Chapter 23
23
Beltane arrived in a flurry of red and orange.
The hallways were draped in flame-colored gossamer, and all the torches glowed crimson. Incense spiced the air, and I grew lightheaded from the smoke. Every heady breath sent the complex scent of fire, sex, and cinnamon spinning through my lungs.
In honor of Fire House, everyone was adorned in radiant flame-colored hues or the black and gray of smoke. Lara shone in a scarlet satin gown that faded to orange at the sleeves and hem. Her hair was covered by a net of gold studded with rubies, I’d painted her lips red to match her dress, and her eyes were highlighted with ebony liner and gold powder.
Even I looked intense in a simple iron-gray dress, my dark hair unbound and curling, my lips red and eyes outlined in gold. Fire House’s drama had infected us all; everywhere I looked faeries drank and laughed and kissed in the hallways, hands roaming indecently.
“Beltane is our wildest celebration,” Alodie had told me that morning. “The Fae revere pleasure, and no house more so than Fire House. You’ll see a lot of scandalous things today.”
I maintained a calm facade, but truthfully, I was shocked. I’d never seen couples embracing so wantonly in public. The bonfire this evening was said to be even wilder—what would I see then?
I wasn’t supposed to attend the masked bonfire revelry—the Noble Fae would grow so uninhibited that the gaze of servants was prohibited—but the nature of the trial would supposedly be announced there, so Oriana had found a way to sneak me in. For the last week, faerie visitors had been arriving from other courts, which meant strangers would attend the celebration. I would wear a fine gown for the first time in my life, cover my face with a mask, and keep an eye on Lara, with the goal of protecting her and helping her once the nature of the Fire trial was revealed. With so many visitors attending, no one would think twice if they didn’t recognize me.
We still didn’t know what the trial would involve. Aidan refused to tell me anything, although he swore I needn’t worry—it wouldn’t be difficult to succeed, so long as Lara followed her instincts.
We passed a cluster of visiting faeries on the way to a formal luncheon, half of whom wore moon-shaped stone pendants and half of whom had silver bangles at their wrists. Lara inclined her head graciously while I did my best to remain invisible as I drank in the sight of them.
They were beautiful, as all Noble Fae were. A few were around my height, while others towered over even Lara. The only other difference I could see between them and the courtiers of Mistei was their attire. Regardless of gender, the visitors wore sheer, scandalous sweeps of fabric that left little to the imagination: red or black gauze gathered with ribbons or banded with leather or chains. I could see their nipples and the dark shading of their pubic areas through the gossamer.
After we had reached a sufficient distance away, I leaned in to whisper to Lara. “Where are they from?”
“The ones with stone pendants are from the ice halls in the north of Grimveld. The ones wearing silver are from Elsmere.”
“Elsmere?” There was that place-name again.
“A Fae city in the south of Lindwic. Grimveld was named after their Fae, but Lindwic was not.”
Lindwic was south of Grimveld and southwest of Enterra, across the mountains. Their fibercrafts were unparalleled, and it was one of the countries I’d dreamed of traveling to as a trader. I hadn’t realized they had their own Fae enclave, but the southern forests were rumored to be wild and nigh impassable, and magic thrived in the hidden places of the world.
Mistei’s faeries mingled with the visitors as we made our way towards the luncheon, and I spotted Kallen leaning against a wall and speaking with a lady from Elsmere. She was around my height but much more voluptuous—a fact made clear by the nearly transparent gray draperies she wore. Her hair was a dark red-brown and her eyes were blue as the summer sky as she looked up at Kallen. His head was bent over hers, his mouth near her ear.
A Beltane flirtation? Kallen hardly seemed the type.
As if my thoughts had summoned his attention, his eyes shifted to me. Then he cupped the lady’s elbow and turned her away, guiding her towards Fire House.
Kallen is always whispering in ears at these events , Drustan had said. I’d told Kallen about Elsmere’s rumored change in leadership, and here the Void lord was, arm in arm with a faerie from that very kingdom.
