Steam and Surrender
Kieran POV
I was doing so well. I really was.
I had the soap. I had the washcloth. I really had the pure, noble intention of just being a gentleman and washing the dirt from my mate’s skin. I had even brushed her hair. But the bond was a living, breathing thing between us, and it was currently laughing at my restraint.
The sweet, heavy scent of her arousal spiked again sensing my mood, cutting right through the lavender steam.
She wasn’t just melting into the heat of the water; she was melting into the heat of us.
I could feel the thrum of her desire echoing my own, wrapping around my senses until I could barely think straight.
I looked at the tub. It was massive, more like a small heated indoor pool than a standard bath.
My willpower officially evaporated.
I dropped the linen cloth onto the marble edge. Without breaking eye contact, I reached for the hem of my tunic and pulled it over my head.
Aurora’s eyes widened as I tossed the shirt aside and made quick work of the rest of my clothes, she didn’t look away, nor did she politely avert her gaze like a proper high-court lady. Instead, her eyes raked over my chest, my abdomen, and lower, taking in exactly how much she was affecting me.
That slow, sassy smile returned to her lips.
Through the bond, I felt a heavy, heated wave of pure feminine appreciation hit me. She was checking me out, and she was entirely, beautifully unapologetic about it. She could feel that I found her extremely sexy, and she was clearly thrilled that I was built to match.
I stepped into the steaming water. The heat sank into my tired muscles, but it provided absolutely no relief for the rigid ache lower down. I settled against the smooth marble on the opposite side of the basin, intending to give her at least a little bit of space.
I had forgotten who I was dealing with.
Eight years in the wild had stripped away whatever delicate modesty the Princess of Argentis might have once possessed. Aurora was bold, sassy, and entirely confident in her new power over me.
The water rippled as she moved. She didn’t just swim closer; she rose up, the water cascading off her flawless, wet skin, and moved right into my space. With the fluid, lethal grace of a predator, she swung a leg over my lap and smoothly straddled my hips.
Moon Goddess.
The friction of her bare skin sliding against mine was electric.
She settled her weight exactly over my aching arousal, pressing flush against me without an ounce of shyness in her posture.
My hands instinctively shot to her waist, my fingers digging slightly into her soft curves to anchor her as a ragged, helpless groan tore its way out of my chest.
“You are playing a very dangerous game,” I rasped, my golden eyes darkening as I looked up at her.
She just grinned, her wet white hair clinging to her collarbones. She leaned in, resting her hands flat against my chest, and captured my lips.
It wasn’t a gentle, tentative first kiss. It was hungry, demanding, and tasted like the wild. She kissed me with the same fierce, unapologetic energy she used to fight monsters, completely stealing my breath and shattering whatever restraint I had left.
'I am in so much trouble'. The Alpha King of Valdora had survived assassins, wars, and monsters. But this irresistible, sassy rogue straddling my lap? She was going to absolutely destroy me. And I was going to let her.
The friction of her wet, bare skin sliding against mine was enough to bring empires to their knees.
Aurora kissed me with a desperate, starving intensity, her hands tangling in my wet hair as she ground her hips down against mine.
The hot water of the massive marble tub sloshed over the edges, completely forgotten.
Every slide of her body over my rigid arousal sent blinding white-hot sparks of pure pleasure straight to my brain.
My wolf was a feral, thrashing thing in the back of my mind, roaring at me to flip her over, pin her to the smooth stone, and bury myself inside her until we were permanently, irrevocably linked.
I wanted to ravage her. I wanted to claim every inch of my wild, beautiful mate who had just turned my world upside down.
But as she shifted, burying her face in the crook of my neck with a frustrated, needy whine, a subtle shift in the air caught my attention.
Beneath the heavy, intoxicating sweetness of her arousal and the lingering scent of ozone, my enhanced Alpha senses picked up on something else.
A delicate, untouched purity laced through her pheromones.
It was the undeniable biological marker of a virgin.
The realization hit me like a bucket of ice water, snapping a fraction of my control back into place.
Of course she was. She had been a child when the kingdom fell, spending the last eight years surviving in the Forbidden Lands with only giant reptiles for company.
She had never known the touch of a man, let alone the heavy, overwhelming claiming of an Alpha.
I will tear her apart if I lose control now, I realized, my chest tightening with a fierce, protective ache.
I was too large, too hard, and far too close to the edge to be gentle enough for her first time.
If I took her right now, riding this wave of feral instinct, I would hurt her.
And I would rather cut out my own heart than cause her a single ounce of pain.
“Kieran,” she whimpered, the sound vibrating against my collarbone.
She rolled her hips again, a frantic, uncoordinated movement, chasing the friction her body was absolutely screaming for. The friction of my arousal trapped between our bodies wasn’t enough, and the frustration was bleeding through our bond, a sharp, needy ache that perfectly mirrored my own.
“Shh, I know, sweet wolf. I know,” I rasped, my voice sounding like grinding stone.
I moved my hands from her waist, trailing them down the wet, slick curve of her hips. I gripped her thighs, gently but firmly lifting her just enough to break the direct contact with my aching erection before I completely lost my mind.
She let out a sharp, distressed sound at the loss of friction, her eyes flying open to glare at me, dark with unmet desire. “Don’t stop.”
“I’m not stopping,” I promised, my golden eyes locked onto hers, blazing with a reverence that bordered on worship. “But you’re too tight for me right now, Aurora. And I refuse to hurt you. Let me take care of you. Let me show you how good this can feel.”
I didn’t give her a chance to argue. Keeping one arm securely around her waist to anchor her against me in the deep water, I slipped my other hand between us.
The moment my fingers brushed against her sensitive core, she gasped, her spine arching like a willow caught in the wind.
She was incredibly slick, despite the bath, her body weeping for a release she didn’t fully understand how to ask for.
I found the tight, swollen bud of her nerves and began to stroke her, using a slow, deliberate rhythm that stole the breath right out of her lungs.
“Ah!” Her head fell back, exposing the elegant, pale column of her throat. Her wet white hair clung to her shoulders as she melted entirely into my touch.
I watched her face, utterly mesmerized by the way she unraveled.
Every soft moan, every stuttering gasp, echoed directly into my own chest through the mating bond.
I deepened the touch, slipping two fingers inside her hot, tight sheath to prepare her, stretching her gently while my thumb kept up a relentless, maddening friction outside.
“Kieran... Kieran, please!” she whined, her nails digging into the heavy muscle of my shoulders. The water around us seemed to boil with the sheer heat radiating from her skin.
“Let go for me, Aurora. Give it to me,” I commanded softly, increasing my pace, pushing her right to the absolute edge.
She shattered.
With a high, melodic cry that bounced off the tiled walls, her body moved tightly against mine.
The internal muscles of her core clamped down around my fingers in rhythmic, pulsing waves of pure ecstasy.
The bond flooded with a blinding burst of golden, overwhelming pleasure that nearly knocked me unconscious.
I caught her as she collapsed forward, burying her face in my chest, her entire body trembling violently in the aftermath of her first climax.