Chapter Thirty-two
THEA
T hea expected a cabin similar to the ones their friends were occupying, and frankly, she was just thankful to have privacy with Wilder, to not have to hide what they had. But when Wilder pushed open the door, she nearly gasped.
While it was compact, the cabin was luxurious. A plush rug greeted them at the foot of a bed big enough for two, with a wooden bathtub placed beneath the window, as well as a bench and basin.
Thea turned to the Warsword, who was shutting the door behind them. ‘How did you manage this?’
He offered a conspirator’s grin before he plucked her king’s coin from his pocket and held it out to her. ‘I figured after that stunt he pulled at the palace, he owed you one. Or several, considering the feast we had at the Fox.’
Stunned, Thea took the coin. ‘I had no idea the Hand of Death was also a cutpurse.’
Wilder gave her a lazy smile as he drew her to him. ‘There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Princess.’
Thea’s pulse fluttered at the insinuation. ‘Perhaps it’s time I got to know you better…’
He ran a knuckle along her jaw and hooked it under her chin, tilting her face to his. ‘That might take some time.’
Thea met his lust-filled stare, her breath hitching. ‘Then you’d best get started.’
Wilder enveloped her, his mouth sweeping across hers in a punishing kiss. She opened for him and his tongue met hers, coaxing a moan from her as she grabbed a fistful of his shirt, wrenching him down to her.
He captured her lower lip between his teeth, and Thea burned for him. A flash of pain bloomed before he was kissing her again, sending fierce desire rushing through her. His leather-and-rosewood scent wrapped around her senses, stoking the fire within.
She raked her fingernails down his sculpted chest in silent demand and he growled against her lips, tempting a smile from her as he broke away to haul his shirt over his head.
‘This what you want?’ he said, his voice thick with lust.
Thea surveyed that powerful torso, feeling her undergarments dampen as she drank in the broad planes of his chest, the defined ridges of his stomach, and those grooves that she desperately wanted to run her tongue down.
‘Halfway there,’ Thea replied, her hands already at his belt. She could see the thick outline of his cock straining against his pants.
He gave her a dark, delicious smile. ‘Oh, we’re not halfway anywhere. Not by a long shot, Princess.’
Smouldering need pulsed between her legs.
Wilder didn’t waste time with the buttons of her shirt; he dragged it up over her head without undoing it and tossed it aside.
His gaze was hungry as he removed the band around her breasts as well, cupping each one in his rough hands and squeezing.
Thea arched into him with a soft cry, heat swelling within.
When he rolled her nipple beneath his thumb and she bit back a desperate whimper, the bastard had the audacity to give her a smug smile before stripping her pants and undergarments away.
Naked, she stood before him, her breasts rising and falling with her short, shallow breaths of anticipation.
‘Did you lock the door?’ she managed.
Wilder laughed. ‘I did.’ Then he was moving, shoving a chair beneath the handle for good measure. ‘No one’s fucking interrupting this.’
He picked her up, carrying her not to the bed, but to the bench with the basin. There, he set her down and spread her legs wide, hooking them over his shoulders as he knelt down before her.
He moaned at the sight of her, and Thea’s stomach clenched at being so incredibly exposed. He’d done this before, but… somehow she felt even more naked in this position.
Any thoughts she had disintegrated at the first sweep of his tongue up her centre. Her legs shook either side of him, even as he gripped her thighs.
A loud moan broke free from her as he tasted her, teasing her clit, pleasure uncoiling deep within her. Her entire body turned molten as he worked her with his mouth and slid a finger inside her.
‘Gods,’ she panted, feeling a bead of sweat drip between her shoulder blades.
She tilted her hips towards his face and he smiled against her skin before obliging her silent command.
He added another finger, driving into her with long, luxurious strokes, adding to that intense pressure that had started to build, the very same that was eliciting cries of ecstasy from her.
‘Wilder…’ she murmured, her fingers tangling in his hair, forcing his gaze to hers. ‘I want to taste you too.’
Seeming to understand, he stood, taking a step back to finally remove his pants, his hard length springing free. Kicking the fabric from his ankles, he picked her up again and took her to the rug. There, he lay down on his back and pulled her down with him.
‘Put your knees on either side of my head,’ he told her.
‘What?’ Thea was no maiden, but this…?
‘You heard me.’ He was already reaching for her hips. ‘Face that way.’
