25. Twenty-Five #2
“It’s a promise,” Callan snarled as he slid his hand between her thighs, cupping her sex roughly through her breeches.
Nova cried out at the delicious pressure.
“I could track you to the end of the world by this alone.” His voice was little more than a growl.
Nova’s jaw went slack, her head lolling to the side as she rocked her hips against his hand.
“Prove it.”
The terror triggered by the vision of her death abandoned her.
Her heart thudded wildly behind her ribs, blood rushing to her core, flooding her with desire and reminding her she was still alive.
Nova continued to grind wantonly against Callan’s palm, only realizing he’d leaned closer to her when he spoke against her ear, his breath warming her chilled skin.
“Start running.”
Callan tore his hand from between her legs, and Nova whimpered as the pleasant heat disappeared with it. He stood over her once more, reaching down and pulling her to her feet.
“And Starlight.” He crushed her against him, his mouth at her temple, his voice a wild rumble in her ear. “When I catch you, I will claim you.”
He released her hand, and Nova spun away from him, sprinting deeper into the forest, jumping over roots, and dodging low-hanging branches.
Battling the urge to glance back over her shoulder, she pressed forward, spurred on by an intoxicating combination of desire and fear.
The forest grew darker the farther she got from the tree line.
Though the low light made it more difficult for her to navigate the wood, it would make finding her more challenging for Callan as well.
Nova had no illusions that she could evade him for long.
He was faster and stronger than she was, and the scent of her arousal would, without doubt, lead him directly to her no matter how far or fast she fled.
Still, life flowed through her in the burn in her lungs and the rush of her blood in her ears.
She’d no notion of how much time had passed when, at last, she reached her limit.
Leaning back against a wide tree trunk, she pressed her lips closed, forcing her ragged breath in and out through her nose.
Though she managed to get her breathing under control, her heart refused to obey, pounding with eager anticipation as she peeked around the tree.
For a time, she saw nothing. Heard nothing.
But when she turned back around, he was there.
Instinctively, she threw a punch aimed at his jaw, but Callan caught her fist. Nova gasped, wrenching her hand free and stumbling sideways away from the tree before falling on her ass.
She kicked at the mossy ground to distance herself from him, not yet ready to admit defeat.
Callan stalked toward her, steps sure and unhurried, then dropped to his knees, large hands spreading her thighs wide and pinning them to the ground.
She squirmed beneath him, moaning shamelessly as he dragged his face from her cunt to her throat, breathing her in before biting at the sensitive spot at the curve of her jaw.
Wyld magic floated on the breeze unseen, urging her not to surrender. To continue the game. At first, she gripped Callan’s shoulders, shoving against him with all her strength as he ground his hips between her legs, his hungry growl rumbling along her chest.
But then, she yielded.
To the inevitability of him. Of them. To the unceasing pull of a tide she would drown in, happily. A notion at once terrifying and comforting: She wasn’t alone. She never would be again.
Sensing the change in her, Callan pulled away, bracing himself above her and giving her room to move.
Nova rolled onto her stomach on the bed of soft moss.
Burying his fingers in her hair, Callan tugged lightly before his hands roamed down her body, throwing the fabric of her cloak aside and pulling at her waistband until she was bared to him.
His hands left her, and Nova shot a glance over her shoulder to find him swiftly undoing his laces. A needy whine escaped her as he slid his shaft along her slit before lining up the head at her entrance. When he hesitated—holding back—Nova begged.
Please.
Whether she’d spoken the word aloud or in his mind, Callan heard her plea and entered her all at once, stretching her to take every bit of him.
“Gods, Nova.”
Her name fell from his lips like a prayer murmured at the altar of her body. He lowered himself onto her, the full weight of him pinning her in place as he kept his cock sheathed within her, rocking his hips with slow thrusts. Her release built with every nudge against the deepest part of her.
“Do you see how desperate I am to bow down before you?” Callan asked between grazing bites and soft kisses planted on the back of her neck. “To touch you? Gently, roughly—however you want? To protect you and devour you all at once?”
Nova nodded jerkily, soft moss brushing against her cheek, and tilted her hips as much as her position would allow.
Callan’s astonished “fuck” as he sank even deeper ignited her, and she pressed back into him, her climax rippling along her tensed limbs before she went slack under him.
A final deep thrust had Callan spilling himself inside her, his face buried in the crook of her neck.
Several minutes passed, the sweat cooling on the surface of her skin, before he rolled off of her, propping himself on one elbow to tuck himself into his breeches.
Nova twisted onto her side, reaching out languidly to stroke his jaw, hidden under a scruffy beard.
His necklace had fallen loose from his collar while they’d rutted on the ground like beasts.
Her eyes followed the spinning silver medallion etched with the Eye of Brumal as it dangled above her.
Suddenly, she grasped the pendant in her hand and sat up to inspect it more closely.
“What’s the matter?” Callan asked, still out of breath, dipping his chin to look at the talisman lying flat in her palm.
Distractedly, she repeated the words the sprite had spoken outside the burial mound.
“Someone has their eye on you.”