“You look anxious,” Lara said.
I forced my eyes away from Kallen’s tall frame and my mind away from worries about what he might do with the information I’d provided. “I just can’t believe how revealing those outfits are,” I said, gesturing towards a group of Grimveld Fae in sheer black.
“Right?” Lara cast me a thrilled glance. “I want one.”
“I don’t.” To have that much of my body exposed to the public? No, thank you.
Lara laughed. “I forgot how prudish humans are.”
“Even you look prudish compared to them.” I’d never thought Osric’s shining, dangerous court would look tame, but the attire I’d seen today had been beyond my wildest imaginings.
“They’re just getting in the spirit early. My dress tonight will be just as revealing. So will yours.”
I grimaced. “Do we have to?”
“It’s part of the tradition. All adult Noble Fae put on their most scandalous outfits and meet around the bonfire at sunset. They jump over the fire, and after that it’s like they go mad. I’ve never seen it before, but I hear it’s completely uninhibited. Dancing, drinking, fighting, sex…”
“Would you…you know…” I trailed off, blushing too hard to finish the sentence.
“Have sex with someone?” Lara considered the question thoughtfully. “I don’t know. Not everyone does, but it’s encouraged. I just don’t have anyone I want to be with right now.”
An image of Drustan rose in my mind, but I immediately banished it. I wouldn’t be jumping over the fire because I was Lara’s bodyguard and assistant. Drustan would, though. What if he went wild and slept with someone right in front of me?
A sting of jealousy told me how foolish I’d grown over him. He was attractive and kind to me, but he was still a prince and I was a servant. Whatever his reasons for kissing me, it would be absurd to assume he wanted me more than he wanted anyone else.
I couldn’t keep my eyes off him at lunch, though. We were in the same room the first Fire event had been held in. The king thankfully wasn’t present, so Drustan reigned over the room from a seat at the high table, sharing laughs and boasts with the nobility around him. He gleamed in a red velvet tunic slashed to reveal hints of gold and jet.
Aidan caught me gawking at Drustan, but for once he didn’t tease me about it. He couldn’t, considering how intensely he was studying Edric. The Fire candidate’s golden shirt was unlaced, revealing a large slice of muscled chest, and rubies sparkled in the dark cloud of his hair. He was already drunk on Fire House’s spicy red wine, and he roared with laughter at every joke, tossing his head back with abandon.
I nudged Aidan. “Are you all right?”
He smiled at me, but there was no joy in it. “Of course.”
Like me, he hadn’t been invited to the gathering tonight. Unlike me, he would stay underground, enjoying a night of revelry in the mirrored ballroom with the other servants.
“Are you worried what Edric will do?” I finally voiced the suspicion that had been growing for weeks.
Aidan scowled at me. “Of course not.”
I waited with raised eyebrows.
Aidan winced. “Maybe a little.”
Compassion filled me. “He might not do anything.”
“Oh, he will. Edric loves pleasure, and anything less than pure hedonism would be an insult to the Shards.”
“And you? Will you do anything?”
Aidan shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Edric’s never attended the bonfire before, but every year I attend the servant revels. It depends on who’s available.”
Both Edric and Aidan might take lovers tonight, but it didn’t seem like Aidan would truly enjoy it. “Do you think he knows how you feel?” I asked.
Aidan laughed bitterly. “A wise lord should always know what his people want.”
“But does—”
Aidan shook his head, cutting me off. “This is tradition. It means nothing.”
We were silent for the rest of the lunch.
Once the Noble Fae started drinking in earnest, Lara dismissed me so I could prepare for the celebration. I curtsied and left, secretly relieved to get away from the boisterous clamor.
Somehow I wasn’t surprised when Drustan caught up to me at the base of the ramp.
“Prince.” I curtsied deeply. “May I be of assistance?”
He looked sinfully delicious today, his hair shining bright as the torches and his eyes flickering with reflected flame. He wasn’t smiling, though. “We haven’t spoken since after that dinner,” he said.
