Chapter 18 Shiloh
SHILOH
Despite the cold air, I was sweating in my jacket and boots when I hurled myself outside, followed closely by Rivven. I breathed a sigh of relief – but only a small one – when I saw that it was Tasha and Warden Tenn out there, and not Warden Hallum and the others.
God, please, let it just have been Tasha who came in a second ago…
“Heard all that racket,” the warden said, immediately kicking that hope in the face.
“Tenn!” Tasha hissed. “That is not the way to begin this conversation!”
“Why not?” he asked, seeming completely unfazed by…all of this, to be honest. Meanwhile, I felt like fire ants were crawling all over my skin. He heard us. Someone kill me now.
“Because!” Tasha cried. “These things require delicacy!”
“I’m afraid I’m fresh out of that,” he said with a smirk at his wife before capturing Rivven and me in the orange warmth of his gaze. “Might as well get to the heart of the matter. We heard you in there.”
Tasha slapped her mitten covered hand to her forehead and sighed.
“Sorry,” she said. “You two deserve privacy. And we absolutely did not mean to intrude. We were finished with the slicer, and we were just coming inside, and…”
“And we heard all the racket.”
“Stop calling it racket!” Tasha chastised him, sounding pained. “That is very rude!”
“What would you call it?” Warden Tenn asked, raising his white eyebrows. “All that slamming and grunting and moaning. Wouldn’t be surprised if half the cupboard doors have come off their hinges by now…”
“Jesus Christ,” Tasha moaned. She looked as horrified by what he’d said as I felt. “Just…Go away! Go stand by the slicer!”
Warden Tenn actually did it, which was both surprising and somewhat relieving.
I supposed if anyone was allowed to boss around a warden, it was his wife.
But I couldn’t help but notice that, once he was in his little time-out spot, he took off his hat, his round, mouse-like ears perked up and aimed our way.
He’d probably still be able to hear everything from over there.
“Sorry about that,” Tasha said with a grimace. “He likes to think he’s clever.”
“Don’t think it,” her husband called over, confirming my suspicions about him still being able to hear us. “I know it.”
Tasha rolled her eyes but otherwise ignored him, focussing entirely on us. “OK. So. I want to start off by saying there is absolutely nothing wrong with what you two were doing.”
“Good,” Rivven growled. Goosebumps rose beneath my jacket at his tone. Biting. Possessive. “Because that was the best blasted thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Oh.
I grabbed his hand in my right one and squeezed.
Tasha’s expression wobbled. I thought I saw the shine of tears in her eyes as she blinked rapidly.
“The only reason I’m even talking to you two about this at all is…well, you aren’t married yet. Not that you have to marry the first man you, er, well…you know,” Tasha said. “But if there’s already a serious connection forming here, I do think we should be honest with the others.”
“I want to be honest with them, too,” I said. “I don’t want to lead anybody on.”
I risked a glance at Rivven. He was staring straight ahead. Into the blinding sky, so close in colour to his own beautiful skin.
“I’ve already chosen.” I said firmly. “I’m going to marry Rivven.”
His gaze ripped to me so fast and hard it should have made a tearing noise.
“What?” The word was a whisper. His eyes were scalding white. I squeezed his hand again, then enveloped it with my other hand, too.
“I choose you, Rivven.”
I would have liked to stay there for a while. Just as we were. To soak in the way he looked right now, staring at me like I’d just pulled the sun from the sky and handed it to him.
But Warden Tenn called over, “Can I come back, now?” And then there were more voices. Xennet, Dorn, and Warden Hallum walking this way from the direction of the barn.
I kept Rivven’s hand in mine as they approached. Tasha glanced at me, as if offering to speak for us, but I shook my head.
“Hi, guys,” I said when the other three reached us. “I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. So I’m going to say this right now.” Rivven’s hand was shaking in mine. “I’ve chosen Rivven. I’m sorry if that disappoints anyone. But I’m very glad I got to meet you.”
Xennet let out a short sigh, then said, “Yes, well. We expected this.”
“You did?”
“You two spent the whole time at the pond either staring at each other or holding on to one another,” Dorn said. He snorted softly. “Don’t worry. We didn’t get our hopes up much after that.”
“I am sorry,” I repeated, biting my lip.
