Salt and Smoke
The words barely left my mouth before his was on mine, and it was electric, tasting like smoke from a wicked, all-consuming fire. He wasn’t slow and exploratory as if we had all the time in the world—because we didn’t. He was burning and demanding, kissing me like there might not be a tomorrow.
As his tongue found mine, my hands found the bottom of his shirt and ripped it up and over his head. In the few moments the kiss was broken, I took in the hard lines of his chest and stomach and the delicious V that traveled below the waistline of his pants. He was lean and oh-so-beautiful.
“Naked. Now.”
I didn’t hesitate to obey. His commanding and gravelly voice sent liquid heat down deep into my core.
“Good girl.”
It turned out that I really liked the sexual praise, my muscles clenching in response. And he smiled devilishly as if he knew it too.
One of his hands found the back of my neck, pulling me back in for another punishing kiss while the other wrapped around my back and found my ass.
He let out a deep moan of need against my lips, and I thought that sound alone could be my undoing.
My back hit the cool living room wall that he’d backed me into, causing my nipples to harden as the framed art on the wall rattled.
He started a trail of fervent kisses down my cheek and neck, right over my jagged scars, and continued down my heaving chest. I put my hands on his shoulders and let them explore his upper back, feeling the movement of his muscles as he continued to lower himself down my body.
As he reached my navel with his tongue, he grabbed my wandering hands and placed them on my breasts, squeezing my hands so that together we kneaded my heavy, aching flesh, drawing a moan from us both.
There were no thoughts in my mind save for how desperate I was to feel this male moving inside me. I looked down to watch his kisses continue as he let go of my hands.
“Keep playing,” he commanded against my hip.
And so I kept playing, kept kneading my breasts as his kisses drew closer to the bud of nerves that was wound tight with desperate need.
His hands wrapped around the backs of my thighs, traveling up and onto my backside. With his fingers splayed, his hands covered nearly my entire ass and squeezed to an almost painful point.
But I relished it.
He looked up at me from his knees, his lips barely an inch from the apex of my thighs. “I’ve been dying to taste you for so long.” And then he did just that, pulling me onto his mouth and devouring.
“Fuck,” was all I could moan, squeezing my breasts harder. Gods, he was good with his tongue, spinning and swirling and then licking and sucking. I was on the cusp of release already, the tension building inside.
He lifted one of my thighs to drape my leg over his shoulder, my body begging for his tongue the moment he stopped. I felt entirely exposed with my thighs spread for him, but I found I was comfortable with him in this way.
“Drayce, please,” I ground out.
He looked up at me from between my thighs, never breaking eye contact as he dragged his tongue right up my slick center, drawing a gasp from me, and stopped at the tight, swollen bundle of nerves. “Please, what?” He started circling a maddeningly slow rhythm with his thumb.
“I need you inside me,” I panted. “Drayce, please!” I was borderline yelling at this point, feeling like I might explode, frantic.
“I fucking love it when you beg.” With that, he plunged a finger inside me, pumping in and out, drawing a cry of pleasure from me. “Did you know I command storms, Naci?”
I had no idea what he was even asking, just that my name on his lips was the sexiest thing I’d ever heard and that his fingers felt like pure bliss as he slid a second inside, stretching me delightfully.
“Can you imagine how good it would feel if my tongue danced over your most sensitive spot with a static buzz?”
I didn’t even process what he’d said until his tongue replaced his thumb, and I felt the static dancing through my nerves, sending me over the edge immediately with a heady moan, my body clenching around his fingers.
He continued pumping and licking through the orgasm, and as the last wave was coursing through me, he stood up, the absence of his fingers and mouth devastating. For a fleeting moment, I thought about what tomorrow would bring. But that was tomorrow’s problem…
He turned me around and pushed me up against the wall with my head turned so I could watch him behind me. With one hand, he undid his pants while he licked the two fingers on the other that had been inside me.
He let out a deep moan. “You taste like pure fucking sin.” His words sent a fresh wave of coiling tension into my core.
I dropped my eyes to see his hard length come free of his pants, fueling my body with a need to feel it inside me.
“Hands on the wall,” he said.
