Chapter 22
Rage
One of the first things a man or woman who’d been accepted into the Verndari program learned was that relationships of any kind wouldn’t bode well for our missions.
Nor would they have a positive outcome. We were taught how to close off our feelings, shutting down almost every emotion, including fury.
A lesson I’d obviously failed. First with anger. Now with a closeness that I couldn’t understand. Love lingered in my mind, a remembrance of how I’d felt when with my family. But it wasn’t something that interrupted the electricity running through my heart. Not a single blip.
Of course, until her.
I’d been told little other than that Star was mine to protect, but I hadn’t needed to hear the words coming from the ghostly Revelator, a man I still wasn’t one hundred percent certain existed to know her importance would trouble me.
Tonight, seeing her shocked expression when learning about my identity, I’d captured a moment where she’d become even more lost than before.
And in that same blip in time, I’d had a sickening feeling I’d lost her.
Not physically of course, but emotionally.
I hadn’t feared she’d try to escape for several reasons, but anticipating she’d have the only real reason needed to shut down her emotions had kept me in a fog from the second she’d walked away.
Whatever had occurred in the next ten minutes had changed everything.
Maybe I should find out who’d had a conversation with her so I could thank him.
Or he’d betrayed his duties in ways I couldn’t imagine.
I had to learn to accept that a bubble had been placed around both Star and me, waiting until we were older.
When the Resistance was stronger, an army in place.
An army that I was supposed to lead.
With Star by my side. The thought was daunting as fuck.
Now, with having her in my arms and in a bed I’d never expected to be lying in with her, I had to face facts that a corner had been turned.
There were Freedom Hunters everywhere, which was something I hadn’t drilled into her pretty little head.
They were actively searching the country.
Some believed simply to round up members of the Resistance.
Partially true. There were rumors of several largescale captors, which was what I expected happened to the village. The king was fearful of a growing army.
Everything was coming to light.
Whether most members of the community had been able to vacate the area prior was uncertain.
What I knew from the leaders of the Resistance and through secure communications was that the king was on the hunt for the son of the former president.
Not anything I hadn’t expected or hadn’t endured.
The fact I’d escaped his clutches once had likely worsened his mood and sullied his reputation.
What I could feel in my bones was something else. A secret once kept as an oath of blood betrayed.
The other rumor and one whispered through channels from several years before regarded the daughter of a prominent congress member, a man with ties to the forefathers.
She’d been taken for protection along with several other children, placed in a secure environment, and they’d been labeled the minds of our future.
If true, their identities and physical location were something the leaders within the Resistance were willing to take to their graves.
Whether or not there had been some divine intervention in one little girl who’d escaped was still beyond anything I trusted. Star’s memories were mere shadows of the truth. But if they could be unlocked, we’d know more about what we were facing.
For now, all I wanted was to enjoy spending time with her. Maybe we truly were each other’s destiny. That much I refused to speculate on.
As I pulled away, Star sat up on the bed, the wild look in her eyes and the way her long blonde hair that seemed spun with gold wrapped around her shoulders created even more desire. She licked her lips, not as enticement, but from her continued nervousness.
When she crawled to her knees, now only inches away, the air between us was sucked away. There was a quiet storm building, the tension we’d shared only fueling the already blazing fire. I was pushed to a point that if anyone dared try to rip us apart, they would face certain death.
Her lips twitched, a slight smile followed by a lift of her eyebrows as she tentatively reached out. No matter what she might think, patience had never been a virtue. I could barely contain myself as she rubbed the pads of her fingers down my chest as if I might break.
Or as if her fingertips might be seared from the single touch. Being this close to her, the taste lingering in my mouth and the way her body continued to quiver from uncertainty and anticipation was such a powerful aphrodisiac. More so than she had any idea.
She cocked her head, darting her eyes toward mine the lower her fingers dropped.
A part of me wanted her to feel good about our connection, not the complicated confusion from before.
I also didn’t merely want to satisfy her cravings as driven by some book from the past, but from her longing for the person.
