Chapter 5 #2
I rub a few tight circles around her clit as I thrust even deeper, nearly lifting her off her feet.
I hold those thrusts inside her a little longer, so she takes every inch of me.
She shrieks, babbling my name as she reaches her peak and tumbles into pleasurable abyss.
I fuck her through it, pushing through the rhythmic squeeze around my cock.
When she relaxes in my arms, my restraint vanishes.
My cock jerks, for what feels like ages, as my come streams deep within her.
Rumbling in satisfaction as I catch my breath, I wind an arm across her shoulders to hoist her upright, so she is standing again. She smiles sleepily at me in the mirror and declares, “That’s exactly what I needed.”
She turns her head to the side while I embrace her, so she looks up at me directly.
I kiss her deeply, my tongue seeking hers just as passionately as I made love to her.
I only stop when my come begins to leak out of her onto our pressed-together thighs.
I grab a small towel and hold it to her as I pull out my softened cock.
After wiping away most of it, I toss it in a hamper to deal with it later.
Before she can pick up her discarded panties, I lift her up, and she instinctively wraps her legs around me.
I walk us to the bedroom and lower her onto her side of the bed.
She keeps her legs hooked behind my back so I hover over her.
She cups her hands around my face, peppering it with soft kisses.
I run my hands up and down her sides, relishing the dips and curves of her body.
“Lie down next to me,” she whispers and pats the bed.
I climb over her to do as she asks. She rests her head on my shoulder while I pull her into me. She twines her fingers through the pelt on my chest lazily. I lightly scratch her back with my dull nails. We rest for a time, appreciating each other’s quiet company.
This year with Ada was the best of my life.
There is no doubt she is my mate, though we have not spoken those words.
She has been unbelievably generous in her tolerance of the secrecy and resulting complications of my preference to remain undisclosed here.
The academy upholds this accommodation for rarer and more solitary visitors.
But I see how hard it is for her, and I appreciate everything she sacrifices for me.
I knew when I revealed myself to her that night in the library that I would not regret it.
She lifts her head and scoots over so that it rests on the pillow, facing me. I continue to scratch her back, occasionally kneading a muscle to give her skin a break. After a few minutes, she murmurs, “I love how warm you are. I wish I could stay all night.”
I hum in agreement. “I wish you could too. I will be glad to shed the yoke of this secrecy. It grows more difficult each day.”
I extended my stay to coincide with the end of Ada’s studies.
I did as much of my own research as I could here, though this extra time has been useful.
Some deans and other faculty approached me to assist their own research on Malefic and wild magick, which I am happy to do since they have been so obliging of me for nearly a year.
Though it takes up more of my free time recently than I would prefer, time I could devote to Ada.
“When my apprenticeship is over in a couple months, you should come with me to Monstera Bluff. You wouldn’t have to lay low.
There are so many Whispered Folk that your presence wouldn’t make waves.
No one would look at you twice unless it’s because you’re so hot,” she proposes.
She bites her lips nervously as she waits for my response.
“You want me to come with you? That sounds serious,” I say in a light tone. “What will you call me when you introduce me to everyone?”
“I’ll call you my yeti of the night,” she quips.
“I would prefer if you called me your mate,” I say affectionately, honestly.
“Really? Oh, Norrell. I love you. I was hoping…” Her words are cut off as she throws herself on top of me, kissing me deliriously.
My anticipation of seeing my mate makes the drive down this long road into town seem never-ending.
My thoughts turn to those happy early days.
At the academy and at our apartment when we first moved here.
Though life became heavy after Ada’s parents passed, we still loved each other fiercely.
That was the last time I felt any real happiness.
It makes me wonder if I ever will again.
When a sudden bout of restlessness has me fidgeting in my seat, the van finally turns into the circle drive in front of Ada’s house.
She had only just inherited it and moved back in when I left.
It looks largely the same, aside from the missing carriage house, mayhap more overgrown now.
But knowing her, it is purposeful, her small rebellion against expectations.
Plus, she has always liked things a little untamed.
I pull my duffel bag from the back of the van.
It drives off as I stand on the sidewalk, leaving me alone to gather myself before I go inside.
Walking up to the front porch feels surprisingly familiar, even though my feet have not stepped there in fifteen long years.
This should have been my home. With Ada.
A different life. And certainly a happier one.
This thought does nothing to calm my nerves.
The rap of my knuckles on the door sounds too abrupt, but I cannot take it back now.
With any luck, she will be on the other side of that door.
I will witness her candid reaction to me.
Maybe there will be a spark between us still.
But that is wishful thinking. She would be better off if she moved on, found someone else who had the courage to stay. Part of me hopes she has.
After some time has passed, I knock again, softer this time.
The footsteps inside sound halting, unsure.
They must be Ada’s. I readily admit I blindsided her, forcing her hand by accepting her invitation.
By the bluest glacier, I do not regret it.
I would hate myself even more if I passed up this opportunity.
The steps in the foyer pause at the door. She may be just as nervous and hopeful for this reunion. No, it is too one-sided for that. This intrusion. I have longed for this for so long. And now she stands nearly within reach. She will be so exquisitely beautiful it will hurt. It already does.
When the door finally creaks open, loud in the quiet night, her presence nearly staggers me.
It is nourishment for my withered spirit.
She stands rooted to the spot, unmoving, except for her large violet eyes blinking rapidly in disbelief.
Long, dark, garnet red hair with streaks of white in the front falls over her shoulders as vibrant as ever.
Pale, opalescent skin glows in the light of the chandelier hanging high above.
She looks exactly as I remember. Like my memories have been recorded and broadcast to this very moment.
Only her dazzling signature of magick is missing, replaced by the stain of a complex fae spell, its threads woven deeply through her chest. It concerns me, buried so deep inside her, pulsing strange and powerful.
I do not trust I could disrupt that spell without causing her further damage.
I try not to let this unfortunate discovery show on my face.
Being in her presence again is like experiencing the first glimpse of sunlight after polar night.
She still shines more brightly than most, but there is an undercurrent of pain in her bearing that is partly my doing.
The reality of my decisions crashes over me.
What she meant to me then and still does now.
Who I chose my clan over and regretted it every day since.
Long seconds pass as we stare at each other. “Norrell, it’s been a while. Why don’t you come in,” she drawls, spoken in her slow and lilting song, a sweet soothing melody. The lullaby that I hear as I fall asleep and the same one that croons me in my dreams.
Even now, when she is so clearly unhappy with me, it is all I want to hear.
No doubt she is composing a symphony of curses against me in that incredible brain of hers.
I would welcome it coming from her winsome lips with her talent for infusing meaning in the most innocent and innocuous words in colorful and pleasing ways. Life has been washed out without it.
When she abruptly marches away after a chilly message about dinner, it leaves me some time to myself in her grand manor home again—her family legacy.
I could navigate this place blindfolded.
It throws in my face the irony that I chided my infuriating cousin for being shortsighted, yet I am by far the guiltiest of it.
I knew I could not take her away from this place.
She belongs here, with a life full of beauty and magick, but I should have figured out how to make it work even when my hand felt forced.
No matter, I did not stand up for us or for her like a mate should.
I was an impressionable coward, doing exactly as the clan had trained me as a good little soldier, the best actually.
It left me an incomplete male in return.