Chapter 37 Wings and Things #2
“Whether I can depends on a number of conditions,” he replied, laying her on the bed with infinite care, stretching her out, then running hands along her body, one wing also dipping to caress her side as he sat beside her. “You are all over bruises, Arantxa.”
“Fortunately all these blues and purples are your favorite colors.” She made a joke of it, but she did look pretty terrible, with plenty of greenish browns in the patterns radiating over her body. She didn’t remember getting most of them. “I’m surprised I don’t feel worse.”
“These are all peripheral remnants,” he replied absently, taking one foot in his hands with a barely-there touch, his wing cupping beneath her knee to support her leg. “The elixir I gave you initially took care of the internal healing at least.”
“I should have bathed in that,” she joked.
He raised a brow. “You did.”
Huh. “Then why—ahhh,” her breath sighed out of her as his lips pressed to her swollen ankle. The relief from that minor pain felt like cool water on a hot day.
He smiled against her skin, tracing the strained ligaments with his clever tongue. “There’s internal. There’s surface. Now I’m getting the in-between.”
“My in-between is enjoying this very much,” she admitted, melting into the bed. Maybe her knees would be the same again, a cheerful thought if she ever got another chance at that particular flavor.
“From this end, too,” he told her in a voice as soft and sueded as his wings. “The turn of your ankle here, is so lovely. And the arch of your foot.” He pressed a kiss to the spot, sending warm tumbrels of sensation up through her. “Such long toes, and the second toe is the longest.”
“That’s supposed to be a sign of fae blood in a human. Or intelligence. You can take your pick which is more likely with me.”
He chuckled, music in it, and drew that toe into his mouth, suckling lightly before releasing it. “Charming,” he commented before giving each of her toes the same loving treatment, then moving up her calf.
This was new to her, being ministered to, being cared for.
Yes, he was using his magic to heal her with blessed generosity, but it felt like more than that.
Not that she would un-barrier her heart—that was a non-starter—but she could relax into this feeling of…
being adored. Inside her head, she could admit to that, though she’d deny it at the top of her lungs if anyone else suggested it.
For the moment, bathed in amethyst light and Azul’s unwavering attention, she could enjoy. Was this how trust felt?
Whatever it was, the delicious feeling made her wonder what else she’d been missing in life. Well, she would go on missing it, because this was only for now.
Azul continued his intimate inventory of her body, describing how enticing he found every aspect of her mortal flesh, in detail, caressing, kissing, licking, healing, and nipping as he went.
He reminded her of Zazu reading for herself for the first time and insisting on reading the book aloud to every adult of her limited acquaintance, over and over, pointing out the words as she did, and frequently pausing to recap the story so far.
Except that Azul’s enthusiastic exploration and discussion was, fortunately and of course, actually sexy and fully engrossing.
Unfortunately, Azul’s study of her body was also exceedingly more frustrating.
The man who hadn’t been able to wait to be inside her a short time ago had transformed into one with an excruciating amount of patience.
Several times, she attempted to seize him and end the healing/teasing, but he resisted her easily, using his wings to pin her in place like velvet-covered ropes of woven steel.
“I’m not stopping until you’re entirely healed,” he informed her with that arrogance that perversely appealed to her. “Also, this is my first and likely last opportunity to properly worship your body. I’ll not allow you to rush me through it.”
Cha squirmed in futile rebellion, simultaneously wrung out to the point of wilting and fulminating with need.
She didn’t like to think about this being the end of their time together, so she didn’t pursue that angle.
There was nothing to argue there anyway.
“Surely I have nothing you haven’t properly worshipped before,” she said to the ceiling, shuddering with the erotic intensity of his ministrations, trying to think of ways to hurry him up.
“I’ve never been with a human woman before,” he replied, slowly licking the underside of her breast.
She ignored the completely unreasonable ping of delight at hearing that. Yes, yes—you’re totally special, Cha. Temporarily. Get over it. “Are we so different?”
He lifted his head and slithered up her body, rubbing his naked self against her like a cat, then kissing her deeply. Lifting his head, he held her gaze. “Yes. And you, Arantxa, are unlike anyone else. Stop fighting me and let me have this.”
“I’m not fighting you,” she said, oddly chastened and also touched by his words.
And fragile, deep inside, rawly vulnerable in a way she never was.
“I can’t fight you,” she pointed out, managing to add some asperity to her voice, demonstrating by struggling against the wings holding her.
His thumb claws curled in response, scraping gently, erotically against the surprisingly sensitive skin at the pulse points of her wrists, making her convulse and hiss out her breath.
“I mean in here,” he murmured, placing a kiss on her forehead and shifting to plant a more lavish one between her breasts, over her thudding heart. “And here. Can’t you trust me, just a little?” he asked almost wistfully.
“I’m here aren’t I?” she returned. “In your evil fae lair letting you have your way with me.”
“Evil, hmm?” He mused over that, humming in that lovely tenor and brushing light kisses over her breasts. He seemed particularly fascinated by them, loving to play with her nipples, along with her belly button, likely because he didn’t have either. “I’m not evil.”
She wrapped fingers around his thumb claws, drawing the pads of them along the lethally curved edge, and shimmied against the wing membranes draped lavishly over her skin. “Gothic,” she whispered. “My violet prince, pretty as a devil.”
“You haven’t seen many actual devils if you think that,” he said with a slight smile, “but I’ll take the compliment as intended, my beautiful, sacred, and thorny lover.” He settled more deeply against her. “Spread your thighs for me, Arantxa,” he urged quietly.
Though she kind of wanted to defy the order for form’s sake, she also wasn’t going to cut off her nose to spite her face, so she obeyed eagerly, wrapping her legs around him.
He sheathed himself in her, slickly, seamlessly, both of them shuddering at the final click of that lock and key fitting together.
As if that key unlocked something deep inside, she unraveled, coming apart in slow increments too gradual to be called climaxes, too intense to be anything else.
The sensation rolled through her, ongoing, shredding every last boundary, Azul’s face poised above hers, indigo eyes sparking amethyst and locked on hers, body similarly riveted to hers, his wings spreading huge and high, violet night shrouding them from the world.
As he crested, they opened to full expanse, radiating magic that poured into and through her, infusing her with wellbeing she’d never before experienced.
He released and relaxed, burying his face in the side of her throat, wings folding to embrace her, along with the arms he wrapped around her. Safe and protected, entangled in every way, even the dangerous ways, she fell into blissful rest.