Chapter 35
ARES
THE MORNING OF THE GALA
Ember came to bed late, but at least she’d come to bed with me.
I sensed that something had gone wrong between us, but I couldn’t say what it was.
The movers had come and gone, taking most of the Maere’s personal things the day before.
The tension between us had been mounting ever since.
I’d stayed up half the night, listening to her toss and turn, before finally falling into a deep slumber in the wee hours of morning.
I must have fallen asleep about the same time, because I didn’t remember the sun rising.
When I woke, it was well after ten, and the apartment was quiet, everyone still deep in slumber.
We’d agreed to get as much sleep as we could; after all, everything hinged on tonight.
Maybe that was the problem. Perhaps Ember sensed that I expected too much.
I stared at a hairline crack in the plaster ceiling, wondering what seismic shift over the years had caused it.
“I can feel you thinking,” Ember whispered.
I turned onto my side. She faced away from me. Lightly, afraid she did not want my touch, I reached out to touch her shoulder. We were just inches apart, but this morning it felt like miles.
She leaned into me immediately, her back resting against my chest. Relief flooded me, her sigh transforming into the softest moan as her buttocks met my morning erection. She reached back to take the hand that rested on her shoulder, bringing it first to her breast.
Ember moaned again as I gently squeezed the place she brought my hand, her legs tangling with mine, hips angling precisely, until the head of my cock was fitted at her entrance. “Ember,” I murmured.
“Shhh,” she hushed me. “You’ll wake them.”
She dragged my hand down her ribcage, lower until my hand splayed across the silky skin on her belly.
Ember was lean, but softer than I might have expected, a gentle curve, rather than flat, sculpted abs.
It was a delicious surprise the first time I’d seen her naked, and a true pleasure every time since.
I teased her with my cock, pressing it into her wet slit, but not further. She arched against me, trying to take in more of me, but I refused to oblige her. I felt her frustration shudder through her and she flipped over, pushing me flat onto the bed as she straddled me in one quick movement.
Whenever she used her immortal speed or strength, it made me so hard I couldn’t concentrate.
And as she sank down on my cock, taking me in one smooth stroke, her naked body glorious in the gray light of morning, I’d never wanted her so much.
She closed her eyes, leaning back to touch her clit as she moved on me.
I wanted to tell her I loved her.
Wanted to tell her that maybe I’d loved her for years and hadn’t known it. But the words would not come. I pulled her down towards me, onto all fours, so that she had to look me straight in the face.
“Look at me,” I whispered as she slid on and off my cock.
Her eyes met mine and fire lashed through my veins, my balls tightening with anticipation. Her walls clenched around me as she panted, her mouth falling open so that I could see her wet tongue. She ground her clit against me, milking every bit of tight friction and pleasure she could from me.
I slid my hands down her back until I had two firm handfuls of her ass cheeks and then pulled myself deeper into her. She was about to moan, so I captured her mouth with mine, kissing her as deep as I fucked her.
There was nothing like this in the world.
It wasn’t that our movements were new, or particularly creative.
It was her, all her. We had human lifetimes’ worth of history between us, and all of it should have kept us from wanting this.
But it didn’t. I had never wanted something like this for myself.
I’d made the mistake of thinking that love—romantic love, at least—was not meant for me.
But here it was, blooming inside me like the flowers I’d always loved so much. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. If it was too soon, if she didn’t love me the way I did her… I just couldn’t know that today of all days.
Her movements took on a frenzied pace, her fingers winding through my hair as her tongue tangled with mine.
The two of us were desperate, too many conflicting emotions racing through us.
She shuddered against me, her back bowing as she raised up slightly, then pulled herself harder against me, her mouth falling open in a silent scream that sent me right over the edge behind her.
When her body finally stilled, I stroked her back, kissing her again. The way she returned my kiss was sad, as though she were saying goodbye. “What’s wrong?”
“What will happen when we have our swords back?” she asked. Her voice was quieter than a whisper. So quiet I almost wondered if I’d imagined her speaking. “To us, I mean.”
Her question scared the shit out of me. What I wanted might be miles apart from what she did. The thing I never wanted between us was a struggle for power, and she was just getting hers back.
“Oh,” she said, pulling back.
I’d taken too long to answer—but that was me, a slow thinker—always wanting to say precisely what I meant, and not a word more or less. She tried to pull away from me, but I moved quickly, grabbing her arms as she sat up. “Stop,” I breathed. “Please.”