I would do literally anything he said in that tone, so I did. He leaned in, his hardness pressing against me.
I panted, chest rising and falling rapidly against the wall. The coolness against my cheek and breasts wasn’t nearly enough to tame the heat radiating from me.
With one hand, he gripped himself, teasing my drenched entrance, while the other traced a line up my stomach and between my breasts to stop at my throat. He wrapped his fingers around and squeezed gently as his lips found my ear. “Tell me if you want me to be gentle.”
His entire body was flush with mine, and gentle was the last thing I wanted him to be.
“No,” I panted.
The pressure around my throat increased, making my pulse quicken further and my head feel like it was swimming. He was firmly in control of my body, and gods, I loved it.
“Good,” was all the warning I got before he grabbed my hip, thrusting inside me, making me gasp with pleasure. He was a lot to get used to, filling me so completely I thought I would finish again right then.
Then I felt the same static charge he’d had on his tongue deep in my core as he thrust harder into me, and every nerve in my body sang.
I finished with a scream.
But he didn’t stop. He just kept pounding into me, over and over, one hand still at my throat and the other gripping my hip, fingers digging into my flesh.
“Come for me again.” His voice had turned as feral as his rhythm.
He released my throat, sending a rush of blood that gave me a buzz better than any wine I’d ever had, then brought his hand around me to circle my sensitive bud with statically charged fingers.
“Let me hear you come, Naci, say it for me.”
His static was a gods-send. I had never felt anything so wonderfully pleasurable.
He thrust and circled, my every nerve alight with a tormenting buzz. “Fuck, Drayce, I’m coming!” I screamed right before a final thrust drew a deep, growling moan from him.
He eased himself out of me, resting his forehead on my shoulder and sliding his hands up my arms to entwine our fingers. Neither of us moved for a while, our heavy breathing beginning to slow.
He kissed my shoulder just beside Noxie’s mark before turning me around and scooping me up into his arms to carry me to bed. I felt like I was moments from blissful sleep, my body completely spent.
He laid me down gently. “Do you want me to stay with you?”
I slid my legs under the covers and rolled onto my side. “Of course I do. Come cuddle me.”
He smiled and crawled into bed and settled behind me.
Then I was lost to oblivion.
* * *
Waking next to Drayce with his arm draped over my hip felt like a stolen moment of beautiful fantasy.
Stolen from someone who didn’t have the weight of the world on their shoulders.
I lay there and allowed myself to bask in it.
I’d fought my desire for him for so long.
Now I wondered how long we had left, wondered why I’d fought it so long.
I thought back over all the things that were said before the sex, before turning my thoughts to what we had to do.
His words meant the world to me, but we had a mission to focus on before I could give them any deeper thought.
“You taste even better than I’d imagined.”
I huffed a laugh. “We sail for Ashenholt today, and that’s what you’re thinking about?”
“Oh yes. It’s likely all I’ll think about the entire trip.”
I smiled and shook my head. He kissed the sensitive skin behind my ear before pulling me into him further, our naked bodies without a hair of separation. He held me for a few silent minutes, our last moments before we’d chase chaos and death.
I took the time to memorize his scent, his heartbeat against my back, the steady rise and fall of his breaths before the inevitable ending of the moment came, and we got out of bed.
We dressed in our warmer black leathers and made a few pieces of toast to take with us on the walk to the council room. Reality set in as the first light of day crept over the horizon.
Aerie and Bramick were already there, like always, and over the next ten quiet minutes, the other leaders arrived.
“We’ll run through the plan one more time and then pack bags and head out,” Drayce said once we were all seated.
“We sail for Ashenholt and anchor off the coast west of Ashthorn and avoid Dolvenar. Aerie and Noxie will stay on the boat as relay messengers, and Naci will fly in with the aerial scout unit.”
Aerie jumped in. “I had the Guilds build a saddle for Bernitha. In her vey form, she can easily carry Naci.”
The muscular female behind Aerie nodded, tucking a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear.
I hadn’t yet met her, but even in her fae form she looked strong enough to easily carry me and a saddle.
Every muscle was cut and accentuated on her bare arms. She was a bit scary actually, but she gave me a reassuring smile.