Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
With the rare occurrence of soulbinding, some couples have taken to air oaths, binding themselves to their choice of mate by breath, rather than soul.
It took all my strength to keep from sprinting into his arms. He stalked toward me, closing the distance between predator and prey.
A role I loved to play with him. He let a bit of that brilliant light out as he moved through the distracted crowd, easily disguised among the flashes of colored powder and bodies writhing around us.
I scanned his body as I searched for injuries or changes, my heart easing after finding none.
His scent hit me like a bucket of water as I took a deep breath of cool pine and salty sea.
My heart galloped against my ribs as his eyes roved from my bare feet up to my face and back down, filthy with dirt, sweat, and six different types of nebulis powder.
He crossed the distance in an instant and had my face in his warm hands a heartbeat later. His nostrils flared, scenting everything happening to me in an instant. I opened my connection to him and let it pour from me. The love, the need, the happiness.
“I didn’t feel you coming,” I murmured.
His mouth, inches from mine, quirked up into a wicked smile. “Surprise. Happy Awakening, Angel.”
He brought his lips to my forehead, planting a soft, tender kiss in its center.
My mouth found his in an instant as he pulled back to look at me.
His lips… Gods, I missed his lips. They were soft and hard, burning and cooling, smooth and claiming all at once.
I opened my mouth to his, and his tongue slipped against mine, smooth and practiced.
I devoured him as my hands slid through his dark hair, gripping him harder against me.
I pressed my body against his, and the shimmering powder smeared against my chest.
Home. This was home.
As if sensing it, he pulled his lips away from mine and murmured, “I’ll always come back to you.”
“Bayne!” A drunken Isla skipped through the crowd and danced around our forms.
“Happy Awakening, Isles,” he said, flashing her a smile and sliding his hands to my waist.
She continued her skipping, now drawing the attention of the elves surrounding us. Their eyes widened as they took in Bayne. Several of them bowed or placed their fingers to their brows.
Bayne frowned, taking it in. He was used to the elves’ respect, but he wasn’t seen as nobility. He looked back at me, a question forming on his lips.
“I’ll fill you in later,” I murmured, eyeing the elves near us. I let out a sigh. “I have a lot to fill you in on, actually.” My thoughts drifted to my air oath with the queen, the failed attempts with the ashen…
His fingers found my chin, and he gripped it with his thumb and forefinger, bringing my face an inch from his.
“Me too, but not tonight,” he whispered, shaking his head. “Tonight is about life. Dance with me.”
His fingers snaked down my arms and twined with my own as he twisted me around, crossing my arms in front and pressing me into him. He leaned in close, head tucked above my shoulder. I sagged into him, breathing in his scent and falling into the rhythm he set with his hips against my back.
I’d never danced with someone like this.
The frenzied beat of the music had subdued, pressing the bodies of those matching its notes closer together.
His fingers released mine, and my hands slid along the back of his neck as he moved behind me.
His hands found my hips and torso, still slick with sweat from the muggy day.
“Gods, I missed you,” I breathed, the words barely audible over the heavy beat of drums.
“I missed everything about you. Your scent,” he murmured into my ear as he sucked in a deep breath.
The hard length of him pushed behind me, and a rush of familiar longing skirted down my abdomen.
“Your taste.” He bent his head, his tongue sliding along the line between my shoulder and neck. I shuddered, my skin pebbling in its wake. He let out a chuckle that reverberated through my bones.
He spun me to face him, and his eyes shuddered, a darkness I’d grown to love dancing within his forest green irises.
“Let me show you how much I’ve missed you,” he whispered, the plea on his breath brushing softly against my lips.
Please, I mouthed.
A soft growl escaped his lips. His hand slid down my arm, and he laced his fingers with mine, turning and leading us through the writhing bodies and boisterous celebration.
A network of small caves and underground rivers flowed south of the Eye of the Wood, connecting to a labyrinth of sinkholes dotting the southern end of the forest. The sound of distant celebration disappeared in the rushing of waterfalls as we entered a cave a mile away.
Soft moonlight slithered in from the various openings in the stone ceiling, rippling along the shallow, clear waters.
Bayne dropped my hand and dove into the spring.
The water stripped the glittering nebulis from him and fanned out in a cloud of silver and gold.
He kicked, aiming for the opposite wall, where his dark head breached the surface, and he shook his hair, white droplets of water spraying off the chiseled body his wet clothes clung to.
He turned to me, lips tilting up into a mischievous, beckoning grin as those piercing green eyes devoured me where I stood.
I stepped to the edge of the small pool, sucking in a breath before I leaped from its edge.
The crisp water cleared the fog brought on by the fruity alcoholic drinks.
I poked my head through the surface, keeping half my face in the water as Bayne stalked toward me.
He knelt in the pool, lowering himself to where I crouched.
Unable to resist the urge, I spat the water at his face. Maybe the cool dip hadn’t completely cleared my mind. He blinked, face quiet with shock, before he threw his head back and let out a laugh that danced along my limbs.
His predatory gaze returned, and I jumped, ready to escape his grasp as he leaped on me.
I let out an uncontrollable giggle as his forearm wrapped around my waist, and he pulled me to him.
I half-heartedly attempted to wriggle free, earning me a nip on my shoulder.
I twisted toward him, melting into his warmth in the chilled pool as I wrapped my limbs around him.
My blood thundered over the rippling water. Need pulsed through every part of my body, as if a part of my soul had been missing this past month and made whole again in a split second.
Bayne opened himself to me, and his matching emotions slammed into me.
Need. Love. And something darker, something I couldn’t place…
I frowned, opening my mouth to question him when his mouth crashed into mine, smooth and wet. An overwhelming, intoxicating wave of need washed over me. I threw my own emotions down our connection, and he moaned, the sound setting me on fire in the cool water.
