Chapter 40
KAELERON
Clouds drifted across the azure sky above the shading canopy of the trees where I had moved with Saphira, finding a spot deeper in the woods, where a stream split into two to chase around a small island.
I watched those clouds, tracking them as I lay with Saphira nestled against my side, her head resting on my bare chest as she idly drew patterns on my skin, maddening me with her light touch.
The scent of her swirled among that of the nature here, and the warmth of the light on my skin seemed to sink deep into my bones, reaching my soul.
As it had when I had lazed on that mountainside in the Shadow Court as a boy, soaking up the warmth and the feel of nature surrounding me.
I had not felt like this in a very long time.
An achingly long time. So long I had forgotten how good it felt to just laze in the light, my mind cleared of worries and my connection to the lands of this realm filling me with warmth that eased and relaxed me.
I knew it had never felt like this though.
Having Saphira here with me, sharing this with me, her subtle weight on my chest and her breath skating across my pectorals, the feel of her heart drumming against my ribs, and my arm draped around her.
Goddess, it felt good, and right, and perfect.
So perfect that I did not want it to end.
I did not want to return to a world where I must be king and she must be heir, and both of us must fight to have that future we so desperately wanted to carve out for us. That world was a brutal one, far different from this calm and quiet place that felt like a dream.
My little wolf stretched beside me, a contented sort of quiet noise escaping her before she sighed and settled against me again. She swirled her fingers across my skin, tracing the edge of my pectoral muscle.
“Do you think I have markings?” She walked her fingers over my chest and I realised she was tracking the line of the fae markings I had been blessed with by the Great Mother.
“I expect you do?” I angled my head to watch her face so I could see her feelings and ensure she was not slipping into another dark mood, a compulsion I could not deny. I wanted to protect her, even from herself. “Have you tried summoning that side of yourself?”
She pulled a face. “No. I can barely use magic. I wouldn’t know where to start with summoning another side of myself, except my wolf of course.”
“The destruction of the other glade might prove otherwise.” I grinned unrepentantly when she slapped my chest, silently scolding me for teasing her, and then relaxed back into the grass and thought about her predicament and how I could help her. “I could try teaching you.”
Her nose wrinkled and she rolled her face towards my chest. “Not today. I just want to lie here with you. I don’t want to think about magic or powers or another side of me… not right now. Let me just have this… this…”
“Normal?” I offered as she floundered.
She had sought what she had called ‘normal’ after her parents had died, wanting to spend time with me as we had before they had been taken from her, before Morden had come for her and taken her from me.
“We can do normal.” I lifted my head and pressed a kiss to her silver-white hair.
Because I loved our normal.
I loved these quiet moments together, when it was only us, as if we were the only two people in the world and nothing bad waited for us beyond these precious minutes together.
Her little sigh was my sweet reward, together with her emerging to trace the lines of my muscles with her fingertips.
“Maddening me,” I murmured and her soft chuckle chased all trace of darkness from my heart.
This, I could do forever.
I had thought it would be war. Destruction. Death. Things I had revelled in before I had met her.
It turned out, I rather enjoyed lazing with my little wolf, letting the minutes tick past as I did nothing more than hold her, feeling her heat and weight in my arms.
Said little wolf had other plans.
“I want to explore every inch of your body.” She rolled closer and pressed kisses to my chest, her breath cool against the moisture she left behind as she whispered, “I want to chart every stupidly beautiful inch of you and put it all to memory again.”
“One might think you missed me,” I murmured as I folded my arms behind my head, using them as a pillow, and looked down the length of my body and then at her, my smile wicked. “Do not let me stop you.”
Her answering smile was just as wicked.
As was the torment as she kissed her way down my body, so wonderfully bold as her hands found the waist of my trousers and she unfastened them again.
Her hand slid into them as she licked and nipped at my stomach, and I swallowed as her warm palm cupped me before sliding up the length of my cock.
She teased me with her fingers, a master torturer, knowing exactly where to feather the pads of her fingers to leave me at her mercy.
Her blue gaze seared me as she inched down my body, charting every sculpted plane of it as she had threatened, the way she admired me only making me hungrier for her.
