Chapter Eleven #6
The words made his head swim almost as much as the feel of Aleksi’s cock in his mouth and the trembling of Aleksi’s body. Einar slid back just far enough to seize Naia’s mouth in a kiss, mingling the taste of them on his tongue. Then he nipped her bottom lip. “If you ask sweetly, I’ll share.”
Naia gripped his chin. “Would you deny me, Kraken?”
In this moment, he doubted he could deny her anything. “No, goddess.”
Without releasing his gaze, she nudged him forward, until the crown of Aleksi’s cock brushed his mouth. Then she leaned in with parted lips, dragging a groan from Aleksi as their tongues met against his skin.
There was nothing elegant in it, nothing sweet.
A feverish need had seized them both, and they dueled over their prize, one dragging their tongue along the shaft while the other swallowed the head, then meeting to kiss again.
Aleksi’s hand twisted tight in Einar’s hair as the other found Naia’s, but even when his body trembled and the sounds they dragged from him were tortured, he let them play, murmuring encouragement and praise as the sea crashed behind him and pleasure wrapped around and around them . . .
Einar was the one who broke first, unable to take the song pounding in his blood.
Centuries of assignations had taught him how to take even a cock as generous as the Lover’s as deep as he wanted to.
He swallowed it to the root, shuddering as Naia panted against his cheek and Aleksi’s hips jerked.
Einar did it again, and then a third time, and Aleksi broke, spilling his release hot over Einar’s tongue as Naia moaned in envy.
The waves still churned in his blood, and pleasure made him drunk.
He wondered vaguely if this was Aleksi’s doing.
Some trick of the Lover that let them feel each other, perhaps?
It hardly mattered—all that mattered was the throbbing need that still burned within him—and the way Naia trembled at his side.
Easing back, Einar lifted his thumb to swipe at the corner of his mouth, catching the evidence of Aleksi’s release. Naia’s kiss-reddened mouth was so close, and he dragged his thumb over her lips. “I was greedy with his pleasure, wasn’t I?”
“You were you.” She licked the taste of Aleksi from her lips before grasping Einar’s face, staring at him as if she saw past his skin and into his soul. “And I would not have you any other way.”
She meant it. There was no part of him he could reveal that would push her away—not the hardened face of the pirate captain at war, not the inhuman face of his demigod form, not even the enormous, terrifying Kraken itself, wrapping around her and pulling her into the deep.
And not the man who rose and pulled her to her feet, dragging her back so that there could be no mistake of how aroused he was.
The perfect curve of her ass taunted him as she rocked back, grinding against him until he had to catch her hips and still her.
Einar waited until Aleksi had refastened his pants, then smiled. “I think it is her turn, is it not?”
Aleksi answered by dragging Einar in for a kiss—deep, hot, and relentless, the kind of kiss that melted knees and set hearts racing. Einar was breathing hard when Aleksi released him, only to claim Naia’s lips for an equally thorough kissing.
It was beautiful to watch, but Einar had other plans for Aleksi’s lips. He plunged his fingers into Aleksi’s hair and urged him back. “Kneel for our goddess, Lover.”
Glazed brown eyes stared at him for just a moment before Aleksi obeyed.
He started with a line of open-mouthed kisses to Naia’s cheek, and then her jaw.
The hollow of her throat. Her collarbone.
Naia gasped, her head falling back against Einar’s shoulder, as Aleksi’s lips dislodged the neckline of her dress, baring first one breast and then the other to the cool night air.
When Aleksi’s mouth closed around the tight point of one nipple, Einar had to cover Naia’s lips with his fingers to muffle the desperate moan. “Shh,” he murmured against her ear. “You have to be quiet, love. So quiet.”
She trembled against him as Aleksi moved to the other breast, her quiet little noises somehow even hotter. Einar slid his fingers down over her chin and her throat, stroking between her breasts as Aleksi finally folded his knees and sank to the floor.
Naia swallowed. Hard.
So aroused already it would not take much to push her over the edge, then. Einar began to gather her skirts in his fingers as he brushed his mouth to her ear. “Put your hands on the railing.”
