50. Weapon, Shield, and Wall
Weapon, Shield, and Wall
CASPIAN
With a gentle nudge, the door to my quarters swung open. Where silence once would’ve greeted me, the steady drum of booted feet storming across the wooden planks replaced it. It confirmed her presence—and with it came ease—fire nipping at her heels as she paced the room.
“I’m so fucking done with this shit!” she barked, running her fingers through her tousled waves.
“I’m sick of the lies, the secrets, the godsdamned bullshit!
We are not martyrs for them to just use, and if that’s what they expect, I will purposefully oppose them and bathe in their tears while their pitiful realm rots. ”
“Ro.”
“I’ve been fighting my entire life! Thrust into trauma all for what? For Ellira? For some bigger purpose? Fuck the prophecy, I want to live. For once, I want to exist without expectation or demand.”
I tried again. “Ro.”
“But no, the weaver of fate, whatever the fuck that means, decided otherwise. There is no such thing as peace, not when our lineages are tied to selfish gods who don’t give two shits about what happens to us.
” Scoffing, she pivoted and began walking back toward me.
“They care for us? Fucking lies. They’re incapable. All they care about—”
Hand curling around her waist, I dragged her toward me. “My deadly little siren, your wrath is potent and valid, but the words you speak are filled with lies,” I hummed, kissing the side of her head. “You care too much, and that is why you are upset.”
She swatted my chest, unmistakable power billowing from her. “Don’t you dare sit here and lecture me, Caspian Vayne.”
“Then what would you prefer I do? Listen to you talk yourself into a spiral? You’ve hardly been granted the space to express your emotions, and the only one you are familiar with is ire.
It is where you find comfort because it is all you’ve known.
” My fingertips ghosted over her back. “Tell me, darling, what about this makes you angry? Does it have to do with you instilling trust in Ellira and her failing to cradle that?”
Emerald irises lifted to meet me, a slight glimmer rippling across her gaze. “Stop talking.”
“Why? Because I’m right?”
“Because you’re infuriating!” she shouted. “Because where other men have wasted no time silencing my complaints, you have only listened. Because where I’ve been met with harshness, you’ve validated me. Because you’re… Sorva is killing you, Caspian.”
I brushed a fallen strand behind her ear. “Keep going.”
“Your voice has been stifled, and the man I met in Seirdra’s Veil is not who I’ve come to know.
I just got you,” she whispered, her knuckles whitening as she fisted my shirt.
“Your truth, kindness, and the depths of your essence, and I… Every part of me longs for you, and that terrifies me, because not once have I felt this way about another. Never have I acknowledged fear of losing someone because I’ve never had anyone, and learning that my mother guided me to you just to have plotted your demise… I fucking can’t, Cas.”
“I hear you, baby. I hear you.” Pressing my lips to her pulse point, my nose grazed her jaw. “All you feel, every emotion, I share it. I can sense your heartache, and I need you to know that you are not alone.” Another kiss. “You have never and will never be alone again.”
Weaving her touch through my curls, she forced my head away from her. Concern still lingered within her stare, but something more potent had joined it—desire. Eyes devouring me, she examined every inch of me as her hand swept down my neck before settling on my shoulder.
“Kneel.”
Guttural need consumed me, and without pause, I dropped down on one knee. Peering up at her, I wrapped my arm around the back of her thigh and hoisted her thigh flush against my chest. “Gods above, you will be the death of me.”
Touch unmoved, she caressed my collarbone on her descent. A finger settled under my chin, and she tilted my head upward, the corners of her mouth curled. “I believe you told me you would crawl for me. Yes?”
My tongue ran across my bottom lip. “Yes.”
“Then crawl.” She gestured toward the bed. “If you’re pretty enough, perhaps you’ll be rewarded.”
Peeling myself from her, I sank to the floor. My heated flesh greeted the chilled floorboards, a deep-seated ache descending to my lower abdomen. Far more desperate than I wished to admit, I did exactly as she demanded.
Rohen followed, each footfall making my cock throb even more. Nails caressing my spine, she crooned, “You’re such a good boy.”
“Fuck, Rohen,” I hissed, my pace increasing with urgency. Closing the gap, I pivoted and settled on my ass, my attention immediately settling on her.
As if capable of predicting my movements, she sat on her haunches in waiting.
