Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Timur
The house in Teneris looked as cold and deserted as when I left it.
But at least the bed was already in. Made with fresh, soft bedding, it had an extra blanket laid out on it in the foot area.
Instead of laying Elaine on the bed, however, I grabbed the blanket from it, then took her to the bathing area.
The pool here was much bigger than what we had in the cave back in Ashgate.
I lowered myself into it with Elaine in my arms just the way we were.
She was naked, and I wore only my skirt and the dagger sheath on my thigh.
I hadn’t drawn a single one of my throwing daggers during the battle, though I had killed plenty.
The blades just seemed pathetically inadequate now that I had my wings, my claws, and my fire.
The water was warm, but as I carefully lowered Elaine into it, she hissed as if I submerged her into a tub of acid or hot oil.
“What is it, my love? Is it too hot?” I asked, worried, then realized it wasn’t the temperature of the water that she reacted to but the caress against her skin.
“God…please, help me,” she moaned.
Her eyes were open but looked unseeing. Just like during our flight from Ashgate to Teneris, she appeared conscious but with her mind locked in a place I couldn’t reach. She didn’t respond when I called her name, didn’t answer my questions, didn’t seem to hear or see me at all.
“Is that cursed tea still tormenting you?” I asked softly.
“Fuck me,” she moaned, arching her back.
Her hands moved over her body, uncoordinatedly grabbing her breasts or sliding between her legs, but she couldn’t focus long enough on any one gesture.
“Hush, sweetheart,” I cooed into her ear soothingly and rested her head on my shoulder. “Let me make it better.”
I ran my left hand down her side, cherishing the sensation of her skin under my palm. She whimpered with need, shutting her eyes. A tear fell from her eyelashes and ran down her cheek.
“I can’t,” she sobbed. “I can’t stand it anymore.”
My heart all but broke, and I promptly touched her where she needed me most. She moaned in relief from the contact.
She didn’t need my kisses. She didn’t hear my words. But I talked to her anyway, gently rubbing the hard swollen bud between her thighs that I knew was the epicenter of her pleasure.
“Just like this, sweetheart,” I whispered into her ear. “You’re doing so well.”
Rage pulsed inside me against everyone who had made her suffer. But all of them were now dead. Every single one who dared lay their hands on her had paid with their lives. I made sure of that.
Elaine and I were here, however, alive and together. And I would spend the rest of my life taking care of her in every way I could.
She gripped my wrist with her fingers, coming fast and hard on my hand. Panting, she slacked against my chest, and I gave her a few moments to catch her breath.
“Let’s wash your hair now,” I said, trying to gently free my arm from her grip.
She held on to my wrist, as if she were drowning in the ocean and my arm was the only thing that kept her afloat.
“It’ll start again soon,” she croaked in a hoarse whisper.
“Then we’ll do it again. And again. As many times as you need, my love, until you feel fully yourself again.”
“Will you stay with me?”
I kissed her forehead. “I’m not going anywhere ever again, my sweet. I’m staying right where you are.”
I washed her hair the best I could without soap. At some point, I’d need to go to the market to get things like toiletries, food, and clothes. But right now, Elaine needed me to be with her more than any of those things.
After the bath, I wrapped her in the soft cotton blanket and took her to the bedroom.
I left my soggy skirt on the floor and took off the dagger sheath, then climbed into the bed with her, trying not to trip over my hard cock.
It was up, like it almost always was when Elaine was close enough for me to breathe her scent or to touch her skin.
But it would have to wait. For now, I only kissed her, lying on my side next to her.
Then I used my hand again to make her come when she begged me for it.
She buried her face in my chest, drifting down from the crest of her next orgasm. Tension then slowly drained from her body, and she rolled over onto her back.
I watched her. I wished to know how she was feeling, but I didn’t release my tendrils. I didn’t want to force this connection on her, and she wasn’t in the position to grant me the permission yet.
Her eyelids fluttered open. She gazed up at the ceiling laid with yellow, white, and gray mosaic. She blinked, then rolled her head on the pillow and found me. Her face lit up with the warmest of smiles.
“Timur…” She reached for my face. As her fingers touched my skin, she marveled. “You’re real? You’re here?”
“I’m real,” I echoed. “I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere.”
She drew in a long breath, resting her warm little hand against my cheek.
“You are the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen,” she murmured, her eyes shining with wonder.
Beautiful?
