31. Chapter 31
Rory
Standing under the hot spray of water, I allowed my fear and heartbreak to wash over me, stinging my eyes and burning trails down my cheeks. I didn’t want to think about it but knowing he was married to his step-cousin had to be grossing him out. As I worked conditioner through my hair, I tried to prepare myself for the blow I knew was coming. God, it was going to hurt, but I knew that I had to be strong. For Cal. His whole life was changed with the document I’d found and he had so much to figure out.
When I imagined him saying the words, that he didn’t want to be with me or stay married to me, pain radiated from my chest in waves so strong my breath stuttered unevenly. I knew he wouldn’t send me back to Elio, but the thought of him sending me away caused me to almost sink to the shower floor.
I left the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Exhaustion and trepidation weighed my limbs down and fogged my mind. Trying to think felt like trying to look through gauze. I could make out my thoughts, but everything felt fuzzy and unfocused.
Cal paced the room, his phone pressed to his ear. “Uncail, I need you to come home. I know you’re enjoying your time with Grams, and I know you missed her, but for the love of God, bring her with you if you have to.” He was quiet while Lorcan responded and I moved about the room, pulling out clothes and dressing for sleep. Cal fell heavily to the side of the bed, one hand cradling his head while the other clenched around the phone. “I already told you, Lorcan.” His voice was like ice and I tried to harden my heart. “I can’t talk about it over the phone. I need you to come home. Please.”
His eyes tracked me through the room as I moved about and hope tried to bloom in my chest. I squashed it mercilessly, refusing to acknowledge it. When he hung up the phone, I didn’t turn to him. I focused on my reflection in the full length mirror beside the dresser and brushed my hair with too much force, anxiety making my fingers and toes tingle.
Neither one of us said anything for a long moment and it took all my willpower to avoid meeting his eyes in the mirror. I was successful, until he stood and moved to stand behind me. He took the brush from my fingers and began to work through my hair, his gentle movements the complete opposite to the vicious way I’d been tearing the bristles through the strands. He still didn’t speak, but his eyes stayed focused on mine in the mirror, holding my watery gaze steadily.
His jaw clenched as he prepared to speak and my chest crumbled as I stiffened my body, preparing for the words.
I’d fallen in love with this man and now he was being taken away from me. Just like everything else in my life, except dance. Everything I had ever loved had been taken from me.
At least fate is a consistent bitch.
I swallowed heavily as his fingers moved through my hair after the brush, barely grazing the skin on the back of my neck. He moved the curtain of my hair aside and ran his nose up the sensitive skin, placing a soft kiss right on the base of my hairline. My body stiffened further as I prepared to hear his goodbye.
His brow furrowed over my shoulder. “Why are you so tense, solas?”
My body shook with the effort it took to hold back my sobs and keep my breathing even. “I’m just waiting for what I know is coming.”
“And what is it you think is going to happen, mo solas beag?” His nose still skimmed my neck, but his eyes met mine in the mirror again.
I couldn’t force the words past my throat and just shook my head, grinding my teeth to stop the tears that tried to escape. He sighed, his breath puffing against my skin and ruffling my hair. He gripped the front of my neck, using his index finger on the underside of my jaw to force my gaze to stay on his.
“You will tell me what’s bothering you and you will not make me wait any longer.”
As it always did when his voice took on that commanding tone, my body relaxed a little, loosening my throat enough for words to pass. “I don’t want to leave you,” I whispered. “I don’t want to care that you’re my step-cousin, but I know we can’t be together because of it. I don’t want to lose you, but it feels like I already have.”
A small chuckle escaped his nostrils as he buried his nose in my hair, ghosting a breath across the shell of my ear. His eyes closed as he inhaled deeply at my temple. “Do you think I care about that? You weren’t my cousin until thirty minutes ago. You weren’t my cousin when I married you. You weren’t my cousin when I fucked you. You won’t be my cousin for much longer, not after I kill Elio for murdering my father. And you’re not my cousin now. You’re my wife. If you leave, you do realize what will happen, right?”
