Chapter 76
Ellowyn
Ifrowned as I woke to my toes digging into the dry dirt of the Dreamscape.
Why am I here?
Fate was notably absent, and I hadn’t had a foray into the Dreamscape since Torin joined me at the Academy, so there was no reason for me to appear here.
“Hi, Ell,” Torin’s voice, so familiar and comforting now, rang out, and I turned to face him as the object of my affection emerged from the tree line.
“Torin?” I asked even as I flung myself into his open arms. Torin’s spicy scent enveloped me, both calming my heart and sending it into a frenzy. “Why are we here? We haven’t come here since Cellia.”
Torin grimaced as he turned his face away from me.
I frowned as he slowly lowered my body to the ground, my feet just brushing the dirt as he pulled his arms away.
Hands carved through his dark-blond locks, leaving them standing on end.
It was only then that I took in his appearance, his clothes.
Normally at night, Torin dressed casually—loose tunic and pants, bare feet; an outfit that complemented my silk slip of a nightdress.
Tonight, however, the casualness was absent, replaced by a pressed white tunic and navy blue pants. His boots were pristine brown leather, and there was an air of superiority about him that I hadn’t seen in months.
“You’re no longer in Vespera,” I said flatly.
It wasn’t a question, just a statement of fact.
Torin winced before spinning back to face me, withdrawing his hands from his hair to reach for me.
I let him touch me; his calloused palms running up and down my arms chased away some of the numbness that had set in with the realization. “Why did you leave?”
“I had to. There was . . . business I needed to attend to in Lishahl.”
“Business?”
He jerked a nod, his hands still running the length of my arms.
“Such important business that you couldn’t tell me you were leaving until now?
” A haughty imperiousness coated my tongue at my caustic accusation, but I didn’t have the heart to care, even at Torin’s wince.
“I told you that one of the hardest pieces to overcome, one of my biggest insecurities, is being used and abandoned—my parents did it, my husband did it, even you did for a time.”
Torin winced again, and I shrugged out of his grasp. He let me go but shook his head, either in denial of my accusation or because he didn’t want to hear my words.
“I shared intimate parts of me with you, Torin. Not just my body, but my mind. My hopes and fears. And, even knowing those parts, you still chose to leave like this.”
I stopped speaking as I felt my throat grow thick with emotion, tears welling in my eyes.
Godsdammit.
I dashed at the salty liquid as it leaked from my eyes.
“Ell, sweetheart, it’s not like that. I needed to get back to Lishahl.
Things are happening at a rate that even I couldn’t predict or plan for, now I have to respond accordingly or everything that I’ve planned for will be null and void.
Can you trust me, please?” he begged, taking my hand in his as he soothed the back of it with his thumbs.
I chewed my lip in thought.
“Come with me?”
My eyebrows hit my hairline as I watched Torin’s hazel eyes sparkle with want.
“What?”
“You heard me. Come with me. Leave Vespera. Leave Alois. Come join me in Lishahl. It would . . . help alleviate some of the stress right now. Plus, I just want you with me. We wouldn’t have to sneak around.
You could sleep with me, in my bed, instead of separate”—my cheeks pinked at his words—“you could be my queen.”
I sighed and cursed my heart as it thumped erratically at his declaration and idea. “Torin—”
“Don’t say anything yet, Ell. Let me prove to you how much I want you, how much you mean to me,” he begged, his hands dropping my own before grasping my hips and pulling me toward him. “Let me worship you like a queen, my queen, deserves.”
My breath hitched as he slowly lowered his mouth to my neck, waiting for me to rebuff him, to say no.
I nodded, and Torin’s eyes twinkled with lust and victory before he caressed the skin of my neck with soft, tantalizing kisses.
I gasped and wound my hands into the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling tight to ground myself in the feeling of him.
That was the difference between Torin and everyone else who had ever used and abandoned me—Torin asked for my permission, allowed me to dictate a comfortable course of action without making me feel idiotic or guilty for my decisions.
Maybe I could go with him . . .
But I lost all thought, all sense of time and space as Torin moved a hand from my hips and cupped my heavy breast with a wide palm, squeezing slightly, before toying with my nipple. A moan wrenched from my throat as I bent my head back, exposing the column of my neck to Torin’s ministrations.
