Chapter 13
Fantaisie
BASTIEN
“What are you waiting for?” Claire asked.
Truthfully, I was savoring the view. With one foot propped up on the table and a hazy smile on her face, it was an image I never wanted to forget.
“Tell me what you want.”
With a cheeky grin, she pulled the scrap of lace to the side, revealing all of herself to me. “I want you to watch me.”
She slid her finger over herself, trailing down until it disappeared inside. A moan escaped her lips. One corner of my mouth curled up. Tomorrow, we’d ride into danger. The weight of responsibility pressed on me, but she was the reason I carried it.
She played with herself for as long as I could stand. But after a few minutes, I couldn’t take it any longer. I shoved the back of the chair against the table and took the seat in front of her.
I gripped her ankles, guiding her feet onto my thighs. My lips trailed gentle kisses along her knees, then up the insides of her legs to my prize. I dragged her hips closer, mouth hovering above her heat. She gasped, but I held back.
“You have all my attention,” I told her. Tilting my chin to look at her. Taking in the wild waves of red hair falling down her shoulders. The soft bow of her lips. Exquisite. Mine. “What does my wife want now?”
My fingers dug into the soft flesh of her ass, squeezing. She stammered out a few incoherent syllables. “J-Just you. I just want you.”
“You already have me.”
I bit softly into the soft flesh above her knee, teasing. A contented sigh escaped her lips, and by the gods, it was delicious. I didn’t merely want her—want was too simple a word.
“Tell me what you want.”
She tensed. “I’m nervous to say.”
“If there’s something you want,” I told her, “I will give it to you.”
“I don’t want to start another argument.”
My curiosity was piqued. But more than that, I wanted her to feel safe with me. “You won’t. Just tell me.”
She hesitated, then met my eyes. “I know you have your reasons for not wanting a baby, but just for right now… can you set that aside?”
“What do you mean?”
She let out a sigh and ran her fingers through her hair. “Bastien, I want to hear you say you want to come inside me. Just like you did that night I found you in the feeding tent. Something about it really turned me on.”
It seemed we shared the same fantasy. I studied her face, waiting for her to continue.
“Can you pretend that you do want a baby with me? Can you pretend that you’d love nothing more than to get me pregnant?”
Standing, I pulled her against me and held her. It took a lot of bravery for her to bring this desire to me, especially considering our earlier argument, and I was proud of her. I kissed her cheek, then leaned back to look at her.
“Claire, I don’t have to pretend that I want a child with you.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t?”
“Of course I don’t. I’ve always wanted a child.
” A knot formed in my throat, and I found this part was hard to say.
“But I went unmated for centuries. And after watching my brothers marry and remarry their mates, and have more and more children, I put that dream aside, and committed myself to my job.” I touched the side of her face.
“I want to have a child with you. But if anything happened to you. If you were hurt because of me. Because of something I did to you…”
She placed a finger against my lips. “If you want it, and I want it, can we just pretend?”
“I already told you, I don’t have to pretend. I think about the same thing.” I pressed a kiss to her temple. “As long as you understand where my boundary is. Because as much as I might want to, I’m not going to risk it. Not right now.”
“I understand.”
“Good. And… one more thing before we get started.” I remembered the way she rubbed the relic over her breast last time we were together, and even though I knew it wasn’t him, I didn’t want to see that right now. I needed more time to get used to it. “No horn. I just want this to be the two of us.”
She hesitated, and I could tell she didn’t like this condition. “I feel stronger when you touch me while I’m holding it. I can feel my power opening.”
“If we’re really going to try this, then I don’t want magick involved. Let’s pretend that we’re just two humans who can do whatever we want. Who are leaving tonight to take a boat to that tropical island, free to live our lives for us.”
For a moment, I wasn’t sure if she was going to agree.
I saw that dark flash in her eyes. The desire for power.
The need to make herself stronger. But I wasn’t going to give in.
If we were going to do this, I would be taking on all the responsibility.
It was on me not to slip, no matter how badly I wanted to, and I had no idea how her magick might influence me.
Finally, she relented. “I can agree to that.”
She pushed the horn further away, and a sense of relief coursed through me, along with the desire to drop fully into this role as a man who not only desired his wife but wanted to give her a child.
