Chapter 12 #4
My hand slid into her hair, cradling the back of her head as I deepened the kiss just slightly, enough to feel her breath catch, to hear that small sound she made in the back of her throat. When we finally broke apart, it was only by inches, our foreheads still touching, breathing the same air.
"I could stay here forever," she murmured, her eyes closed. "Just you and me and this cabin and the storm outside. No decisions to make. No world to save. Just... this."
I felt the longing in her words, understood the weight behind them. But then her expression shifted, a shadow crossing her features even as my lips brushed hers once more.
"But I can't stop thinking about it," she said, pulling back far enough to meet my eyes.
The worry was there now, sharp and clear.
"About what Declan's doing. What he's saying in my voice, what decisions he's making with my face.
What kind of mess is he creating that I'm going to have to clean up?
What if he..." She stopped, swallowing hard.
"What if he does something I can't undo?
What if he starts a war, or signs something terrible into law, or. .."
"Ellie." I caught her chin gently, bringing her gaze back to mine. "We'll fix it. Whatever he's done, whatever damage he's caused, we'll fix it."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because you're brilliant and stubborn and you don't give up on things that matter." I traced my thumb along her jaw. "And because you won't be alone."
Her eyes searched mine, looking for certainty, for reassurance.
"No matter what," I said, my voice steady and sure. "No matter what he's done or what we have to face, I'm with you, Ellie." My wing tightened around her shoulders, punctuating the promise. "You're not alone anymore."
A shuddering breath left her, and some of the tension drained from her frame. "You promise?"
"I promise." I pressed a kiss to her forehead, then her cheek, then found her lips again. "On my honor. On my life. On everything I am. I'm with you, Ellie."
She melted into me then, her arms winding around my neck. This kiss was different—deeper, more desperate, filled with gratitude and need and something that felt dangerously close to forever.
"I want you so much," I growled, my voice rough with desire. My hands found her waist, fingers trembling as I pulled her against me. The heat of her body seared through the fabric of her clothes, igniting every nerve ending where we touched.
Her fingers tangled in my hair as our lips crashed together in a kiss that was more collision than caress.
I moved my mouth against hers with a desperation I couldn't control.
She tasted like sweetness and spice, and I couldn't get enough.
Outside the cabin, wind howled through the pines and snow lashed against the windows, mimicking the storm growing between us.
My hands roamed her body, sliding down the curve of her hips, then back up to cup her face as I deepened the kiss. "You're driving me crazy," I murmured against her lips, my thumb tracing her jawline with a tenderness that contrasted with the desperate hunger I felt.
She pulled back just enough to meet my gaze, her chest heaving. "Then stop talking," she whispered, and pulled me back to her.
I stood, lifting Ellie easily, her legs wrapping instinctively around my waist as I carried her across the room.
She was light in my arms, but the weight of desire pressed against me with every step.
Her lips never left mine, kissing me with an urgency that matched my own as I navigated toward the bed.
The storm outside intensified, rattling the windowpanes, but all I heard was the soft sound of her breathing and the thundering of my own heartbeat.
When we reached the bed, I lowered her gently onto the quilted surface, following her down without breaking our kiss.
The old mattress creaked beneath us, and Ellie's hair fanned out across the pillow like spilled silk.
I braced myself above her, drinking in the sight of her flushed cheeks and kiss-swollen lips.
"Rickon," she breathed, my name a prayer on her lips that sent a shiver down my spine.
My chest heaved with the effort of restraint, every fiber of my being screaming at me to continue, but I needed to hear it from her lips. I needed to know this was what she truly wanted.
"Ellie," I said, my voice rough with restraint. "Are you sure?"
Her eyes searched mine, bright green and dilated with desire, but I saw something else there too—certainty. She reached up, cupping my face with both hands, her thumbs brushing across my cheekbones.
"I've never been more sure of anything in my life," she whispered. Then her voice dropped lower, more urgent. "I want you badly, Rickon. So badly, it hurts. Please."
The last word broke something inside me, shattering the last thread of my control. I captured her mouth in a searing kiss, pouring everything I felt into it—all the want, all the need, all the desperate hunger that had been building between us.
Our clothes became obstacles, quickly discarded in the frenzy of hands and gasps.
Every touch was electric, every kiss a brand that marked her as mine.
I traced a burning path down her neck with my lips, and she arched into me, her nails raking down my back hard enough to leave crescents in my skin.
"Tell me you want this," I said, my voice strained as I hovered above her, searching her gaze and finding an intensity that made my heart stutter.
