54. Found You
SOUNDTRACK: Fire Eyes by Suprhot and Elena Westerman.
~ VOSKI ~
All thoughts of words, plans, reunion flew from my head the moment her eyes lit with recognition and love.
My training went out the window—every ounce of experience that told me to ensure she was safe, unharmed, and debriefed.
Every ounce of wisdom urging me to focus on learning anything I could from her in case we were interrupted, gone.
I knew the truth of it. I knew the practice.
And all of it left my head the moment she threw herself into my chest.
I took her sweet lips with such desperation, I groaned. Pulling her against me much harder than I should have, my body tingling, sparkling, humming with need. The moment our mouths touched, the bond exploded with light and heat.
We devoured each other.
Grace whimpered, her nails clawing at my neck and shoulders, fists tangled in my hair, and her body shaking.
I was every bit as frantic, but stunned, also. This was even more intense than the first time we’d kissed, the first clutch of the matebond. Deeper, because now our bodies knew each other, our souls recognized their other half.
Now we yearned not only for what would be, but for the return of what was.
I tried to speak, told myself to pull out of that kiss, to leave her tongue, to stop tasting her lips. Each passing second proved that I lacked the necessary strength.
‘Grace!’
‘Voski… thank God. Thank God. Oh—’
I’d had no intention of taking her, no plan except to ensure she was safe—but she grasped my hand and placed it on her breast, tipping her chin to deepen the kiss, and my already abandoned control fled from me.
Hand clamped at the back of her neck to keep her in the teeth-clashing kiss, I leaned down to grasp her skirts and pull them up, gasping her name, and my love—
Then, Grace sucked in and pushed back, gasping, “No!” yet clinging to my shoulders and staring at me, her wide, blue eyes pleading.
I froze, panting, as she swatted my hand away from her skirts, even as her expression saddened and she searched my eyes for reassurance.
“We can’t!” she whispered, eyes welling. “I want to, Voski. I need you, but we can’t!”
I swallowed, a chill of fear crackling through my chest. “What’s happened. What’s wrong? What did he—”
She shook her head and leaned closer, then with a tiny sob, pressed herself back again. “If my dress is crushed and wrinkled, they’ll know. They’ll know and he’ll look for you. God, Voski, I can’t, but…”
I was still frozen, but at those words I almost laughed with the ridiculousness of it all. “Is that truly all you fear?” I whispered.
She nodded, her brows pinching and her eyes locked on my lips. “Yes, they can’t know. I won’t let them know you’re here! He’d guess. You know he would.”
I nodded slowly, but then smiled and she blinked, surprised as she searched my gaze.
“What is it? Why are you smiling?”
“All the ways,” I rasped. “I vowed to you. I have something to show you.”
Her eyes went round as I leaned in and kissed her desperately again, then took hold of her shoulders and jerked her around so her back was to me, then dropped my lips to the nape of her neck as I plastered myself to her back.
I heard her inhale sharply, but she melted against me as I slipped hands up her sides, forward, over her breasts, frustrated by the layers of fabric and corset, but then up, under the soft skin of her inner-arms. Mouth open, tongue laving the back of her neck, I trailed fingers up the insides of her arms, all the way, until she shivered and I gripped her wrists and lifted both hands high above her head, planting her palms against the wall to give her leverage.
Then, I slid one hand over hers, fingers between hers, and gripped. And the other played back down her body as my panting breaths rushed against the skin on her neck.
“You know which part of a woman’s dress is always crumpled, Grace?”
She shook her head quickly, swallowing, panting as heavily as I was.
I smiled and grazed her nape with my teeth. “Her seat,” I whispered. “Where she sits. That fabric is always crumpled.”
Then I lifted her skirt, furling it up until I reached the warmth under it.
Grace’s head sank back, and she bit her lip as I ran hot, trembling fingers up the inside of her leg, stroking the line of every curve—until I found the true heat of her.
She shuddered when I touched her, a cry breaking in her throat—but she caught it, swallowed it, tipped her head and clenched her teeth, her breath hissing, as I began to stroke.
‘I have missed you with an ache that pains me physically,’ I sent, kissing her neck again, that delicate skin behind her ear, the corner of her jaw, anything I could reach. ‘I love you, Grace.’
‘I love you, too!’
‘I need you—’
‘Yes! Please! I—’
Using my body to pin her skirts in the hollow of her back, I fumbled at my trousers, cursing myself, that voice in the back of my head screaming that it was too risky, far too dangerous—
Positioning myself, I slid against her, gasping, my grip on her fingers so tight our knuckles ground together. I tried to fight it, but nothing in me would allow me to stop. And Grace was arching, pressing back against me, pleading.
I had to have her. To prove to my soul that she was real, and here and—
‘OHMYGODVOSKI—’
I joined with her in a single stroke, biting down on her shoulder to stifle my roar when she clenched on me and her body shuddered.
Grace’s head fell back, her mouth open, and her fingers clawing at the stone, gasping, begging, shuddering as her body peaked immediately, and almost pulled me over the cliff with her.
She clenched so beautifully on me, pulsing, whimpering, and I thrust, flattening my free hand on her stomach to keep her upright as her knees trembled and her body threatened to collapse to the floor.
