Chapter 18 #2
I try not to examine the realization too closely, and that’s not difficult with Jai’s fingers in my hair and his cock in my mouth. It’s easy to lose myself in the feel of him, the scent, the taste, the burning presence of him.
I suck on his cock experimentally and his hips jerk forward. “Damn…”
He catches himself a little but I can feel the strain in his powerful body as he tries to hold back, not to ram his cock down my throat.
I almost grin—or would have, but my mouth is kind of occupied right now. His cock is so thick it stretches my lips and the head is choking me despite Jai’s best efforts to hold back.
I suck again, using my tongue to caress the hard length that’s lodged inside my mouth, spicy and hot like fire, and he curses. He jerks my head back harder, my scalp stinging, and the snarl on his pretty mouth makes me wonder if Phaethon managed to get ahold of his mind regardless.
His hips finally snap forward, driving his cock harder into my mouth, and my eyes water. I can’t breathe. I should be panicking.
But my body likes this. The throb between my legs becomes more insistent, a pulse going through me. A bolt of pleasure.
I gasp, moan around Jai’s cock. My core contracts, flooding me with another wave of pleasure. Oh Gods…
“Motherfucking hells,” he breathes, “I can fucking smell you, I can’t… Fuck…”
He comes in a salty rush down my throat with a strangled grunt. I choke on it, swallow it greedily, choke some more, until the pressure eases as he pulls back an inch or two, letting me breathe.
I draw back, mentally filing my body’s reaction for later, to re-examine it at my leisure. If I ever get the time.
Was this Phaethon? Because if this is Jai’s rough side, I wonder how much rougher Phaethon’s will be. And if I’d take it. If I’d like it.
Given that I don’t feel much for Phaethon except for this curious lust, while for Jai, I… I feel too much.
His harsh panting matches mine. His lips are pulled back, baring his white teeth, the canines slightly crooked and sharp, his dimple flashing cheekily, and the sight shouldn’t make my heart flip like that.
Why? Why does the sight touch something in me? Is it…?
“I smell your release,” he rumbles.
Really? Is there anything he can’t smell about me, is—
“Delicious. I want to lick it off you.”
And he wastes no time before laying me down on the bed and parting my legs, his smile turning wicked, gaze hot as it rakes over my exposed flesh, where I’m hot and wet and…
He dives down and his rough tongue, like a big cat’s, drags over every sensitive part of me, making me gasp. Then his strong fingers dig into my thighs as he shoves them further apart and gets down to it in earnest.
Licking. Sucking. Stabbing with his tongue deep inside of me, making me arch and writhe.
Oh Gods, oh Gods…
It’s too much, I just came, I can’t take it. The rough stubble of his jaw against my aching skin. The hint of teeth as he torments my clit. The growl of lust as he adds a finger, angling it inside of me, reaching deep, stroking…
“Jai!” I arch so high up my hips leave the bed completely, struggling to stifle another cry as I clench and clench, the pleasure stealing the light from my eyes for long moments.
He releases my legs and crawls over me to kiss me, share my taste with me. “So damn delicious,” he growls against my lips, panting hard. “Need you, makhair, I—”
A creak is all the warning we get before the door slides open and a woman steps inside the room.
A familiar woman with a white cap on her head and a white apron, the uniform of the palace maids.
Her gasp is so loud, it bounces against the walls. “Gods! My lady, I… I apologize.” She covers her open mouth with her hand. “It’s just… the banquet … your gown…”
I choke on laughter at her round-eyed expression as Jai pulls away. Slowly I sit up. “Daria… Can’t it wait?”
“My lady.” She curtsies, her face crimson.
“The banquet is almost upon us and you still need to bathe and we need to find a gown for you and alter it to fit you and… and my lord Athdara.” The crimson on her face deepens to puce.
“I, uh, I’m sure my lord wants to prepare himself for the banquet, too… ”
Athdara, that is, Jai, who is still kneeling beside me, his now softening cock still hanging out of his pants. He’s making no move to tuck himself back inside.
To be fair, his dark eyes look dazed. As dazed as I feel, sitting on the mattress, damp between my legs, and the scent of sex strong in the air.
“My lady,” Daria says again, a note of pleading in her voice. “We have very little time.”
I can now hear the chatter of more voices outside. More maids, probably.
“We haven’t bathed yet,” I protest, loathe to have this peaceful, pleasurable moment end. I’m not ready to return to reality yet.
“Better you bathe alone,” Jai says quietly, some of the dazedness leaving his gaze. “I told you. If I climb into a bathtub with you, we’re never going to that banquet.”
“Fuck the banquet,” I whisper, lost in the bliss of being with him.
The grin he gives me is blinding, the dimple in his cheek deep and adorable. Adorable isn’t an adjective I’d normally apply to a powerful man like Jai, but that boyish delight in his eyes cannot be described any other way.
My heart stutters in my chest.
Daria clears her throat, breaking this moment, too.
Damn. Will people stop breaking these golden moments, the best moments I’ve had since I lost Mars?
Mars… the king. My mission… this mess.
I’m sobering up quickly, and when Jai gives me a hand, I take it and let him haul me off the bed and to my feet.
“I’ll go,” he says.
I nod down at his cock. Even in its half-hard state, it’s thick and mouthwatering, and I want it inside me. “Better put the big fellow away.”
“Big fellow? Oh.” His grin turns teasing. “Are you and him best friends now?”
“No, but I’d like to be.”
He laughs, a low sound of pure joy, and I bite the inside of my cheek not to laugh, too. It’s so easy to fall into him, to fall for him. To fall into this easy banter. This isn’t like me. None of this is like me—making out with the enemy, sucking him off, teasing him.
I’m not that girl. Easygoing, relaxed, unafraid. Haven’t been in forever, and even then… I’d been but a child.
And now I’m not human.
He cups my face as if sensing the change in my mood. “You don’t love the king. It’s me you want, isn’t it?”
“You should go.” I look away, to avoid meeting his gaze. I have a feeling he will see right through me, right up to the thoughts I don’t even want to acknowledge for myself. “Daria is right. We should get ready. We can’t keep the king waiting.”
“What’s wrong?”
Is he even asking me this? “Fate can’t be undone.” He said that. Made his choice.
I see the moment the joy winks out of his dark eyes, replaced by weariness. “Rae…”
I step away from him. “What?”
I think I see wings of shadow spread at his back as he clenches his jaw, clenches his hands into fists at his sides. “Just… be careful.”
That’s it. That’s all he says. It’s sound advice, always applicable when it comes to the fae and life in general, but although I’m pushing him away, I had expected more, for him to insist, to clarify his cryptic remarks about mates and miracles.
Or at least to ask what it is with us, if there is an us now that we’ve made out and were intimate again. If I feel anything for him.
If there is any future.
It may be better he doesn’t ask any such questions, though, because the answer is no.