Chapter 9 #2
I guided his hands to my waist, showing him without words. His touch was almost worshipful, as if I might dissolve if he moved too quickly. When I lifted myself and settled over him, taking him inside me slowly, we both shuddered.
“There you are,” he breathed, stroking my spine. “My beautiful wife. My everything.”
The stretch, the fullness, the perfect fit of him inside me made me feel like I was coming home. This wasn’t the desperate claiming I thought I needed, but something softer. Something that said we had time. We had each other. We had survived.
I began to move, slow and careful, relearning the rhythm we'd perfected. His hands stayed on my hips, supporting me rather than demanding. Water swirled around us with each subtle movement.
“You feel wonderful,” he said, his lips tracing along my jaw. “Like every prayer I whispered while you were gone.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks. He kissed them away, one by one, his tenderness undoing something knotted in my chest. This wasn't about passion or fire or claiming.
This was about healing. About proving to my traumatized soul that love could still be gentle, that pleasure didn't have to be torn from shadows.
“I love you,” I said, the words carrying everything I couldn't say. That I'd heard his voice in the darkness. That his love had been my tether when I was drowning. That coming back to this and to him was worth every moment of agony.
“I love you too.” His voice choked off on the words. “So much it terrifies me. So much I'd tear down kingdoms for one more day like this.”
My movements quickened as I chased something deeper than physical release. I was racing after the feeling of being cherished, of being safe enough to be vulnerable. His hands moved to my back, stroking the length of my spine as I moved above him.
“That's it, love,” he said when a soft moan escaped me. “Take what you need. Take everything.”
The water made every movement fluid, effortless.
I could focus on the connection between us, on the way his eyes never left mine, on how his love wrapped around me like a healing balm.
When his thumb found the sensitive bundle of nerves between my legs, circling with just the right amount of pressure, I gasped.
“Let go for me,” he whispered. “I’ll catch you.”
The orgasm built slowly, like sunrise creeping across the sky. When it finally crested, it was soft and warm and perfect, full of waves of heat. I cried out his name, my body trembling as he held me through it.
He followed moments later, his face buried in my neck as he whispered my name. We clung to each other after, breathing the same air.
“Thank you,” I whispered against his temple.
“For what?”
“For knowing what I needed before I did.”
He pulled back to look at me, his fingertips tracing my cheekbones. “I'll always know, Wildfire. Your heart speaks to mine in a language no one else can understand.”
I settled against his chest, feeling truly peaceful for the first time since waking. The water had cooled around us, but his warmth was enough.
Everything else could wait. Right now, there was only this quiet moment of perfect healing between us.
He helped me from the tub, his hands tender as he wrapped a soft towel around me. Each touch was a whisper against my skin as he wiped away every drop of water, his eyes never leaving mine. When I was warm and dry, he lifted me into his arms.
“Ready?” he whispered against my skin.
I nodded, and he flitted us to our bed, laying me on the soft surface and following me down. He propped himself up on his elbows, stroking the lines of my face, the curves of my cheeks. His gaze roamed over me with so much love it made my heart twist tight.
“I thought I'd lost you.” Leaning down, he kissed the corner of my left eye. “Lost us. Each moment without you was torture. It felt like I forgot how to say my own name because yours was no longer next to it. I never stopped calling to you, Reyla. I never gave up. I’d have torn worlds apart, block by block, to bring you back.”
I caught his lips with mine and whispered into his mouth. “You found me, remember?”
He nodded, his forehead resting against my cheek.
“Always will, Wildfire.” His fingers teased across my breasts, finding a nipple, circling it until it peaked.
A soft moan escaped me, and he swallowed it, his mouth claiming mine again.
Our tongues tangled as we rediscovered every secret, every promise we'd ever made.
He pulled back, his breathing ragged, and dipped his head, his mouth capturing the nipple, his tongue flicking across it. I arched, gasping, as he sucked, drawing out a cry from within me. His hand found my other breast, kneading, teasing, making me writhe beneath him.
“Lore…”
He looked up, his eyes dark with desire. “What do you need, my pretty little bride?”
Damn but I loved it when he called me that. Even when I wanted to smack him for using it, it made my pulse sing.
“Say you're mine for the next thousand years,” I said. “Promise me.”
“I promise I’m yours for the next thousand years.”
“Yes, yes,” I rasped, feeling almost feverish. “I need more of you.”
A slow smile spread across his face. He shifted, his hand sliding down my belly, my hips, reaching the heat between my thighs. His fingers stroked, parting my folds, stoking the fire that was already burning for him.
I bucked against his hand, craving everything. And he gave it, one finger sliding inside me, then another. They pumped, slow at first, then faster, matching the rhythm of my hips. His thumb caressed my clit, circling, pressing, sending jolts of pleasure to my core.
“You're so wet,” he groaned, his eyes never leaving mine. “So ready for me, aren't you, mate?”
“Always ready for you,” I managed to gasp out. “Today, tomorrow, forever.”
“You could set fire to me right here, and I’d thank you for it. I want decades of this with you, Reyla. Decades of you burning for me. You wanting me like the ache never ends.”
“It doesn’t. It never will.” I gripped his shoulders, digging my nails into his flesh.
He lowered his head, his lips finding my neck, my collarbone. He kissed, nipped, his stubble scraping across my skin. Marking me. Claiming me. Each touch was a testament, a vow. We'd been through a nightmare and back, and here we were, alive, together, finding each other all over again.
We’d come too close to losing this forever. He was here now, but fear still echoed deep inside me.