“Lara has kept me busy.”
“I confided in you that night. I want to make sure those confidences are safe.”
My heart jumped into my throat. Did he know I’d been talking to Kallen? “They’re safe.”
Those gray eyes were too perceptive. “I have a lot of enemies, Kenna.”
“You do?” I don’t know why I asked—it wasn’t like I didn’t know someone plotting revolution would be unpopular in certain circles.
“I do. So when I heard you left that picnic with Kallen and then stopped for a chat…you have to understand my concern.”
I went cold. Plenty of people had seen Kallen escort me away, but I hadn’t realized we’d been seen entering that room for a private conversation. At least his wards would have prevented eavesdropping. “He asked about you,” I admitted. “After he broke up the fight. He asked what we talk about.”
Drustan didn’t blink. “And what did you tell him?”
“I told him I asked you about the changelings and that you explained what they were. That was all. He thinks you take an interest in me because you bet on me at the winter solstice.” The boundary between lies and truths grew blurrier the longer I spent with the Fae.
“Are you sure that’s all?” The foreign chill in his eyes and the warning in his voice made me shiver. I was finally seeing a glimpse of Drustan the ruler.
“Yes.” I kept my head high, willing him to trust me. “I had to say something, but please believe I would never betray you.”
He nodded, and just like that the ice melted, leaving only flame behind. “I do believe you. And I’m sorry about what happened at the picnic. I wish I’d been there to knock Garrick on his ass. Remember, though—Kallen is extremely dangerous. It doesn’t matter what he told you or whether or not he saved you. He’s a snake.”
“I understand.”
He started to turn away. “I have to return to the party.”
I touched his sleeve before he could go. “What’s the fourth trial?” It was my last chance to find out.
He laughed. “Tired of subtlety, I see. You should be careful—you wouldn’t want anyone to think you’re cheating.”
I leaned in, emboldened. “You already know I’m cheating. Just a hint?”
His eyes gleamed, and he backed me towards the wall. The stone hit my shoulder blades, and I watched, breathless, as he kept approaching. He stopped mere inches away, his hot breath rushing over my lips. “I suggest you stop thinking about the trial and start focusing on enjoying your first Beltane,” he said. “It’s the Fae’s one opportunity for freedom.”
He truly wasn’t going to tell me about the trial. I suppressed my disappointment. “Freedom from what?”
“Everything. Morality. Restraint. Thought.” He traced a finger down my neck, and I shivered. “You haven’t seen the Fae truly come undone. I wish you could be at the bonfire—it would be an exquisite experience.”
We locked eyes for long seconds. Would he kiss me again? I wet my lips, hoping for it, even though I knew the danger of being discovered with him.
“Don’t tempt me,” he whispered. “I’m already on the edge. You don’t know what you’d be unleashing.”
I shuddered as he left. I didn’t know…but I wanted desperately to find out.
I ran over the rules for the bonfire with Lara late that afternoon. If I was going to be her chaperone, I would take my duties seriously. “Have fun, but if you get uncomfortable, pretend to pass out from too much alcohol. I’ll watch over you. Plenty of people will be having sex, and Alodie told me the fire is spelled to prevent conception, so there are no rules about who can sleep with whom—you might get advances from anyone. You don’t have to say yes, though. Only do what you’re comfortable with.”
Lara rolled her eyes. “You’re growing overprotective. Good to know about the contraceptive fire, though—although honestly it might not matter, depending on who I end up with.” She had told me she was interested in all genders, and her last romance—more of a friendly sex arrangement, from the sound of it—had been with another Earth lady.
I had wondered about the contraception spell until I’d realized it was probably intended to prevent interbreeding between houses. Beltane was an ancient tradition, as ancient as any the Fae celebrated, and logic and reason had no part in it. Since the ceremony couldn’t be changed, the king had chosen to prevent unintended consequences.
Lara spun in a circle. “How do I look?”