The wet fabric of his loose shirt clung to his body as I tugged it off.
His hands slipped into the laces on my back, freeing the silky wet top.
My damp breasts peaked against the midnight air.
Hard hands slid down my back as he continued to claim my lips, moving for my pants.
My fingers grappled at the laces on his leathers as I at last kicked my pants free, the billowing black fabric floating away.
Gods, those leathers. The snug fabric hugged his muscled legs and ass… I never wanted him to wear anything else, but now I needed them off. My fingers fumbled as I tried to get the wet laces loose.
Had it really only been a week? Too long.
A fucking lifetime. His hungry mouth slammed against mine, teeth sliding along my tongue.
I yanked, finally freeing that long length of perfection that seemed to be made just for me.
A low growl rumbled up his chest and through the breath that escaped into my lips.
“Lyv…”
Gods, the way he said my name lit me on fucking fire. His fire. The fire of the sun itself, an exhilarating burn. My power swirled in response to the storm of feeling that flew through me.
I sucked in a breath, diving below before he could stop me. I wrapped my lips around him, taking him in fully. The moan that escaped my lips reached my ears in a ripple of vibration underwater. It danced along my bones and sent my tongue moving in those ways I knew drove him crazy.
My movement was quick and eager, and the air in my lungs quickly urged me back to the surface.
My hand replaced my mouth as I shot up, drinking in the muggy night air.
Feral desire danced in his bright green eyes as they landed on me.
Taking my time, I lazily drew a line from his hip to his neck with my tongue as I worked him below the surface.
I sucked in a breath, ready to dive again, when a growl escaped his lips, and he gripped my ass, hauling me out of the water and onto a nearby ledge under a light, trickling waterfall.
“I said I would show you how much I missed you,” he purred.
I could sense the pressure building in him, the control it took to stop me.
Firm hands braced my hips against the cool stone, and his lips hovered inches above mine as he purred, “I have time to make up for. Let me.”
His mouth found its way to that spot beneath my ear, and he uttered a low whisper, “I missed the way you come alive when I do this.” His lips grazed my heated skin, sending a ripple of little bumps rising along my neck and down my arm.
I focused on my breathing, already prepared to combust. He peppered small kisses down my neck and over my chest. I arched into him, my back scraping slightly against the stone, unable to keep still. A soft chuckle escaped his lips.
“I missed those little sounds you make when I do this.” His fingers drew torturous lines from the inside of my knee to the apex of my thighs.
A tiny sound escaped my lips, and I bit down to keep from making more. He smiled against my skin as he continued his slow trek down the line of my abdomen.
“And I missed the way your leg twitches when I do this,” he said against my skin as his tongue drew a trail down the center of me to that space between my legs, pounding with desperate need.
My leg twitched in response, and I didn’t care. All I cared about was him. I needed this. More of this. I needed more of that tongue, more of him, all of him.
As if in response, his tongue roved over me in agonizing, smooth circles. I arched again, sliding my hands above my head to a divot in the cave, water slowly trickling onto my face and breasts, desperate for this. Two fingers replaced his mouth as he pumped them in smooth movements.
“I missed this, most of all,” he whispered, sending all his feelings and emotions down the link that connected us.
A claiming storm of love and need and overwhelming desire curled itself around my own, our souls practically touching.
The pounding between my legs intensified, and blood rushed to that spot in the center as his tongue returned to the peak.
I let out a cry, the pleasure racking through me as I shuddered against his touch.
A satisfied groan escaped his lips as he kissed the space between my legs all the way up to my neck.
I locked my lips on his, the taste of myself now mingling with his, still on my tongue.
A perfect pairing. He nuzzled his face into my shoulder, nibbling the space at the base of my neck, sending sparks dancing once again between my legs.
He inhaled against my neck, scenting my recovery, and I reached for the length of him between us.
He let out a guttural groan as I focused my attention back on the thick, pulsing length that hung between his legs. I pressed my hand against his tanned shoulder, wrapping my legs around his torso.
I eased him into me, savoring that burning stretch of pleasure, settling him deep inside. A perfect fit. Like we were made for this. I smiled against his lips in the darkness of the cave. The moons’ soft blue light peeked in, highlighting the raised scar on his temple. So beautiful.
His hands found my hips, and I allowed him to move me how he wanted.
The drums from earlier in the night banged in my mind as he moved faster, matching their writhing rhythm.
He kept a hand on my hip as he moved against me, as the other drifted to my breast. He squeezed and rubbed his thumb against my nipple, the sensitive peak hardening against his touch.
He reached both hands to meet my own above my head as the space between us shrank, his chest crushing against my own as the pulsing intensified. Our mouths met, his tongue rough and claiming. I sucked it into my mouth, urging him faster. Thunder shuddered in my core as Bayne began to shake.
Pinned to the wall, I let my hands slide down his muscles.
The eight-pointed stars on my palms met his in the center of his chest. As fireworks danced behind my eyes, we burned and froze and created as our powers released on their own accord, dancing as we crashed into ecstasy together.
A flash of black and white and brilliant gold escaped the cracks between our skin and lit up the cave around us.
It was gone as soon as it appeared, and I sagged against him, letting the trickle of water cool our steaming bodies.
We stayed there, panting into each other’s mouths, until finally, I let out a shiver that racked my body.
Bayne’s arms wrapped around me as he slid out, lifting me off the ledge and out of the shallow pool.
He pulled a large fur from a pack concealed in the corner of the cave. I looked at him quizzically.
He shrugged. “Surprise.”
Tossing the fur around our shoulders, he found a dry space for us deep in the cave, where I wrapped myself around him, soaking in the warmth of his body and drifting off into peaceful oblivion, whole at last.