He ran his hands up and down my arms, his fingers barely making contact with the sides of my breasts on each down stroke. Tingles spread across my whole body and I shook my head numbly, eyes glued to his reflection as he curled his large body around mine.
“If you leave, if this marriage is absolved, I’ll be forced to marry my actual cousin, to keep the peace treaty fulfilled. Is that what you want?” Something like anger but colored in despair filled his eyes as he pressed his palms flat to my stomach. “Do you want to give me to Fern?”
Possessiveness filled every inch of me and before I could control my reaction, my nails dug into his forearms. “Mine.”
He grabbed my hips and pulled my ass into his groin. “Good,” he said fiercely. His eyes followed as he stroked his fingers across my collar bone and over the necklace I refused to take off, dragging them down to the low neckline of the shirt and over the swell of one breast. “It’s a good thing you don’t want to share me with Fern,” he whispered into my hair. “Because I’ve been yours since I saw you through the window at Thai Moon.”
Then he grabbed my chin and tilted my head back, taking my mouth in a hungry, possessive kiss. The pressure on the front of my throat added to the eroticism of the kiss and I moaned into his mouth.
He licked a thick stripe up the side of my cheek, his eyes burning into mine in the mirror. “Now let me prove that you belong to me as well.”
He moved around to my front and slowly dropped to his knees, lifting the hem of my shirt just enough to run his nose along the thin strip of skin he exposed. I watched his back in the mirror as he kissed my hip bones and ran his tongue around my belly button before slowly lowering the waistband of the small silk shorts I wore. When my lower half was bare before him, he finally raised his eyes to mine.
“You will watch as I worship my wife on my knees,” he whispered against my skin, his voice taking on the domineering edge again. His nose ran through the trimmed hair covering me as he inhaled, a soft groan escaped his throat. “And when I’m done making you come on my tongue, I will fuck you until I’m certain you understand just how deep my love for you runs.”
Goosebumps erupted across my skin as I gasped at the combined shock of his admission and the assault of sensation as he buried his face between my thighs. My hands flew to his hair and my knees buckled at the overwhelming pleasure. He gripped my hips, holding me upright as he doubled his efforts. I kept my eyes glued to his head, most of my view obscured by his thick hair and my fingers gripping it tightly. My legs began to shake and my thighs clenched together against the pleasure. Cal growled in displeasure and lifted one of my legs, resting my thigh on his shoulder and shook his head back and forth as he tried to bury his mouth deeper.
He sucked on my clit and I rose to my toes as a cry echoed off the walls of the room. My muscles began to tighten, my fingers pulling his hair harshly as I pushed his face tighter into my center. I cried out with every sucking pull against my clit. My stomach muscles twitched, causing my shoulders to curl and throwing me off balance enough that I had to bounce on my toes before I fell. Cal reached between my thighs and grabbed my ass, lifting me off my feet and forcing my leg to join the other around his shoulders. I gripped his head and cried out in surprise as he sat back on his haunches, holding my full weight with ease.
With his face between my legs, my entire weight wrapped around his head, I broke apart. I came so violently that my entire back bowed over his head, my hands slapping against the mirror. My eyes tried to roll closed but I refused to look away from the erotic image of his dark head moving between my pale thighs.
He slipped my thighs down his body until I was wrapped around his waist as he stood. Our mouths met in a clash of tongue and teeth and the taste of myself mixed with his own uniqueness made me dizzy with want. He walked around to the other side of the bed and sat with me in his lap. He scooted back until he was stretched across the bed with me straddling his thighs. He gripped my hips and rocked my wet core against the fabric covering his erection.
My hands gripped his as I threw my head back and keened, long and low, dragged out even longer by the erotic sight reflected back at me in the mirror. He’d positioned our bodies perfectly, the only thing marring the view of us was my handprints smudged on the glass. The sight of my naked body, so much smaller than his fully clothed one beneath me, my hips rocking against his suit pants, was almost enough to set me off again.
Suddenly impatient to feel him inside me, my hands dove for his belt. I had his belt and zipper undone, his shaft in my hands, in under ten seconds. I gave him a few lazy strokes until the fire in my belly blazed so hot I thought I would melt from the inside. I raised up to my knees, positioned his head at my entrance and sank down as quickly as I could force my body to take him.