I bit my lip, suddenly jealous. She looked incredible, like she’d been wrapped in smoke. Her filmy dress barely reached the tops of her knees, and the entire stomach panel was missing, revealing smooth skin. It was held in place by wicked leather straps that wound around her chest and neck. Her mask was black enamel encrusted with rubies.
“You look perfect. You’ll win dozens of hearts, I’m sure.”
She gave me a knowing look. “It isn’t about the hearts.”
For a moment I wished I could truly join in the revelry rather than standing watch. That I could let go and feel unabashed pleasure with the rest of them. I’d never gone beyond kissing or been seen fully unclothed. What would it be like to dance naked in the moonlight? To feel a hard body on top of me, inside me?
“Put on your dress,” Lara said, snapping me out of my reverie. “I want to see it.”
I returned to my chambers, where the dress hung in the bathroom. Could I call it a dress when it came in two pieces? I hadn’t quite believed it was an outfit when I’d first pulled it out of the wardrobe. I’d tried to put it back, but no matter how many times I opened the doors, the wardrobe had presented me with the same thing.
I shimmied into it, fixing the clasps in place before attacking my hair with oil and a wide-toothed comb. I had already done my makeup, painting my lips crimson and lining my eyes in black pigment that swept out in wings to my temples. I finished my preparations by dusting every inch of exposed skin with glittering golden powder that transformed me from a human playing dress-up into a mysterious foreign faerie.
When I returned to Lara, her jaw dropped. She clapped her hands in glee. “Amazing!”
I twirled, then immediately stopped when my skirt billowed up. “I feel naked,” I confessed.
“You look perfect.”
The fabric was a deep wine red. Thankfully, it wasn’t transparent, but there was very little of it—just a small flutter of a skirt and a tight band around my breasts. Golden chains fell from a collar around my neck, connecting to the top. After some trial and error, the dagger had transformed into a hair clip, considering my near nudity. It held up half of my hair while the rest tumbled to my waist.
With a mask of garnet lace covering the entire top half of my face, I truly looked like one of the Fae.
“This outfit is brilliant.” Lara flicked a chain and smiled. “It’s definitely not a style you see in Mistei, even at Beltane. Everyone will assume you’re visiting from far away.”
Whether I had the confidence to carry it off remained to be seen.
We padded out together, both barefoot in preparation for the revelry. Lara exited through the water tunnel, but I took a back route through the catacombs, emerging in a little-used corridor on one of the levels where guests were housed. As I joined the throng heading for the stairs, no one looked at me suspiciously, although several faeries appraised me with lust in their eyes. I did my best to smile flirtatiously, but inside I felt flustered.
We emerged just as the sun kissed the horizon and began its final descent. The sky was painted in violent colors that reflected the bonfire already blazing on the grassy slope. I made my way to the refreshment table and grabbed a glass of wine. The rich, spicy liquid burned on the way down.
Deep, echoing drumbeats sounded from beyond the bonfire, and faeries were already moving in time with that relentless rhythm. Some were plastered together, their sweaty bodies writhing in tandem, but others spun wildly or quaffed cups of wine, their masked faces tipped up towards the distant stars.
The wine loosened my muscles, and heat pooled in my belly as couples groped each other all around me. I wished I was one of them, that I had an outlet for the restless need that filled me. I took another deep gulp of wine instead.
I hadn’t seen Drustan so far—perhaps he had already joined the faeries who writhed in twos and threes and more all over the hilltop.
A cry of lust split the air. I followed the sound, then stared, mesmerized, as a half-naked faerie male pounded into the lady who writhed beneath him. Her breasts bounced with each hard thrust, and my own nipples tightened in response.
I’d never seen anyone have sex before.
It was wild. Primal. Thrilling. My heart thundered as I imagined it was me lying in the grass instead, with Drustan on top of me, curtains of copper hair falling around me and sticking to my damp skin as he thrust inside me again and again and again…
Another fire roared to life beside the bonfire. This one was smaller, with unnaturally dark red flames that reached to waist height. A faerie jumped over it, and a cheer went up from the watching crowd.