How insecure, but for once I was being truthful with myself. I needed her to crave what only I could provide.
Her scattered breaths kept my muscles tight and when she finally swirled her finger around my cockhead, I almost lost it. I took several deep breaths, laughing softly as I did.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. Was she kidding me? How could anything be wrong?
“Not a damn thing. For now. But if you keep me waiting much longer, we might have a problem.”
Her laughter was slow and easy, the anxiety from before finally fading as she grew more comfortable. With me. With her own body.
With us.
Maybe she finally realized I would never hurt her.
Seeing her tentative in merely touching me gave me some pause.
Even her continued nervous laughter was a sweet reminder of everything that life should be about.
But her tentative moment was driven aside, the warrior returning including with a serious expression as she stroked my dick.
She moved slowly at first, rolling her fingers up to my cockhead and squeezing.
But her actions quickly shifted into an expression of need.
She twisted her hand, the friction affecting my balls. They were swollen and aching, my cock pulsing with every roll of her fingers.
Her delight was evident in her eyes, taken off my deep, husky growls. Which enticed her. But as the seconds ticked by, the urgency only increased while the pressure in my balls became agonizing.
There was a chance all control would be shot, but it was one I was willing to take. Just to allow her to become used to the way we were expressing our desire.
I cupped her breast, making her laugh all over again. Her nipples were so hard, the perfect shade of rose. Unable to help myself, I engulfed one with my mouth, licking and sucking until she moaned.
One hand never stopped stroking my cock, but with the other, she wrapped her arm around my head, holding me close.
Every soft sigh, every tremor made more of my control slip away. When I lifted my head once again, I allowed her to decide if she was ready. Her slight moan now followed by another shy smile was all I needed.
With one arm slipped behind her waist, I eased her down very slowly. She placed one palm on the bed, kneading my chest with the other. I’d never seen her eyes light up with so much excitement.
When she was resting on the surface, she shifted her legs farther apart. An offer made and one I couldn’t refuse. However, I wanted the moment to last, the memory to be something that if anything happened, whether by nature or by force, she’d remember our connection fondly.
Star never blinked as I settled between her legs and while her nervousness continued, she yielded to me. Every stroke of her hand, every movement under me was a determined statement of how her hungers burned white hot.
With a dart of her tongue across her bottom lip, she shifted her hand between us, taking my dick into her fingers once again. As she placed the tip against her pussy, her lovely eyes weren’t only asking me to fuck her, but if this mattered.
I placed my forearms on either side of her head, boxing her in. I wanted her to know without question she was going nowhere. “All mine.”
My words seemed to fuel something else deep within, unlocking a freedom that was different than before. She didn’t waste time, rolling one leg around mine and arching her back so my cock slipped easily inside by several inches.
Another tremor shifted through every muscle, her heavy sigh sweet music. “Fuck me, Phoenix. Not because you’re required by some prophecy, but because you want to as a man.”
“Don’t you understand that I never do anything I don’t want to do?”
Her sigh was subtle, another smile becoming my reward. That’s when I thrust the entire length of my cock inside.
With her body stiffening, I was fearful I’d caused pain. Before I could pull out to give her time, she wrapped her other leg around me, intertwining her feet. As before, her touch was enigmatic, her fingers crawling over my shoulder, clinging to me as if worried I’d disappear.
This was a moment I’d never forget.
One I also hoped to repeat.
I pulled out, driving into her again, more forceful and causing her to laugh. When I repeated the action, she wrapped her arm around my waist.
“No teasing. Remember?” she asked.
“That was for your benefit. Not mine.” I held just the tip inside, enjoying how her expression changed every few seconds. She was much more comfortable now, much more in control of herself.
As I developed a rhythm, her expression changed again, becoming more daring. More evocative and soon she was writhing under me. There was no need to close our eyes, the closeness everything we preferred. I could swear the girl was searching my soul for stories, memories. Answers.
I wished I could give them all to her and more.