Chapter 32 #2
When I undulated my hips against him, he moved his mouth down my neck, breasts, and stomach, showing just as much care and attention as he’d given my lips. He traveled lower and I whimpered, my body ready to combust when he reached the apex of my thighs.
He knelt before me, head directly in front of where my desire had pooled.
I was breathless, the sight of him on his knees again sending a euphoric rush through me.
His gaze met mine, seeking permission, and when I gave my verbal consent, he hooked his fingers into the waistband of my pants, eyes never leaving mine as he dragged them down, exposing me to him.
When they were finally clear and his gaze rested between my thighs, he released a low groan. “I’ll never get tired of looking at you.”
He placed those same gentle kisses along my inner thighs. Anticipation built and heat curled low, spreading across my skin and increasing my breathing. Then his mouth was on me, and I saw stars.
He consumed my pussy like a man starving, tongue twirling and lapping as my pleasure reached new heights. The friction was like nothing else, my body building to a peak I desperately wanted to reach.
He devoured me. My hips moved of their own volition, riding his face and hurtling me toward the edge of a cliff. My fingers curled into his loose hair, gripping him for support.
Shade’s eyes locked onto mine, and when he sucked my clit into his mouth, I came apart. I arched my back, wave after wave of pleasure consuming me. He continued to work his tongue while I convulsed, extending my orgasm until I was so sensitive I needed to pull away.
When I finally came down, Shade’s eyes were on me, lips tugged into a satisfied smile.
He let my legs settle onto the table, then stood, showing me the outline of his impressive erection.
I reached for it, intending to give him the same pleasure he had just shown me, but he grabbed my hand, stopping it.
Rejection, hot and acidic, filled my stomach, and I ducked my head to hide the flush burning my face.
“Look at me,” he said, his still gravelly tone leaving no room for argument. When I met his eyes again, they were dark with desire. “The way I want you is indescribable, but you’re still recovering, and I won’t push you when you’re not ready.”
A smile tugged at my lips. Even now, he was still caring for me, putting my needs above his own. Besides, he was right. I’d already been triggered once today; we didn’t need to tempt it again.
We needed to go slow, make sure I was ready before we took that final step. I would take it with him, though, I was determined to.
I gave Shade my agreement, and he lifted me into his arms, took me straight to the bathing room, and placed me on the counter as he ran the tub, filling the room with steam. He added an assortment of oils Wista left for me, and the scent of lavender and chamomile joined the air.
Once I lowered myself into the warm water, Shade shocked me further by lathering a cloth in soap. He hesitated, hand hovering above my skin.
“Can I wash you?” His voice was deeper than I’d ever heard it, and still high off the pleasure he’d given me, I offered him a loopy smile with my verbal assent.
His care didn’t surprise me; he had cleaned me before. It was clinical then, though, the sole purpose to remove the unwanted touch from my skin.
This time, it was more—intimate and caring.
I stared at him as he washed me, and the usually harsh lines of his face had softened into an expression of contentment. His hair was pulled back and messily tied.
I could stare at him forever. Until every line and scar was burned into my brain.
Harsh. Striking. Intense. But also soft, even if only in the moments alone with me. A true king. A king from time’s past, a time forgotten.
“The tapestry,” I murmured.
Shade’s brow rose, his movements never faltering as he glided the cloth over my skin.
“When we first arrived, there was a tapestry in the entrance hall. Was it you?”
“Maybe, what did it look like?”
“A man on a massive horse. He was in a bloody battlefield, they said he was a forgotten king.” I didn’t say who, didn’t want to ruin this moment by uttering his name here.
“It was me. That battle killed my father.” His expression held a sour note, a coldness.
“What was he like?” I wanted to know more about his past. Now that his secret had been revealed, I hoped he would give it to me.
“A king.” He paused, and I waited, sensing he would tell me more, offer a true glimpse into his past. “His kingdom and its people came second to no one. Not my mother. Not me. Not Bas. His father—my grandfather—was a cruel man. My father did the best he could with what he knew, but he would often revert to his father’s way of teaching.
Bastian took the brunt of it and my brother resented him for it. ”
He paused again, eyes distant and lost in the past. “For every flaw my father had, my mother made up for, her kindness and strength felt by everyone, only she could keep my father level. Things worsened for Bas when she died.”
“I’m sorry you lost her.”
Hurt reflected in his eyes, one I intricately understood, so I didn’t press for more. I wouldn’t push him to delve into that pain unless he wanted to. “It was a long time ago.”
Shade focused on his task, and I leaned back, closing my eyes and basking in the sweeping movement of his hands over my body.
The touches slowly shifted. Lingering. Teasing my body with soft caresses and never giving me quite enough.
“You’re cruel.” My words were practically a pant when he skimmed my inner thigh, just shy of the pulsing happening between my legs again.
