Chapter 63
elaine
The manor was a lively place once we made it back.
We spent two weeks recovering in the Whitecliff stronghold, while some of Rail’s people swept the manor and made sure it was safe—as well as cleaning up all the blood.
Although I was sure the Blackbirds’ remaining loyalists would be out for revenge, and their hacker was still out there, for now, Vera’s house—our house, the Penumbra Manor, was safe.
And it was home.
Petra was back to working in the garage as soon as we were set up again in the house.
Caitlyn got a dedicated computer setup in the server room to help her do her work, even though she spent a lot of time out in the garage as well, seemingly mostly just to argue with Petra.
Jenna brought one of the physicians from the Whitecliff stronghold, a young assistant that had taken to Jenna’s work and wanted to hone her craft under Jenna, and they set up together in the house as well, both of them always kept busy.
Yulia came and went, an honorary member of the family even though her loyalties lay with the Whitecliffs, and she would come as a liaison as we worked together on securing things from any remaining Blackbird insurgents, making sure Horizon was completely shut down—always here for business, but of course, every time, she wound up staying for dinner while Vera argued with her about something that didn’t matter.
And of course, Vera came home with us, too.
She relaxed in a way I’d never seen before, a light coming into her eyes, even alongside a vulnerability that came to the surface when I found her in the music room one quiet evening after dinner, playing Moonlight Sonata. The song that was always just for me.
She gestured me to sit with her once she’d finished playing, and I squeezed onto the end of the piano bench next to her. She put her hand in my lap, and I held it in mine, squeezing.
“I finalized everything with Rail just now,” she said. “We’re officially working together. Strange seeing the man back in action… he retired right when I joined the Blackbirds, so it feels almost like…”
“Almost like a new beginning?” I said quietly, and she looked down.
“Elaine… I’ve trained for anything and everything. I know how to handle any mission, how to handle any target, how to handle anything gone wrong. But I’ve never trained for this. I never trained to… love somebody.” Her voice fell into the softest, tenderest whisper. “Let alone someone like you.”
I squeezed her hand, my heart pouring out love for this woman, this woman who had put everything on the line for me, who had been reborn for me.
“You don’t need training to love somebody,” I whispered.
“It’s in your heart. In the human part of you that they could never get rid of.
You’ve always known how, Vera. It’s just that nobody let you before. ”
She laughed thickly. “Clearly I don’t. We did it backwards. You don’t typically get married first.”
“Well… we chart our own path, don’t we?”
“We do.” She turned and kissed me, her lips finding mine and claiming me, gentle but strong, confidently possessive. That I was hers, and that she was mine.
“You know,” she breathed against my lips, her fingers curling in my hair, “this is going to be dangerous. Even now that things are settled with the Blackbirds and the Whitecliffs, it’s not going to be easy.”
“Then all the more reason I won’t leave you to go it alone.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“And I don’t want anything to happen to you, either,” I said. “Whatever comes next, we’ll face it together.”
She smiled against my lips. “You’ve made quite a showing. You’re going to be involved in a lot of different events, with a lot of different people. And if anyone so much as looks at you for too long, I’m going to break them.”
I slipped my hand to her hip, holding her against me. “You can stake your claim on me for all the world to see. However you like. I want everyone to know I’m your wife, and nobody else’s.”
“Penumbra is going to gain quite the reputation if it involves me stabbing everyone who looks at you.”
“Well… hopefully people will learn soon to stop looking at me too long.”
She laughed, kissing me again, and then down to my jaw, her hand caressing my side. “So, you mean it, then,” she said. “You’ve seen everything there is to see here. Every side of me… and you’re still here. You really intend to keep up.”
I blushed, softening into her touch. “I do,” I breathed. “I don’t need a contract to… belong to you.”
“And when I want to make you mine?” she growled, her lips on my neck. “When I take everything I want from you?”
“It’s yours, Vera. Everything here belongs to you. Use my body as you would your own.”
She pulled me up into her lap, pulling my dress straps down and feeling her hands over my breasts as her mouth crushed against mine, taking what she wanted from me. I moaned, my body reacting instantly, the way it always had for her.
The way it always would for her. This was who I was now—not for a contract, not in exchange for protection, but just hers. Hers to do what she wanted with.
I never wanted anything else.
“I’ve missed this body while we’ve been recovering,” she murmured against my neck. “You’re going to let me make up for lost time now.”
