Chapter 41
Chapter
Forty-One
RYKER
T he Huntress was an anomaly.
A being who could be as strong as steel and proud as mountains one moment, then soft as a petal the next.
She was no blushing rose, but, gods, the color looked good on her cheeks as it rose up from her neck.
I pulled her toward me, leaning our foreheads together.
“Would you like that?” I asked with a hungry fierceness I didn’t recognize.
It took all of my self-control to not rip the slip off Allie and show her how her body deserved to be worshiped.
But she needed a gentle touch. That was obvious from the way her eyelids fluttered, unsure but craving, how her palms pressed against my chest, looking for support and contact.
“I–I don’t know,” she whispered, growing softer against me. And I loved that.
Loved that she was comfortable enough around me that the unflinching Huntress could afford to be vulnerable around me, even in such a small way.
I could’t–and wouldn’t–let her down.
“Why don’t we find out?” I muttered, my hand against her neck sliding up in her hair and tangling in those untamed waves. “I know one thing you like.”
I claimed her lips, thanking the gods for allowing me to taste her once more.
So this is what happiness felt like.
Allie in my arms, her hands coiling around my neck as if she never wanted to let me go, her mouth devouring me.
My arm circled her waist and pulled her into me until nothing remained between us. Who needed air when kissing Allie made me feel alive?
My fingers twisted in that mane of hers that drove me mad every single day, as I tilted her head to the side to better savor her. This storm of a woman clinging to me.
My hand slid down her spine, lower and lower, until I reached the hem of her slip. Greedy fingers stroked her thigh, skin indeed as soft as first spring’s petals, before they gripped her ass.
In one pull, I snapped her up and her legs twisted around my waist.
She’d seemed to love that back in the Memory Hall, her soft moans branded in my mind.
From her maddening movements, my towel was hanging onto my hips through miracle alone.
She was so very eager, tongue seeking out mine, nails digging into the back of my neck.
I could taste the passion she’d denied herself–or had been denied.
I carried her to my bed and set her down slowly, chest still pressed to hers. I wouldn’t let her go for a second.
“I’ve dreamed of having you in my bed since that first day,” I whispered against her puffy lips fiercely. Let her know how she affected me. “I couldn’t sleep the entire night, trying to listen for each of your movements through the door.”
I didn’t mention how I’d heard her sobbing too many times to count. Or how many nights I walked up to the door, debating whether I should open it or not.
But I convinced myself she didn’t want my comfort.
Back then, she probably didn’t, even as her mouth covered mine now, demanding and hurried.
I fisted my palms in the sheets above her head.
I knew what she wanted. I felt it in each sway of her hips and each small groan she tried to swallow.
Something hard and fast and rough.
Something to make that mind of her quiet for a moment.
But that’s not how she deserved to be worshiped right now.
Her hands might have been leaving blazing trails down my back, but she’d said she was scared of what she wanted.
First, the fear had to go.
Then we could indulge in all those depraved thoughts I knew she hid inside that brilliant brain of hers.
Our first time together couldn’t be just a haze of moans and gasps that melted into silence as fast as they appeared.
It had to mean more.
I needed it to mean more.
And when her movements slowed and a tension crept into her body, I knew I’d been right to not match her frenzy, no matter how good her body felt against me or how I craved her little stuttered breaths in my ear.
It took all of my strength to break the kiss and lean on my forearms above her.
“Do you want to stop?” Godsdammit, I meant the question to sound cool and calm, not breathless.
“No,” she said quickly, straining her neck to claim my lips once more. But she stopped a breath away. “Wait, do you want to stop?”
I hated what I heard in her voice.
Disappointment.
Doubt.
“Solkar himself would have to reach out of the sky once more to make me stop.” I kissed her forehead, earning a surprised gasp from her. “What’s going on?”
Allie’s lips tensed in a shaky smile. But then they fell as she plopped her head down back onto the mattress. She covered her eyes with the heels of her palms.
And I waited.
Ravenous, rock hard, and in rapture at her beauty, I waited.
“I want you,” she said after a long moment.
“Why are you saying that like it’s a problem?” I frowned. “It’s kind of required for the state we’re in.”
She huffed a laugh, her hands falling from her eyes. She bit into her lower lip. “You’re the Blood Brotherhood Commander. I was raised not to want you.”
Ah, guilt. An emotion I was painfully familiar with.
One that needed to be snuffed out quickly, without the barest hint of remorse, before it got a chance to fester.
Allie fidgeted, her gaze falling to my chest.
“Look at me,” I said softly. Miracle of all miracles, she did it without complaint.
This wasn’t capitulation. This was trust. We both knew she could flick me away with one of her blue tendrils if she wanted to.
Yet, she listened and she watched , gaze drinking me in.
“You’re The Huntress and the Protectorate’s First Daughter.
I’m not supposed to want you either. But I do. ”
I kissed her forehead once more. Then her cheeks, nose, and jaw. I took my time mapping out her gorgeous face with my lips. She relaxed back into the mattress with each kiss.
Only then did I raise my head once more, capturing her eyes and not letting them go.
“We need to remember we're not the center of the world. It's hard, I know,” I went on. Allie’s laughter was sweet, sweet music, beating straight into my chest. “Do you honestly think anybody cares that you’re in my bed right now? And, if anybody does care, why would you bother with their opinions?”
She nibbled at her lips. “You’re right. I shouldn’t.”
“Then don’t. Right now, all that matters is this bed, your whispers in my ear, and your eyes trying to devour me. Fuck everyone else.”
A corner of her lips ticked up. “Fuck them.”
“It’s just you and me now,” I whispered against her lips. “Don’t let the past slither in between us.”
I had to be even more careful tonight than I first realized.
This night could either lay the foundation for our future–one in which we ruled with fists of steel in the morning and melted together at night–or break it.
I pulled back, rising on my knees above her. I delighted in the way her eyes roamed over my body, as if she ached to run her fingers over every muscled ridge I’d trained onto my body.
Good.
She needed to stop overthinking and feel .
Hard and fast could wait.
Tonight, we needed to learn each other.
Slowly.
Her right arm reached out for my chest. I caught her wrist and brought it to my lips, tongue darting out to trace slow circles.
“So impatient,” I muttered against her sweet skin. I loved the way her pupils dilated, eating up the green.
I leaned down and grabbed her other wrist and pinned them both above her head as my body covered hers once more.
“Tomorrow, we’ll worry all you want. Tonight, we’re doing things my way.”