CHAPTER VIII #10
I’m still laying on the plush black rug and smiling at nothing in particular, everything about my body absolutely humming.
The tent for the most part is dark, but the fire from outside is creating a hazy ambiance inside as its red and orange flames lick over the man now standing above me.
I smile at shirtless Keane and notice that he has a new pair of black pants on, his legs moving to the sides of my thighs as he reaches down and offers his canteen of water.
I lean up on my elbows and take the drink, my slip still scrunched in the middle of my stomach and revealing the full of my top and bottom to him.
I take a sip and then reach for a strap dangling on my arm, lifting it over my shoulder to pull the fabric back over my chest. I move to do the same to the other but Keane is quick to lean down, his hand playfully swatting mine away as he tugs the first strap down and leaves me exposed to him yet again.
I laugh and shake my head at the Prince, watching as his brown gaze trails down between my thighs. He lets it linger on my flushed skin and looks on in approval, his head nodding at my sated body as if he’s proud of a job well done.
“You truly like watching me, don’t you?”
“More than you know, Alexis,” he murmurs.
He looks back at me with a glimmer of hunger, the look so raw in its desire that I shift heatedly on the rug. I quickly decide that I like this new look on him, the sincere look of longing that’s mixed with a genuine desire and lust.
“You leave your mark,” I note casually.
My fingers dart to my neck and chest with a grin, my skin both bruised and flushed in those areas from his claiming lips.
“As do you,” Keane’s eyes turn playful as he angles his shoulder in my direction.
It looks like I’ve left my own bruise on the top of his shoulder from where I bit down, and there’s also a few red lines on his back from when my nails grazed his skin.
“And you’re definitely not quiet,” he adds with a grin.
I look up at him for a small moment before asking, “does that bother you?”
“No,” he shakes his head, “never, Alexis. Scream my name as loud as you want. I could give a fuck who hears. So long as I’m the only one making you scream that way.”
I flush at his words and try to ignore that needy tug between my thighs again.
Ancients, I can’t get enough of him.
“But Golem?”
“Was for you,” he replies with a small smile.
He bends down to the rug with me and lands on his knees, his hands coming to the side of my head as he hovers over my body.
“I wanted you comfortable, Alexis, because I don’t ever want you to silence your sounds. Nothing will be stolen from me when it comes to you. Not your moans or your screams.”
Damn our promise under the Shadow Oak. I will take him right now.
Keane looks at me wickedly, watching as my whole body archs up for him in response.
“How did you know Golem could keep the space quiet?” I ask, hands falling on his strong thighs.
“My brothers and I would try to listen in on our father’s meetings when we were younger,” he smiles, “but any time Golem was with him it was like some barrier went up in the room and shielded the sound from within.”
Golems are known to have their own set of magic.
His words echo against the back of my mind from that night we spied on him in Agnor. I shift on the rug, feeling a bit guilty now that Golem and I were listening in on his group.
Should I tell him? Would he be upset?
I was upset when I learned they were spying on me in return. Are him and Desmond doing it still?
“You have this face you make when you go into your own thoughts,” Keane looks down at me in amusement, “I can see your mind racing right now behind that pretty face of yours, Alexis.”
I squeeze his thighs and look up at him. He looks good kneeling over me with his sculpted torso and his black pants slipping just below his hips. They look like they may come down at any time, and I find myself secretly wishing that they do.
“You didn’t let me touch you…”
“The marks on my back say otherwise.”
“Keane,” I shake my head, “you know what I mean.”
Keane chuckles and lifts a hand to our right, pulling on something I can’t see instead of answering.
“It’ll get cold soon,” he smiles down at me, brown hair falling forward. I find myself wanting to spend the rest of the night with my hands in that hair and playing with its softness.
“Do you not want me to?” I ask quietly, genuinely.
Keane shakes his head with another chuckle.
“Alexis, I crave your touch more than you could possibly know,” he brings his mouth slowly down to mine and nips at my bottom lip, “but the moment I let you touch me is the moment I know there will be no Shadow Oak.”
“That’s not fair,” I whisper.
He smiles and snakes his hand around my neck, pressing our lips together before his tongue demands entry. I let him kiss me deeply until that feeling of pure desire seeps back between my legs.
Blessed Ancients. How am I going to get any sleep tonight?
“I found my release, Alexis,” he whispers softly against my lips, “how could I not when you were screaming my name so perfectly?”
I gasp at his words and push my hands against his chest.
“You’re bad, Keane.”
“Mhmm, very bad,” he grins, brown eyes alight, “you’ll soon find that out.”
My breath literally catches in my chest.