My hands landed on his pecs, my nails digging into the fabric of his dress shirt. I gave an experimental thrust of my hips and although it did feel good, because how could it not with him, it wasn’t the all-consuming pleasure I felt when he was in control. My brow furrowed and I moved around, trying to find an angle that would make my blood boil like it did when he thrust into me, but it was just the casual pleasure of in and out, in and out.
Cal’s grip on my hips tightened. “Like this, baby.” He ground my hips down against his and then rocked them back and forth. His cock rubbed against a spot inside of me, my clit grinding against his trimmed pubic hair, and my eyes crossed as a groan that sounded like it had been ripped up from the soles of my feet left my lips. My knees squeezed his hips as I repeated the back and forth motion, enjoying the way his muscles moved as he ground his hips up against mine, increasing the friction.
“Eyes on the mirror, solas. I want you to see the goddess I see when I look at you.” I obeyed and stared at our reflection. His dark hands spanned almost the entirety of my waist, my pale skin even paler where his fingertips dug into my flesh. Feeling the way his body moved under me while I rode him made me long to see more of his skin. Without taking my eyes off the mirror, I tried to fumble the tiny buttons on his shirt through the eyelets. When I grew frustrated, his fingers covered mine and he yanked, ripping the buttons free and baring his chest to me.
I ran my hands freely around his chest, enjoying the way his muscles flexed and released, sending shadows and light across his tattooed torso. My clear, creamy skin contrasted against his so starkly, I thought I’d never seen anything more beautiful than our bodies writhing together.
I kept my movements unhurried and Cal seemed to be perfectly okay with the speed. His fingers flexed against my hips, his head rolling back occasionally and groans slipping free unfiltered. The way his torso arched and flattened as he moved his hips under me, the way his face, barely visible in the mirror, morphed with pleasure, the way his thighs contracted so strongly that they shifted my weight against him, it all made my orgasm climb high and higher, so close to the surface that my skin prickled and my muscles quaked.
I planted my hands on his abdominals and ground down harder against him. The speed was perfect, but just a little more friction and I’d be right there.
“Ohhh, fuck, solas, yes. Just like that, baby. Fuck, don’t stop, baby, please. I’m gonna fucking-”
His words cut off with a growl as he moved his thumb to my clit, rubbing in two firm circles before my muscles clenched around him and I sobbed in relief as my climax finally rushed through me.
I watched in the mirror as my muscles fired at random intervals, my body quivering on top of Cal’s, my fingernails leaving long red scratches down his washboard abs. His neck arched back, his lips curled to reveal gritted teeth, and he let out a feral sound as he pulled my hips into his so harshly that I felt our pubic bones grind together. I felt the warmth of his cum flood into me and for a split second, panic made my heart flutter. But then his words from the dinner table came back to me.
Soon, my love.
The idea of you, round with my child? It makes me breathless with emotion.
I relaxed, my inner muscles massaging the last drops of his cum from him. Cal’s body twitched twice beneath mine at the sensation before his muscles went lax and he melted boneless into the bed.
His hands ran up my thighs, over my hips, to my waist, his fingers bumping over every curve and dip of my body. He sighed deeply, a happy sound that made pride fill my chest.
I did that. I made him make that sound.
He pulled me down to his chest, rolling and wrapping his arms and legs around me until his body surrounded mine. He slipped out with the movement and I whined at the loss. A trickle of cum dripped out and I shifted my legs restlessly, unsure why I felt a sense of loss. Cal reached down and swiped his fingers through the trail of cum before pushing them inside me. He didn’t thrust them, he didn’t try to drag more pleasure from my body, he just pushed his cum back inside my body and held it there as he pressed kisses up and down the side of my face.
Sleep drugged my mind, my body weighed down by the last two weeks, whatever strength the IV medication had given me long gone. I yawed, my mind going blank and my limbs heavy. I was pretty sure I was already asleep when I whispered, “I love you, too.”