Her fingers raked through my hair like she needed something to hold on to as I moved to her breast. Licking and sucking.
Lavishing her with attention. I moved to her stomach and lingered there, pausing to look up at her.
“I’m not holding anything back tonight,” I whispered.
“You’re about to find out just how depraved I am.
How I’d give anything to cum inside you. ”
“Bastien,” she moaned.
I drank in the sound, as if it were my first sip of blood, letting it fill every corner of my being.
My mouth returned to her skin, feathering kisses over her hips and along her legs.
I was about to kiss her center when she tugged on my hair and pulled my face up to hers, smiling wide.
Cheeks pink. I realized I was smiling, too.
“Before you take over, I want a turn.” Her gaze dropped low, and I knew what she was asking for. I was loath to give up my turn between her thighs, but I wanted to encourage her to keep asking for what she wanted.
“You want me in your mouth, chérie?”
“Yes,” she gasped.
With one more kiss to her inner thigh, I helped her off the table and gave her my seat.
She looked up at me, eyes wide. She was so beautiful it was hard to breathe.
Hard to believe someone like her had come into my life.
I cupped the curve of her jaw, stroking a line across her cheek. “Then take what you want.”
Claire unlaced my trousers, and I watched her with eager eyes. Her obedience was only a false sense of control. I was hers to command. And I always would be. My trousers fell to my ankles, revealing the hard length of my arousal, and Claire didn’t look away.
I stepped out of my clothes and boots, fisting myself once before returning my hands to her face, gathering her silky hair in my hands. She sank her teeth into her lower lip, and I had to restrain the monster inside of me.
“Look at you,” I rasped. “Are you ready for a taste?”
She nodded, and her pink tongue skated across her lips, wetting them for me. I stroked her cheek gently. “That’s it, darling.”
I readjusted my grip on her hair as she took the tip of my thick sex inside her mouth, her lips stretching around me. “That’s good. That’s so good. Take as much of me as you want.”
Claire took me deeper, sucking me in and out, letting me fill her up with every piece of me. My body. My heart. My wretched soul. She moaned around me, and by the goddess, it felt too good.
I pulled myself out, and she looked up at me with lust in her eyes. Pupils blown wide. Unable to conceal her smile. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to cum in that pretty mouth of yours.” I brushed her wet lip with my thumb. “And we don’t want that, do we?”
“No,” she said eagerly.
“Get up and turn around for me.” She stood slowly and spun around. Her long red hair flowed down her back. “Now bend over and grab the table.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she gave me a wicked smile and did as I asked. Giving me the perfect view of her gorgeous ass. I hooked a finger around one of her garter straps and let it snap against her skin. She gasped. “When I’m done, you’re going to be dripping wet. So full of my cum.”
A wave of unadulterated pleasure spread from her and crashed into me, mixing with my own desire for her. For this. For the wish that our lives weren’t complicated by magick and war.
I kissed my way down her back and over her curves, then shifted her damp panties aside, angling my hips to slip between her legs. I slid through her heat, massaging her sweet spot with my cock. With our connection open, I could taste the red-hot desire racing through her.
It took every ounce of self-control not to bury myself inside her.
“Please,” she begged.
“Easy, my love,” I said. “Not yet.”
“Why?”
I ran my fingers over her, playing with her clit, soaking up each little moan, then dragged those same fingers across my tongue, sucking the taste of her off me.
“Because I said so.” I walked around her and put one hand on the table. “And because I’m not done with you yet.”
I shoved the dishes off the table, sending teacups and scones clattering to the ground. Porcelain shattered. I didn’t care.
“Breaking things?” she said with a grin.
However, I was not smiling. “I’d break anything in your way.”
Her smile melted into something darker. The space between us warmed.
Lifting her up by the waist, I set her on the table and eased her back until she was lying down for me.
Then I plucked the moonflower from her hair and slowly dragged the soft petals down her body, starting at her lips and gliding down her neck.
Between her breasts. Over the smooth line of her stomach.
Watching as goosebumps rose over her skin.
I let the blossom follow the lines of her body.
The soft V between her thighs. The curve of her hips.
“Bastien, please,” she moaned. “I want it. I want you.”