28 #3
The food will keep. We’ve waited for a place like this, a time like this. A chance to let go completely, together.
I run from the king, and he lets out a joyful growl when he realizes the game we’re playing.
He chases me into an enormous bedroom, featuring a canopy bed and a huge fireplace.
He catches me there, on the thick rug in front of the hearth, and he strips me naked while I pretend to fight him.
But the second he activates the vibration on his central finger and manages to get it against my clit, I collapse.
I can’t fight that sensation, anymore than I can fly without the carpet.
He makes me come like that, utterly naked and weak to him, while he’s still completely clothed. He tastes me, too, while I’m shuddering through the first orgasm.
But I pay him back. As soon as my glow fades, I’m on him, tearing away the layers of his clothing, stripping away everything that makes him king and leaving only what makes him mine.
The middle finger of my right hand bears a vibration glyph too, and I trace it beneath his cock until he’s weeping arousal, every magnificent muscle of his body trembling with need.
I make him get on all fours, and then I tease his puckered asshole with that buzzing finger, right before I slip it inside him.
Vawn gives a choked cry and comes all over the rug. He keeps coming, a little more cream spurting from him with each twitch of my finger in his hole, until he’s fully spent.
It’s only the beginning of our night together.
There will be so much more, on this night and others.
And as we lie together before the hearth, hearts bared to each other, I have a vision of us, standing on the magic carpet before a Priest of the Fates, swearing our forever allegiance.
My fingernails are painted like the panels of the Glass Crown, and the King wears his hair halfway back in delicate braids.
Everyone we know is there—maybe even my father and a few of the monks from the Monastery of the Seven Fates.
Maybe we’ll even invite the kind owner from Oeric’s Outfitters in Zeletas, and anyone else who showed us kindness during our journey.
“What are you thinking of, beautiful?” whispers Vawn.
“Our wedding day.”
“Ah. I meant to tell you, darling—I think I want to wear a gown for the wedding. A black one, with sheer panels. Very naughty, with many leather straps and silver studs.”
The image of him in a black gown is strange, but somehow… arousing. “If you… if you want to… though I think perhaps the kingdom might talk…”
He bursts into hearty laughter, and I sit up, staring at him.
“Were you joking?” I ask.
“Of course! Fuck, Syth. And you would have let me do it.”
“If that’s what you wanted.”
He’s still laughing, wiping tears from his eyes. “This is why I love you. No, sweetheart, I will let you wear the dress. I’m going to wear my tightest pants and a very long coat, open at the front. No shirt, of course, but about a million necklaces.”
“That sounds more like you.” I tweak one of his nipples. “That’s for tricking me.”
“It won’t be the last time I tease you, love. Think you can handle it?”
“As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.” I lean back against his chest. “But even if that changes, I will still be here. I’m not so vain as to believe I can be some sort of cure for the darkness that haunts you, but I will always, always stay, Vawn, and I will help you however I can.
If it ever becomes too much, and you need to use a glyph to cope with it, just tell me, and we’ll try to minimize the cost to your lifespan.
I want you for as long as I can possibly have you. ”
“I feel the same way.” He glides his fingertips through my hair.
“Do you know when I first realized I loved you? In Zeletas, when you threatened the Guild clerk in that alley. I struggled against it afterward—I tried not to let myself fall too hard, but when those bounty hunters came, when I feared they had killed you—”
He makes a sound deep in his chest, the echo of an agony beyond words. It’s a vow of love richer than any pretty words he could ever say.
“I ached for you,” he whispers. “There were times when I swore to myself I would die if I couldn’t be with you.
We would ride together and you were so close, so soft, so captivating.
Even when I could feel your annoyance with me, I craved you so intensely I thought my heart would rip itself into pieces and fill my chest with blood. ”
“I didn’t know,” I murmur. “I thought you only wanted sex.”
“At first, yes. But it quickly became something else.” He releases a long sigh and wraps both arms around me. The tip of his finger finds my ruby ring and toys with the stone.
“I wouldn’t let myself admit that I loved you for a very long time,” I confess. “But I think the seeds of it started when you didn’t rebuke me for defying Loxley’s order. When you tore out that unicorn’s horn yourself, so I wouldn’t have to.”
Vawn’s chest rumbles with low laughter beneath my head.
“That will be the best story to tell our future sons and daughters. ‘Gather around, children, and I’ll tell you the story of how your mother and father became the most beautiful and devoted couple in all the lands. It all started with unicorn roadkill.’”