He covered my neck with his mouth and sucked hard, leaving a bruise that would show for days.
I should be upset, but couldn’t muster the ire as he moved to the other breast, giving it the same attention as the first. Torin spent what felt like hours simply feeling my body above my nightdress, hands never straying beneath the fabric even though I bucked in his hold, mewling incoherently as his mouth moved behind my ear and, eventually, to my lips.
Torin’s first kisses were sweet, small pecks that made me needy and wanton for more. I felt him smile and chuckle against my mouth as I pushed against the back of his head, drawing him closer to me. I covered his lips with my own, finally plunging my tongue inside his mouth, tangling together.
As if sensing my frenzied desire, Torin finally moved his calloused palms beneath my dress, playing with the skin of my breasts just as he had above the fabric. I gasped as he tweaked the already hard points of my nipples, the motion sending a bolt of lust to my core.
“Are you going to let me have you tonight?” Torin whispered in my ear as he grabbed the hem of my dress and pulled it over my head, only breaking contact with my skin to remove my clothing.
I wore nothing underneath, and Torin took a step back to gaze at my exposed skin—my breasts heaving with desire, my nipples pointing straight at him.
His hungry, heated eyes carved a path down my body that ignited a fire in my flesh, sending ripples of arousal to my core, the feeling settling in my clit as it pulsated in time with my heart.
Torin’s eyes flared with desire as he looked at my cunt, my lips already swollen and parted slightly in arousal. If he reached between my thighs, he’d find me wet and wanting.
With a growl, Torin tore his tunic off before moving quickly to toe off his boots and shuck his pants.
The air vibrated with a rumble of thunder, but it felt more promising than threatening.
Lightning crashed across the sky, illuminating the magic that danced and writhed in the clouds as Torin strode toward me, a predator stalking his prey.
I smirked as I noticed the evidence of his own arousal—his cock stood hard and proud, bobbing slightly as he walked.
When Torin saw the direction of my gaze, he smirked and grasped his erection firmly in hand before giving it a stroke from root to crown.
A bead of precum oozed from the slit with his motion and I involuntarily licked my lips.
“I wish I could see your mouth wrapped around my cock tonight, Ell. Watch as you drool around my length as I shove it deep in your throat”—I grew wetter with his lewd words—“but I can’t. We have to be quick tonight. Think you can do that for me?”
I nodded my head before I even knew what I was agreeing to.
Torin’s smile was dazzling, and I found myself melting under his attention and desire.
“Come here, Ell.” He gestured with the hand that was not wrapped firmly around his cock, and I willingly went as if stuck on a line.
He wrapped one tan, muscular forearm around my back before pulling me flush with his front.
His erection was pressed firmly between my soft stomach and the hard planes of his abdomen, and I felt the wetness of his arousal as it leaked from the tip and onto my belly.
“Are you wet?” he asked, and I nodded. “Show me,” he whispered reverently, and I dutifully dipped my hand between my legs, sticking first one then two fingers in my pussy.
I moaned at the intrusion, unsurprisingly finding myself wet and swollen for him.
I removed my glistening fingers and held them up to his face.
Torin groaned deep and loud before grasping my hand and sucking my fingers into his mouth.
His tongue laved each of my digits, completely cleaning my fingers.
My chest heaved with each panted breath as I watched his eyelids flutter closed in ecstasy. Torin released my fingers with a wet pop before turning his head to kiss the inside of my palm.
The move was so tender, so sweet, and such a contrast to the dirty desire that pooled between the two of us that I had to combat a fresh wave of tears as they threatened to spill from my eyes.
“So sweet,” Torin mumbled against my palm before he caught my steel-blue eyes with his own honeyed-hazel gaze.
“Are you ready?”
I nodded, and Torin smirked devilishly. “Hands and knees, then. Ass in the air, spread your legs and show me your pussy.”
I knelt immediately, a slave to his every command.
My knees thumped against the hard-packed earth, but I didn’t feel the impact.
I held Torin’s gaze as long as I could, even as I placed my elbows and forearms on the ground, pushing my chest into the ground and ass into the air.
It was the first time we’d attempted this position, and my cheeks reddened at how exposed I was to him.
I clenched involuntarily, and Torin growled.
“Spread your legs”—I complied incrementally—“wider.”