There is no damn way I am getting any sleep tonight. Not with him so near. Not after experiencing the things he can do to me… to my body.
As if reading my mind or reading my eyes, Keane smiles and releases me from his overwhelming presence. He falls to the ground at my side, and it’s then that I realize he was pulling his bedroll closer to mine, the Prince dipping under the covers as I sigh and do the same.
Once I’m settled and warm under the blankets, Keane sneaks his arm around my waist and pulls me into his chest, drawing my back into his body.
I freeze at the gesture and go stiff under his arm, feeling as he pulls me in closer and presses his hips into the curve of my ass.
The intimacy of it all is foreign to me, but I quickly relax into his hold and enjoy the feel of his strong body enveloping mine.
Sleep tries to find me but I’m not surprised when it doesn’t. My body is still flushed and humming, a true compliment to Keane and his wicked hands and mouth, and though my body is thoroughly sated, my mind is starting to scatter all over again.
I find myself wishing that the two of us were drifting off under the lights of Fumagalli, not laying here with my thoughts about the Plains and who might try to sneak up on us in the night.
I also start thinking of tomorrow and my search, wondering how long I’ll be in the dark depths of another library and if anything will come of it this time.
Two years of looking for something that contains those damn words. Two years of always coming up short.
“I didn’t do my job well enough if you’re still awake, Alexis,” Keane murmurs quietly against my hair.
I nestle closer into his body and feel his arm tighten in return.
“You did,” I smile, “trust me.”
I reach again to my neck, feeling how sensitive it is.
He kisses my fingers through my hair and rests his head against mine, the two of us taking a deep breath together.
I will my thoughts to abandon Red Falls and find some sleep, but they immediately roam back to Fumagalli and all of the many bows and arrows that line every tree corner.
“What are you preparing for at Fumagalli?” I whisper, not even knowing if Keane is awake.
He is.
I feel his own body stiffen for a small moment before he replies. “What do you mean?”
“I mean what I said last night,” I sigh, “that I know there’s more to your Hidden City.”
Keane’s hand across my waist dips to my hip, his fingers moving in small, comforting circles as he thinks on his answer.
“My father believes that the forests surrounding our lands offers all the protection we need from any outsiders, and while I agree that the woods are foreboding in themselves and can stall off most foreigners, I also know that they are not enough.”
“So a precaution, then?” I keep my eyes closed, relaxing against his small movements.
“Yes,” he breathes into my hair and he kisses my neck again.
“From who?”
“The Leviathans have been inching closer to our borders over the last five years. They send riding scouts near the entry to the Great Road and to our southern border at Varon.”
“Why?”
His head gives a small shake behind me, “I’m working with Desmond to find that out.”
“Is that why you were upset this morning? The three of you?”
Keane chuckles and grabs a hold of my hip, his own pressing into my rear.
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“I do,” I smile, “must be the curious Knowledge in me.”
“Or the bold Warrior,” he whispers into my ear.
I close my eyes with a grin and lean back into his body. We remain quiet for a long time before my mind gets the better of me yet again.
“Have you visited the library at Red Falls?”
Keane sighs into my hair and moves his hand up the bedroll. He snakes it under the covers and brushes his fingers against my breasts.
“I will wear you out, Alexis,” he promises, “find your sleep in the next turn or I will find it for you. I’ll make sure you drift off with my fingers still inside you.”
My eyes snap open at the comment, my body tensing in anticipation as his fingers brush against my nipple in soft warning. I consider letting him, Ancients know I would enjoy nothing more, but I decide to opt for something else…
“Just tell me about it,” I close my eyes with a small shake of my head, “tell me what you’ve seen in the city.”
Keane’s fingers move gently over my chest in a caress.
“The fortress and the library are built into the Charred Mountains. There’s a large waterfall in the middle that falls down into the main town and feeds into the River Livyatan, and the library is larger than any we have in the Court of Warriors.
It has a great many steps leading up to it, with the entry seeming to be swallowed into the mountain behind it.
I will be with you when you arrive, but I’ve never been inside. ..”
“There’s snow there, covering the full of the mountain and the city below.
Have you ever seen snow, Alexis? I’m going to watch you when you see it falling over the city for the first time.
Prince McQuoid will meet us when we arrive at the fortress.
He’s a close friend of mine, though his snow tiger takes some getting used to.
Him and his wife both command the royal creatures.
The city itself is best to look at in the late day, when the sun sets on the mountain and falls in a deep red hue that reflects against the waterfall.
It makes it look like fire is pouring out of the mountain… ”
I fall asleep to the sound of his voice and a vision of Red Falls in my mind.