Chapter 31 Faolan
THIRTY-ONE
FAOLAN
After true night fell, I scooped her into my arms and took to the sky.
I’d decided not to fully shift into my dragon form as we would be more easily spotted by searching eyes.
And if I was being completely honest with myself, I couldn’t resist the chance to hold her.
Even for a short period of time. I craved it, knowing I would soon have to let her go for good.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and snuggled into me for warmth, and I knew walking away would be the hardest thing I ever had to do.
The scent of her hair alone would now live with me for as long as the Goddess granted me.
To say nothing of the way her curves fit against the planes of my body.
I shouldn’t even admit to myself how much I liked our size difference.
It would only make me want her more than I did, and it was already painful to resist her advances.
“You are very quiet,” she said softly into my mind.
I almost jolted from the unexpected intrusion into my thoughts. I was not used to this bond thing yet! “Sorry, just watching the sky for light from a town,” I said hastily. I could hardly say I was smelling your hair and lamenting my future alone, could I?
“Do you see one?” Her mind sounded sleepy. Was everything about her made to torment me? I was starting to believe I’d died and this was some version of endless torture in the underworld. What else could explain finding her and counting down the days until I gave her up?
“Not yet, but the coast is ahead some way, so towns will start to pop up the closer we get.”
She didn’t reply, and we flew in silence for a while.
“Are you cold?” I asked when she nuzzled into my chest.
“A little, but I’ll be okay.”
“I’ll warm you,” I said, not leaving any room for argument. Using air magic innate to where I was born, I heated a pocket around us and pulled her in tighter.
She sighed in pleasure at the immediate difference, and I cursed the idea when she no longer needed to nuzzle into me quite so much. Probably a terrible decision, as every nuzzle sent a wave of pleasure down my spine, but I’d never really been known for good decision-making. Why start now?
I looked down to see her smiling with closed eyes, enjoying the warmth, and my eyes trailed down over her—fuck!
Nope, eyes up.
“Caly…” I warned, my body betraying me. I was nearly feral with desire to have her right here.
“Yes?” she purred, the heat of her word on my neck.
I exhaled, finding my resolve. “We should find an inn to get you warm.”
“You should sleep as well. You’re still injured.”
“There is a town up ahead,” I said, masking my emotion in my internal voice.
“Okay.” Sadness tainted her tone. This was heavy for both of us.
It was yet another stop on the endless network of rivers that gave this kingdom its name, so the town was busy enough still at this time that we wouldn’t stand out.
I set us down in a stand of trees on the edge of the small town, and as I released her, she stumbled. Her legs were unsteady from my hold.
I clutched her around the waist, and she looked up into my eyes, her breath catching. Our faces were so close, and I couldn’t stop. I’d been scenting her for too long with her wrapped in my arms.
Our noses met, stroking along one another in an almost kiss. My entire body lit with the hint of the touch, and an ache settled into my stomach. One I knew I could never feed, because the need for her could not be satisfied.
I inhaled a breath from her mouth, and it was almost a taste of her.
She pulled back, wrapping her arms around herself. “We should go into town before it’s too late and we look suspicious.”
“You’re right.” I brushed a hand down my chest, taking the tunic she carried to put on.
We made for the first inn along the riverbank. It was the smallest by far, but also the most out of the way. We found the innkeeper asleep on his chair. The tavern itself was empty but for two drunk fae who were also dozing. I had to nudge the male to wake him.
“Do you have a room?” I asked, trying to conceal the urgency.
“Full, squire,” he said and was settling back into slumber before I could respond.
“The Goddess hates me,” I muttered as we left and went to the next.
The second inn had a busy tavern at the front, and I had a bad feeling just from the volume of evening patrons that they would be full.
The innkeeper shook his head as I approached the bar.
He didn’t even wait for me to ask. Frustration of another kind mixed with my sexual frustration, getting me more and more worked up with each no we received.
“I’m about to sleep in a damn stable,” I growled while leaving the sixth inn.
“At least the night is nice.” Her fingers brushed mine as we walked, and I glanced over at her.
She was radiant in the moonlight, her dark hair such a contrast to her alabaster skin.
With freckles like constellations. I’d never noticed how many she truly had.
I’d never allowed myself this close to her for so long.
I etched them in my memory because soon enough, that’s all I’d have of her.
“You’re not still cold?”
She shook her head, looking up at me through her lashes. “It’s not as windy down here.”
“I guess it’s not.”
We walked in silence for another minute.
“Do you think we were meant to meet?” she asked after a time.
“How do you mean?”
“I guess I mean, do you think the Gods want us to suffer?”
“What would—why would you think that?” I wasn’t sure I was following her logic.
“My sister said we were meant to go to the Night Kingdom. That our destiny lies there.” She gave a slight shrug. “I guess I’m just trying to figure out what kind of cruel joke meeting you on the way to meet my husband is.”
“I don’t think the Goddess plays jokes. Although I’m not sure what I believe anymore.” After all the corruption I’d witnessed, it was hard to believe there was any divine intervention.
“The Goddess hates those who are devoted to Seraphic, so maybe this is a joke.” She huffed and blew a strand of her hair off her face.
I laughed. “Surely you don’t believe in God-on-God retribution.”
“Something has to explain what a disaster my life currently is.”
“Okay, I guess you have a point there.”
“Faolan?”
“Yes?” I asked, but her eyes went wide and she shoved me.
I stumbled back half a step, surprised at the strength coming out of her tiny body. “What the—”
She put her hand over my mouth. “Shhhh,” she said into my mind.
“Have you lost it?” I asked as she kept shoving me into the darkness of an alley.
