9. Maren
Maren
My tail unwound from his hips as I transitioned back to my legs. I straddled them over him, the movement charging something in his body. Breaking the surface of his own control.
Suddenly his hands were everywhere, roaming my neck and waist and body, all caution abandoned.
Kneading my back, over my stomach, across my thighs.
I whimpered into his mouth as his fingers skimmed between my legs, loosening for him in an instant, but he deserted me just as quickly, splaying his palm wide along my hip and snaking under the chain of my stone to land over the curve of my breast.
His thumb shifted over the peak of my nipple. I arched my spine and Kye clamped a hand onto the side of my collarbone, hauling me back to him to capture my nipple in his mouth.
My jaw unlocked. Bubbles broke through the sparkling water as I gasped.
He teased with teeth and tongue, wild and ravenous, then released me only to immediately seek my other breast. My hands scored the roots of his hair, soft curls twisting between my fingers.
I pulled his mouth back to mine in sharp demand.
And what began as soft and gentle collapsed into the depths of fervent, reckless claiming.
He grasped the side of my cheek, mouth widening enough to devour me as his tongue challenged mine with jealous greed.
The sparkling ocean dropped away, the pulsing waves disappearing with it, and I no longer felt it washing over me.
I only felt Kye. The dense expanse of his frame, the subtle way his muscles slanted and climbed, the soft brush of dark hair across his chest.
Kye pulled away, dragging his teeth like fangs down the side of my chin, my neck. His hand carved a rough route to my thighs, fingertips splaying me wide as I sat over his hips, and whipped me with the long, hard rap of his thumb.
My body answered immediately, rocking my weight back, widening my thighs. My eyes closed at the tingling trail he engraved over the most sensitive part of my body. He struck me again, and again, watching me slowly collapse. Watching my body arc with every torturous beat.
Until I was suddenly as ravenous as him.
I ripped forward, capturing that wretched thumb in one hand, dragging his pants down with the other, a predator unleashed onto its prey. His mouth parted as I took him into my hand, wrapped my fingers around his length, punishing him with a long, hard stroke.
Golden eyes locked onto mine as I selfishly teased him. Until that gaze grew drunken with desire, a craving deep and carnal and unchecked.
Stop playing, he growled at me.
But I just laughed back at him, twisting my palm around his length, sliding my grip to his base and constricting my fingers on the way back up.
Playing him like a meal in which I’d eat only after I’d had my fun.
His body cinched under my control, loosening only to tighten again.
The flex of his abdomen, the stretch of his shoulders, the underside of his chin as he unhinged his jaw, lax and rigid at once.
I was almost delirious with power with the thought of his undoing until he snapped upright, an insatiable gleam in his eyes.
He grabbed my legs, yanking me from my seat, pulling me closer over his thighs, his stare piercing my bare center like a target in range.
Any speck of mockery between us dissolved as he guided himself inside me with a single, slow plunge.
We rippled together in the aftermath, the glow of languid indulgence snuffed out as our eyes connected.
A low thrum danced in my belly. An ache and pulse with every roll of his hips against mine. He pulled out to thrust back in, his grip clawing into the flesh of my outer thighs, the stretch of my core excruciatingly decadent.
I rocked back, lost in it. Lost in him. Deeper and deeper, I tilted into him, into the disorienting corruption of his body. He moaned into my thoughts, and even in my head, his voice was husky with want, the gravel in the sound scoring the walls of my mind.
I’d let my shoulders fall back, had propped myself with a palm over his torso, intent on the push and pull of my hips against his, urging and pleading for more. He found my chin and tugged me forward enough to meet his eyes, coasting the rim of my lower lip with his thumb.
Wherever you are, he demanded with a single thrust. Whenever you are. Thrust. However you are. Thrust.
Whenever, I answered back. As long as you don’t leave me again.
Fucking never. He slid his thumb into my mouth and my lips closed around it, testing the suction of my tongue. Kye’s eyelids fluttered. Never will I do something as stupid as not duck.
Never will you leave me behind.
Never.
You stupid man.
So fucking stupid.
I paused only to calm the release building inside me.
I didn’t want it yet. I was greedy. Hungry.
Starving. Deprived of the sensation of Kye under my skin.
But my body ruled with a different appetite, and I suddenly caved, bolting forward to brace myself against him as wave after blinding wave crashed through.
Stark and bright and clear. It left me a trembling mess, my face lost in my hair, every muscle vapid, spent.
Kye, I murmured as my temple met the notch between his shoulder and neck.
He wrapped his arms around me, letting me drizzle into him like melted butter.
Turned me over with soft precision, laying me into glittering stardust and leaning away to study every inch of me as he tucked my hair behind my ears.
He kissed the edge of my cheek with heartbreaking care. I’d kill myself for leaving you if I weren’t already dead.
My lips twitched, though I was unsure whether it was a joke.
And even if it was, I’m not certain if I was ready to laugh at such a thing.
I threaded my fingers through his. The faint lines of my tattooed knuckles shimmered, disappearing where his hand met mine.
Come here, I simply whispered, willing him to enter me again.
Kye obeyed. He sank into me, and I buried my head into the side of his neck.
Ribbons of hot pleasure wrapped around my hips like a listing axis, sending me off-tilt and righting me again with every movement he made.
His hand trekked the star-kissed sand below us, fixing mine above my head to kiss the underside of my arm.
Thick lashes closed against my skin, and he freed a wild shudder, grip tightening over me as he moaned and writhed and trembled against me until he stilled.
We laid together, listening to the quiet whoosh of the tide overhead. The exhale of stars. Water washed over us in sparkling waves, the canvas of endless night sky twinkling beyond our reach. Kye played absently with my fingers. Looping mine within his, tracing the grooves of my knuckles.
What do you want, Leihani? he asked again, a soft wind in my mind.
I took my time to respond. Turned the question over in my head. The possible outcomes. All the things that could go wrong. The countless lives Thaan held under his thumb. The risk of being the reason for their deaths.
Or their salvation.
And when I rolled to face him, I knew the answer shone in my eyes by the way he gazed back at me. Not disappointed. Not saddened. Those molten hues hardened into determination. Pride.
He leaned forward to plant a kiss on my forehead, but I slowed him with a hand to his chest.
Not just because of Thaan, I murmured into his thoughts. I want the chance at a life with you. A full life. Without motives or secrets or other people choosing our fates. I think we deserve that chance.
Kye swallowed, tracing the glowing tallied tattoos of my arm. Is this about the cordae? You want to try and claim it again?
No, I shot back. Perhaps too quickly.
He hooked a fingertip around one knuckle, his own thoughts carefully tucked out of my reach.
Then he snuck a kiss into my hair, rolling onto a hip to pull me up.
Come on, he said, leading me out of the water and reaching for his baldric.
He fastened it back over my shoulder with a wink. Let’s find Theia.