Before I could compliment her beauty, she silenced me with her palm, nails burrowing into my skin.
A rasped groan slipped from me, and in the periphery came the gleam of silver as she retrieved her preferred dagger from her waist.
“Pull the fabric of your shirt taut,” she ordered, her sultry cadence asphyxiating every ounce of my sanity.
Obliging, I grabbed the hem of the linen and tugged until it couldn’t stretch further.
Not wasting a second, Rohen flipped the blade in her grasp and glided its sharpened edge up the material.
Its tear carved through the silence as she freed my upper half.
Satisfied with her work, she returned the weapon and, with no warning, yanked on the chain attached to both nipples.
“S-Shit,” I grunted, hips instinctively rolling. “Please, Ro…”
“Mmm, try again.”
Scanning her features, I barely had time to contemplate her request as she ripped on the silver links again. “Fuck.”
“Try. Again,” she ordered, heavy lids hooding her stare.
“I don’t… I don’t know what you—”
Fingers moving from my neck, she squeezed my jaw as she hauled me toward her. As our noses brushed, each word she uttered went straight to my length. “Mommy. You will call me mommy.”
“Yes, mommy,” I moaned, my back arching against the wood.
“My good boy,” she crooned as she raked her touch down my chest, settling just above the hem of my trousers. “As promised, you deserve a reward. What would you like?”
“You.” Raking over her frame and the dominance emanating from her, I continued, “Gods, you. In whatever way you will bless me.”
“Perfect.” Her heels met the floor again, palms vanishing from me as she rose to stand. “On the bed.”
Off the floor faster than I could comprehend, I settled on the mattress.
Rohen was there just as quickly, pulling the shredded fabric from my arms before she guided my back to meet the comforter.
I allowed her to gather one of my wrists and offered her the other.
Skin resting against smoothed timber, she chained me to the bed with a satisfied hum.
Hands trailing down my chest and stomach, she hooked her fingers around my waistband and, with one tug, stripped me of all layers down to mid-thigh. My cock sprang free, slapping against my stomach with starved need.
“Gods, you’re big,” she muttered as she stepped away to work on her own blouse.
Caressing her own curves, she moved with lethal languidity.
Guided by seduction just as deadly as a blade, fabric slid up her stomach to reveal freckled flesh beneath it.
Each inch robbed me of thought and word, the underside of her breasts taunting me until she hauled the rest of the material over her head.
Carved by the gods, the moonlight caught her lithe frame, painting her in a way I wished to remember.
The scars littering her skin spoke of the tumultuous storms she had survived, the battles that had been unsuccessful in stealing her from this realm.
Light pink nipples pebbled, their beauty vanishing as she cupped her assets.
Leveling her gaze on me, she squeezed her breasts in a way I longed to.
“You’re exquisite,” I breathed, yanking on the cuffs. “Fuck. Please.”
A soft smile graced her expression before she turned her back on me. The familiar drum of her feet returned as she walked toward my desk. Snatching the chair behind it, she dragged it across the planks with her return, dropping it inches from where I rested.
“What… What are you doing?” I panted.
Working her belt free, she didn’t offer me a reply nor reprieve as she kicked off her boots, only to slip from her trousers. Her lower half was just as perfect as her upper, and saliva pooled in my mouth as I scanned her figure.
“Do you like what you see, Caspian Vayne?”
I groaned like the pathetic man I was. “Gods, yes.”
“Good.” Stepping toward me, her shimmering emeralds studied my body before she dropped herself into my chair. I went to speak, but as she parted her thighs, everything else vanished. “Then beg for my cunt.”
I watched as her fingers trailed down her sternum, dancing over her navel as she sank lower. Pressing one into her core, a light moan caused her chest to hitch before she retreated, spreading herself for me.
And gods, she was soaked.
I yanked on the cuffs, her command still fresh on my mind. “Fuck, mommy. Please.”
“You’ll need to do more than just that,” she stated with a huskiness I’d never heard before.
Cock already leaking, I threw my head back against the mattress.
“Please. I need to feel you. You render me desperate, Rohen Levitte, and I wish for nothing more than to lap your cunt like the desperate man I am. Use my face as you wish, rid me of air, whatever you need to ensure you reach your peak, for I am yours to wield.”
“Better,” she groaned, dragging her fingers up her dripping core. “Tell me more, Caspian Vayne.”