18. The Settled Magic
The Settled Magic
Sigurd & Valerie
For a few seconds after Valerie asks me to claim her, I stay where I am, one tentacle resting against the thin ward around her.
She has already given me the answer I was too afraid to hear in the Great Hall.
Questioning it now would only be another way to delay.
I curl the end of my tentacle around the ward and draw her carefully against my side, watching the magic shimmer where it meets my skin.
“The cavern isn’t far,” I tell her as I turn away from the fortress. “The current gets stronger beyond the trench, so stay close until we’re inside.”
Valerie glances into the dark water ahead and braces one hand against the ward. “Then take me there. I’ve had enough abyssal politics for one day.”
A laugh nearly escapes me, absurdly inappropriate after I almost killed a leviathan. I swallow it and carry us away from the damaged transit doors instead. I keep her tucked close enough that my body takes the strongest part of the current.
Black rock closes around the trench as we enter a narrower passage.
The flow begins pulling upward through a fissure in the stone.
After testing its strength, I guide us inside.
Valerie starts swimming with the current, adjusting naturally whenever the water shifts.
Within moments I no longer need to watch every movement of the ward.
The passage widens farther up, where a faint wash of light along the stone reveals the cavern ahead. I angle us toward the surface and emerge beneath a high dome. Here, the pool lies undisturbed by the currents outside.
Valerie stays beside me while I draw the kraken inward. My shifted body recedes beneath the water. Like this, I can stand with the surface high against my chest, leaving two tentacles loose behind me. She watches the entire change without looking away.
“There’s air here,” I tell her once I am steady again. “When I break the spell, you’ll drop into the water. I’ll catch you.”
She presses her palm to the barrier and meets my eyes. “I know you will, Sigurd. Break it.”
I close one tentacle around the ward until Maren’s magic fractures. Water rushes into the space around Valerie. I catch her before she can sink, hauling her against my chest while she gasps at the sudden temperature.
“That is freezing.” She pushes wet hair from her face, then catches me watching her too closely and gives me a knowing look. “I’m breathing, Sigurd. You can stop looking at me like I’m about to expire.”
The last time I put venom into her body, I watched her struggle for air with no way to undo what I had done.
I still need several steady breaths before that memory loosens its grip.
But Valerie refuses to let me disappear into it.
She slides a hand around the back of my neck and pulls me down until her mouth meets mine.
The kiss wipes out most of the sensible things I intended to say. Salt lingers on her lips, and the wet fabric between us feels suddenly intolerable.
Valerie breaks the kiss only long enough to tug irritably at her shirt. “These have to go.”
“I agree,” I tell her, and the eagerness in my answer makes her smile.
“You could have mentioned that before spending several weeks pretending you didn’t want me.”
“I was attempting restraint.”
“You were terrible at it.”
I kiss her before she can add anything else, then help drag the soaked shirt over her head. Her bra follows, discarded on the stone beside the pool. The sight of her bare skin kills whatever reply I had been preparing.
Water trails over her shoulders and down between her breasts. I follow the same path with my hands before lowering my mouth to her neck. I kiss beneath her ear, working down across her collarbone.
Valerie tilts her head and threads her fingers through my hair. When I close my mouth around one nipple, she arches into me with a sharp inhale. The sound sends a hard rush of need through my body. I palm her other breast and roll the tight peak beneath my thumb.
The rest of her clothes take more effort because the wet fabric clings stubbornly around her hips. Valerie laughs under her breath when I mutter something unflattering about human trousers. The amusement disappears the moment I finally strip them away and she settles naked against me.
Her skin is warm where our bodies meet. She notices immediately how hard I am beneath the water. One thigh brushes deliberately against my cock, and I tighten my hold around her before she can do it again.
“Valerie.”
“What?” Her expression is far too innocent for the way she presses closer. “You spent weeks pretending you didn’t want me. I think I’m allowed to enjoy finding out how badly you lied.”
I catch her mouth and kiss her hard enough to interrupt whatever else she planned to say.
One tentacle slips beneath her thigh and lifts her leg, and another curls around her waist to support her against the smooth cavern wall.
Valerie studies the dark coil beneath her, tests her weight against it, then looks back at me with a slow smile.
