock.”
True. I listen to his moans for a minute, drinking them in. Taking every part of him in. The shadows pump Eres’s cock as I pull my hand free and straighten.
He presses his back against my chest as I use one hand to work my way inside, past the tight rings of muscle as he breathes against me until I can’t get any deeper. When I bottom out, both of us groan.
“Maybe I’ll keep you like this.” Eyes closed, I brace one hand against the wall. The other wraps carefully around his throat, holding him against me.
I pull out halfway and thrust, pushing him into the wall with long, slow strokes. “Keep you tied to my bed with shadows, keep you so fucking full of me that there won’t be any space in your mind to think about leaving.”
Fuck. Maybe I’ll do that anyway. The thought of going about my day with a needy Eres bent double in my bed, his ass exposed, has me thrusting harder. I could leave him with shadows pulsing in and out, keep him on the edge long enough to make him desperate by the time I get back.
For a second—the barest second—another image enters my head. Not just Eres, but two bodies, both begging—
My cock swells impossibly, and I swallow, forcing the image away.
Our gasps and moans fill the small space. Eres cries out when I swivel my hips, and I smirk as it entwines with the noise of passing discussion barely a foot away. “I need you loud enough for them to hear who you belong to.”
They pass by without noticing us at all.
I’d never let anyone else see him like this.
The most respected healer in Umbraxis, and now he's the only one we have left.
Magical hands, people whisper when they come to him.
Now those hands are pinned with darkness, Eres soft and pliant and full of my cock.
But my ears are full of him, and my hands shift, pinning his wrists in place. “More?”
He shudders beneath me. “All of it. Let go.”
I know he’ll take it. With a smile and a plea for more, he’ll take everything I give him. My hips move faster, pumping into him, almost lifting him off the damned floor with the harshness of my movements. “You’re going to feel me every bit of that ride.”
Something close to a whimper falls from his lips, and the noise has my balls tightening, my release forcing itself upon me before I’m ready.
I’m not ready to let him go.
But I’ll never be ready, and my body isn’t listening to my increasingly desperate commands. Eres tightens, and I drop one hand to him, feeling his cock tighten to release before he spurts into my hand as I follow him over the edge with his name on my lips.
Both of us still, our breathing still harsh and noisy. Eres’s shirt is plastered to him with sweat, my own not much better. I ease my way out of him, pulling back and pushing his ass apart.
“Kae.” The sound of my name, soft and satiated and mildly chiding on his lips is the only thing that could make me smile right now.
I run my hand down his back. “Let me see you.”
And what a fucking glorious sight he is. I watch as what I left inside him drips down, gathering it up and rubbing it into his skin.
Eres sighs, twisting his head to look at me. “Don’t fight with Dare while I’m gone.”
My brows crease. He says his name so easily, even as he stands there. “His name doesn’t belong here, Eres.”
His eyebrows raise, just a little. Concerned, not taunting. “Are you sure?”
Avoiding his gaze, I press my lips to his shirt before reaching for my own, tearing off a strip from the bottom and using it to clean him up.
When the shadows fall from his wrists and ankles, I step back, watching as he pulls up his belt and fusses with the litany of bottles he stores there.
I know better than to interfere with the process.
When he finally lifts his head, I attempt to wipe my expression a little too late.
His mouth coaxes me to say things. Too many things. Things like don’t go and fuck the war and I’m coming with you.
But I can’t say any of those things.
He kisses me one more time. “Come and help me pack.”
So I say the only thing I can. “I love you.”
He grins. Unrestrained and unapologetic. “I know.”
I wait. His hand brushes my cheek. “When I’m back.”
I frown. “Say it now.”
“No.” He slips out of the dissipating shadow, smirking over his shoulder before he sets off in the direction of the Healer Quarters. “Something for you to look forward to.”
“Eres.”
It helps a little, this back and forth between us. Helps as he packs and I pace back and forth, reeling off information from the latest reports that might help knowing full well that he’s read them all too.
It helps as we face each other in the courtyard, beside a scowling Nythen and expressionless Valcor as Eres swings himself into the saddle, cheeks already flushed from the cold.
His horse stamps the ground, nostrils blowing white vapour in the chilled air.
Beside him, Eldritch eyes me knowingly, but says nothing.
It hurts to step back from him. “Be careful. All of you.”
Eres presses his left palm to his heart, inclining his head. “Your Highness.”
My eyes narrow, but he’s cantering from the open gates before I can respond.
Gone.
And the asshole has taken my heart with him.