Chapter 30
THIRTY
GAVIN SMYTH
I know you’d be proud of me, even though I almost died today. Thank the gods it went my way, because being eaten alive by one of Molochai’s beasts is
not how I would choose to go. Thankfully, I’m still here.
But I wish you were here, too.
—UNSENT CORRESPONDENCE FROM QUEEN ARYELLA I TO THE BUTCHER OF NYRIDA
2nd of Effusia, 402 Years Ago
We hid in a cabin about fifty miles south of Brinnea, tucked beneath a cliff along the coastline of the Windcrest Sound.
I’d built it after she told me where she wanted to live if she was ever free from the binds of her power and title.
During the last week in Aesta, she’d insisted on staying at her mother’s side during her monthly treatment with the healers.
Instead of losing my mind, I’d taken a horse south, gathered and purchased the materials with over half of my savings, and built her a cabin by the sea.
It had taken me six days. I’d done nothing else but build, eat, and sleep. The cabin was small, only one room, but it had a fireplace for cooking and two comfy but tattered and mismatched chairs sitting before it. There were sturdy walls, a strong roof, a comfortable bed, plenty of food, and us.
It had us , and we were happier than I thought possible. I was
unapologetically addicted to every breath she took.
Every whimper, sigh, and cry of pleasure.
I couldn’t stop tasting her lips, skin, and the divine sweetness between her thighs.
I spent every second I could pleasuring her until she was breathless.
Panting. Shaking. So delirious with pleasure that she scraped her fingernails across my chest deeply enough to draw blood and begged me to fill her.
I obliged.
We found that her sexual appetite, once discovered, was nearly as insatiable as my own, which explained why she was currently passed out on my chest, leg swung over mine, hair wild and splayed across both our shoulders.
I gently stroked and untangled any knots I’d put there with my own fingers.
She tucked the blankets under her chin and nestled into my chest while I counted the seventeen freckles over her nose for the hundredth time.
My right leg was exposed to the chill of the seaside morning, but she was fully covered, so I didn’t care.
Even though it was summer, the cool wind off the ocean lowered the temperature in the cabin.
My own body heat was enough to warm her, so I’d neglected to rise and stoke the fire in favor of leaving my wife undisturbed.
My wife .
I smiled down at the pretty silver band on her finger. She was officially mine now, and she would be forever. My heart warmed knowing I had a lifetime of waking up like this ahead of me.
That was, if we could convince her uncle.
Aryella wanted to stay hidden, but I knew we couldn’t forever.
I’d bought us some time by sending Vic and his cousin north and west. They spread rumors of a beautiful silver-haired young woman and a brutish man traveling northwest to Warrich in attempts to mislead Simeon’s men from heading south along the coastline.
Even so, the cabin wasn’t visible from the cliffs above, only when down on the beach.
It had been ten days, and they still hadn’t found us.
I wouldn’t rule out the likelihood that he could use some of his magic to hunt us down. Our time was limited, but as long as we didn’t let him pull us apart, I was sure we could get through this.
I would accept no alternative.
She whimpered softly while shifting against me.
That wasn’t a tired whimper—she’d slept a good nine hours.
No, I knew exactly what that was. Being inside her was heavenly, so perfect, hot, and tight that it shattered my existence and reformed around her in an unbreakable shell of adoration and obsession.
There were no adequate words to describe how incredible we felt together.
For her, too, if her number of orgasms was any indication.
I had been extremely careful with her on our wedding night and every single time thereafter.
I made sure she was soaked and worked her with my fingers until she came a few times before carefully sinking inside her, to avoid her straining to accommodate me.
I suspected she’d been sore for the past ten days, but not enough to stop her from climbing on top of me and initiating.
And then last night, she begged me not to hold back. I was good at many things, but I wasn’t good at saying no to her.
I could only hear her moan, “ I trust you ,” “ I’m yours ,” “ I love you ,” “ Please ,” and “ More ” so many times before the feral, possessive beast inside of me unleashed.
After, I held her tight against my chest as she came down from the high that we found together. She felt everything so strongly, and her emotions easily ran rampant. She needed to be held, and I’d be content holding her forever.
I smiled into her hair as her eyes fluttered open. She covered my chest in kisses before sliding her arm beneath mine, wrapping it around my torso, and burrowing in deeper. “Good morning, husband,” she sighed. Her warm breath on my skin sent gooseflesh across every surface of my body.
