20 A smile is worth a thousand teeth #3
He pushed her against the wall. Fi knew his desperation for what it was, the same reason she reached back, knotting her hands behind his neck, pulling his mouth against hers.
It was like running. The bite of the words he’d spoken downstairs, the unsteady ground beneath their feet, buried beneath the balm of bodies pressed together.
His breath mingled with hers, a promise to keep the doubt at bay.
“I don’t want to be that person anymore,” he breathed, eyes lidded, taking her in. Her, and nothing else in all the shattered worlds.
“What do you want, then?”
“I want my city. I want my people.” A growl. “I want you.”
Fi felt both of them thinning. Threadbare. She didn’t know if this grasping would keep them together, or doom them to unravel swifter.
“Have me, then,” she commanded.
Claws curled against her thighs. “Here?”
“It’s your city, isn’t it?”
Fi gasped as he lifted her. His fingers clamped beneath her ass, claws digging in for purchase, splaying her legs so he could fill the space between them.
Her back pressed hard against the wall. Antal pressed hard against her.
Even through fabric, the bulge of his cock stoked heat into the deepest pieces of her.
Then, the friction of hips dragging together. Fi tipped her head to the wall with a moan.
She tilted into him, locking legs around his waist, boots tangling with his tail as he held her, and rocked her, and snared her lips for a fiercening kiss.
There was something deliciously feral in the tensing of his claws.
Something insatiable in the stroke of his tongue into her mouth, long and rough.
Fi gripped his antlers and tasted every curve of his lips.
When she’d had her fill of his mouth, she pulled his head down, shifting him to her throat.
He bit down so hard, she cried out. Fi knew she’d bear the mark of it, the welt of his fangs as they scraped her jugular. His claim on her. She leaned in, content to let him feast. Desperate to be his in every way she could be.
Her thoughts turned fuzzy as he grinded harder against her. More urgent.
Curse these pants to the pit of the Void. He felt sublime, his hard cock dragging pressure and stiff fabric against the most sensitive piece of her, needy thrusts feeding the ache between her legs. Fi didn’t know if he could finish her this way. She damn well wanted him to try.
A jolt went through her when he slowed.
Thoughts sluggish, she didn’t understand right away why Antal tensed. Why his nose twitched. Why his head snapped sideways, teeth bared, a different type of feral.
Until she spotted Syvr.
The daeyari crouched upon the ledge, tail swaying, smirk so wide it showed their fangs.
“Well, hello,” they greeted. “To both of you.”
Antal growled like a panther defending his dinner. His claws tightened on Fi’s ass, though he couldn’t pull her any closer than they already were.
“Apologies for interrupting,” Syvr said. “We’ve found a trail. A fresh one. Your father’s waiting for you in that fancy building across the way. You should take care of this first.” They circled a claw over Antal and Fi. Winked. “Don’t take too long.”
They vanished.
Cold bit Fi’s cheeks. Her pulse filled her throat, thinning the haze she’d been enjoying, the threat of coming down too soon. She fought it, pressing against Antal’s heat.
“Antal,” she pleaded. Fi rocked her hips against him, begging for more.
His grip slackened. Her pulse bucked faster.
“Antal.”
“We should go, Fionamara.”
She grabbed him by the collar. The nearly-satisfied ache between her legs made her brash, made her bare her teeth at him. “Don’t you dare leave me here. Finish what you started.”
Antal looked at her, just as breathless. More pained. “Avroz shouldn’t be kept waiting.”
“Fuck him. What do you want?”
“You. Of course I want you.”
“But?”
He set her down. Fi swayed against the wall, legs unsteady. Something cold and sharp tightened in her chest, arms crossed against a shiver.
“Antal…” She wasn’t sure if it came out a plea. A condemnation. Some slur of the two.
He raked his fingers through his hair, smoothing the strands, the wind messing them again in an instant. “What we’ve managed is tenuous enough. Avroz is tolerating you. He’s playing nice. I don’t want to make him angry.”
Minutes ago, he’d stood up to his mother, finally shouting what she deserved to hear.
But not Avroz. That was another beast. For his father, Antal still insisted on bending, just to avoid conflict. To keep Fi safe.
Did he think so little of himself? Of her? Of what the two of them had started to become?
He kissed her temple softly. A hollow gesture. “Later. I promise.”
The ache between Fi’s legs quelled fast enough. The ache in her ribs remained. Kashvi had told her to figure out where to compromise, where to let him go his own way.
But this just hurt.
It hurt, the way Antal looked at her, as if his eyes could beg an apology he had no words for. It hurt when he silently held out his hand. It hurt when Fi took it, knowing she had no choice.
His touch was light as fraying seams. She wasn’t sure which threads to grasp.