Slowly, so slowly, she obeyed. Her fingers curled over the stone, and she looked down, breath shuddering when she found Aleksi gazing back up at her with that beautifully terrifying intensity—the look that said the Lover was about to unleash his considerable skills with a singular focus: her pleasure and joy.
She deserved both tonight. And when Einar had her skirts gathered up to her waist, she got them as Aleksi leaned in to taste her.
Naia gasped with the first touch, pleasure shivering through her body—and somehow into Einar’s.
It was that song again, the one that twined with the waves.
If he closed his eyes he could hear them, rising and breaking against the hull of his ship, as if he stood on the deck instead of on stone and earth.
He turned his mouth to her ear again and whispered, “I can feel your bliss in the waves.”
“I—” Whatever she might have said broke on a helpless cry, and it was a pity her skirts were hiding whatever Aleksi was doing with his tongue. Judging from the way she panted and the helpless movement of her hips, it was impressive.
Well, Einar could help with that. He freed one hand from the tangle of fabric and traced it up the center of her body.
Kind of Aleksi to dislodge that wicked neckline, because Einar’s fingers met no obstacles on their path to gently—so, so gently—stroking one nipple.
He kept his touch soft, mostly for the pleasure of hearing her beg.
“Please.” It fell from her as a breathless whisper. When he kept his touch light and teasing, she said it again—a pleading word that came out as a demand. “Please.”
No, his goddess didn’t like it soft. He gave her what she wanted, a firm touch, and then his thumb and forefinger together, tugging with just enough pressure to make her head slam back against his shoulder. “Like that,” he murmured.
She moaned and turned her face toward his. Hot breath fell against his cheek in an unsteady rhythm. There was nothing unsteady about the rhythm of her hips, though—her ass pressed back against him, driving him wild as she grasped Aleksi’s head and rode his tongue.
Not being able to see what was happening had grown intolerable. He abandoned her breast and reached for her leg, dragging his fingernails up the soft skin of her inner thigh as he bit her earlobe. “Can you hear the waves?”
Her chest heaved. “The—the what?”
He slid his hand higher, until his fingers brushed Aleksi’s cheek. “The ocean, Naia. Can you hear it?”
She shook her head, her teeth buried in her lower lip. “All I hear is the island’s heart pounding.”
He swore he could hear it, too, then—pounding inside him like the beat of wild drums. It joined with the song of the sea, becoming something primal—something like the song they played to honor the love between the storm god and the goddess. A song of carnal abandon, of opening yourself to another.
A breeze swept across the balcony—not cold, like it should have been, but unnaturally warm. Perhaps he should have wondered why. But Aleksi’s tongue swept across his fingertips, and then she was beneath him—hot, slick, trembling.
Needy.
He stroked her, and her fingers tangled in his jacket so hard he feared she’d rip it from his back. Aleksi hummed his approval, his tongue thrusting deeper into her as Einar teased his fingers in slow, relentless circles. “How far do you want to go, goddess?”
“Don’t stop.” Her fingernails dug into his arm so fiercely, he could feel it through his coat. “Don’t—”
Aleksi did something, and Naia’s entire body jerked.
Her hand slammed back down onto the railing, as if it was the only thing keeping her from total collapse, and that wind was back, whipping across them hard enough to rustle her unbound hair.
Einar pressed his lips to the back of her neck, groaning as her bliss pulsed within him in a way that was definitely not natural, but oh, so good.
The words spilled free, riding on that wave of reckless heat. “Would you let me take you right here? Like this? Do you want me to see how hard I can fuck you before your knees give out?”
She whimpered.
He eased his hands from beneath her skirts and groaned as he licked the taste of her from his fingers. “You have to say yes, goddess.”
The word spilled from her again, the one he knew meant yes in their ancient language. She panted it again and again, a plea and a demand and a prayer.
He needed to be inside her more than he needed his next breath. “Aleksi.” His voice was a barely human rumble. “Make sure she’s ready for me.”
The Lover needed no more prompting. He guided one of Naia’s legs up onto his shoulder, turning to kiss her inner thigh. “For you, or for the Kraken?”
If only he could give in to that temptation.
Tear free of these clothes, be himself in the way he had for those precious hours when they’d all been stranded on the island together.
But that could come later, when they were safely behind locked doors—and not running the risk of discovery. “For me. This time.”
