Chapter 23 #2
I let that knowledge settle. I can’t even feel guilty about keeping my life at the expense of a conjured body that was more a prison than a living thing itself.
So Ivy shouldn’t feel guilty either.
I pull her closer to me, hating the wariness I feel in her stance as she comes. As if there’s still a small part, however deeply she managed to bury it, that’s afraid I’ll lash out at her for doing what was outright miraculous.
The ache deepens, wrapping around my heart.
I tuck her head against my shoulder and kiss her temple, enveloping her slim but strong frame in my arms. “Thank you. You found a way, just like I knew you would. Are you okay after using so much of your magic?”
Ivy nods against my shoulder. “I was pretty worn out after, but I got some rest too. You’ve been out for most of the day. Alek just got back from the temple.”
The tension in her body gradually loosens as she nestles in my embrace. Every subtle sensation of her accepting the affection I’m only too happy to offer feels like a gift.
We haven’t had many moments where we could just be with each other. Even more so with me than with the other two men who’ve claimed a spot in her life, because I had my head up my ass for too long while they saw her worth.
I tease my fingers under her chin to nudge it upward so I can brush my lips to hers. So I can show her that nothing at all has changed about any of the ways I adore her.
Ivy lets out a strained but hungry sound that sends a bolt of lust straight to my cock and kisses me back hard. She slings her arm across my shoulders and hugs me tightly.
When our mouths part, she keeps holding me close. “You were dying. When I saw all that blood… I don’t know if I’ve ever been more scared.”
Fear, horror, and relief at the ultimate outcome mingle in her voice.
A lump rises in my throat, but I manage to find the casual drawl that’s served me in the past keeping spirits up in the midst of battle. “I’m sorry I worried you. I’ll try my best not to let it happen again.”
Another noise, half snort and half sob, escapes Ivy’s mouth before she yanks me in for another kiss.
Gods above, I want her so much. Want to remind both of us of how alive I am thanks to her; want to celebrate that victory by worshipping the woman who made it possible.
As our mouths meld together again, I ease around to lay her on her back, bracing myself over her. When I stroke my fingers over her breast, Ivy hums eagerly.
I tear my mouth from hers to chart a path along her jaw and down the side of her neck. The feeling of having her beneath me, of her hands running down my chest over my tunic, sets off a throb of desire in my groin.
I nip her earlobe before murmuring into her ear. “I’m going to fulfill the promise I made. It’s my turn to take you.”
Ivy’s shiver is all delight. “I guess you are feeling better.”
“The only thing hurting me is that I’m not inside you already.”
Her chuckle comes out breathless. “Then you’d better get on with it, hmm?”
She pries at my clothes as avidly as I tug off her dress. I toss the plain thing she deserves better than to the side and let her peel my tunic off me. But when my gaze returns to her, my hand stills on the hem of her chemise.
She’s more wounded than I am. Fresh bruises mottle her upper arms as well as one standing out against the pale skin over her collarbone. There’s a scratch that looks just scabbed over at her elbow and another on her thigh.
Ivy halts too, peering down at herself and then glancing at me with a wry but tight smile. “I don’t look much like your noble ladies, I know.”
Does she assume that’s what I’m thinking? That I’d even care?
With a dismissive growl, I pin her down on the blankets again. “You’re beautiful just as you are,” I say, working her chemise slowly up her chest.
Ivy arches an eyebrow. “You don’t need to say that. You’ve already got me half-undressed.”
“I’m not saying it because I need to.” I yank the chemise the rest of the way over her head. Then I drop my hand to her hip so I can undo the straps of her thigh sheaths and strip off the pants she’s wearing as an underdress.
I want to see every delicious part of her.
“There’s no woman I’d rather look at. I love this strength.” I drop a kiss to her bicep. “I love how hard you fight.” I brush my lips across a bruise. “I love all the cleverness and compassion in this pretty head of yours.” One more kiss to her forehead.
When I ease back, Ivy stares at me for a moment as if startled.
“I love you,” I add, in case I need to emphasize that specific fact.
The smile that lights up her face is bright enough to make my heart skip a beat. She trails her fingers along my jaw.
Her voice comes out soft but steady. “I love you too.”
It’s the first time she’s said it. For a second I can’t breathe, I’m so overwhelmed by the rush of emotion.
Then I’m tipping over her, capturing her mouth while I wrench her drawers off her, groaning in approval when she unbuttons the top of my trousers.
We’ve come this far. She trusts me enough to give me a piece of her heart.
As I kick my pants aside, my gaze catches on the gleam of metal by the wall. A flicker of memory passes through my head of the rasp of desire that colored her voice the first time we came together, when she told me she liked that part of me.
I grasp my prosthetic and twist it into the harness, watching Ivy. The flush that darkens her cheeks that suggests my gamble is a good one.
With past lovers, I’ve never worn any prosthetic except the wooden hand-shaped one. My former fiancé recoiled from even that.
But Ivy, as she pointed out, isn’t like any woman I’ve been with before. None of them were quite what I needed.
I shift my position to Ivy’s right and stroke the curved metal loop down the middle of her chest. Ivy licks her lips.
I grin at her. “I seem to remember that you enjoy me making use of both ‘hands.’”
Her flush deepens, but she answers without hesitation. “I do.”
“Then I’d like to see just how much you can enjoy it.”
As I graze the edge of the prosthetic over the peak of one breast and then the other, a whimper works its way out of Ivy’s throat. Her nipples stiffen at the contact.