As if a dam had burst, the Noble Fae surged towards the fire, jumping in a continuous stream. The drums grew louder. Chanting and wailing rose to accompany them, an eerie cadence that echoed in my bones and commanded me to dance.
I resisted, watching for Lara. She waited at the end of the line, shoulders tight with tension. She glanced at me for reassurance, and I smiled in encouragement.
I was surprised to recognize Kallen only a few places ahead of her in line. He wore a filmy black shirt studded with jewels that winked like stars around the moon of the opal brooch, and his trousers were far tighter than normal. His mask was only a small band of dark cloth, and excitement burned on his face as he took a deep swallow of wine, threw the goblet to the ground, and leapt over the fire.
The second he landed on the other side, he spun towards the nearest faerie and punched him.
I gasped, hands flying to my mouth, but the other faerie just laughed and threw a punch in return. Others joined in eagerly, until the fight became an outright brawl. Two faeries from Grimveld leapt over the fire before joining the mayhem, as did the lady from Elsmere I’d seen Kallen speaking with earlier—she moved faster than seemed possible, tackling an Illusion faerie as she shouted a battle cry to the sky. I caught one more glimpse of Kallen’s face before he went down under a well-placed kick. He was grinning with exhilaration.
It’s the Fae’s one opportunity for freedom , Drustan had told me.
I’d assumed he meant sexual freedom, since that was what I’d heard about the most from Lara and Aidan, but it was far more than that. The Fae were succumbing to every instinct, both joyous and violent, as they gave in to their darkest desires.
The vicious thrill on Kallen’s face gave me shivers. He was normally so controlled. Was this violence what hid beneath the surface?
It was Lara’s turn. Her skirt flared around her as she gracefully cleared the fire. When she landed, she stiffened as if in shock, then looked down at her hands.
I began making my way towards her, worried about what that expression meant. Had she hurt herself?
Lara laughed, high and wild, and launched herself at the faerie next to her. Her nails raked a bloody trail down his face, and then she slapped him—hard. He was so drunk he fell to the ground with a groan, but as she twirled away, he raised a pleading hand after her.
I reached her side. “Are you well?”
I barely dodged the punch she threw at me.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, recognizing who had approached her. “Oh, Kenna, it’s the most wonderful feeling. The fire spoke to me. It told me to be strong.” She laughed again, merry as pealing bells. “Don’t worry about me—I’m going to be absolutely fine.”
She pranced towards the dancing, turning in sensuous circles until someone approached her. When he reached out to touch her, she punched him, knocking him flat. Everyone around them laughed, including her victim, who wiped blood from his rapidly healing nose and grinned up at her. Lara dropped to her knees, straddling him. She met my eyes one more time, shooing me away with a smile before focusing on her prey again. She kissed him hard and deep, then punched him again.
I kept an eye on her, but Lara did seem perfectly fine. She moved from faerie to faerie, alternating between dancing, kissing, and starting fights. She didn’t disappear to have sex with anyone, but by the bliss on her face, I guessed that she didn’t even want to. It seemed this was Lara’s secret fantasy—a world in which she could dance wildly and commit violence with no repercussions, in which she could be as strong as she’d always wanted to be.
I kept my distance, understanding she had no immediate use for me. Eventually I realized she wouldn’t need me at all, so I returned to the refreshment table and downed another glass. The drums tugged at me as the wine breathed its spicy song into my veins, and before I knew it, I was dancing, too, my arms raised high, my head tilted back towards the stars. They were barely visible through the billowing smoke, but I smiled at them anyway. Those bright constellations were my old friends.
A hand grabbed my arm.
I turned and saw a face I didn’t recognize, an unknown faerie with long brown hair and a cheerful grin beneath his yellow mask. He gripped my hips. “Let’s dance,” he breathed against my lips. His breath was laced with alcohol.
I held him off with a hand on his chest. “Maybe later.”
He blinked at me, clearly befuddled. “You didn’t jump.”