“Good morning, sweet wife.” I drew gentle circles over her forearm with my thumb. “Are you sore?”
She giggled into my chest but didn’t answer.
“Aryella.” I tilted her chin up, forcing her to meet my gaze. “Tell me. Are you hurting?”
She rolled onto her back, wincing from the movement. That was all the answer I needed.
“I always know I’m in for a scolding when you use my full name.
” She stretched her arms above her head.
My erection immediately grew impossibly hard when the bedsheet slid off her torso, baring the milky skin of her full breasts and perfectly pert, dusty-rose nipples.
Fuck. I needed them in my mouth again. But I dropped my forehead between them where I decided to stay and listen to her pulse instead.
“As if you could ever scare me.” She ran her fingers through my dark, shaggy hair.
It needed to be trimmed. “Hey. Eyes up here.”
I obeyed and lifted my head, trying to keep from smiling. Because damn it, I was trying to be serious, and she made feeling anything other than joy and elation extremely difficult.
“You’re in pain, aren’t you?”
My eyes couldn’t obey “eyes up here” for long. She was too beautiful. They trailed down at the rest of her perfect, naked body, marked in multiple places where I’d sucked and bitten a little too hard. I wondered how she managed to look so angelic and freshly fucked all at the same time.
I heard the smile in her voice when she admitted, “Yes, but I like it.”
Fuck. A low groan rumbled in my chest. I lifted my gaze to hers again in warning, but the rest of me wanted to move down . “Don’t say things like that.”
“Why?” She dragged her finger down the center of my nose, stopping over my lips. “I’ve never felt more fulfilled in all my life. You don’t like to hear how much I love what your cock does to me?”
I barked out a surprised laugh. “What has gotten into you? Last I checked, you didn’t have a mouth like that.”
She gave me a coy grin. I knew what she was going to say, but I pretended otherwise.
“Well, you have definitely gotten into me.” She bit her lip to keep from smiling. My eyes darted there, wanting to bite it, too.
“Good one,” I snorted.
She hummed and resettled into my side. Her fingers stroked my abdomen through the thin layer of hair that covered my chest, ran down the center, and disappeared under the sheet. I sucked in a ragged breath as her hand moved lower.
“Are you happy?” I asked, stopping her. I wanted her hand on me beneath our sheets, but more than that, I was worried. I fought the impulse to smooth her disbelieving, furrowed brow.
“Gavin,” she began slowly. “I’m with you, my best friend and my husband.
You’ve been doing nothing but making me come, holding me while I sleep, feeding me, and bathing me for a week and a half.
How could I be anything but happy?” She ran her thumb over the thickening dark scruff on my cheek.
“I’ve never been happier than I am in your arms. Are you happy? ”
Happy didn’t cover it. With her, elation lifted my bones and warmed my soul into a state of bliss there were no real words for. “I’m the happiest man alive, Aryella Jay Smyth.”
She smiled against my mouth. We kissed for long and perfect minutes, tongues entangled, never tasting each other quite enough.
“I want nothing more than to be inside you right now, but it’s about that time.
” I glanced out the loosely curtained window, kissed her forehead, and rose from bed.
She needed to take her contraceptive the same time every day.
Sometimes she forgot, but after she took it too late our second morning here, I never did.
Keeping her from getting pregnant so soon was my responsibility as much as hers.
I took my job to protect her and our potential family very seriously.
She drank the clear liquid, chased it with a glass of water, and handed both glasses back to me. “Would it really be so bad if I had your baby?”
I set the glasses down and made gentle circles with my thumbs on the top of her thighs. I slid them up to bracket her hips, holding her there, caressing the bare skin of her lower stomach.
Until her, I’d been adamant that I never wanted children. Now, the thought of her belly swelling with my child added another layer to the crazed possession I already felt.
I wanted everything with her.
“It would be a perfect miracle. If that’s what you want, then I want that, too.
” I reached up and cupped her cheek with my hand.
“But you’re only eighteen. I’m just twenty-two.
And the circumstances are… complicated.” I sighed at the sadness in her eyes.
“We need to sort a few things out first. Yes?”
“Yes.” She nodded in agreement and scooted back beneath the covers, trying to pull me with her.