I tease them a little more, gliding the metal back and forth and then rotating it in a tantalizing circle. Ivy’s breath has gone shaky. At every eager noise that escapes her, my erection strains against my drawers.
Her reaction fuels my confidence. Eyeing her even more closely, I slide the prosthetic down over her belly to her sex.
As the tip of the loop brushes her clit, Ivy’s hips cant upward. “Fuck, Stavros.”
“Fuck? I can do that.”
A giddy sensation spreads through my own chest as I dip the prosthetic over her folds and let the upper section press against her clit again. Ivy emits a mewling sound of need that has me painfully hard in an instant.
The loop is only about as wide as two broad fingers together. I think I could…
I turn my wrist and adjust the angle so I can push the curved tip right inside her.
Ivy gasps, tipping her head back against the blankets as she clutches my other wrist. “Gods, that’s… I’ve never felt anything like that.”
I guide it a little farther. “Good?”
“Strange, but so good.” Her gaze darts to me, her blush darkening to outright red. “How much deeper can you go?”
I’ll take that challenge.
I bend over to claim another kiss while easing the prosthetic up into her body bit by bit. Ivy shudders beneath me with the most delicious whimper.
No one else will ever make her feel quite like this. Seeing her quake with the pleasure, I can’t feel the slightest regret for the sacrifice I no longer benefit from—at least not in the typical way.
The metal loop only hooks a couple of inches around, hardly allowing for a full sense of penetration. But as I adjust it between Ivy’s legs, I realize it’s perfectly shaped for the outer edge to rock against her clit while I pulse the tip within her.
Ivy bucks with the movements, ducking her head under my chin, clutching me as if she’s afraid she’ll spin away completely. My cock throbs, but I love seeing her lose herself too much to stop this yet.
Pumping faster earns me another shudder and a guttural moan. Ivy’s fingers dig into my arm deep enough to hurt, but it’s the most blissful sort of pain.
I feel her come with a ripple that spreads through her whole body. A choked cry escapes her, and her head sags back toward the blankets.
Even through her ecstatic daze, she gropes at my drawers. “I need the rest of you.”
Gods be sure I’m not in any state to deny her.
I practically tear my drawers off and kneel between her legs, encompassing her with my much larger form. Ivy simply beams up at me, caressing my chest, tilting her hips to urge me on.
Trusting me with her body every bit as much as I trusted her with mine this morning.
Knowing how wet she is from her arousal shining on my prosthetic, I don’t hold back quite as much as the first time. But I still grasp her hip and study her face as I slide into her slick channel.
Her sex grips my cock as if we were made for each other. I can’t restrain a groan at the pleasure that spikes through my nerves as I push even deeper.
“So good,” Ivy murmurs. “So fucking good.”
I want to make it even better for her. I pull back and plunge into her again, and again, and again, flicking my gaze to get a better read of when the most pleasure floods her expression, easing her ass a little higher off the blankets.
I drive home again. Ivy’s lips part around a cry.
And a ghost of an image wavers in my vision—her hand reaching for my face.
My pulse hiccups. Her hands are still braced against my chest.
Except—now she’s lifting one to stroke her fingertips over my cheek and jaw.
Even through the carnal bliss of the moment, a different sort of exhilaration races through my veins.
My gift. I glimpsed an act before it happened. Only a few seconds before, and I wasn’t trying—but I know what my magic looks like.
I was focused so intently on anticipating Ivy’s needs that my gift must have activated somehow despite my damaged vision. I never knew that was even possible.
I never tried to use it in a situation like this before.
Or maybe it’s just because of her. Because of Ivy and this love that makes my heart soar like nothing I’ve ever felt.
I dip my head to kiss Ivy’s hand and ram into her swaying body even faster. Ivy keens, her fingers rising higher to grip my hair and tug me to her.
As I bow over her, our sweat-damp bodies sliding closer together, she trembles and clamps around my cock. Her fingernails scrape over my shoulder as she hits her second climax—and the force of her release drags me with her into a rush of the headiest pleasure.
A hoarse sound escapes me as I spill myself inside her. Ivy gives a gasping sort of laugh and clutches me even tighter.
Careful of the ridges of scarring on her back, I enfold her in my arms and roll us onto our sides so I can meld her body to mine without worrying that I’ll crush her. Ivy tips her head against my chest with the most contented sigh I’ve ever heard.
I can’t lose this woman. I simply can’t.
We cuddle like that for several cozy minutes, until the cool air seeping through the walls starts to chill our skin.
Ivy squirms even closer for just a moment before reaching for her clothes.
“We should probably confirm to the others that you’re alive.
Although I suspect the walls are thin enough that they’ve already figured that out. ”
At the meaningful clearing of a throat from the other room, my face heats, but only a faint warmth.
There’s nothing really to be embarrassed about here. We all know where we stand—and how much Ivy means to us.
We should still discuss our next steps in regards to the Order of the Wild. I don’t even know what the results of the riot were.
I yank on my clothes and walk with Ivy into the outer room. Rheave glances over from where he’s standing by the window with a nod of acknowledgment, his gaze trained on Ivy rather than me.
Casimir smiles where he’s standing by the table. “It’s good to see you up.”
Alek pushes aside the book he was paging through and considers me with a furrowed brow. “Are you sure—”
The slam of the door being flung open cuts off his question. Four men burst into the room, swords drawn.
The man in the lead points his blade at me. “You’re all under arrest!”