“Uh,” I responded eloquently. Apparently my discipline had aroused suspicion.
“She didn’t jump,” he announced to the crowd around us.
“Jump,” they began chanting as he pushed me towards the flames. “Jump, jump, jump!”
“First visit to Mistei?” he asked, noticing my hesitation. I nodded. “I’ll go again so you can see there’s nothing to worry about.” He released me and leapt over the fire to cheers.
Then others were pushing me forward, still chanting. I took a deep breath and started running, fear and excitement mingling. The fire’s heat licked against my bared skin. What if I didn’t jump high enough?
Then I was soaring through the air just above the flames.
Time stopped.
I hung, suspended in a shower of embers as still and bright as the stars above. One bent leg stretched out before me and one behind, and my skirt had ridden almost all the way up to my waist.
Heat consumed me.
What do you want? the fire asked.
My heart spoke for me without any input from my mind. To be loved. To be touched. To be free. I yearned for it with every piece of me, the desire as strong as any hunger or thirst I’d ever felt.
Then do it.
The embers resumed their dance through the air, and I landed gracefully on the other side, my bare feet skimming over the grass. Exhilaration raced through me, and I laughed wildly as the crowd cheered.
I saw him then.
There, dancing near the bonfire in black leather and a shirt that hung open all the way to his navel, revealing ripples of muscle. Drustan froze in place as he saw me. His eyes were bright as silver coins behind his onyx mask.
My feet carried me towards him. His mouth hung slack as his gaze wandered over me, cataloging every inch of bared skin.
Without hesitation, I gripped his face in my hands, stood on my toes, and kissed him.
His arms snapped around me like a trap. My breasts were crushed against his chest, the nipples hard beneath the fabric. I groaned and writhed against him, sucking his tongue deep into my mouth.
“Kenna,” he breathed.
He picked me up, never separating his lips from mine. I wrapped my legs around his waist, too out of my mind with desire to care if my body was exposed to the world. He strode away from the revelry, kissing me deeply, one hand supporting my bottom and one on my upper back, fisted in my loose hair.
We descended the hill until the drumbeats grew distant, until there were no more moans around us, and then he knelt, my body still entwined with his. My back hit the grass, and I arched, rubbing my aching core against him as his hands came down on either side of my head. He rolled his hips into me, catching my cry in his mouth as pleasure sizzled through me.
He broke away to bite the skin at the juncture of my neck and shoulder, just below my golden collar. I jerked against him.
“Little cheater,” he accused.
I moaned. “I didn’t hear anything about the trial.” Maybe the announcement would happen later tonight.
His hand coasted down the golden chains until his palm rested on my breast. “Do you care about the trial?” He delicately squeezed a nipple through the fabric.
“No.” I writhed, wanting him to do it again, to do it harder. “More.”
He chuckled and gripped the other breast, pinching my nipple until I cried out and rocked against him. “Good.”
A wall of flame rose around us. I jolted, startled, but the heat wasn’t uncomfortable and the fire didn’t spread. He was granting us privacy, I realized. A safe space to be as uninhibited and wild as we wanted.
Let me have this , I told the dagger in my hair with my last sane thought. It didn’t respond, but somehow I knew it wouldn’t drink blood tonight, even if Drustan accidentally touched it. Tonight, pure Fae magic coursed through me along with my arousal, and it was good and right.
My hands raced over Drustan, ripping at his shirt. I was desperate to touch him, to bare all that hot skin. He swore as I tore the shirt to shreds, then pulled back to rip the remaining tatters off. He gripped my throat with a strong hand, and I arched at the domineering gesture, but his clever fingers were working at the clasp. Within seconds the collar had been unhooked from my neck, and then he pulled the top off. The skirt soon followed, and then the scrap of underwear.
He sat back and stared. I should have been abashed, but I wasn’t. I laid my arms over my head and arched my back, presenting my breasts to him. He sucked in a harsh breath, then dropped to take my nipple into his mouth.
I gripped his hair as he suckled, blind to anything but the fire and the stars and the pleasure.
