Chapter Sixteen - Rhea
I was awake before the first rays of dawn’s sunlight began creeping over the Blue Mountains and into my window. My body was electric from the memory of last night and the final release of tension between Dante and me.
But it had done nothing to cool the way my core heated whenever I thought about him. And now I wasn’t sure who was leading whom in our little dance. I knew Dante wanted me, would do terrible, wonderful things to have me, but I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t do the same if he promised to do the things he did to me last night again.
I sighed and slipped out of bed. There would be no more sleeping for me, not with the way my thoughts always spiraled back to the feeling of my back pressed against a wall and Dante’s fingers curling inside me.
Dressing in the simple green slip dress that Kiya had laid out for me at some point during the night, I reached out to Dante through the bond we shared. The wall between our minds was raised, but when I curled my consciousness up against it, I felt him relent and let me in.
He was in his study, Aeon and Horst with him speaking in low, harsh voices. Aeon even went so far as to strike the wooden desk between them with a closed fist, shaking the ink pot and shifting the open texts that sat on it. Dante growled, and his brother sat back, still fuming but quieter now.
“We’ve made several attempts to get to the citadel with a war party, and none of them have come close. We must return to the original plan. Stealth and surprise are our only options.”
“The three of us against the whole of the citadel? The very place where they make their cursed elixirs? Where they train humans to become mindless killing machines?” Horst hissed at Aeon.
“What other choice is there? Or would you let her be drained in the catacombs?”
“He’s right,” Dante said at last, a wave of despair flowing over him. “We must try. We’ve let her suffer long enough.”
He swallowed past a hard lump in his throat, but when he spoke, his words were crisp and clear. “If we cannot free her, we can at least end her suffering.”
The others went quiet, and a sense of resignation went through the room. Flashing back into my own mind, I found myself standing outside the huge wooden doors to the study. I blinked. I had been so wrapped up in the conversation that I hadn’t realized where my feet were taking me.
The doors swung inwards, and Horst nearly barreled me over as he stepped out of them. He looked me over with surprise that turned to an annoyed amusement, then swept an arm out to direct me into the room.
I walked in with a short curtsy to Horst and a nod to Aeon, who gave me an exaggerated sigh as he left, closing the doors behind him. Dante sat behind the desk, twirling a pen in his hand and watching me with intent, worried eyes.
Each step I took towards him seemed to take an eternity. In each second, I became more desperate to wipe the look of despair from his beautiful face.
When I reached him, I took the pen from his hand, then slipped into his lap. Without hesitation, he wrapped his arms around my waist as I draped mine around his neck.
“Who is at the citadel?” I asked as gently as I could. “Who is this woman you are so desperate to save?”
Dante was quiet for a long moment, only reaching a hand up to run his fingers through the waves of my hair where they fell over my shoulder.
“My sister,” he said. “She was captured months ago.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. Vella, the sister who had inherited the throne. I could feel that she was the only member of his family who had never feared him, only ever showing him love.
“You will bring her back here,” I whispered as I leaned towards his ear. “I know it.”
“We’ve tried for months.” His voice broke on the last word, the depths of his sadness breaking through from the box in his chest where he kept his emotions locked away. “How will we save her when all other attempts have failed?”
“Because you will have me.”
He pulled away sharply and searched my face. “Why would you want to help us? The attempt to get her back has already cost many human lives.”
I winced at the thought of my own people suffering because of this mission, but I held his gaze and continued. “I know the citadel better than anyone, I was raised there. If you need a way in, I’m your best hope. Besides, the High Priest will trust me. Surprise and stealth are your best options, and I can provide you with both.”
I pressed my mind against Dante’s, letting my sincerity wash over him. His eyes filled with tears.
“I’ve learned since I’ve come here, this place is no less awful than the place I come from.” I took Dante’s hand and pressed it against the side of my face. “But if you and I work together, I think we can make things better. For both our worlds.”
“Two souls, two races entwined,” he whispered.
“We will make our own fate. Together,” I said. My hand drifted to the shadows of his face, a quiet question pressing from my mind to his.
For a heartbeat, he only watched me with those violet eyes. Then, like fog lifting under the light of the morning sun, the shadows faded away.
I sucked in a breath through my teeth as his face was revealed to me. Even the expansive length of the scar that stretched from his lower right eye to the sharp line of his jaw could not take away from the beauty of him. Tenderly, I drew my fingers across the scar, the dark arch of his eyebrow, the line of his jaw, his full lips.
All the while, his deep violet eyes watched me with anxious anticipation.
“You’re beautiful,” I breathed, still memorizing him with my hands and my eyes. His face fell against my chest as he let out a breath of relief.
“I haven’t let anyone see me. Not in centuries,” he said.
“Why me?”
He didn’t answer, but the way his arms tightened around me as if terrified I would disappear into the air was all the answer I’d ever need. He was mine.