“Of course, Vera,” I breathed, my body trembling. “Do anything you want to. Take what you want to.”
Her hands on my breasts, her mouth on my collar, her hips grinding up against mine… I lost myself in the swelling heat of the moment. Fire kindled between us as Vera’s strong hands held me in place, as she pulled my dress down and my bra with it, as she took my nipple in her mouth.
I gave her everything. Pushed my chest out for her, rocked my hips against hers to match her rhythm, whatever she wanted. My body was just an extension of hers, an object that was finely tuned to pleasure her. And it was all I wanted.
She turned suddenly, standing up and pushing me down onto my back on the bench.
I gasped when she pushed my dress up and tugged my panties down my legs.
She had an almost animalistic hunger in her eyes as she held me down, and I spread my legs to offer myself for her.
I moaned loudly as she buried her face against me, claiming me, taking what she wanted.
Her tongue flicked fast over my clit as she sucked on me, sending fire flooding through my body.
I moaned loudly, my hips moving without me trying to—pushing into her, responding to her will instead of mine.
Her hands gripped my hips firmly, impossibly strong, so I couldn’t have moved away even if I’d wanted to.
The feeling of it, of Vera holding me and controlling me and taking what she wanted, built up explosively through me until I felt my hips quivering, and I threw my head back as I crested into an orgasm.
I came so hard my back arched up off the bench, crying out as her tongue worked me relentlessly through orgasm, and finally, I came back down with my legs shaking, just as Vera took her pants off and helped herself up onto me.
She didn’t give me time to recover, and I didn’t want her to—my body was ready for her, always ready, and I wanted her to get what she wanted.
“Let me fuck this needy little pussy,” she said, positioning herself between my legs, and I moaned as her clit met mine. “Let me grind on you and come on your pussy like the pretty little toy you are.”
“Oh, God, Vera,” I gasped. “Yes—please, yes. Anything you want. Anything at all.”
“God, you look so good spread out begging for me. I’m going to keep you here and keep fucking you…” she growled as she thrust her hips against me, grinding, taking me. “Over and over again, until you’re sweating and gasping and broken, dirtied and marked as my property.”
“Yes, please, please,” I moaned, rocking my hips against hers. “As much as you want to. Now, forever, always. Oh, Vera,” I gasped when she gripped me harder and thrust down into me, picking up the pace, fucking me savagely into the bench. She grabbed me tighter, fingers digging into my hips.
“I’m going to come on your perfect little pussy,” she growled. “Be a good girl and fucking take it.”
I nodded—couldn’t say anything, just let her have it, my hands holding the bench sides and thrusting up against her, and I felt her tensing as she came hard against me, shoving down and grinding on me.
Her cry of pleasure filled my ears, and I was left a whimpering mess on the bench as she came down, and she held herself over me breathing hard, a smile on her lips.
“Still think you can keep up?” she said, and I nodded.
“As much as you want to.”
“That’s a good girl.” She bent down and kissed me, and I moaned into it when her hand slipped between my thighs.
She took me all day. She fucked me there, and then we got dressed and went back upstairs to shower and clean up, until she joined me in the shower and fucked me from behind with her strap-on, with me holding onto the shower wall and gasping as she pounded relentlessly into me.
She took me to bed after and guided me down between her legs to show my devotion to her with my mouth, and we kept going on and on until night had fallen, and we wound up on the balcony together, with Vera leaning over the rail, looking out into the night sky as I joined her, my legs still a little shaky, with a silky nightgown and nothing underneath. She smiled tiredly back at me.
“We should get a cook,” she said.
“Oh, no. I forgot about dinner.”
“You were serving a more important purpose. This is why we need a cook. I have to spoil my wife.” She slipped an arm around my back. “And spoil myself by getting more of you.”
I laughed nervously. “I like contributing, though…”
“You’re the leader of the family now, Elaine. You’re going to be contributing in much bigger ways than making dinner. You’re one of the most powerful people in Merona.”
“Well…” I blushed, looking down.
“And you earned it. So don’t even start.”
I laughed nervously. “You could tell I was about to argue.”
“I know you.”
“I’ll still make us special meals, too, sometimes. I like sharing food with my family.”
She laughed, kissing my neck. “That much, I think we can do. But we’ll hire a cook. And as for tonight… we order in. And we celebrate a new start. With the family.”
With the family.
With my real family. The only one that really mattered.
“That sounds wonderful.”