“What did you want?” I asked as his mouth traveled to my other breast. “What did the fire show you?”
He bit down, and my body clenched in response. “The power to break all the rules,” he murmured against my skin. “To have anything I want without limits.”
Then his mouth was coasting from my breasts to my navel. One of his hands began a slow ascent from my knee, inching ever closer to the place where I was empty and aching.
“Oh, please,” I panted as his tongue teased above and his fingers played below. “Please touch me.”
No one had ever touched me down there but myself. I knew what he’d find—I was wet for him, wetter than I’d ever been in my life.
His fingers finally reached my core. I choked on a shout, closing my eyes in bliss as those hot fingers played. When they moved up to the apex of my sex and the sensitive spot that would make me climax if he touched it long and hard enough, I moaned.
He rubbed small, unrelenting circles until I was writhing beneath him. My hands ripped through his hair, tugging on him, begging him to give me what I needed. “Please.”
He chuckled, and his fingers retreated as he shifted his body lower.
I groaned, reaching down to force his hand back to my sex, then froze as I felt the wet sweep of his tongue against me.
“What—” I started to say, but then he licked me again, and the question turned into a gasp. My knees drew up around him, my thighs brushing the strong muscles of his arms. He settled in, looping one arm around my leg. The other hand returned to stroke my entrance, and then one long finger was pushing inside.
I cried out. My body clenched around that finger as his tongue raced over me, sending me higher and higher until my vision darkened and I shook all over.
When I came back to earth, he still didn’t stop. One finger became two as he worked my body, preparing me, seeing how much I could take. I made a soft noise of discomfort, squeezing my legs tight around him before forcing them to relax.
“Have you done this before?” he murmured against me.
“No,” I admitted. “But I want it.”
He set back in even more hungrily, driving me harder, circling my sensitive clitoris until I spasmed beneath him again.
“Please.” The hoarse whisper was all I could manage. Let me feel this , I wanted to say. Give me everything.
He rose, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand before settling his hips between my thighs. He dipped down to kiss me, and then I felt the nudge of his thick erection. He pushed, stretching me slowly.
There was pain, but it faded quickly. All I could feel was the heat of his body, the iron solidness of him inside. I’d never imagined sex would feel like this: this overwhelming sensation of being full of him, of being a part of him as he was a part of me.
He pushed again, and I gasped as he seated himself fully. He stroked my hair out of my face, kissing each temple before dropping a long, lingering kiss against my lips.
I wound my arms around him and tucked my feet against his calves, kissing him back with all the passion in my soul. This was incredible. Perfect. Everything I’d been missing, and I’d never even known it.
Then he started to move.
Long, rolling thrusts that drew cries from my throat and made me rake my nails down his back, desperate to claim him as he was claiming me. I was drowning in the sensations, the slick slide of his body as he conquered mine. He clenched a fist in my hair, holding me in place as his tongue plunged deep into my mouth in time with the rhythm of his body.
Flame licked over his hair and skin, racing tendrils that tickled when they brushed against me but didn’t hurt. His body was so hot I wanted to melt into him. That heat was echoed inside where he moved, slow and steady and strong.
His pace quickened. I shouted something then, some nonsensical combination of words. I leaned up and bit him, my teeth seizing the strong muscle of his shoulder. He jerked and grunted, losing the controlled evenness of his thrusts as I sank greedy teeth and nails into him, as I wrapped my legs around his waist and urged him on with writhing undulations of my hips. He pounded into me, as out of control as I was, his sweat dropping to my forehead to mingle with mine as the fire roared around us.
He gave a few more hard thrusts and shook, holding himself deep inside as he trembled and gasped. I held him tightly, tears springing to my eyes at the intimacy.
I thought we were done then, but Drustan drew back and dropped a hand between my thighs to coax another climax out of me. I screamed, tears trailing down my cheeks as I closed my eyes, my entire body vibrating with release, my soul practically soaring into the sky.
I’d never felt so free.