‘Mine,’ I rasped, as she shook and choked and returned to sanity—barely. She was gasping, blinking—but still pressing against me, bracing, panting.
My body thrilled and bucked—but I’d barely begun.
‘My beautiful mate… My sweet, strong, beautiful mate. None of them will ever have you. I’ll burn every single one of them to the ground before I’ll let them have you. You are mine, Grace—do you hear me? Mine. Only mine.’
‘Yes!’ she sobbed as I retreated, then drove into her again. ‘Yes, my love. Yes.’
~ GRACE ~
I’d never felt so alive, so full of sensation and emotion that it seemed my flesh couldn’t contain it.
My skin shivered, my bones hummed. Every inch tingled, fizzed. It stole my wits.
When he took me it was the most consuming pleasure that my body, which had already ached for him, crashed to my peak like a wave on the beach, sending me tumbling, breathless, shuddering and spinning… only to be washed up in his arms. Still welcoming him, still needing, still desperate.
I sobbed with the pure joy of it.
The sensations—his hands on me, his body within me, his breath on my neck, his teeth against my skin—braided with the powerful emotions coursing through me like blood in my veins. Love, need, relief, joy, fear…
It was overwhelming, and yet, I begged for more.
Even in the wake of that climax, there were mere moments in which I shook, before the pleasure began to rise again, responding to every touch—fingers tight on mine, palm spread at my navel, his body heated and strong, himself inside me. I was helpless. Ecstatic. My very bones trembled.
But over it all, above the impossible pleasure, even better, was him.
Every hair on my scalp rose as he moved against my back. Goosebumps peppered my neck and washed down my spine from the point where his breath fluttered against me. And his words…
Dear God, I hadn’t known I needed to hear it. Hadn’t questioned it in my mind. But when he declared his love, something within me broke open.
The bond I’d so desperately clung to, reached through, sought him by, expanded with light and heat, filling my chest, tightening around my heart, thrumming, drumming, sending me higher.
The world fell away. The darkness, the fear, the cold stone. Nothing existed but he and I—the warm strength of him at my back, his hand gripping mine, the other holding me, pulling me to him with such fervor, yet cradling me.
His breath, rushing, hot against my skin, whispering love in my ear—the rush of aching joy flowing through the bond like blood in our veins, feeding each other. I could feel him—every inch of him, swim in the sensation of him… and in the overwhelming love that flowed from him.
I had never felt so precious. So treasured.
In my whole life, I’d never been certain I could be loved, until that day in the hut, when he’d bared his heart, rather than his body.
And now…
I turned to look at him as a tear slid under my lashes and down my cheek. He groaned and kissed it away, taking me again, and again, his grip growing stronger.
‘Do I hurt you, Grace? I can’t—’
Frightened that he’d misunderstood my tears, I threw one hand back to cup his skull, tangling fingers in his hair and holding him to me. ‘No! Don’t stop! More!’
I was shameless. Desperate. But honest. I needed more. More contact. More warmth. More him.
He buried a groan in my shoulder and clung so tightly to me, it should have hurt. But it didn’t. I needed more. Yet, I was helpless, my body weak as I breathed his name, begging for him.
And through the bond, through his body, in his mind, I felt the shift—the moment when he lost the last shred of control. And as that bestial, boundless side of him took over, he hissed through his teeth, held me so tightly, and told me what it all meant to him.
‘Mine forever. Tied to me. You’re safe, Grace. No matter what comes, no matter who might try to separate us, I will. Not. Allow it. Don’t fear—however dire it may appear, I will come for you. Always. Every fucking time. You have to believe me. You have to trust me—’
‘I do! I will!’
Voski shuddered and thrust harder, taking me to my toes, and pressing my body closer and closer to that glittering peak once more.
I knew this was wrong—so risky. So dangerous. If Breckon were to discover us, or the king, we would both be executed.
And still, I wanted more. Yearned to draw it out, to never let it be over.
Then my body began to pulse, rising in waves. I sobbed, breathlessly gasping my love and need.
“I can’t do this without you. I don’t want anyone else. I love you—”
“Mine!” He breathed in my ear.
“Yes! I—oh!”
My body arched, pleasure and need coalescing into pure bliss that washed through my body in electric waves as Voski buried his face in the back of my neck.
‘Oh, beautiful… come for me—shit!’
When I jerked, he did too, his body bucking, twitching, his cries in the bond wordless, though his lips never stopped at my ear.
“So fucking beautiful. I’ve got you. I’ll always have you. I’ve got you. I’ve got you, Grace. You’re mine.”
“I love you!” I gasped, and he shuddered, his words jumbling with a cry, half-sentences mingled with tortured groans, stifled and swallowed and shivering, until finally, the tide of this incredible moment washed away, sucking it all back, easing… and we slumped.
For a time, I knew nothing but the circle of his arms, the strength of his grip, his panting on my neck, and the steel presence of him filling me.
But as the fog of pleasure slowly faded, those murmured breaths became words, and my tears of joy returned.
“…show us the way. Please, God. We need you. Show us how to get through this. She’s the one you gave me. I can’t lose her. I can’t.”