Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KIERAN
It took a tremendous amount of willpower to hold my ground.
Truly, I must’ve been granted the patience of a godsdamned saint today, considering I was still leaning against the door frame while Arken fucking Asher was trying her best to seduce me back to bed.
“That’s just not fair, sweetheart,” I murmured.
My eyelids grew heavy as Arken kicked aside what little remained of the sheets covering her body.
Slowly, lazily, she let her bare thighs part for me, exposing that glistening pink center.
Already so fucking wet for me, good gods.
Not to mention all of the pretty little bruises I’d left across that soft, sensitive skin of hers over the last several days—shades of pink and purple blossoming like her favored peonies, petals of blue and yellow, stark but stunning against the creamy porcelain swells of her flesh.
“What gave you the notion that I ever play fair?” she purred back, crooking her finger, beckoning me forward. “But maybe I’ll consider it if you come play with me. Perhaps I’ll even let you even the score.”
I cocked my head. “The score, eh?”
Arken chuckled, slipping her hand between her thighs suggestively. “Oh, come on now. I know damn well that you’re keeping count.”
I blew air from my nostrils in a half-snort, shaking my head.
A few strands of hair slipped loose from the messy bun I’d pulled back earlier, falling into my face as I pinched the bridge of my nose.
This woman was going to be the death of me one day—and I was quickly losing count of how often I thought those exact words.
“I might be keeping count, yes,” I confessed. “But I didn’t realize you were, Little Conduit.”
“Mmm,” she hummed, grinning like a fiend. “I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that I’m very observant.”
I couldn’t help but crack a smile back. That was one of the very first things Arken ever told me about herself, actually.
“So, what are we at then, you insatiable sex daemon?”
Ark inspected her fingernails casually as she replied. “Takes one to know one. Forty-six to forty-seven.”
Hmm. I had counted forty-six, which meant she was ahead of me. Couldn’t have that. Idly, I tried to recall exactly when that happened.
“Last night,” she reminded me, as if the girl could read my fuckin’ mind. Wouldn’t be the first time. “I got a head start, remember? Emphasis on hea—”
“You have such a filthy mouth, Miss Asher,” I interrupted, smirking.
“And you sure seem to like fucking it,” she retorted, entirely unruffled by the accusation.
The woman was shameless about her vulgar vocabulary, and it was one of the many, many reasons why I was irredeemably obsessed with her.
“Understatement of the century,” I muttered, mostly to myself.
“So come back here and let me suck your—”
“Arken,” I groaned, running one hand over my face in exasperation. “Behave yourself for like, two whole seconds, will you? You need fresh air and sunlight, and I’d ideally like to get to our destination before sundown.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Before sundown? Where are you taking me, Vistarii?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I mused, concealing my grin behind a sip of tea. “Just get your ass out of bed and get dressed.”
“Get dressed for what?” she demanded, pouting the way she always did whenever I managed to retain any semblance of willpower around her.
The woman had no idea how hard-fought these battles were. That my resolve to take her out today was already about two whole seconds away from breaking, or that saliva was pooling in my mouth, forcing me to swallow hard. My tongue ached to return to that sweet cunt of hers, still very much exposed.
She needs fresh air, jackass.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I flashed her a winning smile to conceal my darkening desires. “Another adventure, of course.”
With warm croissants and enchanted paper cups of tea in hand, Arken and I made our way toward Elder Guard headquarters—or more specifically, the stables.
“We’re taking horses?” Arken inquired, a tiny valley of confusion forming between her brows.
“A horse,” I corrected. “Singular. You’ll be riding with me.”
“And why is that, Captain?” she teased. “Is it because you can’t go all of twenty minutes without your cock pressed against my ass?”
“Because I only own one horse, you devious creature,” I replied, swallowing the retort I’d wanted to say.
It was something along the lines of informing her exactly what I intended to do with that ass of hers one of these days, but I digress.
“And yes, because I would strongly prefer not to go all of twenty minutes without your entire body pressed up against me, thank you very much.”
Arken smirked with self-satisfaction, which only served to feed the ravening thing inside me that remained eternally starved for her.
It drove me fucking insane, how much pleasure this woman seemed to derive just from turning me on.
I had never met anyone, man nor woman, so casually confident in their own sexuality—but Arken approached sex as if she knew damn well that she was the Source’s gift to humankind, and that energy alone would have brought me to my knees.
That such a little goddess would then ever willingly offer me any form of worship in return…That she might treat me with any form of reverence was the headiest notion in the world. It was surreal. And I knew, deep within my bones, that I would be chasing this high for the rest of my godsdamn life.
“What are you thinking about?” Arken asked as we continued down the cobblestone path.
“Would you like the honest answer, or the flippant one?”
“Both.”
“I’m thinking about how godsdamn good you are at giving head.”
Arken cackled, nearly doubling over in the streets before giving me a sidelong glance. “And the honest one, Captain?”
“How do you know that wasn’t the honest one?” I challenged.
Arken didn’t take the bait, rolling her eyes before staring me down, waiting for my answer. I held her golden gaze in silence for just a moment longer than was probably necessary. Letting her wait.
“I’m thinking…I just might be the luckiest motherfucker in the world,” I finally confessed.
My pulse fluttered as the expectant smirk slid from her face, replaced by a shy little smile and a glow of pink warmth coloring the apples of her freckle-flecked cheeks.
“Why, what are you thinking about?” I prompted.
“Nothing in particular,” Arken said quickly but quietly.
There was something in the vulnerability of her tone that made me choose not to press her on the matter.
My briefly uninhibited honesty, while admittedly rare, had been freely offered—I did not require hers in exchange.
She was welcome to share her thoughts with me on her own time, at her own discretion, and she knew that.
“How’s your tea?” I asked casually.
She made a face of exaggerated discontent. “It’s…alright, I suppose. A bit weak, isn’t it? I think you may have left me spoiled. I much prefer the way you brew it.”
I laughed. “If anything, I think I over-steep my tea. I like it much stronger than most.”
“So do I, apparently.”
“We’ll bring some from home next time,” I promised. And then my throat promptly tightened after the words left my mouth.
From home.
It was a slip of the tongue, of course, but fucking Hel. Those words felt too good in my mouth, too right.
If Arken caught my slip, she didn’t show it. Her golden gaze simply continued to wander, ever-observant, always so fascinated by the world around her. Within just a few more minutes of comfortably shared silence, we had reached the stables.
I guided her inside, leading us toward the thirteenth stall, where my dapple grey mare nickered at the sight of me.
“Arken, this is Muniin. Muniin, this is Arken,” I said, introducing my two favorite females.
“Pleased to meet you, Miss Muniin,” Arken giggled, humoring me as she reached out to stroke her speckled snout. “She’s very pretty.”
Not as pretty as you.
Good gods, I was getting soft.
“Where are we going again?” Arken asked, attempting to catch me off guard.
Nice try, clever girl.
“You’ll see.”