No one had ever called me that before. Definitely not in the past ten years. Yet Elaine looked at my face, the face of a monster, and somehow saw beauty in it.
She reached up for a kiss, and I gave it to her without thinking. I’d always give her whatever she wanted.
Lust raged in my groin, but I held it back by focusing on the warmth spreading through my chest. It came from the familiarity of her lips on mine, of her body pressed to mine, and of her arms holding me close. She was here, with me, safe, and peace descended upon me.
We lay like that, just kissing with no words necessary to pass between us. She pressed closer to me, and I cupped her backside with my hand.
With a moan, she trapped my cock between her thighs. I groaned from the spike of arousal burning through my body.
She jerked back from me, alarm flashing in her eyes.
“Timur, it’s happening again.”
I caressed the side of her face, pushing away a few strands of her hair still damp from the bath.
“Are you sure it’s still from that tea?” I asked gently.
She exhaled, relaxing a little. Her gaze shifted over my shoulders as she seemed to focus inside her for a moment.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It’s hard to tell. But…I want you.”
“You have me, sweetheart. You’ll always have me.”
I slid down her body, my mouth watering for her taste already, but she took my head in her hands and turned my face up toward her.
Her eyes were pleading.
“No. Don’t. I…” She released a shaky breath. “Can you please not touch me the way they did? At least for a little while?”
My heart felt like it had shattered to pieces. Rage flared with a puff of smoke from my nostrils. The regret of killing Mazra and her ilk too quickly burned through me.
But I stilled my anger and gentled my voice.
“Of course,” I said, rising back to her eye level.
“Thank you.” She kissed me passionately and freely, and I knew no one but me had kissed her in Ashgate.
She pressed herself to me again, rubbing against the ridge of my hard cock.
“Fuck me,” she moaned. “Please. I need you…”
Hooking an arm under her knee, I rolled her to her back.
Not one of Mazra’s people had done to Elaine what I was about to do, I was sure of it. I was the only fae with a cock in Nerifir. I was the only fae who’d ever been inside her, and I had always made sure she enjoyed it every single fucking time.
I entered her slowly, giving her time to adjust to my girth.
“Oh God, yesss…” she moaned, thrusting her hips up to take me deeper. “It feels so good. You feel so good, Timur.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck, gazing up at me. There was no fear or confusion in her eyes anymore. No haze of intoxication. The need remained, but it was directed at me now, only me.
I moved carefully at first, ready to retreat at the slightest sign of hesitation from her. But she welcomed me eagerly, opening up and taking me in. So I let it all go, taking her and giving her everything I had. I thrusted furiously, yet she clung to me, begging for more.
Lust rolled over me like the Big Wave, flooding my senses. The sight of Elaine’s face blurred. Red haze drew over it. Arousal swelled to a ball of fire in my groin.
Elaine shattered with orgasm under me, screaming my name. But I didn’t stop, making her come again before my insides tightened and the release finally came for me too. I growled through my clenched teeth, afraid to release a fire with a roar.
My arms shook when I finally pushed away from her.
“Are you alright?” I asked, terrified that I hurt her. During those few moments of insanity, blinded by my approaching climax, I couldn’t remember what I’d done.
She panted, her fingers digging into my shoulders, her hair messy again.
“That was… Wow, I mean sex is never boring with you. But what was…Eeek!” she screeched suddenly, wiggling from under me.
“What is it? Elaine? What’s going on?” I looked down where she was staring.
Her eyes open wide, she covered her mouth with her hand.
“Oh my God, is that…?” She pointed down at my crotch.
My cock remained as hard as ever, even after the recent release.
But that wasn’t what had scared her. At the base of my shaft, a crown of slim glowing appendages appeared, undulating slightly like sea grass in the ocean.
I felt arousal crackling through all of them, sparks of magic igniting the fire of desire that spread through my muscles and bones.
“The mating cluster,” I exhaled in recognition.
Elaine hovered her hand over it, visibly drawn to it but afraid to touch.
“Is that what happens during the mating fever?” she marveled.
I fell onto the bed on my back, tossing an arm over my eyes with a groan.
“Yes.”
The memories of my last mating fever rushed me. I’d lost the woman who’d caused it then, and it’d devastated me. I deeply respected and admired Valeni. I mourned her. But I didn’t love her, not the way I loved Elaine.
I moved my arm away, meeting her concerned look.