“That is dangerously convenient, and I’m starting to understand the appeal.” Her teasing expression changes when I move between her open thighs. I kiss below her navel and follow the soft line of her stomach downward. Both of her hands are buried in my hair by the time I reach her pussy.
My tongue slides through her folds, and Valerie jerks against me. I tighten my tentacles enough to keep her steady and circle her clit with the tip of my tongue. Her hips move toward my mouth on the second pass, so I settle into the rhythm she gives me.
Slow strokes through her wet heat alternate with firmer pressure over her clit. Each return makes her thighs tighten a little more around my shoulders. “Right there,” she gasps, pulling at my hair. “Keep doing exactly that, Sigurd.”
I keep the pressure where she wants it. Valerie gives her full weight into my hold and stops trying to stay upright. She lets the water and my tentacles support her as she moves against my mouth. The surrender of it sends a fresh rush of hunger through me.
I suck her clit between my lips and feel her whole body shudder. Two fingers slide inside her beneath the water, and she clenches around them immediately. I curl them forward until her nails scrape over my scalp, then hold the same rhythm with my hand and mouth.
“Fuck, that feels good. Please keep doing that.” Her hips begin moving with my hand, chasing the pressure instead of waiting for me to give it to her.
The desperation in her voice strips away the last of my patience.
I work her harder until her breathing breaks into soft, uneven sounds around my name.
Her orgasm catches fast. Valerie clenches around my fingers and pushes against my mouth as she comes, her cry echoing through the cavern. I stay with her through every contraction and ease away only after her grip in my hair loosens.
When I rise above the surface, she is flushed and breathing hard. Damp hair clings to her face and neck, and the sight of her nearly undoes me all over again. Valerie reaches for me and pulls me closer with one hand still tangled in my hair.
“Come here, Sigurd. I want you with me now.” I fit myself between her thighs and let her pull me into a kiss. Her arms wind around my neck, and the last tremors from her orgasm turn into a slow roll of her hips against mine.
My cock slides along her pussy, drawing a moan from her mouth into mine. She repeats the movement deliberately and drags her wet heat over my length. “You are testing what remains of my control,” I tell her. The satisfaction in her expression makes it clear that was exactly her intention.
She rolls her hips again, and the head of my cock catches at her entrance. Both of us lose our breath for a moment. Valerie keeps her eyes on mine and pulls me closer. “You’ve done enough waiting, Sigurd. I want you inside me.”
Nothing in me wants to argue anymore.
Sigurd is huge against me, and this time the thought sends heat through me instead of nerves. His cock slides over my pussy each time I move. I do it again simply because I like the way his jaw tightens.
A low rumble leaves him, followed by my name in a warning that has no real force behind it. “I know exactly what I’m doing,” I tell him, then reach between us and wrap my hand around his cock. The thickness of him fills my palm, and his whole body tightens at the first stroke.
His tentacles flex around me, making the reaction even better. I stroke him once more beneath the water and guide the head of his cock to my entrance. “Go slowly at first. I want to feel you.”
Sigurd braces one hand beside my head and pushes into me. The stretch is immediate and intense, and my fingers dig into his shoulder as he works deeper by inches. He gives my body time to take him without stopping completely.
The fullness builds until I can’t imagine taking any more. Somehow my body opens for the rest, and his hips finally settle against mine beneath the water.
His cock twitches deep inside me. The sensation makes me clench around him, and it pulls a rough groan from his throat. I smile and squeeze him again, enjoying the fact that such a small movement can affect him so strongly.
“That feels ridiculously good, and you know it,” Sigurd accuses me. I answer by rolling my hips instead of arguing. His grip tightens around me.
The first stroke is slow. His cock drags against every sensitive place on the way out, then pushes back inside. The second goes deeper, and by the third I am already moving to meet him.
The water makes the rhythm almost effortless. I don’t have to hold myself upright, and his tentacles keep me exactly where I need to be. I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him closer.
“Fuck me harder, Sigurd. I want more than this.” His gaze searches mine for only a moment, then he gives me exactly what I asked for. The next thrust drives deep enough to tear a moan from my throat. Another follows before I recover from the first.