Ember paused, her pussy clenching around my cock, which was coming quickly back from half-mast as she moved on me. She must have felt the way I responded to her, because she rolled her hips a few times, touching her clit in slow, deliberate movements. Fluid seeped out of her, onto my thighs.
“Saints,” I breathed. “You feel so fucking good. Stop moving so I can think.”
“No,” she answered, shaking her head in a stubborn way that should have frustrated me, but only made me harder. “I don’t want you to think. I don’t want you to answer. Not right now. I don’t want to know.”
I pulled her back down to me, fisting the hair at the nape of her neck with one hand, and grabbing a handful of her ass with the other. “You are assuming the worst of me, Verona,” I hissed in her ear. “Stop telling yourself I don’t want you.”
I thrust hard into her, and she almost moaned, but bit her lip instead. I kept her pinned to me, my fingers digging into her hair and tightening on her ass as I tilted my hips to pulse inside her, to reach that spot that made her squirm.
When I hit it, she whimpered, so I mimicked the movement several more times, gently teasing her, keeping her still so she couldn’t take me deeper and control her own pleasure. I had to make myself clear to her, even if now wasn’t the time to profess my love.
“Feel how hard I am?” I growled in her ear. “The way I’m stretching you open, filling you up?”
She nodded, arching hard against me to take me deeper, but I kept her pinned in place.
I wanted to fuck her as hard as she wanted me to, but I had to make this point, and make it in a way that would carry us through this difficult day.
On the other side of this, when we had what we needed to create a new life for ourselves, we could talk about love.
“No one gets me hard like you, because no one challenges me like you do. I don’t know what’s next, but I know we need time to figure it out. To see where we fit into each other’s lives.”
“Okay,” she replied, gasping for breath as I teased her.
“Do you understand, Ember? Do you understand that I am only this way for you? That I have only ever been this way for you?”
Her eyes widened, and I think she understood me. Something changed on her face, and she became liquid in my arms. “Yes,” she moaned, my confession having sparked some new height of pleasure within her.
Good. It had done the same for me. My cock felt like it might erupt.
I pushed her back, releasing her hair. “Show me how I fit inside you,” I commanded. “Ride me hard, Verona. Come all over me.”
“Fuck,” she swore, her lips swollen as she clenched me tight.
I reached forward to grab her ass with both hands.
“Fuck me as hard as you can,” I growled. “Show me how good it feels to have me inside you.”
She slid desperately against me now, her breasts bouncing as I pulled on her hips, thrusting as hard inside her as I could from this angle. “Touch yourself.”
Ember’s fingers went to her clit, and it was enough for us both. The sight of her body moving on me, writhing for me, her back bowing as she silently came all over me, our fluids mixing in hot waves of pleasure as I filled her. She fell boneless against me, entirely spent.
It was the right time to tell her how I felt, by all reasonable measures of that sort of thing. We were, essentially, going into battle. There was every possibility that tonight would go wrong somehow. With the possibility of Chiore’s weapon on the table, anything could happen.
But neither of us spoke. Ember slid off me, kissing me as she went. “I need to get ready,” she said. “Lara and I have to go in an hour.”
“See you at Hemlock House after?”
She slid into her robe, nodding before she bent to kiss me again. “Sure.”
I grabbed her hand when she tried to pull away, not liking the clipped end to that single word. “Don’t disappear on me, Ember.”
“I’m not,” she said, her voice relaxing a little. “I just wish we had more time.”
I brought her hand to my lips, kissing the back of it first, then pressing my lips to her palm, an intimate gesture. “We are immortal, Verona. We have all the time in the world.”
Ember stared down at me, her hazel eyes sad and hopeful at the same time. “I hope you’re right, Ares. See you tonight, when it’s done.”
“Promise?” I asked her.
“I’ll be there,” she replied, before slipping away to get ready. There would be no emotional goodbyes—neither of us could take it—but it felt like my heart was dissolving in my chest. Or maybe it was just the last walls of protection I had left for myself.
If anything happened to her, I wouldn’t survive it. I let myself get in far too deep here, all for dreams of a future I wasn’t sure was even possible. I sat up in bed, covering my face with my hands. Just a few more hours, and then we’d sort all this out. We just had to make it through the night.