Aleksi looked up, locking eyes with Einar as he gently bit the inside of Naia’s thigh. Her soft gasp melted into an unsteady moan as his hand moved beneath her skirts. Her entire body lurched, and only Einar’s arm around her waist kept her from collapsing.
Beneath them, the waves sounded louder. Was she stirring them with her pleasure?
Were there ships in the harbor even now, swaying with the rhythm of her wild gasps?
It was almost too easy to imagine them on the ship, the roll of the sea a perfect counterpart to the roll of his hips, as he sank into her again and again and again—
Heat exploded over him, in time with Naia’s helpless cry. Her body shook in his arms as the warm wind swirled around them, carrying the scent of salt and sand and heavy tropical flowers under the hot sun, and for a moment Einar thought he was coming, too—
No, his cock was still hot and hard behind the cage of his pants, and that was intolerable. He fumbled for the fastening, already anticipating the tight, glorious heat of her as he drove deep—
On the other side of the pillar, someone cleared their throat loudly. Ash’s familiar voice drifted to them on the breeze. “I am not looking. I promise I am not looking. But something odd is happening, and we thought it best to warn you.”
Einar stiffened for one startled moment, then he straightened in the same moment Naia slid her leg from Aleksi’s shoulder. He rose, adjusting his pants, and Naia spun to hide her half-bare torso against Einar’s chest.
“What is it?” Aleksi panted.
“We can all . . . feel something.” Ash cleared his throat again, clearly uncomfortable.
Aleksi touched Naia’s head and Einar’s cheek, then disappeared around the column to speak to Ash. Their words were hushed, nothing more than the soft rise and fall of low voices reaching them.
Naia clung to Einar. “Do you think . . . ?”
He ran a soothing hand over her hair before helping her adjust the top of her dress so that she was fully covered again.
“It doesn’t sound dangerous.” An attack would have had Ash striding out here to summon them to battle, no matter how indelicate their position.
Even an orgy would not have stopped the Dragon when a fight was in the offing.
After a few moments, Aleksi strode back onto the balcony alone, smiling gently. “Not to worry,” he assured them. “It seems we may have been a bit too enthusiastic.”
Naia frowned. “Too loud, you mean?”
“No, love.” Aleksi lifted his hands to Naia’s hair and took over where Einar had left off, smoothing the tousled curls. “It seems that your island reflects what you feel. Sometimes very strongly.”
It took a moment for Naia to grasp the meaning of his words. When she did, she covered her mouth with a gasp. “No.”
“It’s fine. Just fine.” Aleksi pulled her hand to his lips. “No one beyond the High Court even noticed. Sachi made sure of it.”
So the pleasure Einar had felt had not been her power reaching him through the sea, but the island itself, celebrating her joy.
Poor Naia. Her cheeks flamed red, and Einar wanted to wrap himself around her again to shield her from the world—and perhaps thank Sachi for her quick work in protecting Naia’s privacy.
Not for the first time, Einar wished he had Aleksi’s easy way with soothing words. But his tension eased when a comforting hand on her back and a kiss to the top of her head seemed to relax her. After a few moments, she gave an unsteady laugh. “That never happened to us—I mean, to me before.”
Us. She must mean her and the storm god.
Einar felt torn between that same impossible, foolish stab of jealousy, and an even more base feeling—smugness.
The storm god might have been some ancient terrifying force of magic that Einar might never live up to, but he had never made his goddess come so hard she rocked the entire island with her.
Of course, he hadn’t had the Lover’s help. But Einar had never cared much about fighting fair. He smoothed Naia’s hair down with a smile. “I doubt anything we did could have shocked the High Court,” he said lightly. “Not after centuries of Joining Day celebrations at Aleksi’s villa.”
Naia groaned and buried her face against Einar’s chest. Einar stared at Aleksi over her shoulder, raising one eyebrow in silent question. You’re the diplomat, what do we do now?
Aleksi wrapped his arms around them both, and warmth stole through Einar that had nothing to do with passion.
Love could burn bright and hot, but it could soothe and protect, too.
The Lover always knew which was needed. “Come,” Aleksi urged softly.
“It is late, and the day has been long. Let’s get some sleep. ”