“Don’t be,” Xennet said, with a lot more kindness than someone that cute and chaotic should have been capable of. “I would like to have a wife who, if she had her pick of men to stare at, would choose to stare at me. I think, Shiloh, that you are marrying the right man.”
“Thank you, Xennet,” I said, fighting back a fresh batch of tears. “I think so, too.”
It was decided that Rivven and I would marry the next morning.
This would give us both some time to rest and to prepare.
Xennet and Dorn departed with Warden Hallum after the evening meal, promising to return again the next day with their “tuxedandies” for the ceremony.
Apparently, they’d been present for Warden Tenn and Tasha’s wedding, and they were eager to attend another.
I helped Rivven in the kitchen as had become my custom, washing dishes while he dried. When all was finished, he hesitated, as if unsure where to go or what to do. It made my heart feel like it had cracked right down the middle.
“Come with me,” I murmured, taking his hand and tugging him towards the stairs. Silently, almost reverently, he followed me.
“You’re finally going to get your bed back,” I said when we were in the bedroom. Darkness had fallen outside, and Rivven’s eyes blazed like two tiny moons in the velvety gloom.
“Not mine anymore,” he said simply. “Yours. It’s all yours.”
“Even you?”
“Especially me.”
I went to him, laying my cheek on his chest, putting my arms around his back. I just stood there and held him, in a way I hadn’t really held him before. It wasn’t an embrace of desperate lust. It was something deeper, tender, nearly tranquil with certainty.
Rivven was mine. My choice.
My husband.
Or he would be, tomorrow. Remembering that sent a frisson of excitement through me, concentrated in my belly.
And lower.
“I want to kiss you,” Rivven whispered. “I want to kiss you…Your mouth and…And other places.”
He’d said that once before. But then we’d been interrupted.
My nipples tightened. “Other places?”
“Your neck. Your breasts. Could I…” His voice dropped a rich, smoky octave. “Could I kiss you between your legs?”
My knees buckled. Thank goodness Rivven was holding on to me, too. His arms so strong and solid.
“Yes,” I gasped. “I mean…If that’s what…What you want…”
“It is.” Decisive. Almost demanding.
Except this was Rivven. And he’d never demanded anything from me. Not once.
Not even when he’d asked me to marry him, something I was certain he’d gathered every shred of desperate courage to do.
I pulled out of his grip an began to remove my clothing slowly.
Like it was part of some holy ritual. Because that was how he was watching me.
With worship in his eyes. When I was standing before him in nothing but my panties, he groaned and grasped himself through his pants.
When something tickled against my hip I jumped.
His tail had slid up the outside of my thigh, and was now dipping into the waistband.
His eyes were on my face, watching, questioning, making sure this was alright.
I wished he knew that it was all alright. Everything he wanted. Everything between us.
Maybe, after tomorrow, he would.
His tail moved, sliding along the waistband of my panties until it moved lower, through my curls, prodding at my clit until I moaned.
My legs jerked, my knees threatening to give out once more.
Apparently, Rivven had had enough of me almost falling.
With a bit-off growl, he pulled my panties down and then urged me onto the bed.
He kneeled between my spread thighs like a man before an altar.
“I can’t believe you’re going to be my wife,” he rasped “I don’t think I could ever-”
“Don’t thank me,” I interrupted, terrified he’d been about to. “If anyone should be thanking anyone, it’s me thanking you.”
Rivven had given me so much already. His kindness, his bed, his friendship, his care.
He’d fed me. Made things for me. I’d chosen him after all the time we’d been together.
But there had never seemed to be any question of him choosing me.
I’d never had to worry about that as he had.
I’d never felt any insecurity about my chance at a marriage in this world.
I didn’t ever want him to feel that way again.
I wanted to show him with my body what I meant.
But Rivven beat me to it, making good on his comment about kissing me other places.
His lips moved across my jaw, pausing to mouth the pulse in my throat.
Then my collarbones. And then my breasts.
When he gave a hot, sucking kiss to my right nipple, I moaned.
Tension twisted in me, like a ribbon of silk.
Blue silk.
When his tongue traced my belly button, I was panting and writhing.
When it found my clit, I was already on the verge of coming.
“Rivven. Rivven.”
I couldn’t seem to stop saying his name. Like some part of me wanted to remind him that he really was the one I’d chosen. That it was his name in my mouth when my pleasure reached its heights.
