Chapter Thirty-Three - Equals #2
“I should have let you go that first night. I should have sent you to the Umbral with your aunts. It would have been safer, would have been easier,” he took another step towards her, the water rising up his leather clad thighs, “but…I couldn’t.
You were stubborn, hot tempered, so filled with life.
It was contagious. That fire in you, I felt it in me.
I felt for the first time that I might actually make a difference.
That I could take on my father…my family… and win.”
The water was at his waist as he moved through the pool towards her. Her heart was racing at his words. She moved towards him, delving deeper into the water, her dress fanning out along the surface.
“I was selfish, but that day in the Veil, when I saw you fight, when you sat me down and tended my wounds. I knew, I would not be able to let you go. I knew that I would give you anything you wanted. I knew that I was yours.”
Mine. He’s mine.
He stood in front of her, gazing up as she looked down into his dark eyes, filled with hope, desire and intensity.
Without thinking she raised her hands to rest on his bare shoulders.
His power was not as quick to act. The chill felt restrained, weakened, even as she called upon her own to counter it.
She drew from the water around her, allowing it to fill her and make her stronger.
Even as the heat began to build in her, she noticed that it did not take as much energy.
The kisses they had shared in the past had often left her exhausted, but in this moment, just touching him felt like nothing. It felt, easy.
He looked as surprised as her and gently reached out to place his hands on her hips, still holding her gaze.
“I am yours,” he said, “my heart, my soul. Whatever you wish, whatever you want. I am yours, completely.”
He wanted her to stay. He needed her. He burned for her.
There were no words. Nothing she could say.
She pulled him towards her and pressed a tentative kiss against his lips.
But it was not enough. It was not close enough.
She needed him closer, needed to feel that rush, that shiver that he sent through her every time they touched.
She deepened the kiss, her hands winding up to entangle in his thick black hair, grasping hold of it in case he tried to pull away.
His hands ran up the back of her dress, pulling her flush against him, dragging her deeper into the water.
She felt it, that threat of something about to consume her, and drawing on the water she easily pushed it back.
She did it without thinking, like it was second nature.
As her hands travelled over his chest she smoothed out the red scars, channelling her power to heal his wounds.
Just as she had longed to do the moment she had seen him at the trial.
The red welts vanished, and she once more reached up to run her fingers through his hair.
She needed more. She wrapped her legs around his waist. He lowered his hands underneath her, grasping her ass through the folds of her dress as she hungrily kissed him.
Even through the fabric of her dress, through the water that moved between them, she could feel his own excitement.
She grasped him tighter when she felt it, moving her body to rub against him, feeling a delicious ache in herself that longed to be filled.
He moaned against her lips as she grinned and nipped at his lip with her teeth.
He growled against her skin as he kissed her neck, “this shouldn’t be possible.”
It took her a moment in her impassioned haze to realise he was talking about them touching, “the chains, the water,” she suggested and then with a frustrated groan, “does it matter?”
“It’s interesting. You should be exhausted by now-”
“I will be if you don’t stop talking,” she grasped his hair tighter and enjoyed the hiss through his teeth and the desire in his eyes, “less research, more touching.”
He let out a nervous laugh, his breath tickling her neck in a way that sent another shiver down her spine and had her grinding against him.
“Whatever you wish my lady.”
As he resumed trailing the line of kisses along her neck a small grain of doubt entered her mind.
She recalled the last time they had been this close in the tower, his hesitancy then.
This time she gently tugged on his hair, mostly to get his attention, so that he would look at her, “But we can stop if you’re not ready, if it’s too much too soon.
I want you, but only if you’re ready. Do you want to stop? ”
It did not surprise her when he took a moment to think on it.
He had spent most of his life believing that he would never be able to feel the touch of another without fear of hurting them.
This was so much more than he would ever have thought possible, and she would not blame him if he was not ready for it.
It did not upset or disappoint her either, though the longing in her begged for attention. She knew what this meant to him.
“I do not,” he said eventually, firmly, before he looked to her, “do you?”
“I do not,” she said with a grin as she leaned in to gently kiss his lips.
He smiled against her and pulled away, “though…I will require…instruction.”
Whilst she had been careful, life in the country with her aunts had been far from uneventful.
Though they had left an isolated life, there had still been young men from the nearby town that she had taken a tumble with, though the opportunities had been rare.
Her sister had seemed to live a much richer life in that respect, though Rosamund had done enough to know what she enjoyed.
Her grin widened and she brought her face close to his, “that I can provide. Kiss me.”
There was a relaxing of his shoulders as the hesitation left him.
“Yes, my lady.”
He moved in to capture her lips in another devouring kiss.
She melted into him, her body moving against his, desperate for the friction between her legs.
However, as he removed one hand from her ass to loosen his breeches she yanked on his hair pulling his head back so that he was once again looking at her.
“No more secrets, no more lies,” she said quietly, pleadingly.
He held her tightly and echoed, “no more secrets, no more lies.”
Later, when the tremors of their lovemaking, subsided they clung to each other. Their breath still in time, their heads resting on each other’s shoulder. Her hands gently caressing his back whilst his own lifted up to smooth her hair. She pulled back to look at him and delicately kissed his lips.
“You are mine,” she said softly, “and I love you.”
“I am yours,” he said as he looked up at her, “and I love you.”
“Whatever happens now, I’m not leaving you,” she held his face in her hands, “do you understand?”
“I understand,” he said with a smile.
She grinned, “good boy.”
He pulled her close in an embrace, holding her tightly Whatever happened now, they would face it together.
His shoulders started to shake. Concerned that he was weeping, she pulled away from him to find him giggling in that same way she had fallen in love with.
“What is it?”
He pointed over her shoulder, “that wasn’t there before.”
Without wanting to move too far away from him she turned to see what had amused him.
Standing in the middle of the room was a blossoming Myrtle Tree.
She blushed as she looked back at him and bit her bottom lip, which only sent him into further giggles.
To save herself any further embarrassment she silenced him with another kiss.
They would deal with the tree later. Much later.