That emptiness wasn’t only between my thighs. It reached deeper, scraping across nerves that still remembered the silence I'd lived in when I was trapped and didn't think he'd find a way to me. I needed to fill myself with him, with us, before the fear found its way back.
He slid his fingers out of me, leaving me aching, empty. But before I could make demands, he shifted, settling his legs between mine.
His gaze found mine. “Eyes on me, Wildfire. Don't look away or I might stop.”
Damn, I also loved that cocky smile. He knew I'd beg if he did something like that.
His hard length pressed against my entrance, and he pushed in before pulling all the way back out. Teasing and promising, all at once.
“Tell me what you need from your husband,” he said.
“Your damn cock,” I growled. I’d adored our sweet loving in the bath, but now I wanted fire.
“Damn cock, or is it as amazing as my ass?”
“You're the ass. Give me that cock. Hard. Fast. And now.”
“This thing?” He pushed all the way inside me before his hips swiveled, dragging it back out.
I gasped, clinging, begging him. “Yes, yes, that. More! “
I kept my gaze on his, watching the emotions flicker there. Pure happiness. Adoration. Love. And a touch of humor, something I was eternally grateful I'd found in my husband.
He slid into me again, much too slowly. Much too gently. Filling me bit by bit, his gaze locked onto mine. I felt him everywhere, inside me, around me, his love consuming me. My body stretched, accepting, welcoming him everywhere.
A groan rumbled in his chest. “Reyla, you feel incredible. You're mine forever. I'll never get enough.”
I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him deeper. “Same, love. Same.” I grinned. “Now move. Don't hold back. I won't break.”
He smiled. “Is that a challenge?” That smile was so cocky and infuriating, and I loved him even more because he could tease. “Burn for me. Only me.”
This man could break me in so many ways, and I'd welcome every one of them because he'd never truly harm me, hurt me, or give me a reason to be afraid.
When I started jerking my hips, he began to move, drawing back and driving forward. His pace was steady, each thrust stoking the fire inside me. I met him, my body matching his, this pleasure, this joy we found together as old as time yet as new as our love.
While he braced himself over me, he gripped my hip, tugging me up to meet him as he pushed deeper, harder.
“More,” I called out, my voice hoarse with need. “Please, Lore. I need all of you.”
A growl rumbled in his throat, and he drove into me, his hips picking up speed. Our bodies slapped together, the sound filling the room with a primal rhythm that matched the beat of our hearts. His cock filled me, stretched me, each stroke making me crave him even more.
His mouth found mine again, his kiss hungry, demanding. He tasted like every sweet and sinful thing I'd ever craved.
“Mine,” he groaned against my lips. “Not even the fates could take you from me. We're going to have everything, Reyla. Everything we've dreamed of.”
He pulled back, his eyes seeking mine, holding my gaze with his so intense and fierce, the love in them was almost palpable. He slammed into me, his cock hitting that spot deep inside that made my toes coil tight. I gasped, my body arching to meet his.
“Touch yourself, Wildfire,” he growled, his voice thick with his heat. “Come undone from both me and your fingers. Let me see you trusting this again. That’s how I’ll know I never lost you.”
I snaked my hand between our bodies, finding my clit, swollen and still sensitive. I circled it, my fingers mimicking the rhythm of his thrusts. Pleasure coiled in my belly, tight and hot, ready to explode.
Lore's gaze dropped to where my hand was, his eyes darkening. “That's it, love. Such a good girl.”
My breath hitched, my body tensing as the tension built. I didn't want to go alone. I wanted him with me, wanted to feel him lose control at the same time.
“Take all of me,” I groaned. “Now, love. Now.”
I wasn’t begging for the orgasm. I was pleading for the promise that this was real, that he was real, that the burn between us meant I was no longer trying to survive a nightmare alone.
He groaned, his hips moving faster, his cock driving into me with enough force to send me all the way up to the headboard.
Every thrust stripped away another layer between us.
I let him have all of it. All of me. Every secret, every scar, even the ones carved in silence.
I gave them to him. We were chasing the same joy, the same release, the same profound connection we'd found so many times before.
“Close,” he grunted. “So fucking close, Reyla. Tell me you want this life with me.”
“Yes,” I gasped, meeting his eyes. “I want this life. I want you. I want our children and our home and a future growing old together.”
His eyes flashed with pure joy and possession. “All of it. We'll have all of it.”
My fingers moved faster, my orgasm within reach.
With a deep, powerful thrust, Lore pushed me over the edge.
My orgasm hit like a storm, waves of it crashing over me. I cried out, my body convulsing, my inner walls clenching around his cock. He groaned, his body stiffening, and then he was coming too, his cock pulsing inside me, filling me with his heat.
We rode it out together, our bodies trembling, our hearts pounding. The world narrowed to this. The growl in his throat. The way our pulses jumped at the same beat. This was us, stripped bare, a promise neither death nor time could steal away.
His forehead rested against mine, and our eyes locked.
As the last of the tremors subsided, Lore kissed me, his lips lingering on mine. He rolled us over, pulling me onto his chest, his arms wrapping around me like a protective cocoon.
“Love you, Wildfire. No one will ever keep us apart. They’ll try. Spells, war, time—all of it. But I’ll outlast them all for you.”
I smiled, gliding my fingertips across his face, the curve of his lips. “Love you too, Lore. I'm so glad you came for me.”
Lore had always been a storm. Searing. Brilliant. Dangerous. Now I felt the calm eye of him, the peace I could live in.
Moving up his body, I kissed his jaw. “You found me. I’ll never stop finding you.”
I'd gladly die for him, and he knew that.
But I also wanted the chance to live.