I stroked the feathers in his hair as he kept his face buried in my chest. Here was the dark prince of the fae kingdom, the weapon that would end the world. My stomach tightened as I realized why he could be this way, be so vulnerable. He trusted me. And I didn’t deserve it.
“We should burn this place to the ground, this and the human kingdom as well,” I whispered against the soft blackness of his hair. “Then you and I could be free of it all.”
He looked up at me, and again, I was lost in the stunning sight of his full face. “Just say the word. I’m at your command.”
“Are you?” I pulled back slightly, seeing the desire in his eyes making him hazy, impressionable. I knew I could ask anything of him, but as his arms again tightened around me and his lips pressed against mine, there was nothing I wanted but him.
I pulled back from the kiss just enough that our lips brushed against each other but did not close. “Then touch me the way you did last night.”
A deep growl rumbled through him and up into my bones as he crushed his mouth against mine. Desperately, he reached his hand up under my dress, finding me wet and waiting for his touch.
He drove a finger into me as his tongue explored my mouth.
“Slower,” I demanded of him. I smiled against his lips as he obeyed, slowing the thrust of his fingers to a tantalizingly slow pace. “Good, now deeper.”
I threw my head back as he again followed my directions, driving another finger into me and pressing them deep into my sex. Dante pulled the neck of my dress down to expose my breasts and took one into his mouth, softly sucking and licking at my peaked nipple.
My hips rose and fell against him, and I could feel his cock straining to be free of his pants. I reached down to cup him in my hand.
“What else would you do to finally be inside of me?” I asked, though my breath was coming in ragged waves as his teeth closed around my nipple and his fingers drove relentlessly in and out of me.
“Anything,” he growled against my chest, pausing to look up at me with adamant eyes. I did my best to hide my own desperation to have him filling me as I smirked at him.
“Take me with you,” I said firmly. “Have me every night on the road.”
A smile crept over his face. “You wicked thing.”
My hand found its way into his pants. I stroked lightly along the length of his cock, letting myself soak in the silken steel of it. I helped him out of his pants, then settled myself over him on the chair.
“Take me,” I whispered in his ear, holding his throbbing length at the very entrance of my sex.
“As you wish,” he said, his teeth closing down on my ear as he arched his hips, letting the tip of his cock break past my entrance. He held me by the waist so tightly that I couldn’t escape the way he stretched me, nor could I push myself down to fill myself completely.
“Breathe,” he commanded, and I realized I’d been holding my breath in anticipation of his next thrust. I let out a breath and slowly inhaled. “Good girl.”
Dante nuzzled his face against my neck, kissing his way from my collarbone to my left, then my right breast.
“Dante,” I whimpered, all the control and power I’d had a moment ago washed away the moment he’d begun finally joining us fully. “Dante, please. ”
A low laugh came from his chest as he held me in place. I writhed against him. “So impatient, take a moment to feel me. Don’t you like the way even this much of me stretches you? Can’t you feel how hard you make me?”
A moan broke from me as his thumb found my clit, drawing those delicious circles like it had last night. He pressed himself another inch inside of me, and my head fell backwards.
“More, please, I want all of you.”
Finally, he obliged me. A scream broke from my lips as he seated himself to the hilt.
“ Fuck ,” he ground out, pulsing deep inside of me as he let my body adjust to the size of him. Then with another push, he pressed even further. I screamed his name as he pulled back, nearly shaking with the effort of restraint. He filled me again and again, his pace quickening as my hips matched his every motion. I cried out in pain and in pleasure as his teeth closed around my nipple.
“This is mine, Rhea, do you understand? You were made for me, and I was made for you. No one will have you like this again.”
He continued thrusting into me, his pace relentless and his strokes along my clit matching in perfect time the demands of my body. His mind washed over mine as his pleasure peaked. How could I want anyone else after this?
“Say it,” he said, his hand coming up to grip the back of my neck as waves of pleasure rushed through me, pushing me dangerously close to the edge. My eyes rolled backwards as his lips found mine.
“I’m yours, Dante,” I said with whatever breath I could find. Then I reached between us to close a hand around the shaft of his cock. I relished the feel of him as he continued to thrust. “And you are mine.”
Dante pressed himself into my very core with a grunt of pleasure as he spilled himself inside of me. As his pleasure took him, I felt every sensation the both of us shared as I shattered around him. He crushed his mouth against mine as I cried out again, as if he could swallow my pleasure, mingle it again with his own.
He kissed me softer and softer in time with the quieting pulse of his hips against me. When we both finally stilled, he brought a hand to the side of my face. I opened my eyes to see his shining with a depth of emotion I’d never seen in them before.
“You’ll be the undoing of me,” he said softly.
When he kissed me again, my heart nearly broke in two in my liar’s chest. I had him. After all these long weeks of winning control over him, he was finally mine. But something had changed. I didn’t know who I was anymore.
A knock sounded on the door, but Dante was unbothered. Whatever was coming for us, we had this moment. I buried my face in his chest and breathed in the scent of him, of us.
For now.