She swirled her tongue around my navel, and then down my rigid shaft, before she licked up the length of it, a low purring moan escaping her.
“You really did miss the taste of meat.” I chuckled but it ended on a gasp as she met my gaze and wrapped her lips around me, taking me into her wet heat.
I locked my hands behind my head, leashing the urge to thrust into her mouth as she explored me, letting her have her way with me. Being at her mercy was rather nice.
I was not one to surrender control easily, I never had been even before I had become king, but I found surrendering it to her was most bewitching and satisfying.
She showed me it could be even more satisfying than I had imagined as my eyes slipped closed in response to the pleasure building inside me as she sucked and stroked me, and she stopped, lifting her mouth from me.
And uttered three words that undid me.
“Eyes on me.”
Three words I had used on her once, when our positions had been reversed and I had been the one stroking and teasing her.
The one in control.
I groaned and complied with her, opening my eyes to look down the length of my body to her and my aching cock so close to her pretty little mouth. She kept her sultry gaze locked with mine as she slowly drifted back to it and wrapped her lips around it again.
My eyes wanted to roll back in my head as she worked my shaft, gripping it and stroking it in time with her mouth, leaving no inch of me untouched, but I gritted my teeth and kept them on her, obeying her command, watching what she was doing to me.
Sweet goddess. My hips rocked of their own volition, sliding my cock into that greedy little mouth, my balls tightening as I groaned and fought to hold her gaze, to resist the urge to tangle my hand in her hair and hold her as I took her mouth.
She was in control.
I wanted her to be in control.
Her head lifted from me and I growled. I did not want her to be in control. Not if she was going to stop just as I was about to climax.
She flicked her tongue over the dark head of my cock. “Payback is a bitch, isn’t it?”
I groaned and sank into the grass as she went to war on me again, licking and sucking me, swirling her tongue around the head, pushing me right to the edge.
And as she felt me tense, as I could not help but thrust into the ring of her fingers and her delicious mouth, she stopped again.
“Killing me,” I groaned, echoing the words she had cursed me with when I had spread her out on the dining table and feasted on her.
I struggled to keep my eyes on her as she took me into her mouth again, her eyes slipping shut now, her moan vibrating my shaft as she took me deeper, so I struck the back of her throat.
Too much.
My balls tightened.
She lifted her head again, severing contact.
I gritted my teeth to growl at her, dangerously close to taking hold of her and twisting her beneath me.
My growl died in my throat as she crawled up me, her cheeks flushed and eyes dark. I stilled beneath her, barely breathing as she reached under her dress to take hold of me and guide me into her slick heat.
We groaned together as she sank onto me.
Her palms scalded my chest as she began working her hips, rising up and down my cock.
A moan fell from my lips as she raised herself up, until I almost slipped free of her, before she plunged down again, making me feel all of her.
I pulled my hands from under my head and tugged her corset down again, freeing her breasts, and palmed them as she rode me.
Her head fell back, her breathless moans music to my ears as she leaned back and clutched my hands to her chest, her teeth teasing her lower lip as we tweaked her nipples together.
Goddess, I wanted to touch all of her. I wanted to feel her coming on my cock, and I would shatter before her if I did not do something.
Shadows stirred, slipping from beneath me and her dress, twining around her legs and snaking up her thighs, relaying the feel of her skin to me. I groaned in time with her as I stroked her with them, teasing her with a light touch all over her body.
She gasped as they delved between her thighs, her startled eyes leaping to me before she surrendered to them, moaning as she arched her back.
I growled as I stroked her slick clit with them, as I palmed her breasts and thrust into her, touching all of her, watching her cheeks pinken as her moans came faster, louder.
“Kael,” she groaned, her face contorting as her heat gripped me.
I curled my shadows around her and pulled her down onto me as I plunged into her.
I did not stifle her sweet cries as release hit her this time.
I savoured her howl of pleasure as I joined her, my orgasm tearing through me as I buried myself deep inside her and spilled, my shadows holding her on me, the urge to make her take all of me so strong and intoxicating I could not deny it.