23. Thrice Surrendered #2
His touch transformed, big palms cupping her breasts, thumbs grazing the tips until she squirmed.
“Kail,” she gasped. “I thought we were going to wash.”
“I’m washing,” he grumbled, still against her ear. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to be thorough.”
His fingers came together, tugging gently. A sound escaped her before she could stop it. Something between a whimper and a broken plea.
“There aren’t any scrapes there,” she protested.
“If there were, I’d level the entire Axis Hall to avenge you.”
He vowed it with such fervor that Auryn didn’t have any doubts he was serious.
Her thoughts splintered when his tongue explored the ridge of her ear. One hand slipped down to her navel. Then lower, to her inner thigh. When she gasped, he chuckled, and the heat of his breath made the right side of her body break out in goosebumps.
“Should I wash here, too?” he smiled.
She bit her lip, nodding, moaning when his fingers slipped against her. His right hand was still at her breast, still whispering against her peak. Together, the sensations nearly overwhelmed her.
“Tell me what you need, sweetfire. I’ll make sure you’re well-tended.”
She couldn’t hold back her moans as his fingers pressed against her center then circled—just there, just right. Again and again, her voice crested, echoing in the chamber, making her flush in embarrassment.
He groaned, “This sweet voice haunts me in my dreams.”
“Kail—”
“Fall for me. Let me feel you flutter around my fingers.”
Her vision went white, her world spinning, her thoughts fragmenting.
As she dropped into weightless abandon, his fingers entered her.
And it was not enough. It simply wasn’t.
Because she could feel his rigid length pressing against her back and she wanted nothing more than to have him moving inside of her just like that.
No.
Deeper.
So deep that he could reach all the way into her core and mark her as his own.
“Kail…take me…please…”
He lifted her out of the pool. Water splashed everywhere, dripping off their skin, steaming into the air.
Evaporating not from heat but from the fire in their next kiss.
Tongues melting into one. Breaths twisting with the steaming bath.
Fragrance weighing heavy enough to blur all thought, yet light enough to make her giddy.
His hair slipped between her fingers, and she tipped back his head, allowing her to delve deeper into the cavern of his being until she tasted bliss.
Kailorien groaned, fighting the need to squeeze her in his grip. To have her turn to quicksilver in his embrace. To take her into him and guard her. Keep her. Save her from all the cruelties the world would give. If he could have melted her to starlight, he would have carried her within his soul.
But then, what would become of him?
If he couldn’t hear her voice cresting just like this?
If he couldn’t see the spark of wonder in her eyes?
If this velveteen pink blush no longer colored her rose-petal lips?
He would be lost.
Without her body, her voice, her heart, her kindness—all of her. All that she was.
Kail…I need you…
And how he wanted to indulge his Sovereign Star. To lay her back on this very ledge, part her thighs, and take all that she would give.
Let me…
His Bond voice came careful. Hesitant. Breaking in pieces from something that had been locked away since time was born.
Auryn…Let me…
He carried her to the bed as though lost in trance. The words beat at some kind of wall just on the surface of awareness. Needing release. Needing freedom. Needing to be heard.
Wavering, he set her down, wrapping her in a blanket, kneeling between her knees. Hands reached down. Small and wondrous. Cupping his face, helping him find the strength to look up into her—into his sky. Her silver eyes held so much love, so much divinity, he thought he might go mad with it.
It’s alright. She stroked his brow, his cheek, his lips. Tell me what you need.
And then—at last—the words broke through like a raging river past a shattered dam. Roaring, uncontrolled, unstoppable.
Let me worship you. Let my touch be the only prayer I ever say. Let me into you. Let me adore you. Let me keep you. Auryn…
His breath stuttered, his voice dropping to a whisper, “Let me be your Silari.”
Her eyes flew wide then welled with tears. Not hot and clear and stinging, but silver. Shining, like the stars. They spilled onto her cheeks and melded with the glowing freckles on her skin, and suddenly all of her—all of her—was glowing.
Just enough to be different.
Like the points at the tips of her ears.
Like her cool skin.
Like her raw and wild magic.
Like all the things that spoke of her being other—yet, to him, everything.
The tears poured down, and with the shedding of each one, Kailorien’s world shifted along with his understanding of his purpose in it.
Let me be yours. Your Silari. Your Bonded. Your Resh’Agar.
But, Kail…you already are…you have been…from the first moment I saw you, I knew I couldn’t live without you.
He rose to his knees and drew her against him, kissing the place on her chest right over her heart.
Auryn stared at him as he stepped away just long enough to retrieve a familiar glass vial.
It shimmered, the oil inside thick and fragrant—violet-root and sagefire, a mix he’d made for her that soothed her on nights she couldn’t sleep. The scent of safety. The scent of him.
Runes glimmered across his ribs, shoulders, and arms, shifting like a hypnotic tapestry. His muscles rippled and moved in sleek elegance—coiled and battle-forged. Ruthless. Breathtaking. Once, there were days when she’d been too shy to look at him bare. Now, she couldn’t look away.
“Lie on your stomach,” he murmured. “Let me keep my other promises tonight.”
She obeyed with a flutter of anticipation. The bed dipped behind her as he knelt astride her calves. The first touch of the oil made her gasp—warm, rich, smooth as molten light. His palms followed, slow and skilled, starting at her shoulders and gliding down her back.
He pressed into every knot of tension with patience and precision. His thumbs circled down her spine, drawing lines of warmth between each vertebra, lingering where she tensed, waiting until she sighed and softened beneath him.
“You hold everything in here,” he murmured, fingers working beneath her shoulder blades. “Your grief. Your magic. Your loneliness. Let me take some of it.”
He kissed the back of her neck. Her shoulder. Her spine. When his hands and fingers slipped down past her hips, she arched involuntarily.
“Turn over.”
She did, and his eyes softened further as he beheld her. Hair spread out like living moonlight among black sheets. Pale glowing skin covered in a constellation of shimmering stars. The flush of desire rising on her cheeks. Her breaths still fevered. Still so warm that he worried she was hurting.
And yet she looked at him with naked longing.
Not with pain.
Not with fear.
Not as a living vessel for corrupted bloodlust and warsong.
But as a man she loved.
As a man she saw within the monster—reaching out for him even as the shadows threatened to break her heart.
“You are,” he breathed, tracing her collarbone with oiled fingers, “precious, Auryn. Too precious. And neither this city…nor I…none of us deserve you.”
More silver tears fell. More stars from a universe he could only see when he looked into her.
You think too highly of me, Kail…the Bond whispered when words failed her. I don’t know how I could live up to that.
Then live. Every day, with me. And keep reminding me.
He dipped his head and kissed the spot where her shoulder met her neck, then moved lower, pressing kisses down the center of her chest, between her ribs, to her navel.
Her hands drifted down, exploring the hard planes of his chest, his abdomen, until he trembled above her. When he pressed closer, her legs parted for him without thought. His body settled between them, heavy but gentle, braced on either side as he leaned down and kissed her with growing depth.
“I need your warmth,” he whispered into her mouth.
I need to be here. He rolled his hips against her. His hand found hers, fingers above her head, the other trailing down to cup her thigh, easing her open, parting her, entering her and leaving room for nothing else between them save for their joined breath.
One.
In unison.
Taken and given.