“Someone is following us. Or something is going on. I feel it in my gut.” Did she have a touch of foresight?
I went willingly, dragging her into the alley and pressing her into the wall to hide us both.
Footsteps I hadn’t noticed sounded somewhere on the cobblestones. Low voices snarled, and lantern light came closer.
“Kiss me!” Delicate but firm fingers turned my face towards hers.
Our lips met, and something inside me broke.
A small, satisfied noise escaped her as her lips barely parted.
I got the first hint of her taste, eliciting a moan of my own.
We had been resisting and dancing around it for so long, it was like being knocked out of the sky, free-falling, and hitting the ground.
If I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn she’d bewitched me, and I was lost to the battle long fought to avoid her mouth.
She took the breath from my lungs when her lips parted, and she allowed my tongue to slide in over hers.
She wrapped a leg around my hip and ground into me.
Fuck.
“What are you doing?”
“Pick me up.”
I did as she asked. Half because I was sure we were about to be caught, and half because I needed her to rub against me again. She linked her ankles around the small of my back, coming to fully rest her arse against my dick.
I nearly tore her clothes off right there, anyone watching be damned.
Light shone somewhere behind us, but moved on quickly, probably thinking we were just another couple caught up in passion. I wasn’t sure if they were looking for us or just the night watch.
And in that moment, I didn’t care.
I melted into her and kissed her until I thought my dick might beat its way out of my leathers. Great time to be relentlessly turned on, while running for our damned lives. Great look.
I had to pull back, or I would have her right here against the building, and then what had all my resisting been for?
I was trying to make this easier on both of us and nearly lost all my resolve at one taste of her.
I couldn’t risk her life by taking her maidenhood.
We were both dead if Arkyn so much as suspected anything between us.
But would he ever know?
Where was the harm in being with her? We both felt the bond between us.
It was right. For a moment, I really didn’t know, and then it all came flooding back to me.
She was betrothed. Even kissing her put my neck on the line.
There was no doubt in my mind that even thinking about bedding her was treason to the heir.
I had to fly away and never look back. The pain already choked my throat.
I pulled away and stared down at her, both of us panting. “We can’t,” I started, not knowing where to go with whatever reasoning I could come up with. I just had to stop it.
“No, we can’t.” She shook her head while a frown formed between her brows. “We should get off the street anyway. I don’t want those guys to come back.”
“Right,” I said breathlessly.
I sent up a prayer as we entered the next inn, glancing at Caly as I held open the door. She laughed.
“What?”
“You look like you’ve just ravished me in the alley.”
I hurriedly looked back at her. She appeared about the same, hair a bit of a mess, and cheeks flushed. Great.
“Any rooms?” I all but barked as he looked up.
He eyed us, then turned to lift a key off the otherwise empty rack behind him.
Oh, praise the Goddess for she is kind!
“One,” he said, bored. “But it’s a single.”
“Don’t care—we’ll take it,” I said, turning to Caly, who had discreetly removed the gold from her cleavage and was holding it out for me.
The innkeeper gave us both a once-over as he accepted our coin, but I couldn’t care less what he thought of us.
“Need any food?” he offered begrudgingly.
“No,” I replied, holding my hand out for the blessed key.
“Ale?” he asked, still withholding it.
“Nope.” My tone was extremely clipped. I was worn so thin I needed to get to the room and work myself off of this damn cliff. I needed that damn key like I needed my next breath.
“Very well,” he said, finally handing over the key to our room and my sanity. “Third floor, right at the end.
I pressed my back to the closed door, locking all my need back inside myself while trying to find some composure. I must have been there a long time because Caly’s fingers lightly brushed my cheek, startling me.
“Did you fall asleep standing up?”
I shook my head, tired to my bones of denying her. “No, just…who the fuck knows?”
“I understand.” Her fingers continued their path down my arms. “You’re bleeding.”
I followed the path of her fingers, seeing the red she’d marred. I mean to move, to go to the washroom, to do something, but I couldn’t pry myself away from the door. If I moved, I was going to do something stupid. “I’m sorry.”
“You’ve done nothing wrong. Let me go get a rag to clean you up.” She moved away, giving me some space to breathe.
I found the strength to get away from the door and sit on the edge of the bed by the time she returned with a small bowl and a wash rag.
“The water is cold, but it’s better than nothing.” She stood in front of me, and it took everything in me not to touch her.
“I can warm it.” I closed my eyes and bent myself to the task, running warm air through the water. “It should be okay now.”
She tested it with a fingertip before submerging the rag in it. “Hold this.” Setting the bowl in my hands, she wrung out the rag, then carefully dabbed it on the wound.
“It would be easier if you took this off.”
I hissed but held up the bowl. She ignored it and began undoing the buttons and laces on my tunic. My body stiffened, and I dared not move. Each tie she loosened was another barrier in my mind falling. I held onto my resolve by the skin of my teeth.
She pushed the fabric off my shoulders, and I held the bowl with one hand while she worked the tunic off one arm, then the other. The silence was easy as she worked, so carefully cleaning my wounds. It probably should have hurt, but every place she touched ignited with a different kind of burn.
My hands shook, splashing the water in the small basin.
“Are you okay? You might be going into shock…” Alarm widened her eyes.
“I can assure you, this has nothing to do with shock.”
Confusion colored her features. “What’s wrong?”
I caressed my fingers along her jaw, bringing her face closer to mine. “If I don’t have you, I may die.”
“Then have me,” she said it like it was so easy. Like we could just decide.
“What of all the consequences?”
“Damn them. Take what you want.”
That was all I could stand. The last of my resolve fell.