Chapter 29 #2
A reluctant smile tugged at her mouth. She cleared her throat. “Don’t make me take it back.”
Ellisar’s hand slid beneath the last thin layer of silk, palming the heat of her bare skin, and Imani bit down on his lower lip hard enough to make him growl.
He shoved the silk up over her hips, bunching it at her waist, and his fingers found the slick center of her without hesitation.
She gasped against his jaw as he stroked slowly, two fingers pressing and curling until her knees threatened to buckle.
Her hips rolled forward, chasing the contact, and the low sound that broke from her throat was nothing like the composed queen who had stood before a council an hour ago.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed, her forehead dropping against his collarbone.
He didn’t. His thumb circled her while his fingers worked deeper, and Imani dug her nails into the hard plane of his chest, leaving red crescents in his skin. She felt him watching her face and refused to look away, keeping her eyes on his even as the sensation built to something unbearable.
Without warning, Ellisar lifted her. He pressed her back against the cool stone wall, his grip ironclad beneath her thighs, and she wrapped her legs around him as he pinned her there.
His hand remained between them for one more slow, excruciating stroke that left her wet and shaking before he withdrew it.
“Do it,” she snarled, her teeth grazing his ear.
He thrust into her.
The stretch of him pulled a ragged cry from her lips, her back arching sharply off the wall.
He was thick and deep and immediate, and Imani’s fingers clawed into his shoulders as her body adjusted around him.
A low rumble tore from his chest. He pulled back and drove forward again, harder, and she felt the impact against the stone at her back and didn’t care.
She rolled her hips to meet him, angling herself so each thrust drove the pressure exactly where she needed it, and the sound she made was raw and unguarded.
Ellisar’s jaw tightened, his dark eyes fixed on her face as he set the rhythm—forceful, each stroke deep enough to knock the breath from her.
Imani wrapped one arm around the back of his neck and dragged his mouth down to hers, swallowing her own moan against his lips.
She felt the coil of tension pulling tighter low in her belly, that particular ache sharpening with every precise snap of his hips.
“Harder,” she said against his mouth, and he complied without a word, thrusting deeper with a strangled grunt of pleasure.
His pace became punishing, and she took all of it, her thighs gripping him, her body clenching around him in waves as the sensation crested. She turned her face against his throat, her breathing ragged and broken. A thumb came down to press against her clit, and let out a shameless moan.
“Yes, that’s it, my queen,” Ellisar growled against her ear, rubbed her most sensitive spot harder and harder.
As his rhthym picked up, their mating drew Imani closer to Ellisar, but the initial touch of his essence reached beyond physical contact.
Her soul draw responded beneath Ellisar’s magic, loosening its protective barrier by her choice, and she sensed the moment he embraced what she offered.
Part of her essence flowed into him, and pleasure surged through their connection—instantaneous and overwhelming—spreading warmth through her chest and limbs as the exchange diminished all remaining distance.
While Esa had let Imani feed from her, this was different. It was all-consuming.
Ellisar let his own soul draw out, pulling in the essence of her soul deeper, feeding gradually rather than absorbing everything she gave at once, and his restraint heightened the sensation.
She felt her power, emotion, and life within him, making the intimacy painfully real.
Her desire grew as she longed for him to return what he had taken, wanting him inside her in the most vital way for their kind.
Her magic dug deeper instinctively, bypassing his thoughts and touching the edge of his soul until Ellisar finally let himself open.
Access was granted. Imani absorbed his essence, and the rush halted her breath.
His soul was a vessel of concentrated power, woven with ancient Norn magic in every fragment he offered, yet beneath it all was something uniquely his.
She sensed his determination, his yearning, the deep feelings he concealed from others, and each draw uncovered more, revealing why feeding could become an obsession.
In a sudden rush, with him pounding into her, she felt her walls tightened. “I’m close,” she gasped, barely able to get the words out.
“Come for me,” Ellisar said through gritted teeth, grasping her waist so tight she knew it would bruise as he pushed himself even harder, even deeper, hitting a place she didn’t even know existed inside her.
Pleasure exploded behind her eyes and she arched her back into him, a ragged scream tearing from her throat.
“I’m need another,” he snarled, nipping at her eat, his sharp fangs eliciting another cry of pleasure from her.
And indeed, her body begged for another taste before the first had completely coursed through her.
Simultaneously, Ellisar drew from her again, creating an ongoing exchange—hers into him, his into her—each nourishing and taking in turn until she could hardly tell which pleasure was hers and which was coming through him.
In those fleeting moments, no part of him was beyond her reach, and Imani opened herself further in response.
Pressed against his hard body and the stone, Imani felt the tether connecting them flare. It was no longer an abstract alignment; it was alive, a low, glowing thread humming through her blood, pulsing with a dark satisfaction.
Ellisar’s mouth traced the line of her throat. Instinct bypassed control as his teeth sank into her skin. Blood welled, warm and bright, dripping down her neck to her collarbone.
Imani gasped.
The bond moved behind her ribs and with a lurch, the tether violently moored itself deeper into her soul. She trembled, feeling the irrevocable shift in what existed between them.
Pleasure flooded her senses, drowning out thought.
She clamped around him, her entire body shuddering through the climax.
Ellisar squeezed his eyes shut, throwing his head back with a primal roar she had never heard from a Norn elf.
He curled heavily over her shoulder, his slick forehead pressing against her collarbone as he finished inside her.
Imani couldn’t catch her breath. Trembling, she pushed stray hairs from her damp brow, trying to make sense of the tidal wave of sensation receding within her.
The tether differed entirely from the overwhelming, suffocating pull she linked to Kiran. It gently persisted beneath her consciousness—consistent, attuned, a feeling she sensed without becoming overwhelmed. However, the closeness had crossed a significant line.
Ellisar’s attention drifted to the puncture marks at her throat. He leaned in, pressing a soft, reverent kiss against the bloodied bite, acknowledging the permanence of what had just formed.
Imani resisted the urge to flinch. She hadn’t meant to complete the second part of the chosen-mate binding… but it was done now.
As the physical urgency ebbed, the room remained thick with a charged, unresolved tension. Imani lifted a trembling hand, her fingertips tracing the warm skin of her throat.
This had become a power in itself, capable of either strengthening or revealing them entirely.
With Ellisar beside her now, the abstract question of an Heir Apparent no longer belonged only to councils and succession plans.
The possibility had changed because she was considering it now, not because mating, desire, or what they had just done had made the decision for her.
They were both Norn, which made children possible despite the rarity of conception, though without a heartmate bond, nothing was guaranteed.
For the first time, the possibility felt personal, not political.
“I…” She searched for words, but none came.
Imani released her hand, her awareness now tense as she noticed two distinct bonds within her soul.
Her connection with Ellisar had deepened from a strategic alliance into something dangerously intimate.
Beneath it lay the other connection, the one to Kiran she still could not sever.
One was stable and firm, while the other was wild… and irresistible.
Two bonds occupied her now, pulling her in opposite directions. The balance was no longer easy to maintain. It would require more attention and more ruthless focus than she had ever needed before.