Chapter 13 #2
Her chin pressed into my bicep as she clung to me while I helped wash her hair.
We stood there until she was clean then I reached around her and turned off the water.
I watched her slowly step out of the shower as the steam began to dissipate.
Her hair frizzed, the ends curling as they touched the top of her ass.
Now that she was done crying, I had a chance to really look at her. Bright green eyes, her narrow nose, and high cheeks, those bow-shaped lips. My heart thundered behind my soaked t-shirt and sopping wet jeans.
It had been too damn long since I’d held her in my arms like this.
“Salve Caelum.” Hello, Heaven.
I smiled, tucking her hair behind her ears.
She smiled back at me, her voice a light rasp.
“Tenebris.” Darkness.
Her fingers gently slid under my wet shirt and pushed it up until it was over my head and dropping to the floor. She traced my chest and stroked down along my stomach muscles, one by one until she was trailing the copper button on my jeans.
“He asked me how long it’s been since I’ve been fucked.”
Her head tipped back as she tugged the button free and pushed the material down. I continued to stare, feeling desperate and in awe that this was really happening.
“Do you know how long it’s been, Silas?”
My throat felt thick as I rasped in reply, “Two years and twenty-three days.”
Her gaze snapped up to mine, her eyes tapering.
“And how long has it been since you’ve been fucked, husband?”
Shit, I couldn’t think when she called me that.
Her delicate fingers dipped into my boxers, pushing those down next. I inhaled a sharp breath as she slowly slid down my frame until she was on her knees in front of me.
“Answer me.”
I shuddered as she lightly gripped my cock in her hand. “Two years, and twenty-three days.”
She smiled up at me. “So you were faithful to me?”
“Where else would I go, Caelum? You’re my home, my heart…my entire fucking soul.”
She let me go with a grin, her hands on my thighs.
“Then lets—”
“We’re not doing this right now. You were just kept hostage; you need a second to process that.”
I pulled her up but she pushed at my chest and began walking back into the room.
“You’ve been gone for two years, Silas. I’d assumed you'd be eager to have me.”
Grabbing her by the wrist, I pulled her back into me.
“I am eager, but we’re not going to start with you on your knees, on a cold bathroom floor while you suck my cock. That’s not how this will go. If I have you, it’s on my terms.”
She tipped her chin back, and her eyes were so full of hurt that it nearly robbed me of breath. I’d hurt her by letting her stay with the Stone Riders, when all I wanted was to keep her safe, I managed to hurt her.
Gently gripping her hips, I pulled her closer and pressed my mouth to hers.
Our kiss was like those stories I grew up reading, a memory pressed into pages with ink, old and tattered, nearly forgotten.
I moved us to her bed, laying her down, relishing the way her lips tipped up as I hovered over her.
“I remember this,” she whispered, stroking a finger down my heart where a tattoo of her name was.
I looked down, seeing her new ink of a tree, hating that I had to witness her getting it done through a pane of glass, seething as she chatted with the artist like it was the easiest thing in the world to have our story mark her in such a dark way.
Her dark forest. Her untamable patch of earth, never to be inhabited.
Instead of remarking on it, I pressed a kiss there. “It’s what’s under the ink, that’s ours, Caelum. The blood in our veins, the way our souls curl into each other, finding solace. You’re my home.”
She held my palm to her mouth, where she pressed a kiss to the tattoo under my ring finger.
“If I’m your home then you’ve been gone for a very long time, my love.”
I stared down at her, lightly brushing a rogue curl from her breast. She’d never stopped being mine, but I knew the two years I was gone would be something we had to work through.
Instead of giving her honesty, I parted her thighs and settled my hips between them.
Her knees came up, until her ankles locked behind my back, my hand slid under her back, pulling her up.
“My beautiful, stunning wife.” I smiled into her mouth. “Still so perfect after all this time.”
I prodded her slick entrance with the tip of my cock and slowly eased myself inside her.
Imprints of her nails marked my back as she adjusted to my size, her breathing became shallow and her moans became sharper.
“Silas.” Her hips rotated, and I rested my hand on her waist, pulling her into me as I pushed mine forward.
Our breaths mingled, fighting for air and words as our mouths parted on silent screams.
Fucking her was a sweet song, a memory buried in every touch of her skin, every kiss and moan she surrendered to me.
This was the peace I used to find when the darkness would try and consume me.
I’d find myself buried in her, losing myself to the caress of her touch, the way her thighs slid against mine, her eagerness to have me. Fuck it used to be everything to me.
How had I gone this long without her?
I bent my head and sucked one of her nipples into my mouth as I slowed my hips, my cock sliding in and out of her. I teased her with gentle pushes and light laps of my tongue. Her fingers twisted into my hair, pulling as she hissed for me to go harder.
I smiled and indulged her, thrusting hard and firm and making her gasp.
Rising up, I pushed on her stomach as I repeated the movement, pulling out, only to drive inside, harder each time. Her head rolled to the side, her mouth gaped and then she was screaming my name.
Closing my eyes, I tried to hold onto exactly how she looked with my name falling from her lips, my name branding that tongue, that heart soaring with me, dripping from every part of her. I came so hard, I nearly cried. Falling forward, I groaned deeply, spilling inside her.
Our breaths were fast-paced, our chests rising.
Her fingers returned to my hair as she stroked and soothed the wet pieces.
When I finally pulled out, I sat back and watched as my release coated her puffy pussy lips.
She had a thin trail of hair down the top of her mound, but her slit was bare, revealing how she’d stretched for me, and would be sore.
It had my mind barreling back to the shower, to her scrubbing.
I gently stroked her slit, the mess smearing it while I asked, “Did he…”
She shook her head. “No…he made me shower with him and he watched me…”
Her lip began to tremble as she started and stopped. I watched her carefully and decided to lie next to her, pulling her into my chest. Fuck the mess. We’d deal with it later.
“He stroked himself, while talking about how much better he’d be for me than you. How pathetic I was for waiting for you…he told me he was going to finish on me. When he did…he told me I couldn’t clean myself, unless I... He wanted me to…”
She stopped again, her voice hitching. I soothed her hair, kissing the back of her head. All while my heart rioted in my chest. Taking his hand wasn’t enough.
He was going to die.
“Why didn’t you return to me, Silas?” Her voice was feeble and broken.
My eyes watered at how defeated she sounded. How scared she must have been. If it weren’t for me, she never would have been in that house, or in his bed. She never would have been taken by my father.
Clearing my throat, I finally replied, “I did, baby. It was a little late, but I came.”
She turned in my arms, those green eyes locked on mine in a tangle of pain and hurt.
“I mean before this…why have you waited this long to come for me? Alec said you would have never claimed me if they hadn’t taken me, and part of me feels like you still haven’t. Like you’re death itself, here to steal the rest of my life and run off to hell with it, leaving me abandoned and alone.”
Because you were better off here, without me.
Because all I do is bring death.
Because you deserve to be happy.
Because I love you.
I need you.
I’d die if anything happened to you.
Instead of telling her all of that, I leaned in and kissed her.
She tried to say something else, but I kissed her again and then we were falling back into the sheets, and my hands found her thighs, my cock found her slit, and for the second time in twenty-four hours, I fucked my wife.