He chuckled deeply and helped me from the tub, then preceded to torture me with the towel, the rough texture in stark contrast to the soft cloth and no less desirable as I was bombarded with a myriad of sensations.
He knelt to dry my legs, pausing when he reached my upper thighs, the moisture between them not from water alone.
The sound that rumbled in his chest had my core clenching and my hips jerking forward.
“Did I not give you enough, Solis? Do you need more?”
Before I could beg him to touch me where I needed it most, he gripped my hips and pulled me toward his face, lifting one of my legs to rest on his shoulder, giving him unrestricted access.
With his mouth on me again, it took nothing at all for my skin to burst into flames, my orgasm riding me with such intensity that I cried out.
“Fuck. I could taste you all day,” he murmured, licking my wetness from his lips when I resurfaced again. I had to scold myself for the arousal that spiked at the sight. He had just given me two of the best orgasms of my life and I still wanted more.
That’s what he did to me.
Later that night, after I sat through a grueling meal with the king, Shade joined me in bed.
He hadn’t done so since the first night after the wedding.
I lay against his bare chest, his hand tracing soothing patterns along my back.
We had settled into a quiet calm, and I was basking in the intimacy of it.
I gazed at the skin beneath me, skimming my fingertips across the raised edges of each mark on Shade’s body. He sucked in a breath when I traced over the scars on his side, his skin pebbling under my touch.
“How did you get these?” I whispered, my curiosity getting the better of me. He didn’t reply straight away, his hands continuing their trail along my back.
“Magic takes a toll.”
Magic had caused the markings, scarred almost every inch of his skin? I couldn’t remember any mention of that in our history. Unless … “Was it the lamp?”
“Yes and no.” His voice portrayed how much he didn’t want to speak of it, and after all the revelations of the day, I wouldn’t push him on it.
He would tell me one day, when he was ready. I knew what it was like to hold back. If there was one thing I understood, it was trauma.
My mind drifted to my earlier revelation. I wasn’t surprised Shade was Raiden Emyrdeis, or that he sacrificed himself for his people. He had shown me only loyalty since he’d been released from the lamp, of course he had done the same for his people when he was king.
All the signs were there. The ruins we visited in Ferveem Forest had to be the original Emyrdeis castle, located so close to the cave Shade was hidden in. We had camped beside the field where his brother was finally defeated, a battle resulting in a sea of everlasting flowers.
It was all so obvious looking back now.
I snuggled closer, enjoying the warmth emanating from his body. As I inhaled his unique scent, it triggered a memory from our time at Ferveem Forest, the first time he truly opened up to me.
“The purloe flower,” I murmured, “you said it was a gift.”
Shade stiffened beneath me, and I raised my head, catching the pain in his eyes before he masked it. I frowned at his reaction. I thought we were past his need to keep secrets, but it didn’t look like we were. “You don’t have to hide from me.”
Light-gray eyes softened, and he tightened his hold around me.
In reassurance, I realized. “I know. It’s a hard habit to break.
” He paused, and I waited him out, giving him time to come to terms with the truth.
“The purloe flower was my mother’s favorite.
At home, she had a special pergola covered in their vines.
She sat out there every day, rain or shine, it’s probably in ruins now.
” He sighed before he continued. “When I bargained with the Gods, Ammoraelis gifted me the scent for my time in the lamp. I think it was meant as a comfort, but it quickly became a quiet form of torture, a stark reminder of everything I had lost.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face, wiping away the pained expression, though his mouth remained tight, like he held the emotion at bay. I pushed up and placed a gentle kiss on his lips, then said, “Your mother’s pergola still stands, it’s the only thing not crumbling.”
“Thank you,” Shade said on a relieved sigh, and I started tracing his patterned scars again. We remained that way a while longer, wrapped in each other’s arms and lost to our own thoughts until he broke the silence again. “I sensed you.”
“What?”
He brushed a lock of hair from my face, and I leaned my chin on his chest to watch him. “When you were at the castle, in Ferveem Forest. I sensed you were close.”
Another memory surfaced. I’d cut my finger on a purloe thorn, and the forest had stilled. “How?”
“Magic? Fate? The Gods don’t deign to tell us. It was always meant to be you, Adelia. The sunshine in the darkness of my never-ending existence. My Solis.”
A warmth spread through my chest, filling the hollow cavity and soothing the charred remains of my soul. I had freed him from darkness, and in return, he gave me something I only let myself dream of.
Devotion.
Obsession.
Some would call it an unhealthy dependence. I needed him in an indescribable way. So much so, I didn’t know what my life would look like if he weren’t in it. In such a short time, he wriggled his way deep into my soul and latched on so tightly I had no hope of ever being freed.
I didn’t want to, though. I wanted to hold onto him with every ounce of strength I had and never let go, and I would free him from the confines of the lamp to do it.