"I want you," she breathed, her voice barely recognizable. "I need you."
That was all the permission I needed. I settled between her thighs, feeling the heat radiating from her core as her ankles hooked around my hips, pulling me closer.
The intoxicating scent of her arousal—sweet and spicy and utterly addictive—made my head spin.
I positioned myself at her entrance, feeling her wetness against the tip of my cock, and began to push forward with agonizing slowness.
Ellie gasped as I entered her, her body yielding to accommodate me inch by torturous inch.
She was exquisitely tight, her inner walls gripping me, and soft moans spilled from her lips as I stretched her open.
When I was finally fully seated inside her, buried to the hilt, I forced myself to pause despite every instinct screaming at me to move.
I needed to give her time to adjust to my size, to the fullness of having me inside her.
I captured her mouth in a deep, consuming kiss, swallowing her whimpers as our tongues tangled together. When I pulled back to look at her, I found her eyes already on mine, glassy with pleasure, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips.
"Are you okay?" I muttered through gritted teeth, my entire body trembling with the effort of holding still. Every muscle was coiled tight, my control hanging by the thinnest thread as her heat enveloped me.
"I'm perfect," Ellie sighed, her voice breathy and wrecked. She rolled her hips experimentally, lifting to meet mine in silent invitation.
I started with measured, careful thrusts, acutely aware of how much smaller Ellie was beneath me, how delicate she felt in my arms. I wanted to be gentle, to savor every moment without overwhelming her.
But Ellie had other ideas. She was utterly insatiable, her fingers digging into my shoulders as she lifted her hips to meet each thrust with surprising force, her body arching off the bed in desperate pursuit of more.
"Harder," she breathed against my ear, her legs wrapping tighter around my waist, pulling me deeper. "Don't hold back, Rickon. I need all of you." The raw hunger in her voice shattered the last of my restraint.
We came together in a rush of heat and passion, our bodies finding a rhythm that felt ancient and inevitable, as if every moment of our lives had been leading to this.
I drove into her with deep, powerful strokes, and she met me thrust for thrust, her nails raking down my back hard enough to leave marks I'd feel tomorrow.
The world outside ceased to exist—the blizzard, the cold, everything faded into insignificance.
There was only the exquisite friction of our bodies moving together, only the intoxicating heat building between us, only the sounds of our mingled gasps and moans echoing through the cabin.
Ellie's inner walls clenched around me with each thrust, drawing me deeper, and I felt her trembling beneath me, watched the way her eyes rolled back when I hit that perfect spot inside her.
I lost myself completely in the sensation of her—in the way her breasts pressed against my chest with every breath, in the desperate little whimpers that escaped her throat when I changed my angle, in the slick slide of our sweat-dampened skin.
She was everywhere, consuming every sense, and I never wanted it to end.
Her breathing became erratic, her body tensing beneath mine in a way that told me she was close. I felt it in the way her thighs trembled against my hips, in the desperate clutch of her fingers on my shoulders, in the way her inner walls began to flutter and pulse around me.
"Rickon, I'm..." she gasped, her words dissolving into incoherent moans as I angled my hips to drive deeper, hitting that spot inside her that made her cry out with pleasure.
"Let go," I growled against her neck, my own control hanging by a thread. "Come for me, Ellie."
Her climax hit like a tidal wave. Her back arched off the bed, her head thrown back against the pillow as she screamed my name, the sound raw and primal and so beautiful it nearly undid me.
Her body convulsed beneath mine, her inner walls clamping down around me with such intensity that I couldn't hold back any longer.
The sensation of her coming apart in my arms, the sound of my name torn from her throat, the exquisite pressure of her body milking mine—it all crashed over me at once.
With a guttural groan, I buried myself to the hilt one final time and exploded inside her, my release washing through me in powerful waves that left me shaking.
I poured everything into her, filling her with pulse after pulse of heat as pleasure whited out my vision and turned my muscles to liquid.
I collapsed against her, careful to brace some of my weight on my forearms so I wouldn't crush her, both of us trembling and gasping for breath as the aftershocks rippled through our bodies.
We lay entwined in the blankets, our breathing finally slowing. My fingers traced lazy patterns on her bare shoulder, raising goosebumps in their wake, and I watched a smile curve her lips. Snow continued to fall outside, blanketing the cabin in silence.
"That was..." she started, but couldn't find the words to capture what had just passed between us.
"Yeah," I agreed, pressing a kiss to her temple, as words escaped me as well. "It was."