His mouth was wet. Or maybe it was me that was wet. Probably both of us. He moved sloppily, eagerly, sucking and lapping at me. Like he’d been waiting for this. Starving for this.
His hand was hard on my thigh. I gripped it there, tethering him to me.
His tail was still hovering and tickling around the vicinity of my hip.
Past the point of any kind of shyness, I gripped it, and led it below the place where Rivven’s mouth worked my clit.
The tip of his tail met my sopping entrance, and Rivven’s entire frame shuddered.
“This is where…where you’ll…go.” I released his tail.
It stayed there, nestled in that acing place, rubbing and prodding.
When it slipped inside, curling slightly, my mouth opened in a soundless cry.
I was grinding myself shamelessly against his face now, fucking myself further onto that tail while he sucked me, made a mess of me.
“Rivven! Please! I’m going to…Ah!” I spasmed hard, contracting on his tail, my clit throbbing beneath his mouth. Soon, I was so sensitive from climax that I was weakly pushing at his head, a silent plea for him to stop.
He moved back, finally, though seemingly somewhat unwillingly, giving my trembling flesh a few last kisses.
His tail took a little longer, as if he wanted some part of himself to remain in me for as long as possible.
But I wanted another part now.
“Come up here with me.” Forcing my noodle limbs into motion, I bounced and scooted to make room for him. His eyes were riveted to my breasts as they jiggled with the movement.
“Come up here,” I said once more. The man looked hypnotized by my boobs.
He hadn’t moved. “Take your pants off and join me.” I patted the mattress, and he finally stirred himself, standing so hastily he nearly tripped over his own boots.
He stripped quickly, and my insides quaked at the pulsing arousal of him, already hot and ready.
He sat down where I’d indicated.
Wow. This bed is smaller than I thought…
Or he was bigger. Whatever. We’d make it work.
I crawled between his big thighs, running appreciative hands over the smooth heat of his skin, inhaling with sharp pleasure as the muscles lurched for me.
His cock lurched, too. A great contraction that I saw all the way down in the sac below his shaft.
When I gripped his cock, my lips hovering over his tip, his cock tail snapped upwards.
I offered it my pinky, thinking that if I didn’t, it might actually try to latch on to my nose.
It wrapped around my finger immediately, squeezing hard, sending Rivven’s hips bucking.
They bucked harder when I sucked his tip into my mouth.
“Blast,” he groaned. He hunched forward, a tremor running through him. I prodded his salty slit with my tongue, then kissed along the throbbing line of a thick vein on the underside of his shaft. Liquid was flowing freely from his tip now, as I nibbled gently on the firm, dark blue sac.
I wanted to keep going. I wanted to suck him until he fell apart.
But I knew he wasn’t going to last long like this. And I wanted him inside me.
Giving him one final kiss, I rose up on my knees, adjusting until I was straddling him. His cock tail still had my finger in its grip. With a panting effort, Rivven released me.
“There,” I whispered, resting my hand on his chest, wiggling until his tip was notched firmly against my pussy. “Right there.”
“Can I…Can I move?” He was shaking now, his hand fisted in the bedding.
“Yes,” I assured him. I helped things along by slowly rocking down onto him as he lifted his hips to meet me.
It was slow. He was big. But I was good and wet for him, because he’d made me so fucking ready with his mouth. And when his cock tail seized on my clit, pinching that most sensitive point, my body drove itself harder down upon him, almost without me even telling it to.
“God, Rivven,” I mewled, finding it easier and easier to move now. To properly bounce instead of just helplessly trying to rock on his girth. “You’re perfect.”
Maybe he had a bit of a praise kink.
Or maybe he just needed to be told something good about himself. Something true.
Because he’d gone so fucking long without it.
Whatever the reason, my words tore a long moan from him. Tendons went taut in his neck. His hand flew to my waist, clutching there as his hips pistoned. Inside, his cock gave a swollen shudder, shivering inside me, before exploding.
I wasn’t expecting to come again. It caught me entirely by surprise, ripping through me like a tidal wave. Like my body could do nothing but respond to his. Our pleasure rising in tandem, crashing and cresting at once. I fluttered on him, then convulsed so hard my legs – once again – gave out.
But it didn’t matter. Because I was with Rivven.
And he caught me against his chest when I fell.