Thea’s heart hammered mercilessly, as did the pulse of desire between her legs as her Warsword positioned her over him, so that she faced his cock and the most intimate part of her hovered above him.
A thrill rushed through her as she understood and slid down his body, baring herself to him in the most deliciously vulnerable way while closing her mouth over the crown of him. He was as hard as steel, and the hint of salt on her tongue brought that dark frenzy of desire straight to the surface.
Wilder made a low, rumbling sound of need against her skin and licked her from beneath, gripping her backside hard, spreading her.
Her own moan was muffled by his cock as it slid into her mouth.
She could take it deeper like this somehow, and she did, allowing the tip to knock against the back of her throat.
Wilder answered her by sliding his tongue inside her.
And holy Furies, she was going to die from the pleasure of it.
She burned for him, her whole body alight with desire and need and something far deeper.
A feeling she wasn’t ready to acknowledge.
All she would acknowledge was that doing this with him was unlike anything else, and that she felt tethered to him beyond just their bodies.
There was something so intimate, so illicit about the act that had her trembling with longing as she braced herself above the Warsword, as he coaxed that pleasure that unfurled at the base of her spine and started to rise through her whole body.
He replaced his tongue with those two deft fingers, pumping them inside her as he lapped at her clit and she swallowed him down, Wilder bucking beneath her.
She was going to lose her mind like this.
Determined to see him come undone, she moved so she was seated between his thighs, wanting the focus to be solely on him before she fell apart.
Thea slid her mouth over his cock, taking him deep into her throat and finding a steady rhythm.
‘ Fuck ,’ Wilder muttered, his eyes closed, his ridged abdomen tensing.
The sight of him losing control had heat swelling between her legs, desire blazing as she worked down his length and cupped his balls.
His fingers speared through her hair and he jerked involuntarily beneath her, a low rumbling noise escaping him. ‘You keep doing that and I’m going to come.’
Thea smiled against him, holding him steady as she continued those lavishing strokes with her mouth.
Wilder’s grip in her hair tightened and a deep moan broke from his lips, the sound so wanton that Thea vowed to commit it to memory, and to do everything in her power to make sure she heard it again.
‘Thea,’ he murmured, before his hips arched to her, his whole body tensing.
Her Warsword cried out as he climaxed, spilling into her mouth.
Thea took it all, and only when he was trembling beneath her did she slide off his cock and survey him.
His mouth was parted as he tried to catch his breath, his cheeks flushed and beads of sweat dotting his broad chest.
‘Furies save me,’ he whispered, blinking up at her in awe. ‘You’ll be the end of me.’
Thea smiled. ‘I can think of worse ways to go.’
‘I’d die a happy man…’ Wilder reached for her. ‘But I’m not finished with you yet.’
Thea raised a brow, arousal pulsing through her as she saw that he was already hard for her again.
‘Warsword stamina,’ he said with a wicked grin, sitting up and pulling her into his lap.
When she passed the Great Rite, she’d have to thank the Furies herself.
Wilder positioned her so that she straddled him, her back to his chest, his erection pressed between her legs, his muscular thighs tensing under her own.
‘I have to be inside you,’ he rasped, running a hand down her sweat-slicked spine before grasping her hip. ‘Ride me, Thea.’
‘Yes…’ she murmured, shifting her weight so that the crown of him rubbed against her entrance. There, she lingered, lowering herself just over the tip before lifting again, teasing him, and herself.
‘Thea…’ His voice was low and already heavy again with need.
Gods, she loved it when he said her name like that. She thought she had known power when wielding a blade or a storm, but this? He made her feel like a queen.
Wilder reached around and brushed her clit with his fingers, trailing through the wetness with an appreciative groan. Thea cried out at the heat swelling between her thighs as he touched her. He somehow seemed to fill all the space around her. He was everywhere all at once, wrapping her in him.
‘Gods, what are you doing to me?’ he murmured against her shoulder, his beard scraping just enough to cause tiny bursts of pain that mingled with the pleasure.
Thea herself couldn’t bear it any longer. She needed him.
In one smooth glide, she sank down onto the length of him.
‘Fuck,’ Wilder barked, bowing beneath her.
Thea shifted her hips, allowing him even deeper before she rose up on her knees, only to slam back down on him again.
She gasped at the overwhelming sensation. He filled every inch of her, stretching her and hitting a spot deep within her that made stars burst in her vision.